David Hasselhoff with his new friend, world magic champion Latimer
“I didn’t know you could become legendary by getting the crabs.”
Before you think the worst, David Hasselhoff is reflecting on the latest honour to be received by this most multi-faceted of our cultural heroes – having a newly-discovered crab named after him by scientists, by virtue of the crustacean’s unlikely broad and fluffy chest. And The Hoff is loving it:
“I have a Guinness Book of World Records entry as the most watched person on television, now I have a new entry as the only man who has a crab named after him. My daughter sent me a photo of the Hoff Crab – I think it’s very funny, very cool and endearing.”
This is only the latest episode in the unique career of David Hasselhoff, with his enduring global success and celebrity. He’s a massive pop star in his ancestral Germany, and has been taken truly to British hearts, too. As well as dating a Welsh lady – “I’ve been spending a lot of time in Wales, brilliant” – he’s just finished a run in panto at Bristol Hippodrome (Hoff the Hook in Peter Pan, what else?). And he’s already spent a season as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent, a stint on which he now casts a curious perspective:
“When I was doing Britain’s Got Talent, I really enjoyed it, but I found it very difficult to be in the audience. I like to be on stage, I feel safer on stage because I’m in control.”