So if there's water in the well, let's go there again.
Coogan was on Newsnight the other night laying into a hapless tabloid journalist over the News of the World phone-hacking saga. Emily Maitlis did her (incompetent) best from stopping Coogan talking over the hack, but there was no holding him. "Morally bankrupt", was the comedian's repeated cry, as if repetition trumped all argument.
Before I deal with get this, a digression in the direction of Princess Diana. Not being one of those stricken by the bizarre wailing and gnashing of teeth when the Princess died, I found it curious even then how the thousands lining the Mall and gushing out their feelings in the book of condolences did not see their own complicity in their idol's death. For Diana's car crashed because the paparazzi were chasing it; the paparazzi chased it because they knew that newspapers would pay handsomely for their photos; and the papers were prepared to pay because a large section of the public, the same by and large gripped by the Princess's death, were willing to buy newspapers with her picture in.
There is something here analogous with the Coogan situation. The press is interested in what Steve Coogan does because they know his fans will buy newspapers featuring stories about him; and this is the element missing when Coogan goes on Newsnight to shout at some tabloid cockroach. Coogan is rich and feted because people will pay to watch his work; because they like his work they want to read stories about him; because people want to read stories about people like Coogan, the tabloids seek stories out (or make them up) and print them. Just like Princess Diana, Coogan is in a tri-partite dance with the press and the public which pays his wages. Viewed from this angle, the press are not the simple villains Coogan thinks, merely the mediators between him and us.
Coogan ought to know by now that in showbiz you cannot have riches without fame, and you cannot have fame without public interest in your private life. When he goes on Newsnight and accuses the red tops of printing stories about him "just because it sells newspapers", he thinks he is making an accusation about the press; instead he is just stating the reality of his relationship with them and with the public.
He's entitled to try and manage this relationship to his own advantage (Diana did when it suited her), but he is not entitled to do as he did on Newsnight and accuse the hapless hack of "moral bankruptcy". Actually Coogan has elected to join a dance all of whose participants - celebs, press and public - are compromised.
My knowledge of what it's like to be famous is less than zero, but I imagine it helps if you don't cheat on your wife with a pair of hookers, or spend a fortnight in a hotel room with Courtney Love shoving ounces of Mexico's finest up your nose. Perhaps next time temptation calls, Steve, you could try staying in with a good book. See if the tabloids want to print that.
And when someone offers you a few million quid to appear in Night at the Museum Parts 1 and 2, you might read the name on the cheque first. Apparently the films were produced by Twentieth Century Fox (prop. one R Murdoch). But obviously you didn't know that when you agreed to appear in them. Because if you had known, you would have turned the money down, wouldn't you?
