Celebrities who moan about their lack of privacy shouldn't usesocial media
Truly, we live in the age of the ego. I exist, therefore I amimportant and newsworthy. How to reconcile worries about privacywith the tidal wave of personal data churned out on Twitter andsocial media? Surely, one cancels out the other. Some of thosewhingeing that gagging orders and superinjunctions have resulted ininnocent people being slandered - Jemima Khan, for example - spendhours daily babbling opinions using exactly the same media.
The high-profile people who complain about "loss of privacy" arethe same souls who use carefully timed press releases and televisionappearances whenever they've got something to flog or a bit ofcharacter rebranding to do. If you don't like the heat, get out ofthe kitchen. Put simply - shut up!
The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is said to be consideringlegislation to try to force Twitter, etc, to abide by the same rulesas the rest of the press. Fat chance - there is no way the internetcan or should be policed. More importantly, what right does the UKhave to impose our cultural and moral standards on global internetusers?
There is no such thing as real privacy for celebrities todayunless they shun interviews, keep their front door shut tophotographers from Hello! magazine, and rarely appear in public. Aperfect example is Kate Bush, who doesn't tour and isn't doing anygigs to promote her first album in six years. She says she prefersto stay at home and be with her family. Result - goddess status,five-star reviews and a cult following. The more you reveal aboutyourself the less interesting you are.
Contrast her behaviour with that of George Michael. When askedabout his private life recently, he said he would reply only onTwitter. George isn't aware that a survey conducted by Bauer mediafinds fans moaning that celebs who tweet aren't that interestingonce the initial thrill of being able to contact them has worn off.Music business executives are trying to wean some artists off socialmedia because it makes it impossible to build any sense of mystiqueabout their work. David Bowie and Marc Bolan would never havetweeted.
No point in telling that to George M, who uses the announcementof a new tour to say he wants to "make amends" for his publicdisgraces. George tells us this tour and a new CD, to be recordedwith unknown gay artists, are an expression of penance for thehomophobic abuse his wacky actions unleashed, and the negativeeffect that the subsequent media furore had on gay kids.
Very humble, but who asked him to be a role model? There are ahuge number of out gay men, from Elton John to Stephen Fry andMichael Stipe, from the late Stephen Gateley to Gareth Thomas - noneof whom ever claimed to be a role model. Why should gays need a gayrole model anyway? Why not choose high achievers; fun, positivepeople, of any sexual persuasion? These remarks prove that George'sego is still the dominant love of his life.
Sarah Ferguson is another Me Person with a curious take onprivacy. She chose an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Americantelevision to reveal her "secret" thoughts about the royal wedding.Distraught at not being invited, she coped by taking a luxuryholiday in Thailand. She could have stayed at home and helped herdaughters get dressed before they stepped out looking like a coupleof panto extras.
Sarah is no longer a member of the Royal Family anywhere butinside her own head, whimpering "I was the last bride up that aisle... I really love the feeling that Diana and I both weren't there,but I'm here to say how proud she would have been". Classic "allabout me" bilge.
Donald Trump is another rampant superego, who demanded to seeBarack Obama's birth certificate in case the President had lied, andannounced that he might run for the presidency himself. Trump told amagazine his extraordinary hairstyle wasn't a comb-over, and wentinto precise detail about how he achieved that woeful meringue onhis head, clearly thinking that the world was waiting with batedbreath for the answer to the big question of the day - not how toprevent earthquakes, whether Guantanamo should be closed, or whereBin Laden's widow is - but how does Donald T do his hair?
With all this self-obsession mixed up with self-promotion,privacy is a relative concept. The former chief secretary to theTreasury David Laws claimed privacy was the reason he fiddled tensof thousands of pounds of expenses, but the desire to keep yoursexuality secret is hardly justification for creative accounting.
The Government has more important tasks than monitoring socialmedia. Inevitably, Twitter will soon go out of fashion, and bereplaced by another piece of technology to feed the cult of me. Itwill never be part of my life.
Hugh's fish fight nets a prince
A lot of rot is talked about celebrity chefs, but sometimes theysucceed in changing our attitudes in a way politicians never could.Well done, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, he's just persuaded MPs tosupport his Fish Fight campaign and call for an end to thescandalous practice of throwing back dead fish caught in nets. Withexcellent timing, Selfridges has unveiled a huge event throughouttheir stores - Project Ocean - put together with the ZoologicalSociety of London. It aims to promote awareness of sustainablefishing and protecting the marine environment. The store's foodhalls and restaurants have banned endangered fish, chefs are givingcooking demonstrations, and there is thought-provoking art ondisplay, including the jewelled lobster hat, right, by Philip Treacyfor Lady Gaga. Beth Derbyshire's mesmeric video installation SevenSeas is also worth a look. Prince Charles popped in last week -though I don't know if Camilla will be sporting one of the KatharineHamnett slogan
T-shirts that are on sale.
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Pay-to-play in a park? Shame!
As another teenager was killed (allegedly over a mobile phone) insouth London last week, does it make sense for Wandsworth council tocharge children 2.50 to use an adventure playground in BatterseaPark at the weekends? Just south of the Thames rich and poor liveside by side - swanky mansion blocks and expensive terraces bordertower blocks and estates. Why should kids from council flats with nogardens have to pay to use local amenities? Free swimming hasalready been culled. I don't care how much it costs to run anadventure playground, this sets a disturbing precedent which will becopied by penny-pinchers elsewhere.
* The renovation of St Pancras, London, is complete with theopening of the Renaissance Hotel and Marcus Wareing's stylish newrestaurant, the Gilbert Scott. My lunch was delicious (especiallythe baked onions), but the faux British menu is a bit perplexing.You can order Sage and Onion Paxo stuffing and chips with Sarsonsmayonnaise. Harrogate loaf is a veal terrine - in 30 years of eatinglousy food in Harrogate I've never encountered a meat loaf. Isn'tthis trying a bit too hard?
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