Alan Carr - stuffs herb into mouth of team member who says she is allergic to it

[cakeorwine]

‘I used to say awful things’: Alan Carr on divorce, dating and the skit that haunts him | Alan Carr | The Guardian

Idiot. There is so much to say about this - power, control and a total lack of understanding of allergies.

"We’re in a big echoing loft with wood floors and he’s talking to his team as if they are all on stage and I – sitting in the corner – am the audience. He wants to know why one of them is picking bits out of her salad. He doesn’t accept that she’s allergic to coriander. Whoever heard of being allergic to coriander?"

There are six of us in this photo studio, including Carr’s manager, makeup, wardrobe and a publicist from ITV. He picks up the coriander and stuffs it into the mouth of the woman who said she was allergic. “See!” he declares, triumphant. “You’re not really allergic. If you were, you’d be dead by now.” He cackles. Everyone else cackles. It’s like the canned laughter of witches"

I just don't know what to say about this. Some allergies are less well known but still cause allergic reactions. And should be taken seriously.

This was a one off photoshoot. Not the most profitable series a channel produces.

The guy who was hit didn't just sit there and take it. And he did complain. And he did get JC sacked.

I don't think it matters whether she was allergic or not. It's enough to say you just don't like something to be left alone to get on with organising your plate.

Itv aren't going to sack them for refusing to be forced to eat something they're allergic to.

No, but they might sack her for swatting his hand away. Think about it, how else was she going to stop him?

The guy who was hit didn't just sit there and take it. And he did complain. And he did get JC sacked.

My memory of the time is that JC went to his boss once he had sobered up and fessed up. The guy said when interviewed that he feared for his job. JC got JC sacked.

It's yet another case of a man disregarding a woman's boundaries and right to bodily autonomy.

Can't stand the idiot, never could.
Shame someone didn't stick their fist into his mouth when he did that.
Immature twat.

No, but they might sack her for swatting his hand away. Think about it, how else was she going to stop him?

They're not going to sack her for self-defence.

My memory of the time is that JC went to his boss once he had sobered up and fessed up. The guy said when interviewed that he feared for his job. JC got JC sacked.

He was the producer of Top Gear. As far as I know he's never given an interview.
He sued JC and BBC for racial discrimination and personal injury, and received a £100,000+ settlement. He was promoted. And his attacker was, rightly in my opinion, sacked.

I have severe nut allergy and mild sesame allergy. Nits cause lip swelling, throat swelling vomiting and potential anaphylaxis (so I have to carry epipen) and no way can I simply pick them off a plate of food and keep eating. However, sesame tastes like soap to me and makes my lips itch. I could pick them off a seeded bun and eat the rest of the bun. I generally wouldn’t, but I could if in a situation where there wasn’t an alternative.
Thankfully I don’t think anyone has ever tried to force me to eat an allergen, however some kids did pin me down at a party and force me to eat a meaty sausage when I was 10, because I had a vegetarian. I was traumatised by that.

That’s really crap behaviour.

I’ve always liked him, and was enjoying Changing Ends. Won’t bother with it now.

People are getting bogged down with the semantics of whether this woman has a legitimate allergy or not, surely that’s not relevant. Even if she didn’t, you don’t forcibly shove something in another persons mouth?!

Very bizarre article, strange that there’s no further reference

Can't tell if you quoted to agree or disagree! The comment you quoted said it's assault whether she's allergic or not.

Though I think it does matter. If she's allergic it's a more serious assault. He could have caused her a lot of physical discomfort on top of the fact that shoving unwanted food into someone's mouth is weird abusive behaviour in literally any circumstance, let alone from a boss to an employee.

Exactly. It's bullying behaviour, designed to embarrass and humiliate at best, and physical assault at worse.
Whether she's allergic to something or not, you don't physically assault someone and then have everyone laugh at her to add to her humiliation.
Anyone who thinks it's funny or acceptable is as big a twat as he is.
They would have been laughing up the other side of their faces if that lady has been taken seriously ill or worse after he did that to her.
He's about as funny as a dose of flu.

I thought I was clear in what I said. Sorry. What I meant was that her decision not to eat the coriander should have been respected regardless of whether she was allergic or not.

I'm gripped reading that interview. I thought it was amazingly well written myself. To start with that poleaxing description of bullying and a chorus of people supporting him doing it, and it recurs through the interview... extraordinarily vivid. What reaction could possibly achieve more than doing her job and reporting what happened?

I've never voluntarily watched or listened to anything that Carr was on but I had no animus towards him. Reading that he sounds frankly like a kind of monster attracted only by fame and enabled by a team of employees in the way he was previously enabled by his mother.

The bit about nail polish is quite a vicious dig from the writer as well, I rather enjoyed it in the context of the Coriander Incident.

I think, are my expectations too high? God knows people do crap things including me, he's right about people building up celebrities and wanting them to be perfect and punishing them when they're not. And then I read that opening description again and it is just horrible.

He's a twat. I've never found him funny.

Have always disliked him and now even more so.

The writer of the interview was disturbed by his behaviour. Very unusual for a journalist to make dislike for a Zleb so plain and good for her, too many of us close our eyes to piggish behaviour like this. What an ignorant oaf. That's assault and he'd know about it if he tried it on me or mine. Tosser.

Honestly, he's one of those people I have to switch off immediately. Can't stand him.
Never could. ( Walliams is another)
He was on the cover of last week's TV guide and I had to keep it face down (now lining the waste food caddy, face up)

Sorry haven't RTFT. Was she allergic to coriander, because I'll be the first to admit I didn't know that was a thing either 😐

I always thought he was such a nice man too.

I have allergies, it’s rubbish but I’m lucky it’s not anaphylaxis.

A fair bit of victim shaming going on here.

I'm allergic to Brazil nuts but can just pick them out of museli then eat the rest. Not all allergies are like the peanut allergy where contact with other food stuffs is enough to trigger it
They do make my lips and tongue swell so potentially serious

Well it’s all in the Daily Mail this morning so I’m sure Alan will be responding. I’d be surprised and disappointed if it happened as the journo says it did.

There are plenty of things people have allergies to that probably won’t send them into anaphylactic shock immediately it or anything it’s touched gets past their lips.

I have an allergy to a substance used in surgery that got sewn inside me and just got a little swelling and an itchy rash (which was how we found out I was allergic).

I also have a food intolerance that I often call an allergy because it’s not as well understood. I’m not allergic, my life isn’t in any danger, but it makes me throw up if I eat it so I try to avoid it. If I talk about it as an intolerance people think I mean I just don’t like it (not the case - I love it and have from time to time deliberately planned to have it and then be somewhere where throwing up won’t disturb anyone) so I say allergy for ease when it won’t result in more work for someone.

I cannot believe that anyone would read the whole article and their takeaway would be - coriander. Ffs.

He speaks with great self awareness about how his comedy has changed and his failings and weaknesses and the sexual abuse of women by comedians like Louis CK.

But yeah. Coriander.

He speaks with great self awareness about how his comedy has changed and his failings and weaknesses and the sexual abuse of women by comedians like Louis CK.

Very much agree with you.