I’ve long admired Helen Mirren, but her interview was inconsistent . She says “the great thing that happens as you age is that you don’t care”, yet she wears lots of makeup and works for L’Oréal. She bangs on about feeling empowered, yet says she’s not as good-looking as in her youth. It doesn’t seem she’s happy with the way she looks at all.
Irene O’Malley
Loughborough
Sali Hughes says Helen Mirren has to put up with people focusing on her appearance, then subjects us to pages of discussion about that appearance. This is one of our great actors: is it asking too much to focus on that?
David McGovern
Salford, Manchester
I love that Mirren doesn’t call herself a feminist “because it’s just f***ing obvious”. But as a woman derided for being a feminist in the 70s, I decided in the 80s to reclaim it. It does define me, just as being called an actor helps define Mirren, so I’ll wear the badge with pride.
Debbie Cameron
Didsbury, Manchester
I’ve never thought about hair in this way (The Long And The Short Of It), because I’m Muslim and my hair is covered. I colour it, but that’s all, and I am now bored looking in the mirror and seeing the same hair I’ve had since my teens.
eminexion On theguardian.com
Sophie Heawood reminded me of my interview for Cambridge in 1974. “I see you are at Tottenham School,” the dons said. “You’re the first applicant we’ve ever had from a comprehensive. Is it very rough?” They stared at me as if I was an exotic creature. I didn’t get an offer.
John Richards
Bristol
I was at Oxford, and what I find most startling about Piggate is that I never encountered anyone like that. Where were these people? And how on earth did they end up with degrees, let alone running the country?
DavidRees On theguardian.com
Your car reviews mention combined fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Are those actual figures, or the manufacturers’ ones? I expect they’d stop lending you cars if you had the figures independently checked.
Julian Dunn
Great Haseley, Oxfordshire
We had no idea you could mine for jeans. Presumably you are looking for ones with deep pockets and strong seams.
Michael Teare and Pamela Sanders
Honiton, Devon
Neil Richardson says that voting for someone because they are a woman is “undemocratic and wrong”. Well, no: voters vote for people for all sorts of reasons – because of their religion, gender, the way they fill out a suit, because they’ve fronted a TV show, even because of their politics. That’s how democracy works. Looked at this way, voting to even out the gender disparity doesn’t look so bad.
Chris Chapman
London SE10
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