Hiya, have you had a chance to listen to that Alan Carr podcast? It's hilarious but also some interesting tidbits in there. He never mentions AL (or DT for that matter) and even says at one point he'd be sitting ALL ALONE in that house in Maine if he had bought it. Like wait, don't you have a partner and kid? By the way, that he calls AL partner is another thing I've been thinking about a lot. She's always that, never girlfriend. His ex is referred to as girlfriend, in the past he seems to have
Hi there! Yes indeed, I did listen to Michael’s appearance on Alan Carr’s podcast, and meant to respond to your query sooner, but it got away from me with all the OMGery of the five zillion other podcasts Michael did in the last week. So for those who haven’t heard it yet, you can listen to the podcast here.
It is absolutely a delightful podcast, and Michael does sound like he is having a blast, what with all of the laughing and giggling he and Alan are doing. One of the highlights for me has to be Alan commenting on Michael wearing tight, white shorts in Last Train to Christmas, and basically how delectable Michael’s legs looked. (Alan is officially all of us. Bless him...)
I also noticed what you mentioned, too. Alan asked Michael where the most romantic places he likes to go on vacation are. He initially mentioned Paris, but then was talking about preferring a snowy/cold vacation over a hot place (which of course made me think of what Simon said about the ending of Staged 2 and Michael and David having a kiss in the snow in Central Park, because...um, hello. Haha).
But then Michael talked about how much he loves to go to a cabin by a lake in Maine, and said that he nearly bought a cabin there years ago, on a remotely island off the coast that is only accessible by boat. He said how relieved he was that he hadn’t bought the cabin, and added like "If I had gotten it, I'd be up there alone, in a cabin, snowed in, with my boat to keep me company." So it is certainly curious that he’d see himself as being alone in said cabin, rather than with Anna (or anyone, for that matter).
What was really interesting to me, though, was another direction in which the answer to this question veered off:
Alan: “Where do you go for romantic times?”
Michael: “Bathroom, mostly. These days.”
I mean...damn, Michael. He had ample opportunity and context in both prongs of that question to mention AL or doing various romantic things with her, especially given that they were in St. Lucia(!) earlier this year for quarantine. Instead, he talked about being alone in a cabin in Maine and (presumably, at least how I interpreted it) alone in the bathroom for “romantic times.” Ouch.
The thing is, all of the above possibly wouldn’t even be that weird if it weren’t for the plethora of other interviews and podcasts Michael has done recently. Prior to Christmas, he was on Alan’s show (as detailed above) and didn’t talk about AL, but also did an interview on The Sunday Times where he very quickly mumbled that she is his girlfriend (to where you would’ve missed him saying it if you weren’t paying attention), but still didn’t mention that she is in the Christmas movie. On Christmas Eve, Michael was on BBC Manchester being asked what he got David for Christmas and making it sound like they are married/going all soft at the end. Then on BBC Radio Wales on Christmas Day, David says “Merry Christmas” in Welsh and Michael calls David by a Welsh pet name that just happens to mean “Beloved.” But two days later, on the 27th, he actually called a picture of him and AL “cursed”:
...And then ONE day later (the 28th), he responds to a tweet from Georgia basically calling him David’s second wife and makes a movie reference that clearly shows him identifying as a main spouse/partner rather than a side piece.
I mean, the optics of all this are REALLY interesting, to say the least. And of course, things could certainly look or sound one way in interviews and be something entirely different in reality, but I think all of this does give us an idea of Michael’s mental state at the moment, and it is certainly curious.
(Also, I’ve received anons in the past about Michael’s use of “partner” and that for some people, it isn’t detached or less romantic than other relationship descriptors. For me, though, the giveaway is the fact that Michael actually has called AL his girlfriend a few times, but his voice never changes when he does, in sharp contrast to when he talks about David and his voices gets lower and softer.)
So yes, those are my thoughts on the Alan Carr interview that you asked about. I hope folks do give it a listen when they have a chance, because it is always a joy to hear Michael sounding so happy. Thank you for writing in! x
