A new Brand of Ross?

I have been watching with the interest the news about the Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross radio fiasco, and their calls to veteran actor Andrew Sachs.

At least it has diverted the doom and gloom headlines about the credit crunch for a couple of days which is a relief.

I am amazed that the broadcast was allowed to continue in the first place - and it is quite right that these two highly paid 'stars' are brought to account over this shocking behaviour.

Russell Brand has actually done the decent thing and resigned which has earned him some brownie points, but Mr Ross' fate is still to be decided as I write this. Pushing the boundaries of taste is one thing, but open abuse of an grandfather who has never done any harm to anyone is another.

This is a clear example of the 'celebrity' culture that I have come to detest so much, when overpaid, overhyped people feel they can do and say exactly what they want and stuff the consequences. Jonathan Ross has over the years had some very funny moments, but has suffered for some time from an over-importance syndrome.

Unfortunately when taxpayers' hard-earned money is brought into the frame, this quite rightly becomes a bigger issue. At last count the incident had spurned 27,000 complaints and counting.

Had this happened on a local radio station, or something similar been written in a local or trade publication, those in question would have been handed a P45 within seconds. But most editors wouldn't have let this happen in the first place.

Why is it always one rule for the normal people, and another for this appalling bunch of 'celebrities'?