Prince hates Ronald McDonald

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Thread started 08/10/04 10:02am

Darla

Prince hates Ronald McDonald

Yes, clowns are evil...I copied & pasted this from housequake.com thanks to Parade over there.

http://www.nola.com/livin...180720.xml

Send out the clowns

Prince doesn't like the funny painted men with rubber noses and big feet, so word is he wouldn't play on the Superdome stage last month unless Ronald McDonald hit the road first. What Prince wants, Prince gets.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Chris Rose

Who could have known that the presence of a clown at the Essence Festival last month would nearly cost the event its headline act?

Details are just trickling in at this late date -- a full month after the festival -- but the story is so bizarre that it simply must be told, even if the expiration date has passed.

Here's what happened: It was Friday, opening night, and the hottest touring act in the country, Prince, was the headliner.

The Superdome was sold out, the energy was palpable. There were a couple of warm-up acts on the Main Stage, broken up by sponsor greetings -- representatives from Coke, Chevrolet, Bud, etc. -- keeping the chatter up and the crowd alive.

Shortly before Prince's show, he apparently saw Ronald McDonald -- a sponsor mascot, a company guy, a man of the people -- working the crowd. Prince immediately sent word to festival bigwigs: The clown goes or I don't play.

And Prince meant "goes," as in: leaves the building.

Now apparently this wasn't a personal knock against the McDonald's brand in particular, but against clowns in general. I don't mean to get all pop-psych on you, but it appears that Prince suffers from coulrophobia -- the fear of clowns.

Either that, or he just hates them. Or maybe something happened at a birthday party when he was a kid and well . . . whatever.

"He indicated that the clown needed to not be in the building," said a highly placed source on the scene. "He (Ronald) was escorted to the exit," said another source working the backstage area. "It was that -- or no show."

Once Prince was reassured that the clown had been safely exiled to Poydras Street, or wherever, without incident, the show went on and the Great One put on a killer performance by all accounts. (But don't ask Ronald; he missed it.)

Getting someone to go on record confirming this sequence of events was tricky business -- the festival, the Superdome, the production companies and even McDonald's have all officially been mum. Maybe because of the high dollar value of the event or maybe because Essence is a bit of a sacred cow in this town and no one wants to ruffle their -- or Prince's -- feathers.

McDonald's -- which suffered the ignominious dismissal of its mascot -- could have gone ballistic about this but even its people played it close to the vest. When I asked McDonald's local reps if I could get a comment from Ronald McDonald himself (there's only one working the New Orleans area), I was told: "Ronald probably shouldn't talk about that."

I left several detailed messages for Prince's business manager in New York but -- hard to imagine -- his office did not return the calls.

About Prince: No question he is a superior musical talent; the word genius -- way overused in the pop music world -- might even apply. But he's also just about the strangest guy in the business, with the obvious exception of Michael Jackson.

I could list 25 notable quirks and anecdotes about the guy, but it should suffice -- for the uninitiated -- to note that for a period in the '90s, he changed his name to Victor, and then to an unpronounceable hieroglyphic symbol that may or may not have had some kind of alchemical meaning.

And when I say unpronounceable, I don't mean it was hard to say. I mean that there was no word for it. In English, at least.

He said the symbol had been following him around for years so that's what he decided to call himself.

Anyway, you get the picture.

But in his defense, it should be noted that Prince is not the only major music star said to be suffering from coulrophobia. P. Diddy (who, like Prince, has changed his name on several occasions -- what does this tell you?) reportedly also is afflicted with this condition. However, he has denied the rumor that his performance contracts include a "no-clown" clause.

Alas, even the great Johnny Depp reportedly won't work with clowns, which is weird considering the way everyone was dressed on the set of "Pirates of the Caribbean," but who am I to judge?

Celebrity phobias abound: Billy Bob Thornton can't work with antique furniture in the room and actress Christina Ricci has a fear that sharks will enter swimming pools through the filtration systems and this one is so out there, it doesn't have a fancy name like coulrophobia.

Anyway, I stray. The happy ending to this story is that, for the following two nights of the Essence Festival, Ronald McDonald was allowed back into the Superdome to work the crowd.

Mary J. Blige, Frankie Beverly, the O'Jays, Gladys Knight and LL Cool J -- among others -- were able to perform in the presence of a clown without incident.
[This message was edited Tue Aug 10 11:59:20 2004 by Darla]

camilleblue	So Prince is afraid of clowns. That's strange, I didn't know clowns feared each other. I happen to think clowns are hilarious. But then again there was that film "IT" about that monster clown or better yet "KILLER CLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE" I know I dated a girl once who was a wiccan witch who told me they were evil and also had this phobia. I couldn't get her into McDonalds for shit!!!
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OdysseyMiles	That's the lamest story I've heard in awhile. I'll take it with a grain of salt.
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SnowQueen	Prince can be such a bozo sometimes.
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SnowQueen	Is Grimace acceptable? He's purple!!
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