Stewarts and Hamiltons
E! Channel show
NZH 23Jul15 -
Stewarts and Hamiltons
E! Channel show
NZH 23Jul15 -
Veteran actor revels in his ‘crazy’ new show, a Kardashian-style look at his blended family with his ex-wife.
Veteran actor George Hamilton uses the words "crazy" and "bizarre" a lot when he's describing his own family, the subject of the new reality show from the makers of Keeping up with the Kardashians.
But speaking from California, 75-year-old Hamilton comes across as a pretty normal dad, even when he's hamming it up on TV.
"It's being yourself in a very off-kilter, skewed, kind of humorous way," he laughs about life in front of the cameras. "But often the joke's on me - I get the joke and it may be me and I like that."
is a new role for the actor, who's known more for his debonair style and permanent tan than any of his movies. Described as a "real life Modern Family", the show follows the antics of his blended family with ex-wife Alana Stewart.
George Hamilton.
The "blended" aspect comes from Alana's subsequent marriage to Rod Stewart, with whom she had two children - Kimberly and Shaun. There's also George and Alana's son Ashley, an actor-singer with a life almost as colourful as his dad's, plus Hamilton's younger son and namesake George Thomas Hamilton, or GT.
It seems quite out of the ordinary to appear on television with your ex-wife, but it's not even the first time for George and Alana - they had their own talk show in the mid-90s, although it lasted only one season.
"It was bizarre to do that - to have gotten a divorce and then work with someone," he says. With Stewarts & Hamiltons getting them all back together, it's almost as if they never broke up. "I've got the responsibilities of a family again - it's almost like I didn't get a divorce. I've adopted all these children."
Publicly parenting 15-year-old GT, whose mother is former model Kimberly Blackford, presents its own set of challenges. The first episode centred around GT's confession that he'd lost his virginity, with Kimberly Stewart giving the youngster a disturbing lesson on sexual health.
"I didn't expect the kind of conversation we had," Hamilton says. "It came out of nowhere and you don't have any on-the-job training for that.
"You just have to think, what was it like for me and then go many years later and say, 'What is this world like today and how do I speak to this boy?'" He sounds like any other dad wondering how to communicate with his teenage son rather than a Hollywood type.
Hamilton says the family is way more Brady Bunch than Kardashians.
"Even though we may be in Hollywood and we may be a bizarre, celebrity family, I think [there's] more about us that relates to the Brady Bunch or the Partridge family than people would even imagine.
"I think it will help people to see that, that this craziness that's in our family is no different to the craziness in a lot of others," Hamilton says.
"Being in Hollywood and acted out in front of a camera makes it a bit more difficult, but no less relatable."
Throughout his long career, Hamilton has been linked to a long list of famous women - Elizabeth Taylor, Lynda Bird Johnson (when her father, Lyndon Johnson, was US President) - and Danielle Steele, to name a few.
His one piece of dating advice? Listen. "I talk a lot in interviews, but with women I listen," he says. "I try to listen to what their heart is saying. I try to listen to what their soul is trying to express."
It was his listening skills that got him through his one date with the legendary Marilyn Monroe - who just wanted to talk literature.
"The whole night we talked about how they thought she was a sex symbol but she really wanted to be Anna Karenina. But would anyone believe that? "She wanted to talk about Russian classics and all I could think was she was so incredibly sexy - but I just listened."
Hopefully he'll be passing on this advice to GT, who seems to be following in his father's footsteps - not only with his name, but also his looks, style and his love for the ladies.
Hamilton's classic playboy look dates back to when he first started as an actor with MGM in 1952. On his first day, he was told to wear blue jeans, as wardrobe hoped to style him like James Dean.
But Hamilton's influences were more clean-cut. He declared, "I don't wanna look like James Dean, I want to look like that guy down there with that suntan and that suit."
The "guy with that suntan and that suit" was Cary Grant, a great influence on George, along with Fred Astaire and Gary Cooper. "One by one I got whatever little style I have from the classics, not from the comic books."
So what's a classy guy doing in a show like this? Well, Hamilton is keen to keep with the times and enjoys being recognised again. "You don't remain relevant very long if you just stay in old fashioned art forms.
"l've gone through so many eras and I don't think I've lost my set values ... I've had to learn a whole new set of rules to get by in life."
Tv profile
Who: George Hamilton What:Stewarts & Hamiltons Where and When: E! Channel, Tuesdays 9.30pm
