Daniel Craig’s new ad for Belvedere vodka, which I’ve only just seen, is quite the gay divorcee statement.
In the ad, directed by Thor's Taika Waititi, fifty-four-year-old Craig (happily married to Rachel Weisz since 2011), sheds his 007 white tuxedo strai(gh)tjacket, dons a tarty black tank top, silver chain necklace and leathers, shows us his delts, bis, tris and ink (a vulgarity carefully obscured during his Bond period), while dancing his way to his empty hotel suite - where a naughty, chilled, backlit bottle of Belvedere is stretched out waiting for him.
Fifty-four-year-old Craig, now liberated from his fastidious golden Bond handcuffs, seems to be telling us that he's deliriously happy in his middle-aged metrosexual skin - taking his flamboyant pleasures where he pleases in the five-star metropolis, and himself as his own love-object.
With a reported net worth of $160 million (not including his fat fee for this ad), there's a lot of pleasure and pleasing to be had.
A “just be yourself” (as Waititi says to Craig) transformation from goodie-goodie Bond to… swishy Bond villain?