SORRY, OR SORRY TO BE CAUGHT OUT?
THERE is a by-now established trajectory for the celebrity racist tweet, whether it comes from the keyboard of fat comedienne Roseanne Barr or fat cat Lord Sugar.
First, shock, anger even, that their gazillion followers are not laughing like drains and ‘liking’ like automatons.
‘You are OTT,’ chided the Apprentice star this week when his attempt to poke fun at the Senegalese backfired. ‘It’s a bloody joke.’
Then it is denial: ‘Seems it has been interpreted the wrong way as offensive… I can’t see that… I think it’s funny…’ Next, the Damascene conversion, the furrowed brow and the, ‘Gadzooks! I’ve been a fool. Forgive me I beg you’ grovel.
What happens backstage in those frenzied moments between stages two and three, do you suppose?
My guess is a PR person happens and our ashen celebrity tweeter sees a career flash before his or her eyes.
My question is, do they really see they have been fools or are they merely persuaded that having shot themselves in the foot it’s the best thing to say? THE cost of flights abroad rockets by up to £400 per person as soon as the school holidays begin, we learned this week, and parents who take their children out of school early face prosecution. One starts to understand the circumstances under which the Isle of Skye declared itself ‘full’ last summer and, this high season, hotels pluck prices out of the air. Staycationing is not so much a preference as the only option.