The Touch of Fame

Before we, for now at least, leave the subject of Rolf Harris and his heinous sex crimes, I can't help but note the recent last gasp attempt to wring more mileage out of it by the media: the celebrity groping story.  Yes, that's right, for a while every second-string celebrity in creation seemed to be popping up in the tabloids and day time TV shows, telling us their tales of how Rolf Harris once touched them up.  Apparently it sometimes even happened live on air.  Yet nobody ever reported these incidents.  Then again, nobody ever reported Jimmy Savile's depredations (or, if they did, their claims were dismissed by the police and other authorities).  All of which tells us something about the poisonous world of celebrity in the UK, where the 'talent' is so revered that even some of its victims seem prepared to collude in the covering up of its crimes, for fear of setting back their own careers.  Apparently sycophancy trumps sexual assault in the land of celebrity - evidently being touched by fame is desirable even when it is a grope.  Until the 'talent' in question is convicted or dead, then you can jump on the bandwagon and try to exploit the harassment you allegedly suffered but didn't report - thereby allowing the perpetrator to carry on offending -  in order to try and breath life into your own flagging career with a bit of tabloid exposure.

Perhaps I'm being too hard on these celebrity 'victims' of Rolf Harris.  But I don't think so - to be honest, I'm surprised that there aren't more of them trying to capitalise on his conviction in order to gain themselves some more publicity.  Not that I'm saying that any of those who have so far come out with their tales of being groped are lying, but I am amazed that we haven't had every reality show runner-up and talent show also-ran coming out with stories of how Rolf felt them up, even though they'd never met him, in one last desperate attempt to prolong their 'careers'.  After all, once someone has been convicted of something like sexual assault, they aren't really in a position to try and deny other allegations, even if they are false.  But again, perhaps I'm just being too cynical.  Nevertheless, getting minor celebrities to make false claims of sexual assault for publicity purposes is just the sort of stunt the likes of Max Clifford would have pulled in his pomp.  Of course, Max Clifford himself is currently banged up for sexual assault, so can no longer give this sort of advice out to his clients.  Maybe he should have tried that as a defence: he was just trying to show his clients what they should tell the press Rolf Harris did to them...