Whatever happened to…

SOME GET INTO SHOW BIZ EARLY, HIT THE BIG TIME AND ENJOY EVER-GROWING SUCCESS. OTHERS, SADLY, TAKE THE WRONG TURNING, BUT THOSE WHO PULL THEMSELVES AROUND ARE SOMETIMES LUCKY ENOUGH TO GET A FRESH START

Words: JILL ECKERSLEY

Matthew Perry

Actor Matthew Perry achieved international recognition for his role as Chandler in the TV show Friends alongside Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow. At 24, he was the youngest member of the cast and now admits that: “I wanted to be famous so badly – the attention, the bucks, the best tables in restaurants…” even though the price of fame seems to have been high as he developed serious addiction problems that have severely affected his health. He was born in Massachusetts, but his parents divorced when he was very young and his Canadian mother took him back to Canada. He was raised and educated in Ottawa and once considered a career as a tennis player. However, he travelled to California aged 15 and began studying acting. Small parts in films and TV followed until Friends. The show was so successful that by 2002 the main cast members were reputed to be earning a million dollars an episode, and frequently featured in gossip columns – Matthew dated fellow superstar Julia Roberts for some time. However, he became addicted to opioid drugs and was hospitalised, later claiming that he had spent $9 million on medical bills. Once recovered, he was able to work again and says he is grateful for the support he received from his fellow cast members. He says he has been sober since 2021; his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing was published in 2022.

Tupperware Parties

Back in the early 1940s, an American chemist named Earl Tupper came up with an idea that helped thrifty housewives to avoid wasting leftover food. He devised an airtight seal for plastic containers which would keep food fresh, and called it “Tupperware”.

It wasn’t an instant success until a single mum from Detroit came up with an even better brainwave – a gettogether in private homes for women to have a chat, play a few games and invest in Tupperware. The hostess earned commission on the items sold – and the ‘Tupperware party’ was born, in 1949 in the USA, spreading to Britain in 1961. The Guinness Book of Records named Tupperware as one of the top inventions of the 20th century and by 2015 it was said that a Tupperware party was held once every 1.4 seconds. Even the late Queen Elizabeth was reputed to serve her breakfast cereal in a Tupperware container. However, in the past few years, Tupperware seems to be falling out of favour. The company’s share price has dropped as other companies produced rival ranges. Plastic, in any case, is out of fashion as a material, even though Tupperware containers are very far from being the non-eco-friendly singleuse plastics we are now all trying to avoid. Many of us carried our school packed lunches in Tupperware boxes and they are still to be found in kitchen cupboards all over the world. It’s said that younger generations prefer more ‘natural’ storage solutions such as beeswaxed paper or fabric…watch this space!