Hugh Grant recently appeared on the BBC public affairs program Question Time, and I wish there were more people in the entertainment industry, in politics, or journalism, who had his combination of brains and balls. Well done, sir!
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian describes why Hugh Grant has become the new standard bearer of this anti-tabloid campaign.
How has Grant emerged as the scourge of News International? I think it is because he, unlike everyone else, really doesn’t care about the whole silly showbiz carousel and could step off any time he liked. Perhaps that is what he is doing now. Very often he had given the impression that he wouldn’t be fussed if he never made another movie ever again. Plenty of stars hate Murdoch’s papers, but they want to appear in movies made by Murdoch’s Fox group, and to work with people who are similarly in awe of the great potentate’s tentacular reach.
Grant is different. He is now rich and successful enough – and perhaps simply unconcerned enough – not to care.
He’s a supporter of Hacked Off, a British campaign calling for a public inquiry into the behaviors of the tabloid press in general, and the NotW phone hacking events in particular. Here’s their blog.
