Hugh Grant returned to Hollywood Boulevard and poked fun at his infamous 1995 arrest for lewd conduct with a sex worker on Sunset Boulevard.
While Grant attended the “Heretics” movie premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood Oct. 24, filmmaker Bryan Woods asked the star to address the crowd before the film began, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I have nothing interesting to add to that except that it is very nice to be here. Hollywood Boulevard has always been a lucky place for me,” Grant teased. “It’s nice of AFI to have us. It’s nice of you to show up. It’s nice of these girls to be brilliant in the film. It was nice of these two weirdos to put me in it and nice of the producers to pay me so little. So, I hope you enjoy it.”
Also in attendance Thursday night were Grant’s co-stars, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East. Woods was joined by fellow filmmaker Scott Beck.
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The actor’s arrest rocked headlines in the ’90s, so much so that Grant issued a public apology on “The Tonight Show” after his arrest.
“Last night I did something completely insane. I have hurt people I love and embarrassed people I work with. For both things I am more sorry than I can ever possibly say,” he said at the time.
According to The Independent, Grant was required to pay a $1,000 fine and complete two years’ summary probation and compulsory participation in an AIDS education program.
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At the time, Grant reportedly paid sex worker Divine Brown $60 to perform oral sex on him in a car. Brown was sentenced to 180 days in prison for performing the lewd act and breaking her probation. She later went on to make $1 million from publicity from the scandal, reports say.
Since 1995, Grant has spoken about the arrest. In 2018, he told Poeple he “was just an idiot” when it came to his decision-making.
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“I didn’t try to say, ‘I’ve got this psychological problem.’ I just said, ‘I did it,'” he added.
At the time of the scandal, Grant was in a relationship with Elizabeth Hurley. They remained together through the incident but split in 2000. They have maintained a friendship. Grant is even godfather to Hurley’s son Damian.
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“We’re like brother and sister. … I think it’s partly because we went from zero to somewhere together,” Grant told People in 2018. “We went through terrible years at the beginning when neither of us had any work, living in a tiny flat. It was quite bonding.”
In 2021, Grant was a guest on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast and said the Hollywood debut of his film “Nine Months” contributed to the poor decision.
“I was about to launch my first Hollywood film. My timing was impeccable. My problem was that was my first Hollywood film, and I’d just been to see it,” he said at the time. “The film was about to come out a week or two after that, and I had a bad feeling about it. I went to see a screening. Everyone in it was brilliant, but I was so atrocious that I was not in a good frame of mind.”
Grant’s upcoming A24 horror film, “Heretic,” follows two young, female missionaries who knock on the wrong man’s door, Mr. Reed (Grant), according to IMDb. The film debuts in theaters Nov. 8.
