21 April 2016
Spoilt Celebrities and Respect for Others
Paul Hollywood setting his son a bad example.
by Lynda Goetz
Meryl Streep apparently thinks that celebrities should have children to curb their egos, or so she told a Telegraph reporter at an event to promote her latest film. She feels that the secret to staying grounded is to have children who see you as a parent, not a celebrity. They have a tendency, it appears, to put you in your place. Clearly this does not work for all parents. On discovering that his son Josh, aged 13, shared his interest in baking, Paul Hollywood (Mary Berry’s fellow judge on The Great British Bake Off ) admitted that it made him “emotional”. That would be fine if it didn’t also bring out his inner celebrity ego.
Teachers get scant enough respect in this country as it is. We are all very fond of quoting ‘Those who can do; those who can’t teach’. In many other countries the status of teachers is much higher and their role as educators of the next generation makes them more highly regarded as a profession than is generally the case here. Many of them have to put up with ignorant parents defending the ignorant and indefensible behaviour of their offspring, to the point on occasion of physical violence. They should not also have to put up with celebrities who consider that their status puts their child in a different category from all others. Josh Hollywood’s teacher gave him 6 out of 10 for a quiche he had made. Paul Hollywood, according to reports, was ‘furious’ and sent his son into school the following day with a note for the teacher which read ‘How dare you give my son such a low mark. His quiche was worth at least a nine out of ten!’ If this report is true (and Hollywood has subsequently denied it, saying it was a joke) then it does neither him nor his son any favours.
At the age of 13 (or possibly 14 – reports differ) his son should not be wanting or expecting his father to wade in on such matters. Most 14 year-olds would cringe at the thought of Mum or Dad voicing an opinion on school ‘stuff’. Should novelists and journalists be re-marking their kids’ school essays? Should actors be telling teachers to put their offspring in the school play or musical just because the parents have talent? Why on earth does Paul Hollywood think that his judgement on cooking extends into the cookery class at his son’s school? There, surely, it is the teacher who is the judge? Now, it may be that his judgement is poor, or that it is not as good as Mr Hollywood’s or even that Mr Hollywood’s son is a totally annoying teenager who flaunts the status of his father to the point where his teacher wanted to bring him down a peg or two, but, as it is a question of judgement not one of fact, I would suggest it is not Paul Hollywood’s job to start sending outraged notes to school.
The best thing Paul Hollywood could have done under the circumstances is to have had a chat with his disappointed son, told him that ‘life is frequently unfair’ and that perhaps his teacher was envious of Josh’s father’s success, praised him for some great baking and enjoyed the results for supper.
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