Tricked into talking about David Bowie's teeth

As a former PR to David Bowie, music writer Chris Charlesworth was more than happy to be interviewed about the star's career. He understood from the production company, RDF Media, that the programme it was making for ITV was called the Changing Face of Celebrity. It would focus on Bowie's "work and life" and "his changing personas" with reference to "how Bowie has used his image to market himself and ... his transformations over the years".

The hour-long interview began with questions about his skill at manipulating the music press. But the interviewer, who appeared to know little about Bowie, surprised him by asking when the star had "a teeth job". Charlesworth asked why she wanted to know and she replied: "Oh just ... never mind".

After more questions about Bowie's career she asked again about his teeth. Only when the show was broadcast did Charlesworth find out the programme was really called Celebrity Surgery: Who's Had What Done?. The only clip of his interview was a remark about how smoking stained Bowie's teeth. "The whole 'music and career' interview was an elaborate subterfuge designed to lure me into commenting on David's teeth," Charlesworth says.

No one at RDF Media was available for comment.

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