Comic actor Rowan Atkinson has accepted “substantial” libel damages over false newspaper allegations that he had been on the edge of a breakdown.
Atkinson, 49, also received a public apology from Associated Newspapers, which had made the claim in the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers. Following the case at the High Court in London, Atkinson called the allegations “ludicrous, hurtful and irresponsible”.
He said he would donate his undisclosed damages to a mental health charity.
Atkinson said the stories, published in December 2003 and January 2004, had “sensationalised” mental health issues.
He said they had particularly stigmatised the condition of depression, “from which I am fortunate enough never to have suffered”. [/quote]
Edmund Blackadder was a hoot, but it’s been downhill ever since. Mr. Bean is as much a British embarrassment as Mr. Benny Hill.
I think Atkinson did the right thing. Too many times newpapers print utter bulls**t about famous people and I believe that the public often believes that what they read is true. I think everyone will benefit from this judgement: Atkinson and the people who he will give the money.
Also, Benny Hill, IMHO, was great! No Brit needs to feel embarrassed about him at all. Granted his humor was kind of low-brow but the women looked terrific! When I was a young guy watching that show, I really believed that most of the women in England looked like the girls on Hill’s show. BTW, I heard Hill was really gay. Any truth to that?
Actually, I think just the fact that Hill was surrounded by those scores of hot English ladies doing the most sexually suggestive skits and he was never accused of sexual harrassment nor did he end up fathering a bunch of kids tells me a lot right there.
I honestly believe that for most straight guys, the temptation would be overwhelming to work in the same surroundings he did.
Anyway, I guess that the times were different when Hill was popular and on the air so nobody ever came forward with any “secret Benny” stories. Also, Hill would never admit to that fact even if it were true because he would have feared what it would have done to his career.
I think you may be the right person to ask this question. Are British people, on a whole, accepting of homosexuals? I know this is an awful general question and that all people are different, but I am wondering about how homosexuals are treated in England.
I heard several interviews with Quentin Crisp, author of The Naked Civil Servant," and he spoke about the horrible abuse he suffered for being a homosexual in England. And I know the great Oscar Wilde spent time in prison on a morals charge. However, I am interested in a more modern perspective. I would greatly appreciate hearing your comments on this subject. Thanks.
I think you may be the right person to ask this question. Are British people, on a whole, accepting of homosexuals? I know this is an awful general question and that all people are different, but I am wondering about how homosexuals are treated in England.
I heard several interviews with Quentin Crisp, author of The Naked Civil Servant," and he spoke about the horrible abuse he suffered for being a homosexual in England. And I know the great Oscar Wilde spent time in prison on a morals charge. However, I am interested in a more modern perspective. I would greatly appreciate hearing your comments on this subject. Thanks. [/quote]
Honey, Quentin Crisp lived to be 90 years old and dear Oscar has been dead as long. Things were indeed different in their youths. It’s easy to be gay in the UK these days, and the laws across much of the EU give largely the same equality of treatment to gays and straights. Go to Brighton: it’s gayer than a box crayons.
Honey, Quentin Crisp lived to be 90 years old and dear Oscar has been dead as long. Things were indeed different in their youths. It’s easy to be gay in the UK these days, and the laws across much of the EU give largely the same equality of treatment to gays and straights. Go to Brighton: it’s gayer than a box crayons.[/quote]
Honey chile, let me tell you, Quentin Crisp was a lazy she bitch who used to slide in and out of his bed each night as if it were an envelope just so he didn’t have to remake it.
High wit does come out of England every generation. I thought The Office was absolutely brilliant. Rowan Atkinson is gay?
Honey chile, let me tell you, Quentin Crisp was a lazy she bitch who used to slide in and out of his bed each night as if it were an envelope just so he didn’t have to remake it.[/quote]
Yes, I had heard that he didn’t clean his apartment for years in NYC. He was a unique guy to say the least. I remember once he told a TV interviewer that he kept his number and address listed in the phone book in NYC, just so he could talk to people, I guess. I called the operator, found the number and called him just to see if it was him. It was but I didn’t know what to say to him so I didn’t speak long.
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