CRAIG BROWN: It’s a tough life for the celeb who goes incognito…

If we recognised him at all, most of us would remember Kevin Bacon only through his irritating and never-ending series of TV adverts for a mobile phone company, I forget which.

For some reason, he remains an obscure figure: I’d guess that he could walk for miles in Britain without a soul asking him for a selfie. However, this veteran Hollywood actor thinks otherwise. ‘I’m not complaining,’ he said recently, ‘but I have a face that’s pretty recognisable.’

He went on to reveal that he once daydreamed about what it would be like to be a ‘regular person’, and to shed his fame. He took the matter in hand, approaching a special-effects make-up artist to kit him out with a hat and glasses, fake teeth and a re-shaped nose. He then spent a day in a busy shopping centre.

Not a single passer-by saw through his disguise. At first he was thrilled with his new-found anonymity. But before long, he began to feel disgruntled.

‘People were kind of pushing past me, not being nice. Nobody said, “I love you.” I had to wait in line to, I don’t know, buy a f*****g coffee or whatever. I was like, this sucks. I want to go back to being famous.’

Kevin Bacon revealed he once hired a make-up artist to disguise him in public – but he hated not being recognized (pictured at the world premier of MaXXXine on June 24)

The movie star rose to worldwide fame after appearing as Ren MacCormack in 1984’s Footloose (pictured)

Bacon is not unfamiliar with prosthetics, previously sporting eerie prosthetics to play Sebastien Caine in 2000 sci-fi thriller Hollow Man (pictured)

Some people are never satisfied. First, he was upset at being recognised, and then he was upset at not being recognised.

Fame or anonymity? Last weekend, Adele was photographed leaving the trendy Chiltern Firehouse restaurant in London’s Marylebone, having been out on a date with her husband. As she bustled towards their waiting car, Adele held a gold clutchbag over her face, as though trying to shield herself from the paparazzi.

But if she was so anxious to protect her privacy, why did she go to the most fashionable restaurant in town — one of the very few where paparazzi are sure to be milling around on the lookout for celebrities?

Adele is blessed with a very average sort of face: she looks like lots of people. She could have visited any other restaurant in town without attracting attention. Why, then, opt for the Chiltern Firehouse? Some time in the future, medical experts may well identify a psychological condition known as celebrophrenia, defined as the conflict in celebrities between two contrary impulses: to be spotted and to pass by unrecognised.

Back in August 1966, Paul McCartney grew tired of having one of the four most famous faces in the world. Like Kevin Bacon, he decided to conduct a little experiment. Kitting himself out with a false moustache, fake spectacles, a long overcoat and a new hairstyle, he set off on a solo motoring holiday in France.

Adele attending the 69th Gramma Awards in Los Angeles donning a velvet maroon gown on February 5, 2023

Adele and her husband Rich Paul sitting courtside at a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks in LA on November 22, 2023

Beatles legend Paul McCartney attending the Stella McCartney Womenswear Fall/Winter show on March 4, 2024 in Paris

The world-famous musician perofrming on Top Of The Pop on June 16, 1966 – the same year he decided to head into Paris in complete anonymity by using a disguise

In Paris, he experienced total anonymity. He ate out alone and no one twigged who he was. But when he arrived in Bordeaux, he felt like a bit of nightlife, so he donned his disguise and set off for the local disco. To his surprise, he was refused entry, as he looked, in his own words, like ‘an old jerko’.

So he went back to his hotel, took off his disguise, and returned to the same disco as himself: the world-famous Beatle. The result? He was welcomed with open arms.

‘It was kind of therapeutic,’ he recalled, years later. ‘I remembered what it was like not to be famous, and it wasn’t necessarily better than being famous. It made me remember why we all wanted to be famous: to get that thing.’

Decades on, Paul remains on easy terms with his own fame, neither seeking attention nor actively avoiding it, and treating those who recognise him with courtesy. In this way, he reminds me of one of the only people in the world who was more famous than him.

After Queen Elizabeth died, her friend Prue Penn recalled a walk with her in Suffolk. ‘We met a woman walking her dog, which happened to be a corgi. Her Majesty was a magnet to dogs, and it made straight for her. She bent down to stroke it. The woman asked if she happened to be a corgi fan, too. She said she was, whereupon the owner said, “Well, you and I are in good company, because the Queen has them, too.” ’

The Queen was delighted. ‘ “Wasn’t that killing?” she said as we walked away.’