It was touted as the first Beatles “reunion” interview since the band broke up in 1970. Surviving Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr joined the widows of their former band mates, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, last night for an hourlong conversation on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
But viewers hoping for sparks to fly particularly between Mr. McCartney and John Lennon’s widow were sorely disappointed. Mr. King interviewed Miss Ono and Mrs. Harrison as a pair, and Mr. McCartney and Mr. Starr as a pair, bringing the four together along with Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte for just six minutes near the show’s end.
The group was in Las Vegas celebrating the first anniversary of the Cirque du Soleil show “LOVE,” which combines acrobatics, dance and theater in a celebration of the Beatle’s pop music, the finest ever written.
Mr. King proved an awkward interviewer, and no doubt many who watched the show will wonder why he squandered his opportunity of having these four people together for just a few minutes only to ask questions like, “Ringo, do you have to play the drums a lot? To keep in shape?”
The quartet of seniors Mr. McCartney is 65, Mr. Starr turns 67 on July 7, Yoko Ono is 74 and Olivia Harrison is a mere 59 seemed comfortable together, with Mr. McCartney and Miss Ono smiling at one another. (Earlier at a ceremony she called him a “magnificent man.”) Near the beginning of the show, when Mr. King asked if she felt a part of the Beatles family despite the band’s split, she said, “Most families do have some breakups and arguments, don’t you think?”
“Our kids are all friends,” Mrs. Harrison agreed. “It really is an extended family.”
Mr. McCartney seemed in particularly good spirits, despite the recent high-profile split from his wife, Heather Mills McCartney. “I’m doing surprisingly well,” he said. “I don’t talk about it, I find that helps.”
Mr. Starr said that when the world’s greatest rock band formed, “We thought we’d be really big in Liverpool.” But the smashing success of “LOVE” proves their legacy is still going strong.
“The incredible thing about them is everything they left the world and they left us was uplifting and joyful,” Mrs. Harrison said.
“The message was always love, no matter how we portrayed it. And that’s something to be really proud of,” Mr. McCartney concluded.
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