Actor Bites Tabloid: Hugh Grant Blows Whistle on News of the World — In April

 

Newport, Rhode Island: Fish Pier 7/5/11

         I’ve not seen US coverage of Hugh Grant’s whistle blowing on the News of the World hacking.  This clip from the BBC came via the invaluable Naked Capitalism daily links.

          Grant wrote an article last April in The New Statesman, the UK equivalent (more or less) of The Nation.  He reported an encounter with Paul McMullan, the former News of the World editor at the center of the hacking storm.

           He then bugged the hacker.  The story is too good in Grant’s words to rehash in mine.  Listen to the clip with the volume up, since there are some hard to hear parts.  The unshaven bloke second from right on the BBC news set is McMullan.

           Grant is as sharp and witty in news clips and in writing as he is on screen.  Style aside, the substance of what he says, which McMullan confirms on air, is shocking – even given what we know as of today.