From Corrie to Hollywood… Marsden Transformed!

Sean Borg — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:55:16 +0000

You must have clicked by now that my Blog mainly focuses on well known Brits in Tinseltown or British stars in the UK that have a connection to Hollywood…

So hopefully you’ll find this is an interesting one… Former Coronation Street star Matthew Marsden must be pinching himself these days when he looks back on the memory of those old cobbled streets of Weatherfield compared to his new life here in Los Angeles!

The actor seems set for worldwide success after landing a main role in the new summer blockbuster, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen - a far cry from the council estate he grew up on in West Bromwich, England.

Matt debuted in Corrie back in 1997 in the role of Chris Collins, when viewers saw him involved in a love affair with the character Sally Webster.

Since then after moving to America eight years ago and many-a chocolate dipped strawberry served up by scantily clad girls in skimpy bikinis at parties he attended while working the scene, Matt finally got his act together landing roles playing special forces men in Hollywood action films, from Black Hawk Down with Ewan McGregor to last year’s Rambo. In his latest role his soldier character Captain Graham rescues of one of the world’s sexiest women, Megan Fox, oo-er!

However, Matthew’s current success emulates that of British soap actor Craig Fairbrass, who starred opposite Stallone in Cliffhanger back in 1993. Fairbrass hyped himself up as the next big thing in Hollywood back then but failed miserably, only then to go back to television in the UK to star in Eastenders. Fairbrass now, according to his IMDb page, has a bunch of ‘B movies’ movies and an episodic of The Sarah Connor Chronicles under his belt… Not exactly the stuff of Hollywood superstardom!

And though generally not one to douse a happy tale in negative juice, I can’t resist to remind you that as someone who’s been in Tinseltown for many years, I can attest to how fickle it all is, especially knowing so many struggling actors who end up waiting tables!

But even though Marsden has a few embarrassing skeletons in his closet, like this rather naff pop video of a song he released a few years back entitled The Hearts Lone Desire, he is definitely on a roll working with some of the greats such as Michael Bay, I’m sure his success will supersede any attempts made by Craig Fairbrass and the likes of… I could possibly even see Marsden popping a few steroids and beefing up for the lead-role in the remake of Conan the Barbarian being directed by Marcus Nispel later this year… You never know… Oops did I say that?!

Brits Abroad: Borg ‘n’ Morgan in Hollywood!

Sean Borg — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:22:46 +0000

It seems you can’t go anywhere in Hollywood these days without bumping into someone you know from England.

On Sunday night I was with my mate Simon Boyce at Cecconi’s, West Hollywood, having a quiet dinner after spending a lovely day in Malibu at the home of film director Marcus Nispel.

As always happens when you’re not planning on seeing anyone I bumped into Rock n Rolla star Toby Kebbel at the bar who tells me he’s out for America’s Got Talent judge – Piers Morgan’s birthday.

In my shorts and T-shirt I wasn’t exactly dressed for the occasion but Piers and I go waaaay back so I had to pop over to his table and say hi…

I met Piers in the late eighties when I was in Public Relations and Piers was the showbiz columnist for The Sun newspaper. We’d often have screaming matches down the phone about the crap Mr Morgan peddled about my celebrity clients. Well, OK, half the time it was true, but I had to try and keep it out of the press, didn’t I? Besides no amount of screaming ever stopped him, if anything it made it worse!

But that was a long time ago and these days I have a lot of respect for Piers. I love all his books and TV shows, and now he’s a bit of a star himself – how funny is that… His dinner guests were quite famous too, and included Fantastic Four star Ioan Gruffudd and his wife Alice Evans, Amanda Holden and actress Jane Wall.

Plus, he now knows what it’s like to be on the other end of the media glare after a rather high profile and public sacking from The Mirror that was all over the papers (sorry Piers, I couldn’t resist bringing it up). But like any star worth his salt he made a comeback, and more than proved that like his TV show he’s got talent too!

Sean Borg Goes LA! » Marcus Nispel

From Corrie to Hollywood… Marsden Transformed!

Brits Abroad: Borg ‘n’ Morgan in Hollywood!