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Anorak News | Den Of Iniquity

Den Of Iniquity

by | 4th, May 2004

‘IN the tabloid lexicon, the word ‘pervert’ goes with internet sex, in the way that ‘bogus’ goes with asylum seeker.

‘And this year’s Supreme Champion, the top dog of 2004 is…’

Had EastEnders star Leslie Grantham, for instance, cheated on his wife in time-honoured fashion in a hotel room, the papers’ show of moral outrage would have been shrill but short-lived.

The fact, however, that he used a laptop computer to indulge in sex play over the internet with a 23-year-old model called Amanda (otherwise known as a 49-year-old cabbie called Graham) could mean the end of his career on the BBC soap.

The Sun describes the sex sessions, in which 57-year-old Grantham filmed himself naked, aroused and sucking his finger during an internet exchange with the woman, as ‘sordid’.

The Star calls the actor, who plays Dirty Den in the soap, an ‘internet pervert’ – and says 81% of its readers think he should lose his job because of the incident.

And the Mirror thinks his encounters with the internet blonde, who styles herself ‘the Halo Polisher’, are ‘sleazy’.

But it’s not so much the internet sex sessions – perverted or not – that are the problem, nor even the fact that, because the computer was plugged into a BBC phone socket, licence fee payers were footing the bill.

It’s what Grantham is alleged to have said about his EastEnders co-stars that could spell disaster for the actor.

He apparently called Jessie Wallace ‘a dog’ and ‘vile’, said Shane Richie was ‘big-headed and self-infatuated’, described Kim Metcalf as ‘thick’ and ‘a block of wood’ and – with heavy irony – called Wendy Richard ‘a wanker’.

And the Sun says the quartet are said to be so furious that they are demanding the soap veteran be axed from his £300,000-a-year job.

‘Many cast members cannot stand Lesley because he walks around with such arrogance,’ a show insider tells the paper. ‘He thinks he is top dog and likes to think people are scared of him.’

Whereas we all know that Jessie Wallace is actually top dog…’



Posted: 4th, May 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink