John Cleese: I turned down a peerage

LONDON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- John Cleese, who has made a specialty of playing befuddled upper-class Brits, says he turned down a peerage to avoid spending the winter in London.

Cleese told The Sunday Telegraph he had earlier rejected a C.B.E. (Commander of the British Empire) because he thinks the order of chivalry is "silly," The Sunday Telegraph reported.

A member of Monty Python, Cleese later starred as innkeeper Basil Fawlty in the sitcom "Fawlty Towers" and in many movies.

Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and now Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, offered a seat in the House of Lords in 1999, Cleese said. He was to be honored for "political services," presumably his financial contributions to the Lib Dems and appearances on behalf of the party.

But Ashdown wanted him to be an active legislator -- and he would have had to spent his winters in England.

Cleese starts a two-month tour of "An Evening With The Legendary John Cleese" in January. He previously appeared in what he called "The Alimony Tour" in honor of the expensive end to his third marriage to Alyce Eichelberger.

His previous marriages to Connie Booth, who played Polly the waitress in "Fawlty Towers," and Barbara Trentham ended in friendly divorces. His third divorce, carried out under California law, ended with a multi-million-dollar payout to his ex-wife.