The Dishwasher Dialogues Awkward Tangos in Paris
Celebrity and the WC
By: Greg Ligbht and Rafael Mahdavi - Dec 03, 2025
Rafael: Movie stars and singers came to Chez Haynes. French stars of the sixties and seventies. Most of them were polite.
Greg: Yes, most of them. But they were even more polite when I worked at the bar. There were not many lengthy conversations back by the kitchen.
‘Toilette?’
‘Là, monsieur.’ I point to the door of the little WC just off the kitchen.
‘Merci.’
Although the ‘merci’ was more of an option which some did not feel was worth the price of civility.
Rafael: I learned quite a bit about famous people from the way they treated the bartender. The ones who were polite were relaxed, I could sometimes tell just by the way they moved or sat at the bar waiting for the staff to prepare their table––that they were at ease in their skin, as the French expression goes, bien dans leur peau. Some of these stars were fidgety and rarely said please when they ordered a drink or a cocktail. What always surprised me was that they still felt the need to name-drop, either directly to me or making sure to chat loudly enough with their friends so others could easily overhear.
Greg: Like we are doing in this book.
Rafael: Okay. Maybe. But we’re not famous. Other celebrities were easy-going and polite. Warren Beatty was reading Ten Days That Shook the World, when he came in, and he said a few words to me about the book. Later, at his table, he was not in a rush when he ordered.
Greg: And a definite ‘merci’ when directed to the toilet.
Rafael: One of the waitresses, Laura I think, spent the following weekend with him.
Greg: I remember that affair going on longer than a weekend. I think there was some correspondence and that he was back in touch with her months later when he returned to Paris.
Rafael: A French rock star called Johnny Hallyday came a few times and drank heavily at the bar and during the meal with his friends he got drunker, and later passed out in the WC. I had to help him out to the saloon doors and into the waiting limo. He wasn’t aggressive in the least. He kept saying to his entourage ‘gotta give this guy here a big tip’. Another rock star, Claude François, was a control freak, critical of the waitresses and the service, and he insisted on ordering for everybody at his table. This star probably thought that because he was paying for the meal, he could tell them what to eat. He left a teeny-weeny tip for the waitresses.
Greg: I would like to say he left a ‘merci’ in his search for the toilet. But I suspect that would not be true.
Rafael: Not a nice fellow.
Greg: The contrast in politesse between these ‘stars’ was probably no different than the contrasts in temperament of our other customers, more generally.
Rafael: Many well-known jazz musicians came to see Leroy. I can’t remember a single jazzman who threw his weight around or was rude, impatient, or nasty.
Greg: Nor me. My best memory of a musician luminary at that time is of Memphis Slim. He came to the restaurant quite a few times. More than any of the other stars. He felt like a ‘regular’. I’m not sure whom he liked more. Leroy or the food. He enjoyed both a lot. He was a tall man and was always in a great mood. Nothing got under his skin. At least, nothing we did. He was one of the good guys. I remember he took an interest in all of us. And it seemed genuine. It was a good night when Memphis Slim dropped by.
Rafael: Yes, it was.
Greg: There are two French stars whom I especially remember. Isabel Adjani and Maria Schneider. Isabel, because she came in more than a few times, and because she was so beautiful. She was still a few years younger than me, and I think she had just been nominated for an Oscar. So, she was a bona fide star. At that time, she was also being applauded (by me certainly) for her role in Polanski’s film The Tenant which had just been released. It is still a favorite of mine. It is about a young man renting a small Parisian flat 4 or 5 floors up with a gorgeous girlfriend. Easy for a dishwasher in a 5th floor chambre de bonne to appreciate; even if Polanski’s character goes mad and jumps out of his apartment window—twice! Hard to forget.
Greg: Then the actress shows up at Chez Haynes, always with a flamboyant and jovial entourage—also difficult to forget. I was still the dishwasher then. I sometimes brushed past Isabel at her most beautiful on my way to the bar—not even your on-going diatribe about life and death and poverty could burst that balloon.
Rafael: Really? My profound philosophical rants weren’t more interesting? You have to be kidding.
Greg: My brush with Maria was altogether different. I was working as the barman by then. It was late in the evening, maybe midnight. There were not that many customers left, lots of empty tables. And this young woman walks in alone, not dressed up at all, jeans, no makeup. She was young, again about my age, and attractive. She didn’t want a table. She just wanted to sit at the bar. I served her a drink. And made some small talk. Unlike you, my friend, I didn’t make a habit of overtly hitting on single women at the bar, but I was happy to chat. She was less forthcoming. Quiet. I didn’t recognize her at all. When I went to get some ice, one of the waitresses told me that she was Maria Schneider. Yes, that Maria Schneider. Very famous at the time. Her reputation for Last Tango in Paris was still relatively fresh. She looked and acted nothing like the character she portrayed in the film, and certainly not like the ‘sex symbol’ from the questionable scene with Marlon Brando.
When I returned to the bar we continued to talk. I asked her what she did. She just said ‘cinema’. I didn’t want to look like I was another crazy fan, so I responded as if she was an usher in a local cinema and I asked her which one. She was happy enough to tell me she was an actress, but not in any boasting way. I talked about my writing and theatre. Not in any boasting way either—although in my case there was very little to boast about. At some point we sat down at an empty table and continued talking for about half an hour or so. My memory says she was quiet and somewhat troubled but was content enough to spend some time away from whatever was haunting her.
Greg: In the late-night shadow of Chez Haynes, Adjani and Schneider were a real study in contrasts. As for the WC, neither passed by me to use it on those nights. But I like to think that if they had, they both would have responded with a genuine ‘merci’.