There are a number of questions that arise from the Brand-Ross-Manuel farrago. Most of them are obvious to most people. For my part I wondered what Sachs knowledge of contemporary celebrity culture is. Is he sufficiently aware of the reputation of Russell Brand to the degree that by being informed that his grand-daughter was a conquest that she was little more than a piece of tissue that Brand had masturbated his ego on? Is he savvy enough of his grand-daughter’s life to know that being in a group called Satan’s Sluts and moving in the circles that means you end up with Mr Brands well used pistol cocked at your modesty mean that he’s hardly crest-fallen nay embarrassed at the information.
But is this the point? Or is it the manor/method employed. There is a certain lack of dignity to the whole thing, for sure. It’s certainly not something any girl would want anyone bragging about in most circles, let alone to the voicemail of her grand-father and simultaneously to listening millions on national radio. And another thing…when she decided to sleep with a man whose fame is (at least partly) built upon his open, frank and funny – not to mention relentless – discussion of his drug and sex shenanigans, did she think it was somehow confidential?
The whole thing is not a job losing thing though is it? Well I don’t think it is. There’s plenty of people I don’t like being sexually suggestive to the public/celebrities about themselves or their families. Chris Moyles is a cunt, for example. Because it has offended someone is it that much worse to be a leading news story for a week? There is this further point – that the whole issue has been magnified and thrust into the spotlight because of the decreasing esteem the BBC is held in. Why are these two men being paid so much money to shout obscenities down the phone to an old man? Well one of them is very funny, very intelligent and is not Jonathan Ross. The other is Jonathan Ross. If anyone’s main concern is the stagnation of our public broadcasting institution then a campaign to reinstate Russell Brand should be the next step. And a big question should be raised over why Jonathan Ross is paid so much to shout swear words.
But moreover – why is Chris Moyles a cunt?
