Universally loved celebrities

[newjobnewstartihope]

After the death of Paul o Grady it occurred to me I've never heard anyone say a bad word about him before or after death- ditto George Michael
Other celebs I can think of are David Attenborough and Peter Kay
Are there any others?

Evidence?

Yes hope they are just rumours and not true. Same type of rumours as there are about Tom hanks. Apparently it will all come out after his death. Hopefully not true

Monty Don
David Attenborough
Keanu Reeves
Judi Dench
Julie Walters
Morgan Freeman
Declan Donnelly- if he could ditch Ant I think there would be huge support for him!

I think George Michael was someone who the public had a lot of affection for, and one of the reasons for this was that he messed up so often but always seemed to own it and try to move on, and people can identify with that and forgave him because they could see his vulnerability. He was a genuinely likeable person despite doing some things which put others at risk.

Peter Kay is not universally loved.

He's vile!

My father in law went to school with him. Hated him! He says he's a very sore loser... but that would have been 1960s! I imagine they've both grown a lot since then, but FiL still grumbles about him when he comes on TV! 🤣

Boy George would be devastated if he was on a thread about lovely celebrities. He’s a self proclaimed Queen Bitch, and is proud of it. Same goes for Gemma Collins. Their whole persona is built on being a rude diva.

Tom Jones has openly said he slept with a 1000 women whilst being married for the last 30 years, so odd choice.

Ugh, no! She is soo irritating!

That's made me laugh so much I'm crying! Imagine writing a book about yourself and coming off badly in it 🤣 what a prick lol

Here's one quote that seems to be at odds with this statement, for a start.

“The BBC in terms of women's employment has been far ahead. Every boss I had was a woman. It angers me when people think the BBC is male-dominated, it's not, and it never has been. The Madagascar series was almost entirely women, I think I was the only bloke there."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/sir-david-attenboroughs-10-best-quotes-about-women/ Not behind a paywall.

Olivia Coleman

Evidence for that? You can't just go throwing around accusations like that and not give evidence.

Yes, I once saw Peter Kay in a local museum with his family- It was a busy afternoon and he was not up for being approached by the public and was very rude to anyone who tried.

I get that it must be annoying trying to do thinks like take your kids out to do normal stuff when you are a huge celebrity- but if you seek out a celebrity career and lifestyle then you have to accept that people will want to say hello if they see you out and about. No need to be rude.

Robert Rinder
Gareth Malone
Mary Beard

Tom Hardy
Sarah Lancashire

French and Saunders
Noel Fielding
Mike Leigh maybe (watched an interview with him and he was so genuine)

Paul O’Grady was pretty challenging to work with, according to an awful lot of people.

Rather surprised someone up thread said Princess Diana. There's been an awful lot of negative things said about her - sleeping with loads of men, being manipulative etc. Definitely not universally loved either.

I think the terms "universally loved" and "national treasure" are bandied around far too much these days. Someone can be adored by many people, but there's usually some people who really don't "get" that person e.g. I'm sure Alan Carr is lovely, but he just isn't to my taste, same with John Bishop, not a great fan of David Jason though I think he's done some very good work etc.

Whereas Dames like Judi Dench and Diana Rigg have earned they "national treasure" status in my eyes, people like the Beckhams and Jamie Oliver (who I've seen referred to as such) certainly aren't on my list.

A vote here for never hearing anything bad about Sandi Toksvig, or (QI has got me thinking) Alan Davies

Sanjeev Bhaskar. Just seems like an all round good egg.

I think Jennifer Saunders is great! Never heard anything negative about her.

Also Martin Compston

Being 'a national treasure' does not mean you have to be nice all the time- it's about earning respect and affection from the public for both your work and your personality. You don't have to be nicey nicey to do that. You could be a complete diva and still be loved.

I'm old enough to remember Julie Andrews in her early career when Rex Harrison threatened to leave My Fair Lady if he had to "work with that bitch" he wasn't the only one on the show to feel the same. Richard Harris wasn't very complementary about working with her. They might have been unfair but I don't think she was universally loved.

Christopher Plummer got sacked from the National Theatre by Laurence Olivier I can't remember the details. Robin Williams probably wasn't loved by the waitress who sued him for giving her herpes, he settled out of court.

I really like all 3 of them but people have said bad words about them.

I don't know much about the others but I don't think Angelina Jolie says anything nice about Brad Pitt, wasn't he supposed to have attacked her and one of their kids?

It's probably quite hard to go through life with no one saying a bad word about you.

I've read a lot of negative stuff about Alan Davies here and I can believe it, having heard a colleague's experience. She was a big fan of his, went to a show, afterwards went into a pub and there he was. She went over to him, planning just to say very briefly how good it had been and then leave him in peace. He was really rude to her and cut her off before she could even speak. She was very upset. If he didn't want anybody to speak to him, he should have gone home or back to his hotel room!

Julie Walters

Kylie Minogue.