Everyone had to skip dessert so Prince Charles could meet Charlie's Angels in 1977

"Now you know why they call them Charlie’s Angels."

When Prince Charles visited Hollywood in 1977, it was a big deal. That's what TV producer Leonard Goldberg remembered in an interview with the Archive of American Television. At that time, Goldberg was Aaron Spelling's partner on hit shows like Starsky & Hutch, Fantasy Island, and, of course, Charlie's Angels. So when FOX decided to invite the Prince of Wales to lunch during his visit, they invited both of their top producers to dine with royalty.

At the lunch, Goldberg said everything was going great until one of Prince Charles' aides came over and said, "His Highness would like to know where the Angels are." Despite wanting to accommodate the prince, Goldberg knew the show was running behind on filming and that a visit would only lead to more setbacks. Politely, he told the aide, "Well, unfortunately, they’re eating lunch as we shoot because we’re way behind." The aide said, "Oh, thank you," and returned to Prince Charles' side for the rest of the meal.

Then, dessert was served. As the sweets were set in front of diners at the meal's end, Goldberg remembered nobody had even touched their plates when Prince Charles' aide was back at his side. This time the aide said, "His Highness would like to visit the Angels." Goldberg said he didn't have time to respond before Prince Charles took action into his own hands. Goldberg said, "He stands up, and of course, everyone stands up, and even though he hasn’t eaten, he walks out. And everybody’s staring, so Aaron and I, we walk him over to the set, followed by about 75 photographers, the international press." Just like that, the whole luncheon crowd was suddenly asked to skip dessert to follow the prince to his next destination.

Once on the set, Goldberg described the meeting of the British prince and the American Angels, "He goes inside and spends a few minutes talking to the girls, and then he came out, he put his arms around the girls and said to the press, ‘Now you know why they call them Charlie’s Angels.’"

Last summer, Charlie's Angels star Jaclyn Smith took to Instagram to recall the famous meeting, "We were honored to learn that both Prince Phillip and Prince Charles were fans of #CharliesAngels! In 1977, I had the pleasure of meeting HRH (His Royal Highness) when he visited the set at 20th Century Fox. "

Prince Charles wasn't the only unexpectedly massive fan of the iconic Seventies series. President Gerald Ford once stopped by to visit the Angels, too, but since Ford was famously such a big fan of butter pecan ice cream, we're going to go ahead and guess that the prince was the only one to deny everybody else in the room their desserts just to do it.

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2 Comments

NSOutlaw 61 months ago
Seems like the Angels were way too old for his liking!
jvf 61 months ago
And the British used to think the Americans were pushy!
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