Twiggy found herself in a real-life Simpsons scenario when she became stuck in a vending machine while trying to buy chocolate, the supermodel has revealed.
Like Homer Simpson in a classic episode, the 74-year-old became caught inside as a crowd gathered, she told Gyles Brandreth’s podcast Rosebud.
The model and actress, who was born Lesley Hornby, said the incident happened at Brighton railway station after a day reading for Ken Russell’s film The Boy Friend.
“So they were going to get on the train and I said I’ll join you,” the Guardian reported.
“I got my sixpence out – that’s what they cost in those days – and it was one of those machines on a wall that you kind of put your money in and then pull a lever out.”
While she hadn’t, like Homer, attempted to steal the chocolate, her hand was trapped inside, possibly due to the fact she was wearing several rings.
“I couldn’t move,” she said. “I’m standing there and I didn’t know what to do … I was stuck in this machine on Brighton station for an hour and a half and we missed the train. There was steam coming out of Ken’s ears.”
Twiggy did get the part in the hit film, for which she won two Golden Globe awards for her turn in the lead role as Polly Browne.
But the incident did come with some embarrassment.
She added: “A crowd was gathering – you know and I was very well recognised – and I was so embarrassed. I thought some journalist is going to have me stuck in a chocolate machine.
“And there was a crowd gathering and some little lady was saying ‘call the police’ and I said ‘please don’t call the police’ and someone said ‘call an ambulance’ and I said ‘please don’t call an ambulance’. And then a lady at the front called out ‘no, what she needs is a bar of soap’.”
Apparently the soap did the trick and Twiggy was not consigned to spending the rest of her life at Brighton railway station. Indeed, her life is now the subject of a London musical written by Ben Elton.
