Michael Caine is right, the C-word brings shame on us all and should be redundant by now
King of Thieves star Sir Michael Caine says he regrets saying the C-word on screen for the first time in his career
MICHAEL CAINE is no middle-class prude.
The South Londoner is the son of a fish market porter and a char lady. He served in the British Army in the Korean War.
In an era when many of our great male actors went to Eton or Harrow, Caine is that most endangered of species — the genuinely working-class actor.
Safe to say that Sir Michael has been around effing and blinding for all of his 86 years.
“If you tread on my foot in real life,” Caine told my colleague Grant Rollings in The Sun, “I will swear.”
But when it comes to profanity, Michael draws the line at the C-word.
And yet he DOES snarl it in his latest film, King Of Thieves, in his role as Brian Reader, head of the elderly gang — the “Diamond Wheezers” — who pulled off the Hatton Garden heist.
Caine’s character says the C-word while giving one of his mates a good hiding.
Is this the kind of language a career criminal would use when he has lost his rag? Absolutely.
But Michael Caine was not happy with the use of the C-word and requested the film makers cut it from the final version.
To his displeasure, they have left the word in.
“I didn’t feel comfortable with it,” says Caine. “That was the first time I have used the C-word in a film.
“I tried to get them to cut it but they didn’t.
“I grew up hearing it. But I would never use that word.”
Why not? Michael Caine did not elaborate on why he finds that one swear word offensive.
But I suspect that it is because — as Caine himself once said — a gentleman is never unintentionally rude.
And there are a lot of people, none of them prigs, who are starting to find the C-word gratuitously offensive.
Because the C-word has a woman-hating, misogynistic ring about it.
Like Michael Caine, I grew up hearing it everywhere.
In the little corner of Essex where I was raised, the C-word wasn’t so much a swear word as a punctuation mark.
It was everywhere. Nobody even thought about it.
Like Michael Caine, I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the C-word being used as the ultimate insult.
Because it is weird — isn’t it? — that the slang word for the source of all life and much of its pleasure should be spat out with such violent relish.
The male equivalent words just do not convey the same brutal feeling.
Words go out of fashion.
I can remember when any black footballer, from the Sunday morning parks to school playing fields to the old First Division, could not get through a match without having the N-word thrown at them.
And not once or twice.
I recall a school football match in Brentwood when the only black player on the field had the N-word chanted at him from the first whistle to the last.
Nobody got arrested.
In fact, many people found it amusing.
That could never happen today, thank God.
The N-word is beyond the pale, totally unacceptable in civilised society.
And the C-word is on the same path to oblivion.
I am with Michael Caine all the way.
The C-word — ugly, angry, full of loathing — should be redundant by now. You don’t believe me?
Ask a woman.
Gaga's Sinatra moment
HEALTH worries, dwindling sales, failed relationships and fans who grew up – Frank Sinatra’s career was on the skids in the early 1950s.
Ol’ Blue Eyes turned it all around and became the biggest icon in showbiz with the right film at the right time.
When things were at an all-time low, Sinatra landed the role of Private Angelo Maggio in war movie From Here To Eternity and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1954.
He never looked back.
Lady Gaga has endured health worries, dwindling sales, failed relationships and fans who grew up.
But she has bounced back with a film role playing an aspiring singer in the remake of A Star Is Born, drawing rave reviews and talk of an Oscar.
Frank Sinatra once staged the greatest comeback in showbusiness history.
Until now.
Following in Prince Philip's footsteps
PRINCE WILLIAM did not offend the Japanese when he asked kids at the opening of a Japanese cultural centre.
“Do you eat much Chinese food?”
At least he did not offend the Japanese contingent in my family.
They thought it was hilarious.
But the gaffe was reminiscent of a Prince Philip moment.
And Prince William is only 36.
What will he be blurting out by the time he is 97?
Cagey be? Nah, joke is on Vlad
TWO Russian goons just happen to be in Salisbury when Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia get poisoned with Russian nerve agent Novichok (only made in Russia) – and everybody immediately jumps to conclusions!
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, identified by MI5 as hitmen from Russia’s GRU secret service – the Novichok found in their London hotel room was a bit of a giveaway – claim to be innocent tourists who just wanted to visit “the wonderful town of Salisbury”.
Vladimir Putin says, honestly, they wouldn’t hurt a fly.
“There’s nothing particularly criminal about it, I assure you.”
Putin’s popularity is on the slide in Russia and he clearly believes playing the hard man who can kill anyone, anywhere, improves his ratings.
But in the eyes of the civilized world, the former KGB thug makes the great nation of Russia a laughing stock.
JOHN McENROE screamed and shouted through most of his career but he never pretended to be doing it for the greater good.
Serena Williams lost her temper in the US Open final and had the brass neck to say that her ranting, raving petulance had something to do with standing up for women’s rights.
Williams calling the umpire, Carlos Ramos, a “liar” and a “thief” had more to do with a superstar’s sense of entitlement.
Serena ruined the greatest moment in the career of the 20-year-old Naomi Osaka, the brilliant young Haitian-Japanese woman who beat her in the final.
The softly spoken Osaka was in tears as she picked up the trophy in front of a booing crowd.
Serena trousered around £1.4million after losing to Osaka in straight sets and was fined £13,000 – less than one per cent of her earnings.
You can NOT be serious, man!
FENELLA FIELDING this week died peacefully at the age of 90.
Fenella was the posh Barbara Windsor, and in Carry On films and The Morecambe And Wise show, she rolled her eyes and swung her hips, a grand master of the double entendre, both sexy and funny.
Fenella died with her false eye lashes on.
It is how she would have wanted to go.
JAMIE OLIVER has become the face of Tesco and vowed to get the nation eating more healthily.
But isn’t the face of Tesco a bit on the chubby-cheeked side to be giving anyone diet tips?
Fancy a turn at PM, Tom?
RISING Tory MP Tom Tugendhat claims it is “time for a generational shift” and that Theresa May should make way post-Brexit for a younger, more modern leader.
As he gazes into the mirror, does Tom, 45, have anyone in mind? Who knows?
Tom reckons: “It’s just like the end of World War Two.
"Churchill won this great victory then was kicked out by the electorate because people wanted change.”
But Theresa May is no Churchill. Jeremy Corbyn is no Clement Attlee.
And Brexit, for all its frustrations, is sure as hell not World War Two.
You only sing when your winning
IT’S official – our football clubs are telling fibs about crowd attendances.
During the long goodbye of Arsene Wenger, Arsenal were often mocked for wildly exaggerating match day attendances.
New research by the BBC suggests that Manchester City, West Ham and Chelsea are also prone to exaggerate the number of bums on seats.
The problem is that today’s football grounds are built for success.
Highbury and Upton Park could happily accommodate smaller crowds.
But in the shiny stadia of 2018, every empty seat looks like a missing tooth on the mouth of a supermodel.
JD WETHERSPOON is ditching German firewater Jagermeister and replacing it with an English herbal liqueur Strika.
It is also replacing French brandies Courvoisier and Hennessy with Black Bottle and E&J, brandies from Australia and the US.
Tim Martin, Wetherspoon’s Brexit-backing boss, says: “This highlights our commitment to offering an excellent range of UK and world products with the emphasis on quality and value.
"All EU products have UK or non-EU replacements, often at equal or better quality and price.”
Are you listening, Michel Barnier?
If only our timid little politicians would tell Brussels that the British consumer has a choice.
All my adult life I have driven German cars, drunk French wine, eaten Spanish fruit and veg, worn Italian clothes and scoffed Belgian chocolates.
I would be just as happy driving a Japanese car and drinking Australian wine for the rest of my life.
If the EU want to play rough, then the British can always buy someone else’s stuff.