Celebrity No Show

Of course, one man's celebrity is another man's nonentity. On February 17, Sting and Mrs. Sting lunched at Taprobane.

A week before that, everybody here was very excited because Shane Warne was expected at a charity dinner in Galle to raise money for tsunami victims. The newspapers were full of stories about Shane Warne's imminent arrival in Sri Lanka.

"Who's Shane Warne?" I asked.

Jaws dropped in disbelief.

"How come you've never heard of Shane Warne? He's a legend. He's the top wicket taker for Australia."

Since cricket is Sri Lanka's national sport, Shane Warne is as much a household name here as Roger Clemens in the United States. Everybody wanted to meet him. The $100 tickets for the charity dinner sold in a flash. Even the hotel staff were lining up to shake hands with the famous bowler. (That's what cricket-playing nations call pitchers.)

In the end, the great man didn't show up. (Apparently there was a scheduling conflict.) The $100 tickets were discounted to $30 and the evening was a great success. Local tourism enterprises auctioned off holidays and they ended up raising around $8,000.

Warne's absence made no difference to me, since I had never heard of him anyway. Geoffrey, the organizer of the dinner, also put a positive spin on the non-appearance.

"We want to thank Shane Warne for not coming this evening," he announced. "Instead of giving the money to his charity, we're going to give it to a local orphanhage."

-- Michael Dobbs

By washingtonpost.com |  March 1, 2005; 5:00 AM ET  | Category:  Michael Dobbs
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