Don't Look Now!

I just sat almost-opposite Richard Madeley at lunch. Or at least I’m 99% sure it was Richard Madeley, I didn’t want to look directly at him to double check because I was at a Soho House and it is strictly forbidden to look anyone directly in the eye there, especially if it might be a famous person. Under pain of death.

You definitely can’t take any photos at Soho House, which is a shame, because what I really wanted to do was to pretend to look up something on my iPhone and show it to my dining companion whilst surreptitiously getting a clear shot of (99% likely) Richard Madeley’s face so that I could look at it after he’d gone and verify his identity.

But this is precisely why they have this no phones, no cameras rule in place: celebrities don’t want people taking photos of them mid-sentence when they have their double-smash-burger hovering right next to their lips, a small amount of mustard just about to drip out from between the meat patties. This level of scrutiny would be a total invasion of privacy. I would detest it. Let’s face it: nobody wants to be in a photograph unwittingly, especially whilst eating a messy burger.

It must be difficult, being famous, for this reason alone: knowing that people are always watching you. And also, thinking that someone is watching you even when nobody is. In Richard’s case, someone was definitely trying to watch him, and that person was me.