On 27 February 1991 Kate Bush and Del Palmer attended the premiere of Silly Cow, a West End play written by Comic Strip actor Ben Elton. The premiere took place at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Celebrities attending the event were greeted by the usual mob of press photographers. Apparently at one point Kate got so fed up that she aimed a boot up one photographer’s bottom. Some of the photographs ended up in tabloids in the following days.
After the play, Kate went on to the party at the Cafe Royal, together with the show’s star Dawn French and her husband Lenny Henry. Kate and Del left the party at 11 pm.
Silly Cow is a modern satire on the viciousness of tabloid journalism with an ingeniously dramatic dénouement. Doris is a newspaper columnist and reviewer with a talent for caustic insults and career assassination. She is being sued by the actress Trudi Hobson, after writing an article which savaged the respected thespian with accusations of small talent and large thighs. The queen of spleen isn’t worried: she’s got a job offer, a plan for a television show, and the cleavage to help the judge see things her way. But she’s about to discover that even journalists can’t escape reaping what they have sown, and that there’s nothing quite as dramatic as an actress’s revenge.
References
- Paul Camilleri, ‘Kate At Silly Cow’s First Night’. Homeground 41, Spring 1991
- Silly Cow by Ben Elton. Tip Top Productions website, retrieved 27 February 2024
