Paul McCartney nearly guest-starred in Friends
The Beatles musician was approached to play Ross Gellar's stingy father-in-law in The One with Ross's Wedding
Back in the nineties, Paul McCartney came close to giving a little help to some of our favourite Friends. The former Beatle was approached by casting director Leslie Litt to play Ross Gellar's father-in-law during the gang's trip to London for his wedding to Emily – you remember, the one who tried to get Jack and Judy Gellar to pay for his new wine cellar?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdZLAcQED60
The role eventually went to Tom Conti but, according to an interview Litt has done with The Huffington Post, it was McCartney who they initially wanted for the part.
Despite Litt's best efforts to convince the musician to play Emily's father, it wasn't to be. "I went through his manager and gave him all the details," she recalls. "One day someone in the office brought me a faxed letter from Paul himself!
"He thanked me for my interest and said how flattered he was, but it was a very busy time for him." It's a shame, we'd have loved to see McCartney tell Elliott Gould he "could kill you with my thumb".
Instead Conti was joined by Jennifer Saunders to play Stephen and Andrea Waltham – the parents of Emily (Helen Baxendale) whose marriage to Ross was brief after he accidentally said Rachel's name at the altar.
The two-episode arc saw all the Friends except pregnant Phoebe make the trip to the British capital for the nuptials and featured a series of cameos from the likes of Hugh Laurie, Richard Branson and Sarah Ferguson.
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