Here’s Who Terry Gilliam Despises the Most (And It’s Not Someone in Monty Python)
Whether he likes it or not, Terry Gilliam is smack-dab in the middle of a Monty Python feud. While Eric Idle and John Cleese are doing the public mud-slinging, Gilliam and his offspring are at the heart of the conflict. Idle can’t believe the Python comedians don’t have more money in the bank, blaming Gilliam’s daughter, Holly (who runs the group’s business affairs), for financial mismanagement.
“Python is a disaster,” Idle tweeted earlier this year. “If you put a Gilliam child in as your manager you should not be so surprised. One Gilliam is bad enough. Two can take out any company.”
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Oof. Cleese has fired back on multiple occasions, including earlier this year.
“I have worked with Holly for the last 10 years, and I find her very efficient, clear-minded, hard working, and pleasant to have dealings with,” Cleese tweeted. “Michael Palin has asked me to to make it clear that he shares this opinion. Terry Gilliam is also in agreement with this.”
That might be Gilliam’s opinion on the subject, but we’ll have to take Cleese’s word for it. Gilliam himself hasn’t spouted off much about conflict with his fellow Pythons. Does he loathe and despise his former colleagues, as Cleese suggests? Maybe but there’s someone else he hates more, according to a 2012 interview Gilliam did with The Guardian, per Far Out.
Who was the person Gilliam despised the most — and why? “Jerry Springer,” he replied, “for encouraging the worst in people.”
Springer, who passed away last year, had a nearly 30-year run with a talk show that often ended conversations with brawls and fistfights. Typical segments included titles like “I Stole Your Dog — And Your Man,” “You’re Cheating With My Co-Worker” and “Wives & Mistresses Do Battle.”
Someone who’d likely agree with Gilliam about Springer’s negative influence? That’s Springer himself, who once appeared with David Letterman to admit, “My show is plain stupid!”
