Anyone know why John Cleese didn’t appear in the version of “Not the Messiah” for Monty Python’s 40th anniversary?
From searching around, it seems nobody really knows. It does seem to be stated that he elected not to, and at least one source said that he may have had scheduling conflicts with one the films he had in production at the time Not the Messiah premiered.
I saw Eric Idle on Craig Ferguson like a year ago and he mentioned this. Actually he listed everyone that would be in attendance and Craig immediately said, “Hmm, there’s someone missing there!” Idle said that Cleese told him he might be busy that day, to which the audience groaned, and Idle just replied, “His words, not mine!”
I actually started a thread about that show: As I remember it, they were joking around about stuff and Eric Idle basically called John Cleese a dick for not wanting to be a part of the new project, in reference to something they had talked about earlier.
(I think the thread might have had a link to a YouTube clip of the show–The thread title was something like “Python Feud?”)