Ewan McGregor cancelled an interview on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday in protest at Piers Morgan’s comments about the women’s marches which took place around the world on Saturday. Our readers have been debating his decision and discussing what impact it may have.
You can expand the discussion and join in by clicking the links on the comments, below.
‘All credit to Mr. McGregor’
‘To the people saying he should have gone on the show and argued his point ... ’
For those saying McGregor should have gone on the show and argued his point: if he did that, people would have tuned in to watch, and the GMB bosses would have been reassured that their choice to hire Piers Morgan was a good one: he's bringing in the ratings. However, if an A-list actor refuses to appear on the show due to Morgan's presence, then the GMB producers get a very different message about Morgan's value.
‘Morgan’s intense desire to be the story has totally tainted him’
It's perfectly reasonable of McGregor, regardless of his politics, Morgan's intense desire to be the story has totally tainted him as host of a breakfast telly show - he is the elephant in his own room.
And those saying McGregor should just do his job - should his job be having an argument with the alt right's creepy sad sack uncle? It's not like Morgan was suggesting he'd put politics aside.
(Also worth noting that the way this story has blown up will probably do more for the film's PR than a single telly appearance)
‘The cynic in me sees this as a bit of a PR stunt’
Refusing to talk to someone about a film because you have different views from them is a bit of a poor life choice. I know people with all kinds of political beliefs. Refusing to talk about football, or play pool, or go running, or have a pint etc with the ones I disagree with would just be silly. It's a sad aspect of modern life that many people seek to surround themselves exclusively with people they agree with and whose views they deem to be 'right'.
I like McGregor as an actor, but the cynic in me sees this as a bit of a PR stunt.
‘Very unprofessional of Ewan’
Very unprofessional of Ewan to let Piers's journalistic views expressed on a subject totaly not related to why Ewan was due to appear on the show, and in an etirely different medium and format for him to renege on his commitments to appear on the show, which i'm sure his fans were looking forward to, and to cancel a prior agreed upon booking at the last hour.
‘Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences’
He should 'allow' other opinions? I wasn't aware he was stopping Morgan having an opinion, he's just saying he finds it offensive and isn't going to help his career by appearing on his show. Like many people Morgan needs to learn that freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences.
‘He’s a world citizen first, what he does for a living is irrelevant’
Good for Ewan. He's a world citizen first, what he does for a living is irrelevant. The vast majority of people marching on Saturday were not there for 'political' reasons. Whether DT is a Democrat or a Republican doesn't matter - he's the President of the United States who has clearly demonstrated through his past actions that being a 'celebrity' means he can assault women with impunity. He has openly declared he will take away the funding for Planned Parenthood and one of his first actions on Saturday was to deny foreign aid to countries that use it give help and advice to women on birth control - even those countries where women are in constant fear of being raped and where there is no point reporting this to the police. If Piers Morgan continues to defend DT's words and actions against women, then I hope that other 'celebrities' will also boycott GMB. I don't watch the programme because of him.
‘Deny Morgan the attention he craves’
Brilliant move by McGregor.
Deny Morgan the attention he craves...post a single tweet explaining why...then leave Morgan to seethe all day while attempting to respond to every negative thing written about him on Twitter.
Beautiful.
‘Everything will be back to normal tomorrow’
No doubt that many will try to paint this as a spurious freedom of speech/freedom of political opinion attack on poor, little Piers but if Ewan did leave on political grounds, and not just that he couldn't stomach Morgan and his dribbling sycophancy, then Ewan was providing the balance.
His non-showing was 10 minutes out of one show on one day. The rest of the time, Morgan has the very big megaphone that is 'Good Morning Britain' to pontificate and fill time until the next advert break on just about anything. Today was when there was a finally a vague gesture towards someone finally figuratively wagging an index finger in his fat, gormless, self-satisfied face and telling him to shut up. Everything will be back to normal tomorrow.
All credit to Mr. McGregor for his willingness to live by his principles rather. The unctuous Mr. Morgan is someone I wouldn't want to spend any time with even if he hadn't said things about the women's march that I find so objectionable. He's just as entitled to his opinion as Mr. McGregor, or anyone else, is. But Mr. McGregor certainly isn't obliged publicly suffer a fool just to promote a new film.