Whatever became of Uri Geller?

I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve drained the kitchen sink after a washing-up session, only to discover a teaspoon languishing at the bottom.

This annoys the hell out of me, but when it happened this week I noticed the spoon was bent almost in half. The thought briefly entered my mind that the ghost of Uri Geller, a man who became a multi-millionaire by convincing people that he could bend spoons and other metal objects with supernatural powers, had wafted into our apartment.

I instantly dismissed it because I don’t believe in ghosts– and Geller isn’t dead. But he’s not been much in the news ever since he was exposed as a charlatan as far back as the 70s.

The last time I wrote about Uri Geller was in 2012 when I penned a piece about Geller’s appearance as a guest on Talk Radio Europe. The station touted him as ‘a famous psychic and paranormalist’– a claim that left me fizzing with fury because the researchers had clearly done no digging whatsoever into Geller’s background.

Had they done so they would have learned that Uri Geller himself dropped claims to such powers years ago. In the November 2007 issue of the magazine Magische Welt (Magic World), Geller stated: “I’ll no longer say that I have supernatural powers. I am an entertainer. I want to do a good show. My entire character has changed.”

It had to change. Uri Geller launched several lawsuits against people who said he was a fraud and lost them all. The man who succeeded best in exposing Geller was Canadian magician and gay atheist James Randi. Geller responded by unsuccessfully suing Randi for $15-m. Believing his life would soon end, having been diagnosed with cancer in 2009, Randi said: “I want to be cremated, and I want my ashes blown in Uri Geller’s eyes.” Mercifully he recovered and, at 91, has a clean bill of health.

What is Uri Geller doing now?

Well, the 74-year-old has established the Uri Geller Museum in Israel. Due to open in August, it has outside its entrance the world’s largest spoon, almost 19 metres long. The interior features– be still my beating heart!– His 1963 Vespa, and sculptures by Salvador Dali.

There are also items from David Bowie, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Picasso, and Andy Warhol. You don’t need to be psychic to deduce that it also contains bent spoons– thousands of the things. I would have sent him the one I found in the sink, but bent it back into shape– without resorting to paranormal methods