Paul O'Grady as Lily Savage and now a suspected 'Cuban communist'

Global Visas‘ sympathies go out to comedy chameleon Paul O’Grady. His outings as alter-ego drag queen Lily Savage hardly raise a well-plucked eyebrow in comparison to his latest incarnation as a Cuban communist.

Poor Paul was pulled up by US immigration officials at Miami airport this week, after they thought his Liverpudlian accent sounded distinctly Cuban.

O’Grady was then taken aside for two hours of rigourous questioning which was probably a bizarre role-reversal for the TV presenter who  hosts his own chat show on UK’s Channel 4.

The 54-year old Birkenhead-born TV star, who has suffered two heart attacks in the past, was left with his feathers ruffled but clearly there was nothing wrong with his acerbic tongue.

When asked by a US officer if he’d ever visited Cuba, O’Grady retorted:

“You’ve been studying my passport for the last hour and you can see I’ve never been to Cuba in my life.”

He added: “Then this guy said to me, ‘He thinks you’re a Cuban immigrant’. I said, ‘Cos I look Cuban, don’t I?’”

And who says US immigration isn’t a laugh?

In 1977 O’Grady went to live and work in the Philippine capital of Manila. It was there he came up with the idea for Lily Savage – a comedy creation that was to shoot him to international fame. Maybe he might soon be appearing in drag as a female US immigration official at a theatre near you.