Schofield saga-to think this is all very odd?

[Howwindyisittoday]

It’s very confusing.
Rumours have been circulating for three years, even I knew the rumours, how on earth did Holly and others not?
He says there was no injunction, so the boy could have spoken out at any time..so why is it all coming out now?? Why has Holly suddenly distanced herself, why have itv got rid of him now?
They've now said the boy was 15 when they met (sure was younger?) and nothing happened until he was older, nothing illegal but still massively wrong. But if there is nothing illegal and they all knew about it…why now?
Why has P.S been so willing to go along with it this week?

This feels like a cover up for something much much worse?

Once people speak up, others do.

The PR position becomes increasingly untenable.

Its the concept of the Truth ultimately being something that can only be hidden to an extent and the Bigger the Lie, the harder it is to maintain indefinitely simply because too many people know the reality.

Ah right. Thanks!
You can always tell when two people at work are in a relationship. I wonder would jokes about that on sm count.

I think whats fascinating is to read the newspaper reports about Schofield's coming out. Dated the 8th / 9th February 2020 (He came out on the 7th).

Try this one:
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz/philip-schofields-sexuality-been-open-21459026
Phillip Schofield's sexuality was 'open secret' at This Morning for two years
EXCLUSIVE: A source has revealed Philip's sexuality has been an open secret at this Morning for two years and that the presenter felt safe to be himself around his colleague because he knew they would stay quiet

A show insider said: “Lots of people who work at This Morning have known Phillip is gay for a few years.

“It was an open secret among the team but none of them would have ever said anything about it publicly.

“Because Phillip had their trust, he could relax and not worry about being outed. This Morning became a safe space for him.”

Phillip felt so comfortable around his colleagues he often socialised with other gay men in the team.

And according to one source, he often took younger gay guys “under his wing” and became a mentor to them.

They said: “Phillip is a very caring guy. Over the years he has supported others who are gay and made sure they feel comfortable to be themselves.

“There was one runner who was struggling to deal with his sexuality and Phillip was quick to offer support and become a mentor for him.”

Schofield has worked on This Morning for 18 years and is said to be “massively popular” among staff.

Our source added: “Everyone is very fond of Phillip. He’s known for being very personable with everyone.

“When there are staff drinks, some presenters don’t make the effort to stay and socialise with the team but Phillip often does.

“He gets to know everyone and has a good rapport with everyone, from the top boss to the production team.

“It was that connection which meant he knew he could relax and not worry about anyone talking about his sexuality.”

Now its The Daily Star. And you'd normally scoff at that. But its almost exactly a carbon copy in terms of what has actually come out. The wording here is interesting though.

And there is this article from Dec 2019 BEFORE he came out:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/10510400/phillip-schofield-ignores-this-morning-feud-twitter/

And from June 2019
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/9303813/phillip-schofield-holly-willoughby-row-magazine/

Both of these talk of a toxic culture on the show in various ways.

And the first mentions the mysterious disappearance of The Runner to loose women, in this context.

Obviously even at the time the moving of the Runner raised enough eyebrows for it to be reported in the national press.

You have to ask the question about who was briefing the press in these stories and why.

The tone of the first article saying how wonderful the relationship with staff is compared the Sunday Telegraph Magazine being forced to write a letter of apology to Schofield for not giving him equal billing in an article is quite something.

How the stories have progressed in the three and a half year since is fascinating. There were clearly people who WANTED to expose this BEFORE the coming out act.

I’m certain PS was paid off by ITV to say he lied to everyone. Covering their arses. Why would he make such a groveling statement of guilt otherwise? I lied to everyone bar the milkman? There’s more to that. I’d assume his pay-off from ITV came with conditions attached. Chief being that he must pretend they knew nothing.

Think Pip is the sacrifice to cover up for the ITV mafia. Distraction tactics.

Saturday Night Takeaway been cancelled

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12149153/EXCLUSIVE-Phillip-Schofields-lies-devastated-trusting-wife-Stephanie-Lowe.html

Wife and daughters apparently didn't know...

There’s no way they didn’t know

Oh look… after all that work online breadcrumbing Caroline flack and homophobia we have…

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dbcaa240-00c7-11ee-96f6-54413087455a?shareToken=e9ee633f21ff74fb1bb6271811e1f3fd

who’d’ve thought?

It's strange to me that he's saying he was confused about his sexuality in 2019/20 when I heard from various different sources in the media and musical theatre circles that he was gay in around 2002 - way before social media etc
Could have just been rumours but seems a major coincidence to me

Common sense surely says that (setting everything else aside) you retreat if you’re in the public eye and in the middle of a scandal and you feeling it affect your mental health. Spend time with family and friends and do whatever you do that recharges and sustains you, and wait for your scandal to become old news. Don’t do yet more interviews and keep it in the headlines.

Unless that is you’re anticipating someone else putting out their side of the story and you want to get your version in first because you suspect it will be less than complimentary to you.

Is it just me that thinks that? My FB feed is full of my normally sensible friends wanting to #bekind, decrying homophobia etc.

@hotelmotelpremierinn yeh I thought that. Are we expected to believe he was figuring out his sexuality at about 58?

He thinks we are stupid

DARVO is occurring right before our eyes.

^
Definitely!

I thought it was years earlier, when there were rumours about him and an aussie soap actor. All alleged of course.

It was. This was "common knowledge" (or rumour) among all my gay friends in London in the 90s. I mean, come on. (And there was a Spitting Image sketch about that rumour in about 1990). So, yes, of course some men don't realise or come out until much later in life, but more often than not it's because of a very restrictive environment or it being the kind of social taboo it was in the 70s and 80s.

It was of course common to hide it, have a "beard" or sham marriage etc in earlier years (hello Elton) but P/s is in the UK entertainment industry where pretty much everyone had started coming out openly from at least the mid 90s onwards. It was 2020, not 1990. I really don't buy his story, sorry. I don't think anyone should be 'forced' out, we're all allowed a private life, but let's face it, he only came out at all because he was about to be outed, otherwise he'd have happily pretended he was a straight married man while continuing to have affairs with very young men.

I completely agree.

He’s most certainly got in a PR crisis team who are advising him

Of course he has crisis PR team. I would imagine as well that he’s been advised to get as much of his story out (that he’s prepared to give) in readiness for when the other side of the story breaks.

The problem is that he’s now asking to be fully believed as a broken man with nothing left to loose. I don’t doubt that he’s a broken man as the edifice of his life has been ripped away.

But he did present himself to the public and his audience as a happily married straight man for years. In an era when it would not have mattered a jot that he’s gay. He then declared that he’d lied to everyone, literally everyone. Then his latest is that the public must believe him. The problem with this is that his past actions don’t instil great belief in his honesty.

I can’t help but feel he’s potentially trying to do some form of damage limitation before the no doubt inevitable consequences of the actual truth being revealed by the runner in question.

It may well transpire that grooming didn’t take place, who knows. But an abuse of power and promise of a leg up in the industry might be the situation. Whatever actually is the underlying truth will I should imagine come out in one form or another. But one thing is certain is that it wasn’t a normal co working relationship that you would expect from a novice in tv production and a principal “star”. The fact that the runner then had to be moved to another programme presumably at the behest of PS when the relationship became tricky is also paramount.

Time will tell. Just as it would appear that the only reason PS came out was the deal made with the press for not releasing the runner relationship. This surely has more revelations to come.

Surely it's not just ITV that must investigate, where is the police investigation into the grooming the media is reporting?

I refuse to believe the headlines and rumours, if there is any weight to them the police will investigate.
Eamon Holmes interview claiming he got dismissed for sharing his concerns.... Did no one go to the police? Why are all these people suddenly remembering and claiming a toxic environment? Could have done interviews before now? I don't get what's changed other than he's no longer with ITV?

It's all very odd. He said he followed the runner on twitter after he met him at the theatre school when the boy was 15 because he was asked to. But there are copies of the boy reacting excitedly to being followed by Phil, and they are dated two months before the photos of the visit to the school by Phil.

He says in one place the affair lasted for about 6 months, but also that it began when the runner was about 20. So, circa 2016 or maybe 2017. He says their sexual encounters "as mates" only happened a handful of times. But then why would he need to throw the runner out of the NTA awards in 2020, years later, if it was just a fling that happened ages ago?

When he came out a week after the NTAs, many in the business - like Joan Collins, in that video - were bemused, as they said. "But everybody knows he's gay!"

All I can see is deals and money and arsecovering and silencing, and all this so-called truthfulness now is just another layer of deals and money and arsecovering andsilencing.

Well it’s easier to speak out against someone disgraced than someone powerful.

Agree if there are genuine concerns of grooming it needs to be looked at by the police (maybe there have been questions?) although presumably if he’s now 27 and not pursuing that himself there will be limits to what they can do.

All I can see is deals and money and arsecovering and silencing, and all this so-called truthfulness now is just another layer of deals and money and arsecovering andsilencing.

I agree. Schofield’s account of the whole sorry saga simply doesn’t add up.

Can we add ‘Dan Wooton is an arsehole’
to the Schofield PR bingo card please?

Dan's under toxic people along with Ranj and Eamms I reckon

one of the other threads also had ‘oh stop complaining about abuse of power. People abuse power all the time. Just stop making a fuss.’

Which is weirdly honest as a deflection. But staggeringly depressing for that.

Phillip himself claims to have self-identified as not abusive. So that’s unquestionable now. 🤦🏻‍♀️