Hollywood’s ‘biggest divas’ revealed by former top TV boss
A former BBC producer has named three A-list stars he considers the biggest divas he encountered during his career in music television, and the details behind each claim range from door-opening rules to an entire dressing room wrapped in plastic.
Gareth Davies, who ran Top of the Pops and now heads The Presenter Studio, told Page Six that Shania Twain, Jennifer Lopez and Madonna topped his list, each for very different reasons.
Twain, according to Davies, simply wouldn't open doors herself.
He claimed that whenever she was called to the stage, her entourage would form a relay chain, sprinting ahead through the corridors so she never had to slow down.
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"With Shania Twain, as soon as she was asked to come on stage at 'Top of the Pops,' there was this very long line of entourage running one after the other, almost like a conga," he said, describing the routine as 'a little bit overkill.'
What did Jennifer Lopez ask for backstage?
Davies called the Waiting for Tonight singer the 'sassiest' celebrity he'd ever worked with, and said her demands backstage matched that reputation.
He claimed her BBC dressing room was lined entirely in white plastic film, a jarring update given how outdated the network's backstage rooms were at the time, and that she also requested a white microphone for her performances.
"She had all her dressing rooms decorated in white. It was like this white plastic film that went everywhere," he recalled, adding that plenty of time and effort went into making sure Lopez felt as 'sassy' as she wanted to feel before stepping on stage.
Madonna rounded out the trio, named by Davies as the star with the biggest entourage he'd ever seen arrive on set.
He recalled one especially chaotic moment when her stylist forgot to bring her outfits to the studio, leaving them behind at her hotel.
"She kind of had that one job just to bring the outfits, but didn't bring them, which I thought was very funny," Davies said, adding that he never witnessed any fallout, though he suspected it would have stayed well away from Madonna herself.
Which stars were surprisingly down to earth?
Not every big name lived up to the stereotype, Davies said. He recalled expecting Janet Jackson to arrive late, only to find she'd been sitting quietly on the studio floor with her backup dancers the entire time.
"So that was really sweet to see that sometimes you expect someone to be this huge diva and to make an entrance and actually she's just been waiting there for us the whole time, which I thought was really lovely," he said.
Simon Cowell, on the other hand, was flagged as notoriously late, a habit Davies suggested has only become more accepted the more famous he's gotten.
Britney Spears, the Spice Girls and Kylie Minogue were also named as far more grounded backstage than their public personas might suggest.
Thomas Bamford