No love, actually: Hugh Grant in handshake row with UK finance minister Javid after ‘incredibly rude’ jibe
by RT
No love, actually: Hugh Grant in handshake row with UK finance minister Javid after ‘incredibly rude’ jibe
British actor Hugh Grant has hit back at Sajid Javid on social media after the UK chancellor of the exchequer accused him of being “incredibly rude” for refusing to shake hands at a film premiere.
In an interview with the Evening Standard magazine, Javid recalled an encounter when he extended his hand to the Hollywood star and said “Lovely to meet you,” but Grant declined to shake his hand. “I think that is incredibly rude,” Javid added.
Grant, 57, released a statement on Twitter via his spokesman to fiercely reject Javid’s accusation. He explained that the reason for his refusal to shake hands was because Javid had been “rude and dismissive to the victims or [sic] press abuse when you met them as culture secretary.”
“If you don’t mind, I won’t shake your hand because you were rude and dismissive to the victims or press abuse when you met them as culture secretary.’
“Hugh would like to point out that the victims in question were not celebrities.
“… personal family tragedies who had been abused by sections of the press,” the spokesman said.
He said Grant was referring to a meeting between Mr Javid and “the victims of press abuse… (who) reported back that his attitude in the meeting was ‘borderline contemptuous’.”
Grant, who met Javid at the opening of Martin Scorsese’s new film ‘The Irishman’ earlier this month, claimed that friends – “victims of press abuse” – from his ‘Hacked Off’ campaign group had recounted their meeting with the chancellor.
[They] reported back to him that his attitude in the meeting was ‘borderline contemptuous.’
Hacked Off campaigns for “free and accountable press,” and was established in response to the notorious phone-hacking revelations that prompted the demise of Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper in 2011. Grant was one of a whole host of victims, including other celebrities and members of the public who had their phones targeted by the paper.
Javid was culture secretary between 2014 and 2015. He later became home secretary before being appointed chancellor of the exchequer in July this year by PM Boris Johnson.
