NEWS
Elton John's thanks gift
08 Sep 1998 USA TODAY, Thursday, September 3rd, 1998 - By Jeannie Williams:
Here's a tale involving Jim Carrey and Elton John that could pass into myth. If you get a gift like Carrey got, you won't forget it.
Carrey is very much into the character of the late comedian Andy Kaufman, as he makes Man on the Moon, the Kaufman bio-pic directed by Milos Forman. John, a good friend of Forman's, was invited on the set and hit it off with Carrey.
A week ago, Carrey went onstage at John's L.A. concert to duet on Rocket Man. "He was able to sing harmonies on the choruses without rehearsal," says David Furnish, head of John's Rocket Films.
Backstage, Carrey told John how Kaufman had been so involved with his Tony Clifton lounge lizard character that vegetarian Kaufman consumed prime rib and Jack Daniel's and smoked in his Clifton persona. Afterward, he would detox by swallowing 30 feet of cheesecloth.
John was fascinated by this. So when he sent Carrey a thank-you gift, it recognized all three of the characters Carrey is dealing with. Included was some good red wine for Carrey, limburger cheese and magazines of large, naked women over 50 for Clifton - and 10 packages of cheesecloth for Kaufman.
Lynne Margulies, Kaufman's girlfriend for two years until his death in 1984, confirms the cheesecloth tale, though the comic may have done it only a couple of times. "It was a yoga thing. Andy was very evolved spiritually," says Margulies. She's played by Courtney Love and is a consultant on the movie. "What a sense of humor," she says of John.
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