j.m@talk
09-28-2003, 03:00 PM
LONDON (Reuters) - American magician David Blaine's 44-day stunt of starving himself in a Perspex box in London will be more costly than he thinks -- the television company filming him has been hit with a bill from the capital's police force.
Thousands of Britons, including ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, have turned up to see 30-year-old Blaine suspended in his box from a crane above the River Thames since he began his quest to go 44 days without food Sept. 5.
But many have come to taunt him rather than admire his feat of endurance. Women have bared their breasts, onlookers have waved hamburgers, some have tried to hit his box with golf balls fired from nearby Tower Bridge and others have thrown eggs.
In the most serious incident, one man was arrested after trying to cut through water pipes and power cables attached to the box.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's Sky television is paying Blaine an undisclosed fee to show the incarceration on two channels around the clock.
London's police chief Sir John Stevens said Thursday the circus surrounding the stunt had become so expensive to police he would now make the stuntman's paymasters foot the bill.
"We have now asked the organizers to pay as it is having a considerable effect on (the local police authority) Southwark," Stevens said. "We are also considering the public order implications of this event."
Scotland Yard said Sky had paid for the cost of policing the crowds of onlookers last Saturday and Sunday and would continue to pay for an extra police presence every weekend till Blaine's scheduled climb down from the box on October 19.
What an @r$e :rolleyes:
Thousands of Britons, including ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, have turned up to see 30-year-old Blaine suspended in his box from a crane above the River Thames since he began his quest to go 44 days without food Sept. 5.
But many have come to taunt him rather than admire his feat of endurance. Women have bared their breasts, onlookers have waved hamburgers, some have tried to hit his box with golf balls fired from nearby Tower Bridge and others have thrown eggs.
In the most serious incident, one man was arrested after trying to cut through water pipes and power cables attached to the box.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's Sky television is paying Blaine an undisclosed fee to show the incarceration on two channels around the clock.
London's police chief Sir John Stevens said Thursday the circus surrounding the stunt had become so expensive to police he would now make the stuntman's paymasters foot the bill.
"We have now asked the organizers to pay as it is having a considerable effect on (the local police authority) Southwark," Stevens said. "We are also considering the public order implications of this event."
Scotland Yard said Sky had paid for the cost of policing the crowds of onlookers last Saturday and Sunday and would continue to pay for an extra police presence every weekend till Blaine's scheduled climb down from the box on October 19.
What an @r$e :rolleyes: