Gay, First-Class Flight Attendant Spills Secrets on Celebs

Wrestling Olympians, goofing with Katy Perry, and dealing with hangovers at 40,000 feet: all in a day's work for a flight attendant.

Owen Beddall was employed at the "flying kangaroo," aka Qantas airlines, for 12 years, working as a first-class flight attendant on domestic and international flights. After recently retiring due to a workplace injury, Beddall wrote a memoir about his experiences catering to the needs of the rich, famous, and powerful. Confessions of a Qantas Flight Attendant chronicles Beddall's frequent run-ins with celebrities, including Cate Blanchett, Kylie Minogue, Venus Williams, and Lily Allen. Beddall was privy to the first date between Katy Perry and Russell Brand, who flew to Phuket, Thailand together (they were very nice, apparently).

Beddall had to help wrestle an Olympian swimmer back to business class after the athlete downed a boatload of sleeping pills, unzipped his pants, and infiltrated first class. Beddall also had many adventures while visiting the glamorous places his job took him to — being bitten by a snake in Bangkok sounds funnier than actually experiencing it.

Confessions of a Qantas Flight Attendant has nice things to say about being out in the airlines industry: "It was one of the only jobs in the world that was completely 'gay-friendly.' Read more about the book here.