Guy Ritchie is one of those fabulously multi-talented, multi-tasking individuals who are brilliant at everything including making Average Joe feel, well, average.
The 41 year old Brit who resides at his Marylebone property in Central London is a classic example of “teenage write-off turns successful millionaire and smiles smugly to everyone who said he didn’t know what he was doing”.
Ritchie is dyslexic and attended the Stanbridge Earls School, which specialises in the learning disorder. When he was 15 he was expelled, the reason being drug use according him, and bunking class and cavorting with a young lady in his room according to his father.
But since then he’s casually directed massive black comedy cult films like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and RocknRolla, and also ventured into blockbuster movies like his latest Sherlock Holmes.
Incidentally, the famous master detective and Ritchie share the same neighbourhood, as Holmes is also the proud owner of a Marylebone property, 221b Baker Street no less (Disclaimer: Sherlock Holmes is not a real person). The acclaimed film starring Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law was one of the biggest releases of the festive season for 2009, second only to James Cameron’s epic, Avatar.
Not one to relax after a successfully executing a large project, Ritchie launched a record label recently. A subsidiary of Universal Records, Punchbowl Recordings is named after Ritchie’s Central London pub, which he bought during some spare time in 2008.
Punchbowl Recording’s first signing is the pub’s in-house Irish band. The Punchbowl Band featured on the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack and their first album is due for release at the beginning of March.
After Ritchie divorced Madonna (oh yes did we mention he married one of greatest female popstars of our time?) he enjoyed many a late night lock-in at The Punchbowl with friends and fellow celebrities. Justin Timberlake, Mickey Rourke and Leonardo DiCaprio are just some familiar faces that have been spotted at the pub.
Parties at The Punchbowl have been known to get a little out of hand. Ritchie’s licence went under review in December 2009 after the Westminster City Council received 70 complaints of noise and nuisance behaviour.
The very latest expansion to the Ritchie empire is a brewery. The film director, now mogul, has reportedly registered a number of brand name beers such as Punch Bowl Ales, Punch Bowl Beers and Ashcombe Ales.
So what did you do before you were 42?