TV icon Michael Parkinson says he’d be arrested if he treated women ‘like he did in the past’
CHAT legend Sir Michael Parkinson has admitted he could be arrested if he treated women like he did in the past.
Amid the #MeToo anti-harassment campaign, Parky, 82, said: “Men are in a quandary.
I mean, if I was doing now what I did then, I would have to watch myself.
“There isn’t a man of a certain age who doesn’t look back and wonder: ‘Was my behaviour entirely appropriate?’”
Parky spent 40 years on TV until 2007 and has never been accused of any wrongdoing.
He admits trying to kiss actress Shirley MacLaine “whenever I could”.
In a 1975 interview with Dame Helen Mirren he asked if her “equipment” meant she couldn’t be taken seriously.
She said: “Serious actresses can’t have big bosoms, is that what you mean?” In 2016 Parky tried to justify his line of questioning saying it was a response that “she presented a provocative figure”.
He added: “We have not done much since to repair the damage.”
MOST READ IN TV & SHOWBIZ
He regretted not confronting an editor who flashed his wife Mary, now 81.
And he said of shamed film mogul Harvey Weinstein: “You’d have to stop yourself from punching him.”
- GOT a news story? RING us on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]