If politics is showbiz for ugly people, then showbiz is surely just politics by uglier means. By media standards, Mr S has barely covered the Phillip Schofield saga – penning just two articles on it – but given the skullduggery going on at This Morning, how could he not return to the fray? Especially when our elected leaders have decided, in their infinite wisdom, to summon ITV’s bosses before a parliamentary select committee for a ritual public flaying.
Wearily then did Steerpike tune into breakfast television at the anointed hour – 10 a.m – to hear an address to the nation by our secular queen, Holly Willoughby. With eyes watering and bosom heaving, the ITV star told of how she felt ‘shaken, troubled and let down’ by Schofield’s actions. And, with the kind of spin-doctor sorcery that would put Peter Mandelson to shame, Willoughby uttered her disgraced co-star’s name before referring to him in language redolent of an Orwellian ‘Unperson’:
You, me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth, who acted in a way that they themselves felt that they had to resign from ITV, and step down from a career that they loved.
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