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Death Wish

by | 19th, July 2005

‘WHAT is Michael Winner’s death wish?

Not everyone’s cup of tea

Don’t panic, Michael’s not going anywhere just yet. He’s not even going out to a hotel or spa, preferring to invite Hello! to come to the magnificent 40-room Victorian mansion in Kensington he calls home.

But he is nearing his three scores years and ten – he’ll turn 70 in October – an age when a man reflects on his past life and his mortality.

So here’s Michael, not on his death bed, but on a two seat sofa, one of three that sits at the end of his bed, which in turn sits in a huge galleried bedroom.

(Who needs a mirror on the ceiling when you’re Michael Winner and can invite the entire cast from one of your movies to peer down on you in your bed from the dress circle?)

On the sofas are a collection of soft toys, of the type that often come attached to balloons that wish you a speedy recovery, to “Get well soon” and “Love & Cuddles”.

Perhaps some of them are reminders of when ten years ago lifelong bachelor Michel underwent a triple heart bypass operation.

Perhaps some are gifts from the lovely 39-year-old Paola Lombard, who sits at Michael’s left hand with what looks like a stuffed polar bear on her lap and a fluffy tiara perched atop her raven locks.

And Paola is not just for decoration, a bit of fluffy toy made flesh and teeth. She is useful too. “If Michael can’t remember the name of a particular actor,” says she, “I can and vice versa.”

And when Michael goes out, she often goes with him. “We take a nightly walk in the park and talk for hours,” says she.

And there is much to discuss. Not only the names of those actors that escape Michael’s mind, car insurance and how Michael Caine makes the “most incredible roast potatoes in the world” but how he wants to make her his bride.

He’s mentioned marriage several time, says Paola. And “he has already paid her the ultimate compliment of rewriting his will to include her”.

We don’t know what she’ll be left, but we do know she won’t get the house.

That will go to the nation as a museum, in which fans of Winner’s Death Wish films can recreate the moment when Charles Bronson exacts murderous revenge on his wife’s killers with one of the house’s imitation(?) firearms and the aforesaid polar bear…’



Posted: 19th, July 2005 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink