The paparazzi are gathering like assassins around the High Court, with the sun glinting off their long-range lenses. My office overlooks the Victorian court buildings where Sir Paul McCartney and his ex-wife Heather Mills will today contest their divorce settlement in camera. Despite the photographers circling the alleys around the High Court that means in private.
With Heather Mills defending herself, and the sums involved allegedly ranging from £10 million to £100 million, it has all the ingredients for a legal pot-boiler.
Polis has three events coming up that may end up mentioning aspects of this case. On February 25th we discuss the way that celebrity journalism has seeped in to all aspects of public life. Then on March 3rd the former BBC and Barbican boss Sir John Tusa will ask whether arts journalism has been taken over by the commercial pressure of celeb culture. While also in March we have a seminar with top female journalists on whether the number of women in the media is changing the way that gender is treated in stories. It seems to me that the vilification of Heather Mills is an interesting case in point.
Contact us at polis@lse.ac.uk if you wish to know more about these events.
