Hypocrisy of ‘charitable’ stars really does take the biscuit

Something in the world of charity is rotten. Something really putrid is afoot. no longer is it a simple act of giving to those less fortunate and doing it with the best of intentions, safe in the knowledge that your money will go straight to those who need it most.

that model of benevolence is now being corroded by greedy middle-men, big business, fatcattery, politics and the endless exhortations of celebrities asking us all to dig deep.

First point. if we all gave to charity every time an entitled celebrity asked us to, we’d soon need charity ourselves.

Second point. the abuse scandal at oxfam and revelations of alleged sexual harassment at other charities, including Save the Children, has seen public faith in these flagship organisations plummet.

third and most important point. the bond of trust has been broken between celebrities who beseech the public to donate, or chide us to raise our awareness of assorted issues, while — we now discover — pocketing hefty fees for doing so.

in the light of this, is it wrong to feel stupid, taken for granted, a little bit used?

it is no secret that, for years, Sir terry Wogan took a large fee for presenting Children in need, but later explained that he had no idea he was getting paid!

today’s stars don’t even bother with such a lame excuse.

An example is the recent great Celebrity Bake off For Stand Up to Cancer charity tV specials, featuring contestants including comedians Alan Carr and harry hill and Scottish tory leader Ruth Davidson.

While they all gave every last crumb of their appearance fees to the charity, tV baker Paul hollywood received around £115,000, while fellow hosts Prue Leith, Sandi toksvig and noel Fielding were also paid, despite Channel 4 telling us that all money would go to charity.

i’m not convinced that viewers would have been quite so generous had they known that this charity Bake off was a Rake off for its cake inspectors and waffle merchants.

C4 has said the presenters donated ‘a significant’ portion of their fee to the charity, but not how much — which says everything, and none of it good.

meanwhile, we have since learned that female stars who stripped off for itV’s recent the Real Full monty were each paid £10,000, even though the two programmes (there was also a male version) have so far raised only £4,000 for cancer awareness charities.

this case is slightly more complicated, as the show was not a direct charity fundraiser and did not ask viewers to donate, although itV has a donations page, which is still open.

Yet there remains something objectionable about celebrities pocketing five-figure sums in the name of a good cause.

it definitely takes the gilt off their noble intentions.

For it’s the public who are expected to keep the cash rolling into the coffers. not them.

one can’t help but feel that the people the Real Full monty helped most were the stripping stars who took part — burnishing their do-good profiles in an orgy of sequined self-interest, while snaffling ten grand.

NICE work if you can get it, sisters. even the most worthy among their number fell prey to the easy conviction that you are doing good, when all you are doing is encouraging others to make a sacrifice on your behalf while you bask in the afterglow of their munificence.

elsewhere, BBC’s Sport Relief telethon raised £38 million — almost a third down on the £55 million raised in 2016. Still impressive, yes, even if it seems to be another sign that celebrity charity fatigue is setting in.

Why? Well, was it entirely wise to have multi-millionaires gary Lineker and Claudia Winkleman in prominent roles during the marathon broadcast, considering that we know they are two of the BBC’s highestpaid presenters? After all, nothing says needy more than Claudia in a £600 trouser suit.

MEANWHILE, the sight of wealthy stars jetting around the globe on freebie charity junkets, telling everyone back home to cough up, is wearing thin.

to add insult to injury, we are told that Comic Relief and Sport Relief have stopped using celebrities such as ed Sheeran and eddie Redmayne to report from stricken areas in Africa because it glamorises poverty porn and ‘ reinforces white saviour stereotypes’.

You think i am kidding? i am not kidding.

Liz Warner, Ceo of Comic Relief, said the organisation had taken its ‘ first steps’ towards changing, particularly after Labour Mp David Lammy criticised it for portraying Africa as a continent full of ‘ poverty- stricken victims and stereotypes’.

Yes, many parts of Africa are thriving, but if it doesn’t have any problems, why have we donated hundreds of millions in charity over the years, not to mention pumping funds in via the government’s Foreign Aid budget?

honestly. the sanctimony, the divisive politics, the cultural cringe, the quiet horror of celebrity privilege, the way we are patronised at every turn.

it is a wonder that any of us give to charity at all — and the fact that we do, despite everything, is a humanitarian miracle all of its own.