Actor in the Qantas cabin
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Actor in the Qantas cabin
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Stewardess faces sack after amorous in-flight encounter with Ralph Fiennes
By Martin Smith Last updated at 21:57pm on 10th February 2007
Ralph Fiennes is said to have followed a stewardess into a toilet on a plane
Actor Ralph Fiennes is at the centre of claims that he had sex in an aircraft lavatory with a stewardess.
The Oscar-nominated star of The English Patient is said to have become 'amorous' with 38-year-old Lisa Robertson during a flight from Australia to India.
Ms Robertson, who was a police officer before joining Australia's national airline Qantas, has admitted in a statement to her employers that Fiennes followed her into a lavatory cubicle.
"I explained to him that this was inappropriate and asked him to leave," she said.
"Mr Fiennes became amorous towards me and, after a short period of time, I convinced him to leave the toilet, which he did."
Sydney-based Ms Robertson, who is currently suspended without pay pending the outcome of an investigation, said she met 44-year-old Fiennes on flight QF123 from Darwin to Bombay on January 24.
Fiennes had been in Australia to perform at the Sydney Festival before travelling to India and was said to have been sitting in seat 2K in business class when he began chatting to Ms Robertson.
She was subsequently accused of having sex with the actor in the lavatory cubicle and was suspended for two breaches of the company's corporate and cabin crew policies.
The first relates to Fiennes allegedly sitting in a crew jump seat while chatting to Ms Robertson during her rest break and the second relates to her and the actor being seen leaving the same lavatory as the Boeing 747 flew at more than five miles high above the Indian Ocean.
In her statement - leaked to an Australian newspaper - Ms Robertson admitted that she began chatting to Fiennes several times and also during her rest break.
But she said: "This is common practice on long flights to build a rapport with passengers and converse with them during the flight.
"I believe it is part of the role of a flight attendant to be friendly, natural and approachable to all our passengers, regardless of their class of travel."
In response to the accusation that she and Fiennes were alleged to have been seen to exit the same lavatory, she said: "Whilst conversing with Mr Fiennes during my break I expressed a need to go to the toilet. I went to the nearby toilet and entered it.
"He followed me and entered the same toilet. I explained to him that this was inappropriate and asked him to leave.
"Mr Fiennes became amorous towards me and after a short period of time I convinced him to leave the toilet, which he did. I left the toilet a short time later.
"At no time did any crew member come to my assistance. At no time were any other customers aware of this incident. At no time did I put the Qantas name or reputation in jeopardy."
The newspaper which carried Ms Robertson's statement reported she was accused of having sex with Fiennes in the aircraft's lavatory when she was summoned to a meeting with Qantas executives on Thursday.
An airline spokesman told the Australian newspaper: "All we can do is confirm that a flight attendant was stood down following an onboard incident."
He refused to comment on whether the incident involved Fiennes, citing passenger privacy.
Before joining Qantas in 2004, Ms Robertson was a New South Wales police officer for 14 years, during which she worked as a detective, hostage negotiator, weapons instructor and police academy lecturer on covert operations.
Suffolk-born Fiennes trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and has had a distinguished acting career, winning a Bafta as the amoral Nazi concentration camp commander in Steven Spielberg's 1993 drama Schindler's List.
And he was nominated for an Oscar in 1997 for his role in the Second World War epic romance The English Patient opposite Four Weddings And A Funeral star Kristin Scott Thomas.
In 2004 Fiennes was cast as the evil wizard Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire and he reprises the role in the forthcoming fifth Harry Potter film, Order Of The Phoenix.
Fiennes married actress Alex Kingston, who played Dr Elizabeth Corday in the US television hospital drama ER, in 1993, but they divorced in 1997.
In 1995, he started a long relationship with Francesca Annis, 18 years his senior, when she played his mother in a production of Hamlet at the Hackney Empire in East London.
They separated acrimoniously in February 2006 amid reports that he had a two-year affair with a Romanian singer. Fiennes was then reported to be seeing American actress Ellen Barkin, but his latest girlfriend is said to be Belfast-born interior designer Sirin Lewenden.
They met in Dublin while Fiennes was in a theatre production and shared a suite at Claridge's in London while he was filming Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire.
Fiennes is a cousin of the adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and an eighth cousin of the Prince of Wales. His agent said the actor was out of the country and she was unable to contact him
Stewardess faces sack after amorous in-flight encounter with Ralph Fiennes
By Martin Smith Last updated at 21:57pm on 10th February 2007
Ralph Fiennes is said to have followed a stewardess into a toilet on a planeActor Ralph Fiennes is at the centre of claims that he had sex in an aircraft lavatory with a stewardess.
The Oscar-nominated star of The English Patient is said to have become 'amorous' with 38-year-old Lisa Robertson during a flight from Australia to India.
Ms Robertson, who was a police officer before joining Australia's national airline Qantas, has admitted in a statement to her employers that Fiennes followed her into a lavatory cubicle.
"I explained to him that this was inappropriate and asked him to leave," she said.
"Mr Fiennes became amorous towards me and, after a short period of time, I convinced him to leave the toilet, which he did."
Sydney-based Ms Robertson, who is currently suspended without pay pending the outcome of an investigation, said she met 44-year-old Fiennes on flight QF123 from Darwin to Bombay on January 24.
Fiennes had been in Australia to perform at the Sydney Festival before travelling to India and was said to have been sitting in seat 2K in business class when he began chatting to Ms Robertson.
She was subsequently accused of having sex with the actor in the lavatory cubicle and was suspended for two breaches of the company's corporate and cabin crew policies.
The first relates to Fiennes allegedly sitting in a crew jump seat while chatting to Ms Robertson during her rest break and the second relates to her and the actor being seen leaving the same lavatory as the Boeing 747 flew at more than five miles high above the Indian Ocean.
In her statement - leaked to an Australian newspaper - Ms Robertson admitted that she began chatting to Fiennes several times and also during her rest break.
But she said: "This is common practice on long flights to build a rapport with passengers and converse with them during the flight.
"I believe it is part of the role of a flight attendant to be friendly, natural and approachable to all our passengers, regardless of their class of travel."
In response to the accusation that she and Fiennes were alleged to have been seen to exit the same lavatory, she said: "Whilst conversing with Mr Fiennes during my break I expressed a need to go to the toilet. I went to the nearby toilet and entered it.
"He followed me and entered the same toilet. I explained to him that this was inappropriate and asked him to leave.
"Mr Fiennes became amorous towards me and after a short period of time I convinced him to leave the toilet, which he did. I left the toilet a short time later.
"At no time did any crew member come to my assistance. At no time were any other customers aware of this incident. At no time did I put the Qantas name or reputation in jeopardy."
The newspaper which carried Ms Robertson's statement reported she was accused of having sex with Fiennes in the aircraft's lavatory when she was summoned to a meeting with Qantas executives on Thursday.
An airline spokesman told the Australian newspaper: "All we can do is confirm that a flight attendant was stood down following an onboard incident."
He refused to comment on whether the incident involved Fiennes, citing passenger privacy.
Before joining Qantas in 2004, Ms Robertson was a New South Wales police officer for 14 years, during which she worked as a detective, hostage negotiator, weapons instructor and police academy lecturer on covert operations.
Suffolk-born Fiennes trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and has had a distinguished acting career, winning a Bafta as the amoral Nazi concentration camp commander in Steven Spielberg's 1993 drama Schindler's List.
And he was nominated for an Oscar in 1997 for his role in the Second World War epic romance The English Patient opposite Four Weddings And A Funeral star Kristin Scott Thomas.
In 2004 Fiennes was cast as the evil wizard Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire and he reprises the role in the forthcoming fifth Harry Potter film, Order Of The Phoenix.
Fiennes married actress Alex Kingston, who played Dr Elizabeth Corday in the US television hospital drama ER, in 1993, but they divorced in 1997.
In 1995, he started a long relationship with Francesca Annis, 18 years his senior, when she played his mother in a production of Hamlet at the Hackney Empire in East London.
They separated acrimoniously in February 2006 amid reports that he had a two-year affair with a Romanian singer. Fiennes was then reported to be seeing American actress Ellen Barkin, but his latest girlfriend is said to be Belfast-born interior designer Sirin Lewenden.
They met in Dublin while Fiennes was in a theatre production and shared a suite at Claridge's in London while he was filming Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire.
Fiennes is a cousin of the adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and an eighth cousin of the Prince of Wales. His agent said the actor was out of the country and she was unable to contact him
So if Ms Robertson is on leave without pay during this investigation, does that mean that Ralph Fiennes is banned from flying Qantas, or its partner airlines?
