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Coogan: Brexit Advisor ‘Should Be Hung, Drawn and Quartered’

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Plenty of celebrites have weighed in on Brexit, from Emma Thompson to Roger Daltry. Steven Coogan’s take on the subject, though, is unabashedly pro-European and anti-Brexit.

The comic actor from “Stan & Ollie,” “Philomena” and “The Trip” franchise often lets his films do the talking for him. He attacked conservative talk radio most recently with “Hot Air,” and his new film, “Greed” similarly swipes modern-day capitalism.

Coogan expounded on a host of issues with The Hollywood Reporter this week as part of “Greed’s” promotional push. The Oscar nominee spoke out against President Donald Trump, unsurprisingly. It’s what he said about a key figure in the current Brexit battle that might shock his longtime fans.

It’s hardly unusual for stars to speak out against Brexit. “Doctor Strange’s” Benedict Cumberbatch, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter and Keira Knightley. Michael Caine is one of a smaller group of actors cheering on Brexit.

Roger Daltrey of The Who fame is a surprise Brexit supporter.

Coogan is in the former camp, with no room for wiggle room. It’s the rhetoric he employs on the subject, though, that might raise some eyebrows.

Dominic Cummings is a political strategist and advisor to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Cummings is doing what he can to make Brexit a reality following a 2016 election on the matter.

Coogan isn’t a fan, and that’s putting things mildly. Here’s what he said when THR asked him about the matter of Brexit:

“I think it’s contemptible. Boris Johnson is a contemptible individual. I think Dominic Cummings should be hung, drawn and quartered, publicly. Like most people in the country, I’m exhausted by it. But I am vehemently pro-European, especially with Putin, China and Trump’s USA as the power brokers in this world.”

Source: Coogan: Brexit Advisor ‘Should Be Hung, Drawn and Quartered’ – Hollywood in Toto

“I use the best, I use the rest”

“Monty Python’s Flying Circus” celebrates 50th anniversary

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Fifty years ago today, the groundbreaking British sketch series “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” premiered on the U.K.’s BBC One and forever changed the world of comedy. The troupe’s absurd humor was a subversive poke in the eye to buttoned-up British society. Sketches like the “Ministry of Silly Walks,” “The Spanish Inquisition,” and “The Dead Parrot” became comedy classics. Dana Jacobson reports.

Source: “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” celebrates 50th anniversary – CBS News

Steve Coogan is driving on thin ice

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This Time with Alan PartridgeI’ve always wondered just how much of Alan Partridge’s pompous behaviour is a reflection of his creator, Steve Coogan. Sometimes the comedian seems to encourage it. 

Coogan has persuaded a magistrate not to hand out an automatic six-month driving ban (despite already notching up nine points on his licence) after being found guilty of speeding in Sussex.

Coogan claimed that filming for his forthcoming BBC series involved driving around Britain and that “it’s an artistic thing that he [Partridge] drives and that defines his character”.

He also argued that 15 or 20 professionals had been lined up to work, presumably suggesting an inability to drive would leave them jobless, if only for a while.

But what really startled me was that the judge appeared to agree and reduced the ban to just two months.

I think it’s worth recalling Coogan’s driving record. In 2012 he was found not guilty of speeding after it had initially “slipped his mind” that a friend had been driving; in 2016 he was fined and banned for 28 days for speeding in Brighton.

The chairwoman of the magistrates this time around said she had taken into account the “exceptional hardship” a lengthy ban would cause. What kind of “hardship”?

How wonderful for celebrities who can put forward defences of this type. Would the same argument work for ordinary drivers who don’t appear on television? Like delivery people, ambulance drivers, care workers and busy mums trying to combine a zero hours job with dropping their kids off at school.

I think we know the answer.

Source: Janet Street-Porter: Steve Coogan is driving on thin ice