Sunday, April 15, 2007

Gordon Brown & the Celebrity Culture

Gordon Brown's interview in the Guardian yesterday made me smile. He wants to eschew the 'celebrity culture' and be taken seriously in the future. This from the man who emerged from a lunch with Kylie Minogue gurgling like a star struck fourteen year old... And from the man who was first off the mark in commenting on Jade Goody's 'racial' comments on Big Brother. A reader emails me to remind me of another instance of Gordon meeting celebrities. This is from Metro...
Gordon Brown was one of the first ministers to wade into the Big Brother
racism row. But it now appears he may not have been paying attention to the
other contestants aside from Shilpa Shetty and Jade Goody. Newspaper reports
claim he inadvertantly snubbed Celebrity Big Brother runner-up Jermaine Jackson
at an official function. The Chancellor apparently targeted the singer's wife
Halima, while ignoring the Jackson Five star. Mr Brown reportedly told her:
'Good to see you, good to see you, I really like your work.' It was only when
aides explained, that he realised Jackson was meant to be one of the star
guests.

If you know of other brushes between Gordon Brown and celebrity, do let me know.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was in the Guardian Diary a week back - do try and keep up at the back..

Anonymous said...

Do you need a personality to be a celebrity?

If not there may be a niche for Mr Brown.

Anonymous said...

If i remember correctly Brown was asked about the BB story, he did not come out and make a statement about it.

Anonymous said...

I find it rather reassuring that he didn't recognise Jackson.

Chris Paul said...

Er, Iain, isn't Gordon having a dig at Blair, Cameron and the other preening peacocks and NOT at entertainment business celebrities who may still take his and our breath away. This is facile and slow and not very comment worthy. But hey ho I've now blogged your Dirty Dorries story HERE and Ineed the publicity.