Varda the Message

There is no one quite like Eddie Izzard. He's acted on stage - playing Lenny Bruce and the lead in "A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg" - to much acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. He's done a variety of great cameo roles on film. But he's most well known for his stand up routines which are rapid fire ideas about history and people that are at the same time absurd and perfectly sensible. Here's a good idea of them. And then there's the cross dressing. He's straight, he just likes the gear, and refers to himself as an 'executive transvestite' or "it's male tomboy, it's not drag queen." An analysis of Eddie's sartorial sense here.

In interviews he's joked that "Jerry Divine is not based upon Tony DeFries. No way, I based him on my dad (legal reasons)". He spoke to the BBC's Jonathan Ross about the film:

Ross: I haven't seen Velvet Goldmine, what's your opinion of it?
Eddie: Well I loved it, it's not totally successful, it's Todd Haynes' problem, Todd drives it where he wants, but he knew exactly what he wanted to do. It was a shooting script when we got it and not a big mainstream Die Hard-type movie, but it's a beautiful film and I really enjoyed doing the role. And people seemed to be quite pleased with what I've done. People said very positive things back to me.
Ross: But to your face it's very hard to be honest...
Eddie: Well no, I've tried to check that because I've found the thing is, if people really hated you but get on with you so don't want to say it to your face, they just say I didn't see it. And no one can really check that.
Ross: I really didn't see it.
Eddie: I know, but that's the easy way to deal with it. But the thing I'm trying to say is not that I was actually that great, but I think I was fine, I held the dramatic role together, but I think people were expecting me to be a gaggy kind of guy, and they were kind of surprised by that so they gave me extra points. I would have liked to have more layers and be able to push more.
Ross: Was the movie what Todd hoped it would be?
Eddie: Yeah. He said he wanted something that would stick around and confuse people and create different waves. Obviously it confused them: people loved it, people hated it.

His connections to Bowie are that he narrated the "David Bowie" segment of VH1's documentary Legends and in the BBC TV series, Father Ted he played a Ziggy Stardust Impersonator. (!)

Added Esoterica, 6 Degrees variety: Brian Eno played a "Father Eno" on an episode of Father Ted. Another guest actor on that show was Maraid McKinley, a name known to us because it is at the top of the credits, when listed in order of appearance, as 'Wilde's Housemaid'.

The previous scenes set in the "New York Hotel Suite" were shot at Mentmore Towers, a palatial mansion built in 1855. Christine Vachon described the manor, surrounded by fields and farmhouses very 'Sense and Sensibility'. At the time of the shoot, the estate was owned by the Transcendental Meditation organization but it has since been sold. Other films shot at this location include Eyes Wide Shut and The Mummy. One we can look forward to is Batman Begins with Christian Bale, in which Mentmore is Wayne Manor.

This entry has been corrected

script:
FRIEND 2
But not that scruffy as I last recall.

'Friend 2' is played by Velvet Goldmine's make-up artist Peter King.

Peter King, who according to Todd, "was a wild glam boy in Bath where he grew up, terrorizing all of Bath in his outrageous costumes and carryings on," made Ewan's wigs in The Draughtsman's Contract and did his did Ewan's makeup in Little Voice. He later won an Oscar for his work in Lord of the Rings, Return of the King and thanked his wife and daughter in his speech, so apparently the perfect lisp of 'Friend 2' was acting! Here he is in both incarnations: