Q. Please can you enlighten me as to the difference between an actor’s agent, an actor’s manager and an actor manager? I recently met a famous actor at a party and was soon out of my depth.
Name and address withheld
A. An actor manager is now rather a thing of the past. Most actor managers tended to cast themselves in roles for which they were usually 20 or 30 years too old. One played Hamlet well into his sixties. An actor’s agent handles all the actor’s contracts and in the US a lot of actors have managers to look after their day-to-day living and talk to the agent if he is ignoring the actor. Agents usually have a long list of clients; managers tend to handle only a few people. In his deeply enjoyable memoir Shark Infested Waters, just published by Timewell Press, Michael Whitehall recalls being told by the actor Kenneth More that his agent always asked him to refer to him as his manager. ‘Agent always sounds so common,’ he told Kenneth, ‘particularly on the Continent.’
Q. Some of my favourite men friends have beards. They always greet me with a kiss, and much as I am glad to see them, I cannot abide their bristles. I automatically recoil, thus giving a false impression that leaves them looking hurt. I can’t tell them I dislike their beards — they are very proud of them because they compensate for their balding pates. What can I do, Mary, to prevent any hint of frisson?
S.J., Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia
A. Since you say you are fond of these bearded men you can greet them with a warmer gesture. By throwing your arms out as they advance, and wrapping them in a careful bear hug which offers only the back of your head for their kisses, you will duck the discomfort.
Q. We
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