Why Jennifer Lawrence’s deadpan quip at Joanna Lumley at Baftas didn’t get much lafta
JENNIFER LAWRENCE thought she was making a joke during the Baftas by telling host Joanna Lumley her effusive introduction was “a bit much”.
Sadly, people watching at home and in the audience perceived her deadpan quip as an insult to Joanna — who is of course the nearest we have in this country to a walking saint.
I caught up with Jennifer this week as she promoted new movie Red Sparrow — and she was beside herself with worry that people thought she had deliberately snubbed a national treasure.
Jennifer told me she had emailed Joanna to apologise — and even told her she could punch her in the face if she wanted.
Joanna was presenting the Baftas for the first time after taking over from long-term host Stephen Fry.
She introduced Jennifer as the “hottest actress on the planet” ahead of the US actress presenting the Best British Film gong.
Silver Linings Playbook star Jennifer said: “I spoke to Joanna yesterday and she knew there was such a furore.”
She added: “I love Joanna Lumley. When I saw her, I grabbed her and was like, ‘I love you — big me up on stage.’
Then she said these lovely things about me — and as a joke I was like, ‘Calm down.’
“Boy, did that go wrong!
“I was at the Baftas for 15 minutes and offended England. Everybody thought I was being rude.
“But to be fair, I couldn’t have just walked out after she was like, ‘biggest movie star in the world!’”
“If I’d just walked out and gone. ‘Thank you, Joanna’, It would have been like, “So you agree? You think you’re really pretty.’”
The thing about this is, Jennifer is a young actress with no filter.
She speaks her mind before thinking it through, which has got her into trouble in the past — and she’s a bit of a klutz who has a habit of falling over when galloping up to the stage to collect an award.
She sent her management into a tailspin by joking she was going to take a year off — she isn’t — and she caused a stir by wearing a spectacularly sexy, revealing black dress when her male co-stars were all keeping wrapped up against the cold.
Jennifer had to explain she adored the frock and it was her choice not to cover up in a coat.
Just as the nude sex scenes in the new movie were also her idea.
She is also the kind of girl who told me she saw a little boy watching The Hunger Games during a flight — and tapped him on the shoulder to say hello.
The two of them have kept in touch by email — and after the Joanna Lumley furore, he got in touch to reassure Jennifer she wasn’t an a**hole — which she found utterly hilarious.
Cheryl and Liam's choreographed PR world
LIAM and Cheryl paraded in front of the cameras at the Brits in a show of unity after rumours they were about to spilt up.
I haven’t a clue if Cheryl and Liam are as happy as clams or at each other’s throat. It wouldn’t matter, but for the fact they have a child, Bear, and so should try to make it work.
The world inhabited by Cheryl and Liam is a very odd one where everything is choreographed for positive PR.
But Cheryl used to come across as a likable, funny, sassy girl with confidence and sense of humour. These days, she seems to have retreated into her shell.
I’d like to see more of the smiling girl who is happy with her success instead of someone who now appears uncomfortable with fame.
Let Stephen Fry's prostate cancer vid be a rally call
IT WAS very brave of Stephen Fry to tell the world he has prostate cancer and his revelation will potentially save lives.
The more men seek help as soon as they detect any symptoms, the more they have an excellent chance of a full recovery.
Sadly, blokes are notoriously bad at going to the doctor's with anything to do with “their bits” and generally have to be frogmarched to the surgery by their wives or partners.
I hope Stephen’s cancer has been detected early enough to ensure a speedy recovery.
Young are only hope for change to US gun laws
I’M filled with admiration for those brave kids standing up to the idiots who refuse to change the US gun laws.
They should be out with friends, playing sport, maybe even going on their first date. Instead, 17 people from their school are dead, dozens horribly injured and hundreds more are in shock.
Students have been making informed, passionate speeches in Washington and organ-ising marches – while knowing this tragedy was preventable.
That is the scandal – and what happened in Florida is just the latest in a line of mass shootings in the US. The victims’ names should be emblazoned on banners in front of Congress and the White House to shame those bigots who think the right to own a gun is more important than the life of a child.
Here in the UK, we know the pain when kids are gunned down at school. After 16 little ones and their teacher were massacred in Dunblane in 1996, the outrage forced tough gun laws. But Donald Trump’s latest ludicrous suggestion, egged on by the gun lobby, is to arm teachers.
The next step in this twisted logic would be to give every child a gun.
It’s like giving everyone in London a butcher’s knife to fight stabbings, or bottles of acid to “protect” against attacks.
There are, however. glimmers of hope. George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg have donated millions to the March For Life movement born out of the latest shooting.
Some Americans have been destroying their assault rifles, and there might be more stringent checks on buyers. But this is just nibbling. Gun control has to be tackled head on. It’s insane that no one, even Barack Obama, has been able to break the hold the National Rifle Association has on politicians – who are bought and paid for.
The only way anything will alter is if those young people continue to demonstrate. This has to be a grassroots call of anguish which spreads.
Good luck, Steph
EIGHT years ago, a fresh-faced Stephanie Davis appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s TV talent show hunt for a leading lady to star in The Wizard Of Oz.
Stephanie, above, didn’t win Over The Rainbow but went on to join the cast of Hollyoaks instead.
Fast forward a few years and she was fired from the soap and catapulted into the bear pit that is Celebrity Big Brother, whereupon her life became one gigantic car crash.
She began a seedy showmance with her charmless housemate Jeremy McConnell.
I watched in horror as this overwrought real-life soap opera spiraled out of control. Stephanie became pregnant, but McConnell denied he was the father.
In the weary way of these bizarre reality show couplings, he had a paternity test on a TV programme and, sure enough, McConnell was the daddy.
This was a horribly toxic relationship culminating in McConnell being convicted of domestic violence against Stephanie.
She says she turned to booze but, to her credit, went into rehab.
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I spoke to her this week and although she’s still fragile, she is determined to make a fresh start for her son Caben-Albi.
If she can stay away from McConnell, and keep off the booze, she has a good chance to be a successful actress and a good mum.
I wish her well.