CelebrityNOT: Captain Kirk Scared to Fly on SpaceShipTwo, Branson Refuses to Pick Up Tab
William Shatner (Credit: Jerry Avenaim)
Richard Branson may have snagged A-listers like Russell Brand and Katy Perry for his space tourism joyrides, but one man he can’t convince to climb aboard SpaceShipTwo is William Shatner.
The actor who portrayed the galaxy- and bed-hopping Capt. James Kirk on “Star Trek” won’t fly unless Branson picks up the tab — something the brash billionaire Brit won’t do. The Canadian Press reports:
“I’m scared,” the 80-year-old told a news conference, after he was given an honorary doctorate of Letters at his alma mater, Montreal’s McGill University.
Shatner says Branson offered him a spot — which would have cost US$200,000.
“I said, ‘Well, that’s not much, (but) how much do you guarantee to come back?’ And he didn’t have a price on that,” Shatner quipped.
“He (Branson) wanted me to go up and pay for it and I said: ‘Hey, you pay me and I’ll go up. I’ll risk my life for a large sum of money.’ … But he didn’t pick me up on my offer.”
Read the full story.
One response to “CelebrityNOT: Captain Kirk Scared to Fly on SpaceShipTwo, Branson Refuses to Pick Up Tab”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Considering that it’s been known for decades, and long acknowledged by Shatner himself* that he’s afraid to fly aboard ANYTHING…none of this should be a surprise. Pay me enough (or at least don’t make me do it on my own dime), and I may do something I’m deathly afraid of, too.
Especially if my name still has promotional value in some space related circles…
(* He’s often said that where real flight is involved, he’s much closer to the gremlin-seeing Twilight Zone character he did long ago, than he is to James Kirk)