Hen party puppies put Freud in the dog house

Four Weddings And A Funeral scriptwriter richard Curtis recently directed roald Dahl’s esio Trot for the small s creen, co - s t arri ng Dame Judi Dench and Dustin hoffman. It’s about a woman who shows affection only to her pet tortoise. Curtis’s own household, however, has been accused of cruelty by animal l overs after his partner, emma Freud, controversially hired puppies for a hen do over the weekend.

‘Yesterday . . . hen party . . . rented 2 topless men and a basket of puppies for the afternoon,’ emma tweeted alongside a photograph of a man’s hairless, muscled torso holding a basket of puppies (pictured right).

Freud (below) then posted another photo of a topless waiter holding a single puppy, captioning the picture: ‘hen. Men. Puppies. Tick.’

Followers were quick to express their horror, with one telling emma: ‘Disgusting. Puppies are not commodities.’

‘ Puppies are not toys,’ echoed another. ‘As a lover of animals (you, I mean), I am really shocked that you would do this. Poor little babies, and who would rent them out?’

The great-granddaughter of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud was even accused of double standards.

‘If a man had hired two topless women and a pack of Dobermans for an afternoon, it would have been: “oh, he’s sexist!” ’ Freud, 53, was unrepentant. ‘We borrowed them from someone who had a litter,’ she said. ‘They came with their mum for one hour. Got cuddled and left. No one died.’

It’s not the first time that Freud, who has four children with Curtis, has found herself in hot water with animal lovers.

Just a few weeks ago, she posted a photograph of herself online carrying her daughter’s dog Posy in a sling, joking the dog was her new ‘messenger bag’.

Freud has been busy expanding the f amily’s menagerie of pets, adding two rabbits to their dog, cat and guinea pig.

Some can’t help wonder whether the animals, which richard is allergic to (not to mention the topless waiters), are a substitute for company.

Curtis, who is organising the first u. S. red Nose Day, is famously reticent to tie t he knot with his partner of more than 20 years.