Dear Gossips,

Prince would have been 60 years old yesterday and to remember the legend, Variety published two pages worth of anecdotes about Prince from people who knew him and worked with him, great stories about his sense of humour, his pranks, and of course his hilarious attitude. Prince was quick, super witty, so good at giving a good line. Here’s Marc Anthony: 

“He hated it when I cursed. I thought it was a joke, I mean, I’m from New York, I curse quite a bit. I was like “Come on, bro, you f-cking kidding me?” It made him so uneasy because I kept f-cking with him, “You’re sh-tting me, right?” Finally he was like, “Marc, if you curse again my makeup will come off!” [Laughs] And I totally stopped cursing in front of him — every time I’d see him I was on my best behavior. I felt like he was the principal.”

If you curse again my makeup will come off! I feel happier just imagining Prince saying that. 

Here’s another one from Marc Anthony, about how hard it was to get Prince back:

“I tried to play a trick on him once. It was the first time he came over to the house, and I wanted to see how tall he really was. My plan was to tell him we have a no-shoes policy in the house so he was gonna have to take off his heels. So I meet him at the car, “Hey it’s great to see you, welcome, but I have to tell you, we don’t allow shoes in the house.” And he said, in that beautiful satiny voice, [drops voice to seductive purr], “Then we’ll talk outside.” [Laughing] He did not go for that. I tried, man!”

Yes, Prince was obviously on high alert about being revenge-pranked. But also? As IF Prince would ever walk around without a complete outfit on, sliding around marble floors in his socks. 

Of course it wouldn’t be a proper tribute to Prince’s mischief if there wasn’t an appreciation of his shading skills. He was too good at it to ignore. Of all the people Prince had beef with then, who do you think shows up in this tribute? According to Rebekah Alperin: 

“We were backstage at rehearsal the day before he played the [2004] Grammys with Beyoncé, and there were so many acts rehearsing that they had to share space. He suddenly came out of his dressing room and he looked straight at me and said in that low voice, “I’m sharing… a bathroom… with Justin Timberlake.” Nothing against Justin, of course, I just don’t think Prince was expecting to be sharing a bathroom.”

 

God, I’m still so f-cking pissed that that punk thought he was worthy of honouring Prince in his city at the Super Bowl.

Speaking of Beyoncé and that Grammys performance, she wrote the forward last year to Prince: A Private View, a book of photographs by Afshin Shahidi.  

“Prince’s timing was genius and his sense of humor, spontaneous and unexpected. At the end of 'Purple Rain'/'Let’s Go Crazy'/'Crazy in Love' medley, I had no idea he would say what he did. We did talk about making a face but when he blurted out 'Don’t hate us ‘cause we fab,' it took everything I had to keep my composure."

If it’s been a while since you watched that performance, I’m attaching it here. Click here to read the article at Variety. 

Have a great weekend with the people, the places, the books, the music, the food, and the moments that you cherish. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey