Tom Selleck’s memoir also showcased his experience meeting Princess Diana
Tom Selleck doesn’t get starstruck “too often” but revealed which celebrities left him a little spellbound during his nearly 60-year career.
Selleck, 79, opened up about his time in Hollywood by handwriting his own memoir, “You Never Know.”
“I probably got a little starstruck with Mae West,” he told Town and Country. “I didn’t get starstruck with [James] Garner, even though I just deeply respected his work, loved his work.
“Not too often,” Selleck added. “The really good people — good actors — have a way of cutting through that pretty quick. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of people, and I’m always a little starstruck, but I get over it. I mean, I can carry on a conversation. Dancing with Princess Di was a couple notches above that! Oh yeah, I was starstruck.”
The “Magnum P.I.” star met Princess Diana when he landed on the invite list to a 1985 state dinner at the White House. The only other actors in attendance were Clint Eastwood and John Travolta.
“After dinner, everybody moved to the East Room for music and dancing,” Selleck wrote. “President Reagan and Princess Diana danced, and Charles danced with Nancy. Then John Travolta and the princess started dancing,”
Pretty soon, Selleck was approached by a woman “speaking very rapidly,” who told him, “Mr. Travolta and the princess are dancing for a second time together. We can’t have that. We don’t want to start rumors, do we?” After both Eastwood and Selleck met her with silence, the woman added, “Mr. Selleck, you must step in and replace him.”
“‘I’M NOT CUTTING IN ON JOHN TRAVOLTA!’ was my reply, probably in too loud a voice,” Selleck wrote. “She was not happy. ‘Very well. The next dance, come with me.’”
Selleck told Town and Country that he “apologized” to Diana for his lack of dancing skills.
“Look, I skipped cotillion,” he said. “There was something called cotillion as kids; they taught you how to dance and manners and everything else.”
He said his older brother went to a cotillion, but he managed to skip it. However, that left him with a bit of a problem, “then all I could do dancing was box step like we did in high school dances, a box step and a dip. And I wasn’t about to dip with Princess Di! So I just talked. But she was very gracious and obviously had learned the skill of dealing with people and relaxing. It was certainly memorable.”
Ahead of the release of his memoir, Selleck admitted he had never wanted to become an actor.
“It is really the story of an accidental career,” he told People magazine. “I’d never taken an acting class. I had no training, no desire.
“People would say, ‘Oh, he was bitten by the acting bug’ or, ‘He wanted to be a star,’” he added. “I’ve never talked that way in my life. I just wanted to get a job and work.”
Selleck landed a job as a basketball player in a Pepsi commercial at the start of his career. He went on to appear in “The Young and the Restless.” Later, he landed a role in “Magnum P.I.” in 1980 at the age of 35. The casting would change his life.
The actor met his wife, Jillie Mack, in 1983 as she was performing in “Cats.” They married in 1987 and share a daughter, Hannah. Selleck also shares a son, Kevin, with his ex-wife Jacqueline Ray.
