"Stars are just like us," as the saying goes—they pump their own gas, they buy their own groceries and their kids even fart in front of royalty.
At least that's what happened to actor Sam Neill when he watched the iconic film Jurassic Park, in which he plays Dr. Alan Grant, with the late Princess Diana while his son had a bit of a flatulence issue.
The story came out during a recent roundtable The New York Times' Kyle Buchanan held with the film's stars. While there were many tales that came out of the meet-up, none were quite so memorable as the one about Neill's son blowing Lady Di out of the room.
Read the story below.
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As Neill told Buchanan, the incident happened at the film's big gala premiere in London, no less. As he put it:
"The last time I watched [Jurassic Park] in its totality was sitting beside Princess Di at Leicester Square at the London opening."
"On the other side of me was my son Tim—he was 11 and completely swept away by it, but about the time the T-Rex turns up, Tim started to fart."
"And the draft was drifting across me to royalty!"
"I spent the whole film in a muck sweat, thinking, 'Princess Di is being exposed to the horrors of a little boy’s fart, but she’s going to think it’s me. I am going to be subliminally blamed for my son’s crimes, and I don’t think she’ll talk to me afterwards'."
Thankfully, Princess Di's aristocratic bearing prevented her from indicating anything was untoward.
Neill said:
"But she was well brought up and never mentioned it."
Phew!
Though costar Jeff Goldblum isn't quite so gracious. He insinuated that it was actually Neill passing gas in the Princess's direction.
After Neill finished his story, Goldblum quipped:
"I’ve heard him tell that a couple of times, and it’s just amazing the lengths that he will go to still blame the boy."
On Twitter, people absolutely loved this behind-the-scenes glimpse into royalty and flatulence.
Whenever you feel embarrassed just remember that at least you've never farted in front of Princess Diana.
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