Irish Examiner view: A cheeky selfie

Sat, 25 Feb, 2023 - 02:00

One of the numerous curses visited upon the world by the rise of social media — it would take a far higher word count than the length of this column to list them all with supporting evidence — is the apparently insatiable desire to grab “a cheeky selfie” with flavour-du-jour celebrities.

For some people intruding on others uninvited is simply a case of bad manners while simultaneously demonstrating excessive neediness on the part of the perpetrator, one more example of the self-aggrandising “look-at-me” mentality which is encouraged by Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, to name just four platforms.

It is true, also, that many on the receiving end are happy to share the love and celebrate their happiness and good luck while expanding their fan base. But there is a thin line which can be easily crossed. As Paul Mescal, the current hot ticket in acting, discovered while posing with a female admirer outside the Almeida Theatre in Islington, North London, where he has been appearing as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Mescal, who has been in Dublin for the International Film Festival, told ES magazine that he was groped during the encounter and that his experience of fame was: “Ninety-seven per cent of it is really nice — then 3% is somebody, like, grabbing your ass.

“I remember tensing up and feeling just, like, fury. I turned to her and said: ‘What’re you doing? Take your hand off my ass,’” he said.

We live in a world where people are often over-familiar, but it is unusual for men to complain in such circumstances. But Mescal has done everyone a favour by reminding us of that old, pre-internet, expression that what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.

Paul Mescal on Oscar parties, Phoebe Bridgers split and how he landed Gladiator starring role