Dopplegangers

There I was last night sitting by the fire with the missus and watching television while simultaneously slurping my glass of wine in a sophisticated manner which I have honed from years of drinking and to which I have become accustomed.

When I engage in this sort of activity of a Friday night, I often end up watching that outrageously useless plank Pat Kenny (who has done something strange to his hair, I couldn't help noticing) on the Late Late Show. If some interesting guest manages to get a decent flow of conversation going despite the persistent interruptory efforts of Gobshite Kenny, then I can end up watching large chunks of the programme. My wife would have similar views on the matter, so she would.

Anyway, Timber-Features Kenny had director John Boorman and his seemingly favourite leading actor Brendan Gleeson. They were talking about the film and Ireland and how there's an underbelly to the shiny side of life here and the idea that the shinier it is on one side, the darker the underbelly is, or appears to be, or... something. The point is, though, that as I was looking at yourman Gleeson talking away, it struck me that his real-life double must be Ben Dunne. See and judge for yourselves. Which one of these 2 is Ben Dunne and which is Brendan Gleeson?Confusing, eh?

But if that wasn't difficult enough for my poor head to wrap itself around, then wasn't I in for an even larger dose of difficulty later on. Staying up even later, as I did, I found myself watching a very good film called "Romuald & Juliette" on TG4 (incredible as it may sound, this was actually released in the US as "Mama, there's a white guy in our bed"). The thing is that there was a character in it who was the managing director's closest confidant who turns out to be porking his wife on the side. This character was played by a Swiss-born actor named Gilles Privat. At least, that's what his biography says. I'm quiet certain, however, that Mr. John Delany, the current Chief Eejit at the Football Association of Ireland, had a previous acting career in France before he became CE of the FAI. See for yourselves:
Privat (if that's his real name) is the one on the left. It's either that or Gilles Privat has been engaged in an elaborate "reality TV" programme where he plays, as well as actually becomes, the head of the soccer crowd in Ireland. Actually, now that I think of it, that second thesis would explain a lot...