Supermensch: The Legend Of Shep Gordon, film review: You can't help but warm to this self-effacing Hollywood agent

(15) Mike Myers, 84 mins

Shep Gordon with friends in ‘Supermensch’

This is a documentary about a Hollywood agent and talent manager. Its subjects are his celebrity clients, who all fawn on him. The comedian-turned-director Mike Myers (of Austin Powers and Wayne's World fame) isn't exactly critical, either.

What could have been a very gooey, toe-curling exercise in self-congratulation is lifted by Shep Gordon himself. Although he was a drug-taking, womanising mountebank who used outrageous stunts to promote clients such as Alice Cooper, the Gordon who appears on camera here is a thoroughly personable and decent man with a wonderfully self-effacing sense of humour. "Never forget to always remember to get the money," is the main advice he offers to other would-be talent managers.

We see him brewing yak-butter tea for the Dalai Lama and cooking elaborate meals with a close friend, the great French chef Roger Vergé. (Gordon is credited with creating the phenomenon of the "celebrity chef".) Some of his observations about the downsides of fame are on the trite side but you can't help but warm to his sheer zest and good nature.