to think this is not nice of Richard E Grant

[StripesZigZags]

and can't be swept aside as "just a joke".

Interview with him in the Times Style magazine today. He tells the interviewer (Vassi Chamberlain) that he writes a diary every night as if he is writing to his wife. She asks him what the entry about today and their interview would say and this is the end of the article. For context earlier in the article she says that after she asked him a question when he'd finished answering he'd "fire the same" quesiton back at her which is probably how he had the additional information.

Here is the quote:

"What will tonight’s account say, I ask. He bursts out laughing.

He sits up and clears his throat as if he’s about to perform at the Old Vic.

“Astonishingly,” he begins, “the journalist was 4ft 11in.” I stop him right there. I’m 5ft 1in. “She’s 5ft 1in. Her face looks like a roadmap because she had head and neck cancer 14 years ago, which she luckily survived, but because of it she’s not allowed to have plastic surgery. All her girlfriends now look 40 years old but her jawline is hanging around her knees and in ten years she will tie a bow with her dyed hair around her chin in a tight knot and she’ll look like the Queen at Balmoral.”

Ouch."

I read that and thought "what a bitch of a man". I've never really liked him - his Instagram videos where he's constantly smiling with a fake smile that never reaches his eyes always seem ultra insincere as he pontificates about how wonderful the day or the tree or the park is. This really exposes the heart of a person.

I guess everyone him included will try to justify it as a joke but it's very nasty - making the point that her short height is 'astonishing' like some circus freak, her face looking like a road map. I think her finishing 'ouch' was really very understated and kind.

Just read back a couple of pages. Can't believe the homophobia. Horrible.

I grew up in San Francisco. Good for you! I grew up in various parts of Scotland and a large city in the north of England. I've lived in London for over 40 years. Obviously we don't have gay men over here, though, so we wouldn't know anything about them.

<wanders off to bang head against wall>

Although I've joined in upthread with being disappointed in him I must say I watched Gosford Park again recently and he's very good in that.

I think this is about fame. The excuses on this thread (some of which are unbelievable suggesting that the interviewer invited it - even if you sit there and say you think are fat and ugly, it's really not OK for someone to repeat that back to you even if you said it yourself. It's not OK and its not funny.) really show that once people are a fan of someone they have a fixed one-dimensional of that person as All Good or All Bad.

People in real life are not like that. We all have the capability to be nice most of the time but think horrible things and say horrible things about others for all kinds of reasons. Some people have the capability (actors especially) to present as one thing forward facing publicly but to be a totally different person behind closed doors. Real people are not one dimensional.

This was a nasty thing to say and it's not funny. The fact the interviewer wrote 'Ouch' indicates how she felt about it.

I bet if you, or someone you love - a daughter, mother, sister - who'd suffered with cancer came home and repeated that story - how many people's first reach would be 'oh he's a nice man he must have been drunk/mentally ill/joking/repeating back to you what you said.'

Must be great to have a bit of fame. You can get away with being unpleasant and everyone will make excuses.

*sorry - not everyone, some people.

No, it's not about fandom and fame. It's about context. The context suggests it was a joke. You can decide people who have a different opinion from you have fixed one-dimensional thinking if you want to, but that would seem a little... narrow-minded.

You dont need to be famous for people to bend themselves over backwards to defend this type of wank, unfortunately.
people will say some horrible things when you have a lot of scars on your face, these people are pretty much always men
but everyone men and women will defend it, oh he was joking! Can’t you take a joke?! Oh maybe you misunderstood? Maybe you took it the wrong way? Etc and it’s just hilariously depressing to see it also playing out on some posts in this thread

There are loads of family pictures with his step son in available on line. I don’t get what’s going on on Mumsnet at the moment. As I said before he lives locally to where I used to work and is viewed as being very nice. Oh, I see he doesn’t get on with his brother, must be a bad’un.

It's about context. The context suggests it was a joke.

It really doesn't for two big reasons - one the content is so offensive . it is just not funny - ha ha short person. ha ha wrinkly old person who can't have plastic surgery to sort it out.

and two the journalist's comment 'ouch'.

It doesn't matter if it was intended as a joke because it's objectively rude. This is the issue. People defending it as 'a joke' are like men who say stuff like 'oh look the wobbly blancmagne has arrived' at their overweight girlfriend in a pink dress and when she says 'ouch. that's not funny and I'm upset' will respond with 'can't you take a joke?'.

As I said before he lives locally to where I used to work and is viewed as being very nice. Oh, I see he doesn’t get on with his brother, must be a bad’un.

This is my point about fame = one dimensional thinking. He is very nice people say so = all good, perfect. He doesn't get on with his brother = all bad, terrible.

No one thinks like this about most people they know in real life. All good. All bad. Hero. Villain.

What's so strange about thinking well who cares whether he's generally nice or terrible (the probability is that like most people he's a normal mixture) but at this time, in this interview, dealing with this person, he said something very not nice?

Had she written about him in the past?

What is her usual style like? Is she run of the mill or does she make acerbic comments that the subject would find to be offensive?

The context is his wife died of cancer. They talked about aging and what it felt like.They talked about reviews focusing on his weird face and how the actor who played Frankenstein would play him in a movie. When she asked what the review would be of his time with her he did that theatrical speech based on what she has said about herself. The clearly attractive journalist has said she hadn't stopped laughing after interviewing him. It seems odd to want to insist that none of that context matters but people see things differently. How you interpret it is up to you but don't be surprised that other people who are neither "fans" of celebrities nor one-dimensional thinkers simply don't agree with your interpretation.

It seems odd to want to insist that none of that context matters but people see things differently. How you interpret it is up to you but don't be surprised that other people who are neither "fans" of celebrities nor one-dimensional thinkers simply don't agree with your interpretation.

Why are you ignoring the word 'ouch'.

They also had a daughter who was stillborn or died as an infant. It came yp on Desert island discs. He also had an awful relationship with his dad.

'Ouch' isn't such a gotcha to me. She doesn't say she was wounded, crestfallen, undermined. It sounds more like a 'touche' or a sad face emoji. Or God forbid she actually gets the joke. You have to accept that some of us have read the same article and have taken a different view of it than you. You can't just keep insisting you've proved them wrong.

This can only have enhanced Vassi's status.
Grant is no gent.

I think he probably knows her well and has read interviews that she was similarly describing her self. So while it sounds like an ugly unnecessary comment, which it definitely is, its probably within the scope of there relationship / knowledge. I still think it's crass & odd to these days treat an interview as though nobody will read it 🙄 even if I'm correct.

Cruel and nasty.

I’m not in the habit of making excuses for mens poor behaviour but I have worked with REG and this does seem very out of character for him to be blatantly rude to someone. He can be awkward and say the wrong thing sometimes but never intentionally to hurt someone.
I have also worked with a lot of journalists and they have a habit of sensationalising things for clickbait. Especially those who work for Murdoch owned papers like the Times. They want people to pay to read the article. Let’s not forget that this is the same corporation who owned news of the world and signed off on their journalists tapping into a dead girls phone

Funnily enough, I read the same article yesterday and also thought that was a really nasty thing for him to say. I was trying to figure out if they were really close friends and it was some sort of weird banter but still doesn’t make him come across very well.

This can only have enhanced Vassi's status.
Grant is no gent.

No, the opposite. Celebs and their PR teams will read this and think wtf, she's made him look like a complete asshole. They'll guide their clients towards journalists who can be trusted not to do that.

I do think "Ouch" could have been
"Ouch😂"
"Ouch 🙄"
"Ouch 😓"
or "Ouch 😱"
in the modern vernacular. who really knows?

I opened my Demon Barber book this afternoon and found, as I'd vaguely remembered, that she'd interviewed REG - in 1997. Such an interesting piece. It wasn't her interview, it was her summary of an interview.

At the time he was still speaking very fondly of his father and there was a fair amount about the bad relationship with his brother, where his brother sounds like a prize 1 arsehole tbh. There's a lot about Joan. She (Lynn) also mentions that he's odd to interview as he fires a lot of questions back at her.

Also, she didn’t HAVE to include what he said in her article.

If it was that devastating to her why did she choose to publish it for thousands/millions of people to read? So that ppl would start threads online to collectively call him out as a massive shit? It would be different if he’d written the article and decided to aim a load of unwarranted venom at her, but no one’s answered my previous question as to whether that’s her own style of making less than flattering observations of other ppl’s physical appearance, or if she has written about him before and in such a way as for him to take offence, so he has taken the opportunity (she gave him) to settle the score. I’ve never read anything by her so I have no idea.

Again, she didn’t have to include his take of her in her article, but did. Why is that do you think?

So.. she made him do it?

@Notsosure1 but no one’s answered my previous question as to whether that’s her own style of making less than flattering observations of other ppl’s physical appearance, or if she has written about him before and in such a way as for him to take offence, so he has taken the opportunity (she gave him) to settle the score. I’ve never read anything by her so I have no idea.

Have you tried Google? I just did a quick two minute one and can find nothing about her being mean or personal about anybody else's appearance or about meeting or interviewing REG before. And to concure with the OP she also looks like a very attractive lady.