ACTOR RALPH Fiennes was at the centre of claims that he had sex
in an aircraft lavatory with a stewardess. The Oscar-nominated star
of The English Patient is said to have become amorous with
38-year-old Lisa Robertson during a flight from Australia to
India.
Ms Robertson, who was a police officer before joining Australias
national airline Qantas, has admitted in a statement to her
employers that Fiennes followed her into a lavatory cubicle.
I explained to him that this was inappropriate and asked him to
leave, she said. Mr Fiennes became amorous towards me and, after
a short period of time, I convinced him to leave the toilet, which
he did.
Sydney-based Ms Robertson, who is currently suspended without pay
pending the outcome of an investigation, said she met 44-year-old
Fiennes on flight QF123 from Darwin to Bombay on January 24.
Fiennes had been in Australia to perform at the Sydney Festival
before travelling to India and was said to have been sitting in
seat 2K in business class when he began chatting to Ms
Robertson.
She was subsequently accused of having sex with the actor in the
lavatory cubicle and was suspended for two breaches of the
companys corporate and cabin crew policies.
The first relates to Fiennes allegedly sitting in a crew jump seat
while chatting to Ms Robertson during her rest break and the second
relates to her and the actor being seen leaving the same lavatory
as the Boeing 747 flew at more than five miles high above the
Indian Ocean.
In her statement - leaked to an Australian newspaper Ms Robertson
admitted that she began chatting to Fiennes several times and also
during her rest break.
But she said: This is common practice on long flights to build a
rapport with passengers and converse with them during the
flight.
I believe it is part of the role of a flight attendant to be
friendly, natural and approachable to all our passengers,
regardless of their class of travel.
In response to the accusation that she and Fiennes were alleged to
have been seen to exit the same lavatory, she said: Whilst
conversing with Mr Fiennes during my break I expressed a need to go
to the toilet. I went to the nearby toilet and entered it.
He followed me and entered the same toilet. I explained to him
that this was inappropriate and asked him to leave.
Mr Fiennes became amorous towards me and after a short period of
time I convinced him to leave the toilet, which he did. I left the
toilet a short time later.
ralAt no time did any crew member come to my assistance. At no
time were any other customers aware of this incident. At no time
did I put the Qantas name or reputation in jeopardy.
The newspaper which carried Ms Robertsons statement reported she
was accused of having sex with Fiennes in the aircrafts lavatory
when she was summoned to a meeting with Qantas executives on
Thursday.
An airline spokesman told the Australian newspaper: All we can do
is confirm that a flight attendant was stood down following an
onboard incident. He refused to comment on whether the incident
involved Fiennes, citing passenger privacy.
Before joining Qantas in 2004, Ms Robertson was a New South Wales
police officer for 14 years, during which she worked as a
detective, hostage negotiator, weapons instructor and police
academy lecturer on covert operations.
Suffolk-born Fiennes trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
and has had a distinguished acting career, winning a Bafta as the
amoral Nazi concentration camp commander in Steven Spielbergs 1993
drama Schindlers List.
And he was nominated for an Oscar in 1997 for his role in the
Second World War epic romance The English Patient opposite Four
Weddings And A Funeral star Kristin Scott Thomas.
In 2004 Fiennes was cast as the evil wizard Lord Voldemort in Harry
Potter And The Goblet Of Fire and he reprises the role in the
forthcoming fifth Harry Potter film, Order Of The Phoenix.
His agent said the actor was out of the country and she was unable
to contact him.
Star files
Ralph Fiennes married actress Alex Kingston, who played Dr
Elizabeth Corday in the US television hospital drama ER, in 1993,
but they divorced in 1997.
In 1995, he started a long relationship with Francesca Annis, 18
years his senior, when she played his mother in a production of
Hamlet at the Hackney Empire in East London.
They separated acrimoniously in February 2006 amid reports that he
had a two-year affair with a Romanian singer. Fiennes was then
reported to be seeing American actress Ellen Barkin, but his latest
girlfriend is said to be Belfast-born interior designer Sirin
Lewenden.
They met in Dublin while Fiennes was in a theatre production and
shared a suite at Claridges in London while he was filming Harry
Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix at Leavesden Studios in
Hertfordshire. Fiennes is a cousin of the adventurer Sir Ranulph
Fiennes and an eighth cousin of the Prince of Wales.
