Bill Murray drops by students’ party

LONDON – Bill Murray created a small sensation in the Scottish town of St. Andrews by joining Scandinavian students at a late-night party and even helping to wash the dishes, a newspaper reported Sunday.

In the movie “Lost in Translation,” Murray plays a lonely middle-aged actor in Japan who befriends a young American woman and goes partying with her.

And in what The Sunday Telegraph said was life imitating art, the 56-year-old Murray joined up with 22-year-old Norwegian student Lykke Stavnef, who took him to a house where a student party was in full swing.

“Nobody could believe it when I arrived at the party with Bill Murray,” Stavnef, a social anthropology student, was quoted as saying. “He was just like the character in ‘Lost in Translation.’”

The newspaper reported that Murray met Stavnef at a bar where he was drinking with fellow golfers after playing in the Oct. 5-8 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in St. Andrews with other actors.

To Stavnef’s surprise, Murray accepted her invitation to a party, the newspaper said.

She said she was first concerned when the apartment had no clean glasses left, but that Murray was happy to drink vodka from a coffee cup and also helped wash dishes in the cramped kitchen.

The Sunday Telegraph article was accompanied by a photograph that appears to show Murray, dressed in a checkered shirt and a brown vest, washing a metal pot at the sink.

As news spread around the city that Murray had turned up at the student party, the house became crowded with people wanting to meet the star, the article said.

“He was joking with me about reheating some leftover pasta and how drunk everyone was,” said partygoer Agnes Huitfeldt, 22.

Tom Wright, 22, another college student, said “the party was overflowing with stunning Scandinavian blondes.”

“He seemed to be in his element, cracking lots of jokes,” Wright said. “It was the talk of the town the next day.”

Shortly after doing the dishes, Murray left, the students said.