Richard E. Grant Threw the Weekend’s Hottest Dinner Party

If the name Richard E. Grant does not ring any bells to you, give him a quick Google. Ohhh, yes, he’s that guy, who seems like he’s in everything, especially British period dramas. The posh dad in Saltburn; the prosecutor at Nuremberg in Nuremberg; a four-episode turn in Downton Abbey; George in Gosford Park. Millennial and Gen X Brits will remember him from Withnail and I. He was nominated for an Oscar in 2019 for Can You Ever Forgive Me? You get it. 

Now that we’re all on the same page about Grant’s resume, I’d like to take you further, and introduce you to his Instagram. He frequently posts front-facing videos (from the exact, slightly off-center position you’d expect from a boomer) talking about everything from Christmas to vacation to interesting conversations he’s had—and, often, about life without his wife, who died of lung cancer nearly five years ago. Since then, Grant has frequently spoken out about missing her, grieving her, the ways it feels complicated to readjust to life after her death. They’re really lovely videos, and they have really endeared him to me (and many other people). 

A more recent Instagram development of his has furthered that endearment: He’s become a grandfather and is obsessed with the baby. “The joys of being a grandfather walking with a pouch full of pure Happiness!,” he wrote under a video of him carrying the baby on his chest. He followed that joyful sentence with the red heart emoji and the dancing man emoji, both repeated seven times. He also loves his cat. 

He is, for lack of more sophisticated ways to put it, a real one. 

Over the weekend, he put that candor on display in an interview with the British newspaper The Times, talking about the friends who didn’t reach out after his wife died, and how he’s subsequently cut them out of his life. 

“There are people that have been edited out of my life and I will never see them again,” he said. “If I had done that to them, I wouldn’t be able to look them in the face.”

Then on Monday morning, as if he planned it this way (which I really hope he did—again, a real one!), Grant posted a photo from a dinner party showcasing the friends he’s kept in his life. He’s seated between Helena Bonham-Carter and Martin Short. Also around the table are Martin Short’s son, Henry Short; Grant’s daughter, Olivia Grant; Gary Oldman and his wife, Gisele Schmidt; and the GOATs Steve Martin and Christine Baranski (the latter of whom is Grant’s co-star in an upcoming Noël Coward production). In the caption, Grant wrote, “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to”—though he very much is not crying—and identified another diner as just “Mark,” though I cannot figure out which Mark he is. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Richard E. Grant (@richard.e.grant)

Some similarly aged celebrities seem like they’re angling for an invite to the next dinner party. Glenn Close commented “Wow Richard! The laughter must have literally raised the roof. 👏👏Gorgeous.” Rosie O’Donnell left happy birthday wishes, though it was not his birthday. And I bet a handful of British 60-somethings are really regretting not reaching out to their former friend in his time of need. Let that be a lesson to us all.

---

• Meghan Markle is in talks to appear in the third season of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen. [Deadline]
• Erling Haaland cut off all his hair and called Noel Gallagher about it. [BBC]
• Connor Storrie also cut off all his hair. [X]
• These photos are not good but I really just love Dua Lipa. [Vogue Italia]