10 Things We Learned From Jon Ronson On Louis Theroux's Grounded Podcast
9. Ronson's First Skype Call Was With Robbie Williams About Haunted Houses
Ronson's Robbie Williams story is a doozy. He must have tons of stories like this about celebrities. Speaking about the sudden popularity of Zoom, Ronson revealed to Theroux that his ever video chat was with the pop star Robbie Williams. Fellow journalist Caitlin Moran had contacted Ronson to tell him that Williams wanted to speak to him about a project he had in mind. Suddenly feeling nervous about the impending phone call from Williams, Ronson turned off his phone. When he eventually turned it back on, he listened to a voice mail from Williams.
In the voice mail, Williams told Ronson that he wanted to spend a night in a haunted house and asked him to arrange this on his behalf. Thinking this was an interesting idea, Ronson got in touch with an array of manors said to be haunted by ghosts. To his surprise, every place he contacted got back to him saying that their manor was most definitely plagued by ghosts and that Williams would be welcome to stay whenever he liked.
After going through all this trouble, Ronson was told by Williams that he no longer wanted to follow through with the idea. This twist received an empathetic groan from Theroux. Ronson ends the anecdote with a brilliant quip: 'No wonder ghosts and Robbie Williams get on so well, they both only manifest themselves when it suits them.'