Anyone who owns a swimming pool knows that after a particularly lively party, it is not unusual to find the occassional wine cork, mini-sauagage-on-a-sick, or corpse (not on a stick) bobbing around near the shallow end.  But whether you are a postman, a lawyer or an entertainer, such a discovery is bound to have a negative impact on your career.  At the very least, it's going to add to the cost of that weeks Pool Cleaning.

And that is, as most of you already know, what happened to Michael Barrymore.  Although we do not know how it affected his pool cleaning fees, we do know that the discovery of the body of a 31-year old in his pool in 2001, and the resulting investigation that was played out to a watching public, took its toll on the entertainer.

However, 51-year old Barrymore had now been attempting to relaunch his show-biz career, in the form of a stage show at the Wyndhams Theatre. At least, that was the plan.  But last night, after only three performances Barrymore failed to show up to the performance.  He later announced that he was to cancel all the remaining shows and pulled out of the production.  In a statement he said: "I would like to sincerely apologise to everyone who has bought tickets, but the pressure of the last two years has taken its toll."

The stage show, which contained a mixture of music, dance and comedy from Barrymore, had been savaged by cruel media critics (like ourselves), and had suffered disappointing ticket sales.  People who attended the show also appeared to be disappointed too.  Barrymore had lost a lot of his charasmatic charm and energy on stage, and appeared to many to be a broken man.  To add proof to the impression that his heart was not in it, Barrymore appeared visibly distressed on seeing that the audience where not giving him the feedback he hoped for throughout the performance.  At one point he was heard to remark to the band "Don't worry if you finish ahead of me on the next song, no-one out there really cares what we're doing up here anyway."  This appeared to be largely true, and many members of the audience at the three performances he did play at left the theatre throughout the performance before it had finished.  Some describing themselves as feeling "Uncomfortable", and "Embarrassed for Barrymore" throughout the show.