‘Social media has become a scolding machine’: David Baddiel defends Hugh Grant over Oscars interview

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy David Baddiel has weighed in after Hugh Grant was called out on social media for what some called “obnoxious” behaviour on the Oscars red carpet. Posting on Twitter on Monday 13 March, comedian Baddiel wrote: “Those on here having a go at Hugh Grant for being rude on the Oscars red carpet have perhaps mixed up the word rude with the word real.” He added: “Those piling on to him reveal, again, how much social media has become a scolding machine. “All Grant does is respond naturally to the questions, but the opportunity is seen to tell him off, and therefore to say, underneath ‘I am a better person than this’ and pat they come.” In the comments below the post, some pointed out that Grant is often unenthusiastic on red carpets, even for his own films. Others also shared a clip of The Cure’s Robert Smith’s blunt response to an interviewer at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.