It’s one of the most anticipated movies of the year, but you can almost guarantee that Prince Andrew won’t see it.
Last night the stars gathered at the Curzon in Mayfair for the world premiere of Scoop, about the explosive interview that forced the embarrassed royal to step away from public life.
The film tells the story of how Emily Maitlis’ television interrogation of the royals came about.
Starring Gillian Anderson as Maitlis and Rufus Sewell as the Duke of York, it centers on the key role of part-time BBC producer Sam McAlister in securing the Newsnight interview broadcast in November 2019.
Single mother McAlister, played by Billie Piper, 41, spent months negotiating with former royal press aide Amanda Thirsk, played by Keeley Hawes, 48, to make it happen.
Billie Piper (right), who plays BBC producer Sam McAlister in the Netflix drama Scoop, alongside the real McAlister at last night’s premiere.
Gillian Anderson, who plays Emily Maitlis, and Billie Piper alongside Rufus Sewell, who plays Prince Andrew in the streaming adaptation.
Anderson and Sewell in a scene from Scoop, which is based on a book by McAlister about how the interview came about.
Gillian Anderson and Billie Piper laugh on the red carpet at the Curzon cinema in Mayfair
Keeley Hawes, who plays former royal press aide Amanda Thirsk in Scoop, at the film’s premiere at the Curzon cinema in Mayfair on Wednesday.
Sam McAlister is the BBC producer who spent months negotiating with royal aides to secure the interview with Andrew. She appears in the premiere photo.
A scene from Scoop showing Billie Piper in her role as BBC producer Sam McAlister. The film opens on April 5.
Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis in Scoop. Maitlis herself is executive producer of her own version of events with Amazon Prime Video
Maitlis was later accused of disparaging McAlister’s tenacious work by not crediting the producer in a magazine interview she gave after its screening.
The couple then proceeded to present their own version of events.
Netflix optioned McAlister’s book on the matter, becoming Scoop, while Maitlis began making her own series for Amazon last year.
It hasn’t been released yet, but it will star Ruth Wilson as Maitlis and Michael Sheen as the prince in this version.
However, there were no signs of bad blood between the actresses who played Maitlis and McAlister last night at the premiere of Scoop at the Curzon cinema in Mayfair.
Dressed in a dark green lace dress, Gillian, 55, smiled as she posed with Billie, who was wearing bold black striped shorts and a matching jacket, and Sewell, 56.
They were joined by Romola Garai, who plays former Newsnight editor Esme Wren in the film, in a quirky white suit.
Earlier on Wednesday, Prince Andrew actor Rufus said he thought he could “back up” the role, but panicked when it was offered to him and confessed he thought “what have I done?”
Rufus spoke openly while appearing on Wednesday’s episode of Good Morning Britain, where he detailed “obsessively watching the Newsnight interview for hours.”
He said: ‘I watched the interview obsessively. I saw it at that moment like everyone else, I was a little paralyzed for various reasons. Like most people, I had my own judgments.
‘But doing it is a different thing and trying to put yourself in someone’s position like that and work out what their reasoning and justification might be in your own head. Because that’s what people do.
And I spent hours and hours every day trying to figure out what I was thinking. You could only guess. When there was a hesitation or a stutter, or a particular movement of the head, what was behind it?
Scoop launches on Netflix on April 5, with Netflix billing it as “the inside account of the dogged journalism that landed a momentous interview: Prince Andrew’s infamous appearance on BBC Newsnight.”
The streaming giant says: “From the tension of producer Sam McAlister’s high-stakes negotiations with Buckingham Palace, to Emily Maitlis’ forensic showdown with the Prince, SCOOP takes us inside the story, with the women that they would stop at nothing to achieve it.
“To get such a big interview, you have to be bold.”