Rupert Everett Dishes on Divas: Madonna 'Elegant but Common'

Sept. 5, 2006 — -- Straight or otherwise, anyone in Madonna's presence knows just how sexually overwhelming she can be, writes British actor Rupert Everett in his forthcoming autobiography.

"She oozed sex appeal and demanded a sexual response from everyone," the 47-year-old actor says in "Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins," which has been excerpted this week in Britain's Daily Mail.

Everett recalls his first meeting with Madonna in the mid 1980s, when the singer was dating her future first husband, Sean Penn.

"At the restaurant, Sean and I were sitting, waiting. Outside, there was a flurry as she walked from her car. The door blew open and the Immaculate Conception was among us," Everett writes.

"She was raucous but poised, elegant but common. She had the cupid-bow lips of a silent screen star, and it was obvious she was playing with Sean underneath the table throughout the meal. …

"In those early years, there was no male who would not want to bed her. I lost myself in Madonna's attention and by the end, I had fallen in love."

From Liz Taylor's Easter Eggs to the Berlin Wall

As a gay star, Everett says he's been able to forge close friendships with several of the most-famous female stars, gaining insight into their lives and their hypnotic effect on men.

Stardom for Everett came with his 1984 performance in "Another Country," in a role that he first performed onstage. He played Julia Roberts' gay confident in "My Best Friend's Wedding" and Christopher Marlowe in "Shakespeare in Love." He's recently reached audiences as the dastardly Prince Charming in the "Shrek" film series.

In "Red Carpets and Banana Skins," Everett dishes on his encounters as a young actor with Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Sharon Stone, Ian McKellen and Donatella Versace, among many other notables.

Everett recounts an Easter egg hunt in Elizabeth Taylor's garden, and reflects on his experiences in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, and in Berlin in 1989, on the night the wall came down.

Although Everett is now openly gay, the book apparently delves into his relationships with a series of prominent female celebrities whom he dated, including Susan Sarandon, Beatrice Dalle, and the late Paula Yates.