Sir: A less than attractive aspect of The Spectator is
its tendency to fawn over celebrities.
David Hockney's pathetic little whinge about his pet dogs and the imagined terrors that could be inflicted on them is just the latest example. Your grovelling editorial comment in the same issue emphasised my point.
I confess to a personal grievance in this matter. Some years ago, I wrote to your predecessor on a matter of passing interest and received a card thanking me and declaring an intention to publish my letter. Alas, the following week my hopes of fleeting fame were dashed by none other than Simon Callow. His letter telling the world of his sexual proclivities can have had no wider interest than that of Mr Hock- ney's fondness for his dogs but it annexed half the letters columns and pushed my contribution into the waste-paper basket.
The self-absorption of celebrities is limit- less and pandered to endlessly by the popu- lar press. Mr Hockney disclaims celebrity status but he can be sure that without it his maudlin and disconnected ramblings would never have consumed two columns of The Spectator.
I wonder what matters of genuine inter- est or entertainment were sidelined to make way for this latest bit of celebrity gratification.
Geoff Prickett
Box 105, Nuhaka, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand
Previous page
