FILM AND TV / MISCELLANY

Your Entitlement is Showing Again, John Barrowman

With his petty and spiteful actions against an award-winning director and an already wounded film industry, John Barrowman has exposed himself all over again

John Barrowman speaking with attendees at the 2019 Phoenix Fan Fusion at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Image by Gage Skidmore and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Ahhh, Twitter. What would we do without it? The shouty, ranty echo-chamber that makes our blood boil in fury, then placates us with poetic platitudes and pictures of playful puppies. I love it!

What’s also great is that Twitter can really weed out the highly unpleasant members of our society and highlight the kinds of behaviour that used to stay hidden behind a veneer of (albeit fake) decency. Anonymity, and the irresistible lure of 15 minutes of internet fame, is a remarkably effective tool when it comes to chipping away at false propriety.

When it comes to the world of entertainment and celebrity, such behaviour would usually be whispered about on-set but whitewashed by publicists and fixers. But with plenty of old footage openly circulating on the internet and millions of people gossiping on social media, that already thin veneer can be chipped away very quickly nowadays, exposing the ugliness behind the façade faster than you can say “Trending on Twitter”.