to think Stephen Fry is a shit

[AgaPanthers]

Apparently he thinks Operation Yewtree is a sham and we need tougher laws against people making up sexual abuse allegations.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/stephen-fry-criticises-operation-yewtree-in-dinner-party-rant-calling-for-tougher-laws-to-deter-false-sex-abuse-allegations-9602686.html

I thought he was supposed to be intelligent? Surely he realises that

22, Maryz.

Like I said before, I do not think it is a play he would write now. He is not that very, very unhappy scared young man now.

I think the best possible interpretation of adolescent confusion is the right one to put on the play.

We're also on a very slippery slope if people are condemned for the fiction they write...............

Okay, wikipedia outlines the play.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin!_or_Tobacco_and_Boys

Minor plot point: tuck token is supposed to be written with an ambiguous-looking t during the performance.

Hakluyt

True. I do not condemn Stephen Fry for his fiction. I still like him and respect him. Just to make that clear.

However, I would not have consulted the young Stephen with advice with a relationship. Today's Stephen would probably agree that he was a bad choice, and I'm not sure today's Stephen is perfect either.

He didn't write it when he was at school- he wrote it when he was at Cambridge to that to the Edinburgh Fringe. And he,I am sure, wrote is as a smart arse rather than a tortured soul.

I would not like anyone to make any judgements about me based on what I wrote as an undergraduate.

Not long out of school and not long out of prison (he had the same probation officer as a member of my family, actually- same offence as well. )

It shows, to be honest. It's not the play of a forty-year-old, at all!

Why if I type Paul Gambinchini in to Google does the main picture that comes up be Saville? :( DH says that's a Wiki link, what's worse, so why is it so wrong??

I don't care about SF or PG but am upset that Public Opinion is always Guilty until proven Innocent.

I would not like anyone to make any judgements about me based on what I wrote as an undergraduate.

People judge people by what they say and do. Applies to me, and it applies to Stephen Fry. As he has been known to be very scathing about his younger self, I doubt he'll mind me declaring the 80's era Stephen to be a poor Agony Uncle.

Hairylegs47 Iran Sun 13-Jul-14 15:51:06

I used to like him, but after his comments about women and sex - unless he's a woman after all - I went right off him.
I don't think I'm being homophobic, I think I'm Knobheadphobic. Doesn't matter to me what your 'inclination' is, if you're being a Knob, you're a knob.
And he is

Hairy I saw a comment from another MNer on the Feminism board quite a while ago saying that gay men have come further than women have in a shorter space of time.

Frys previous comments about women not liking sex and the fact that these misogynistic type comments are not treated as seriously as homophobic ones really prove this point.

He was 22 in 1979 when the play first started being performed. Would you not question a writer of fiction that depicted an older character and a younger character of 13 as being in a romantic relationship? There is no such thing. An adult can't have a romantic relationship with a child can they? Would it be ok because it was fiction? If it is not portrayed as grooming, exploitation or abduction but as two people 'in love' would you not find it a bit odd at the very least? Would you not separate it somewhat from a depiction of a messed up murderer?
If it was written with the naivety of a young man or teenager would you not look back with hindsight and perhaps reconsider putting it on in later years when attitudes to the grooming of children and teenagers have altered?
I have not read or seen the play but the description of it does throw up an odd view of what is acceptable between teacher and pupil, adult and 13 year old. Sarah Dempster states in the Metro artcle, 'Penned when Fry was a public school stripling, it’s a toast to love and life and an honest – if misguided – effort to justify the sexual relationship between a 26-year-old teacher and a teenage boy.'
Doesn't depicting it as a love affair trivialise the exploitation of children?

SF went to the funeral of a friend of mine and tweeted a picture of the coffin.
He is a cunt.

ScandinavianPrincess

The script is printed in this: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0099457024/ref=sr_1_3_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1405354145&sr=8-3&keywords=paperweight&condition=used

My DH is in his sixties so in the 70s he was in his twenties.

He says this "it was a different culture" rhetoric is total and utter bollocks.

NotNew, I disagree quite violently with your assessment that "smoke without fire" happens more with sexual charges than other crime. Sex crimes are still the great acceptable 'foible' in moral eyes, including those of the churches and judiciary. This must change.

Under current thinking, someone charged with financial fraud would be treated with far more caution - whether proved guilty or not - than a man whose hobby is rape.

I'm not commenting on Mr Fry in particular, except to say he fits a certain profile that leads me to think I would dislike him. I imagine he'd feel the same about me.

MY DH says this "it was a different culture" rhetoric is total and utter bollocks.

Your DH is right.

Doesn't depicting it as a love affair trivialise the exploitation of children?

Not to perpetrators. They persuade themselves and each other that what they do is an expression of the purest love [boak] along the lines of pre-legalisation homosexuals. They are all Humbert Humberts, in their own eyes. Understanding this lends much clarity to reading of their websites, autobiographies and other published works.

Did the vitriol Vanessa Feltz got last week totally pass Fry by.

"Doesn't depicting it as a love affair trivialise the exploitation of children?"

It could. Or it could be an attempt to explain why some sorts of paedophiles behave the way they do. Explanation is not excusing. But I haven't read the play so I don't know which, if either, it is.

I just wish he'd shut up about not taking meds for his bipolar. He thinks it would dampen down his personality. Not helpful for other bipolar people to hear...

IIRC he has cyclothymia, which is the mildest of the three forms bipolar can take (bipolar I being the most severe and bipolar II being the second). I have bipolar II and I manage it without meds, although I am not opposed to taking them and I always have them available. So bipolar can be managed without drugs; but he should be more explicit about the fact that he has the least serious form of it IMO.

I think it was once remarked about Fry that he was a really stupid person's idea of someone clever!

He sets my teeth on edge. Along with Hugh Grant. And Gwynneth Paltrow. And Russell Brand. And that gurning 'comedienne' Miranda Hart (sorry about that - I know she has a huge fan base.... but I'm in a filthy mood tonight.)