Or is Dawn O' Porter really irritating?

[StoneTheFlamingCrows]

Don't know what it is about her. That advert for her new programme makes me feel stabby. I know ia probably bu...

[AlexReidsLonelyBraincell]

I like DO'P's hair (and Claudia Winkleman's). I'd love a big fringe like hers but I have a round face and weird flicky bits which means a fringe never lies flat. It looks really good (imo) on the right person, and I think she can pull it off.

[DoJo]

My problem with Claudia Winkleman's fringe is that it makes me feel as though I have got hair in my eyes! She's welcome to have whatever hair she wants, but I am probably jealous because if I don't have my hair tied up it drives me bonkers after about five minutes, so I always look a bit like a scruffy Miss Trunchbull.

[OleOleOle]

Dawn O'P ticks all the irritant boxes, but I quite like her, oddly. Claudia Winkleman has been on my list for years though (keeping M Klass and Davina company as well as a host of others).

I read Paper Aeroplanes the other day because it was free online. I enjoyed it. I'll be recommending it to my DD in a few years when she's an early teen.

[Misknit]

If you read the reviews of that book on Amazon, you'll see a very long post from a young woman who claims that she went to school with Dawn and was bullied by her. She alleges that the story is about her.

I've always liked Dawn and I couldn't really imagine her being the mean girl at school, but if she has used the other girl's experience as a basis for her novel, as closely as the review claims, she's not the fluffy bunny she likes to present herself as.

[Scousadelic]

I find her and her stupid O irritating but would prefer her anytime to Claudia Winkleman who is about as enjoyable as nails down a blackboard

[ComposHat]

Mis surely AIBU has told you that the world is full of attention seekers, bullshitters and Walter Mitty types. I would speculate that the thread on the Amazon thread falls into one of those categories.

Even if the unsubstantiated claim is true, so what? We can all look back on behaviour from our teenage years and point to behaviour we are not particularly proud of. I'm more interested how people act as fully formed adults.

There are plenty of reasons to dislike Dawn Porter's media persona and her shite programmes without dragging up dubious claims of bullying from over 15 years ago.

[BringMeTea]

Re V Coren. I know someone who went to University with her. She was talking about her father, by name and my friend said she didn't know who he was. V Coren then sneered: 'You don't know who Alan Coren is?'. Sorry to burst the bubble for folks who think she has found the family name a 'millstone'.

[DoJo]

I don't think an isolated incident from someone's late adolescence can be used as definitive evidence of their standpoint on...well anything. I am sure I probably said and did things at university that I would cringe about now (if I could remember through the fug of alcohol) but luckily I am obscure enough that they will probably not come to light and be used against me 20 years later...

[StephenManganiseverywhere]

Bring me tea I would have said exactly the same (in fact I do, and you should SEE me sneer!)


Good for her. And it wasn't me who said the family name was a millstone, just to clarify. I've always thought she was justifiably very proud of it so why she would want to dilute the legacy by adding the name of the rather limp lettuce leaf that is David Mitchell is beyond me but I daresay he is a lovely husband

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

Victoria Coren makes much of her Coren-ness; I don't think she's found the name a millstone at all.

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

I was on Twitter the night DOP was on 8 out of 10 Cats. There were a lot of comments on her hair, I searched them and counted them.

She was tweeting constantly saying "it's just hair", OK fair enough. Then her husband stepped in to defend her, men don't get this grief about what they look like etc.

People were sending him supportive messages and one person typed something along the lines of "Bitches be haters" and a lot of the replies were that women were jealous of how beautiful DOP was and being nasty because of it. He agreed with all of them, replied how funny it was etc.

When I counted the messages around 90% of them at the time were from male tweeters slagging her off and being quite nasty about her appearance. A lot of the female posters were just saying things along the lines of "what has she done to her hair?"

I posted on both their pages highlighting this and the fact that it seemed very small minded to just start vilifying women when they simply weren't slagging her off.

About an hour after my posts he deleted all his women hating replies.

I have to admit the personal airing across Twitter made me feel like they were both a pair of numpties. But after a while most people show themselves for what they are on Twitter and I go through peaks and troughs of following it because of this.

If people think it's not a business relationship and they aren't PR'ing each other they are deluded. Go and look at his "just captured a natural photo of my wife on the phone in her underwear" picture. A total set up, in designer underwear, with her hair blown out and subtle lighting in a shabby chic Paris hotel. Yeah you just caught her in the moment mate. . They are as bad as any other celebrity couple. She once dedicated a whole article in a Glossy on her big celebrity boyfriend and how he was really ordinary inside etc etc.

[HappyAgainOneDay]

Who is Dawn O'Porter?

[StephenManganiseverywhere]

and how he was really ordinary inside etc etc.


I don't think I could argue with that, at all: I just think he is mind blowingly ordinary on the outside too (and I'm not talking about his looks)! Richard Ayoade and Katherine Parkinson on the other hand....

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

The article was a complete gag-fest.

Actually had some nice Twitter replies from Stephen Mangan! And strangely enough in defence of Claudia on Strictly. I think she came into her own when Brucie-baby was ill...saw a very funny side to her.

[StephenManganiseverywhere]

Nice post Wally

Actually had some nice Twitter replies from Stephen Mangan


Just to clarify I am not he (but you knew that!) Was he one of the males slagging off DOP

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

No he wasn't, but so far he's been one of those Tweeters that comes across as a pretty decent and funny guy.

And as I live in Switzerland and know the rules of "Guyball" there's an obvious connection...

[StephenManganiseverywhere]

And as I live in Switzerland and know the rules of "Guyball" there's an obvious connection...


Now you've lost me I'm afraid!!

[Lottapianos]

Happy - Google is your friend!

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyball

[OwlCapone]

When I saw the trailers for her vintage clothes programme, I thought she was wearing a wig. I'd never seen or heard of her before.

[StephenManganiseverywhere]

Gottit!


I'm more of a Mornington Crescent sort of a gal!

[OleOleOle]

Misknit I read that review on Amazon and an even longer post on Flo Parrot's FB page.

Looks like DOP has lifted the stories straight from her school years and not bothered to change the details enough to protect the innocent. I can understand why "Flo" is angry.

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

who is Flo Parrot?

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

Ah got it, her FB page is heart breaking.

[OleOleOle]

A character in her book that an ex school friend of Dawn's is not so loosely based on. 'Flo' claims that she suffered horrendous bullying from Dawn and her other classmates.