Entertainment

Monty Python's Terry Gilliam apologises for 'being dead' after Variety publishes his obituary

Hollywood’s industry bible Variety mistakenly published Terry Gilliam’s obituary, but the Monty Python star responded in a typically Monty Python fashion by mocking the report.

Terry Gilliam (Jimi Celeste/AP/Press Association Images)

Variety’s pre-prepared obituary was published on Tuesday September 8, with the headline: “Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam, director of Brazil, dies at XXX”.

It was live for several hours before someone at the website corrected the mistake.

The 74-year-old film-maker took to Facebook and, in a very Pythonesque way, “apologised for being dead”.

After Variety’s blunder went viral, Twitter exploded with Monty Python fans posting references to the comedy gang’s famous Dead Parrot sketch.

An alive and well Terry Gilliam is releasing autobiography Gilliamesque on Thursday October 1. He will follow this up with some talks on the memoir (referenced in his Facebook post) later in the same month in New York and London.