Paper Monitor
10:58 UK time, Tuesday, 18 May 2010
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Te-hee! What fun, the papers are teasing each other again.
In its review of director Stephen "The Queen" Frears' new romp Tamara Drewe, which premiered at Cannes yesterday, the Guardian is very naughty indeed, taking a pop at the swotty, serious kid in class. Yep, the Independent.
The story started life as a graphic novel serialised in G2 several years ago. The eponymous character is a glamorous columnist and interviewer for an unspecified metropolitan newspaper, returning to her home village in Dorset.
But in the film, she works for the Independent. Why?
"Frears said he had consulted the Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, and suggested she might be made a Guardian journalist in the movie. Rusbridger preferred not (after all, Drewe does seem to do a minimum of work and sleeps with an interview subject, which would of course strain credibility to its utmost were she placed at the Guardian)."
Of course. Snort!
More waggish observers might remark that it could strain credibility to its utmost to have a Bond girl playing a Guardian journalist. (But admittedly it's been a long time since Paper Monitor played Hot or Not with those at the paper's King's Cross HQ.)
Unfortunately for bystanders, the Indy is not that waggish. Its review merely sniffs:
"[Gemma] Arterton plays a music journalist writing for The Independent (of all papers)..."
All of which suddenly brings that story of last year.
What's the connection, you might very reasonably ask? Well, the Sun took it as a opportunity to poke fun at the Guardian.
After the latter's director of digital content Emily Bell claimed the lights seen near the turbine were actually fireworks from her father's birthday, the red-top published her theory simply so it could pour cold water on its higher-brow rival.
Lots of cold water. It described Bell as "a local blogger for a small newspaper group..." (see Paper Monitor, 9 Jan 2009).
Harsh. But for Paper Monitor, it's a joke that never gets old.
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