John Galliano on Trial

Really? I'm going to defend John Galliano? After I slated Cheryl Cole for being a racist? Is Pony and Trap the kind of hypocrite who eats ribs?

John Galliano, who you may see referred to in less pedantic reports as a fashion designer, but who as of yesterday is actually "an unemployed bloke", was the creative director at Christian Dior. Then, he "allegedly" (why one has to say that I don't know, the video is all over the frickin' internet - he didn't so much "allegedly" do it as "blatantly" do it) made some outlandish racist remarks, including calling a man of Asian descent a "fucking Asian", and, as has been covered for some reason a whole lot more, slagging off Jews and saying he loved Hitler. Well, actually, he didn't slag off any actual Jews, it turned out that none of the people who have complained about his anti-Semitic slurs towards them was actually Jewish, he just presumably thought they were. Which somehow just makes him look like an even bigger twat, doesn't it?

There were apparently three incidents of John Galliano making such comments, all of which took place at La Perla, a cafe bar in Paris' traditional Jewish quarter Le Marais, though there is only video evidence of one of these occasions and although it has only just come to light, it actually was filmed in December 2010.

So, why, when everyone from his former employers to Natalie Portman (yeah, I wondered what the fuck she had to do with anything to start with as well, but it turns out she is the face of Dior perfume and is Jewish, so she's a bit pissed off about the whole thing) are condemning John Galliano would I want to be sticking up for him?

Well, I'm not sticking up for his opinions - fuck that. That is, even if they are his real opinions. He was very drunk when all of the alleged outbursts occurred, and you have to wonder why someone who hated Jews would be hanging out in the Jewish quarter of Paris in the first place - I'm not saying it was, but surely there is the possibility that it was just someone talking shit because they were pissed up? OK, so it would be the first recorded instance of beer goggles making Hitler look lovable, but still.

What I think is wrong about the whole thing, is that he may be facing a six month jail sentence and a fine that amounts to over $30,000. In fact, I think it's wrong that he even has to stand trial. So what you have, effectively, is a world where a woman can publicly lie about shagging David Beckham, make loads of money off of it, and not get in any trouble whatsoever for defamation of character even though he could prove he was in an entirely different city at the time, due to freedom of speech laws in America, but a man can go to prison and face a huge fine for something he said in private when pissed out of his crazy hat because it happened in France.

And would you want to go to prison if you looked like John Galliano? Hardly looks like he can handle himself, does he?

I think if Dior want to fire him, that's their business - because it's just that, business. People who know about this sort of thing are saying it will be hard to replace him, but again, that's Dior's business. Personally I think people in those sort of industries - fashion, art and whatnot, which as seriously as they may take themselves are basically there for our entertainment, are supposed to be a bit mental. They are also, surely, supposed to be a bit prejudiced - it's just they're supposed to be prejudiced against the poor and fat and the old and the ugly, rather than on a racial basis. In many ways, I think that like the whole Kate Moss cocaine thing and the whole Naomi Campbell being a bitch thing it will probably end up with John Galliano still having some form of career in fashion after enough rehab 'n' grovelling. Rehab 'n' grovelling being the time honoured recipe for redemption for famous people.

I don't agree with John Galliano's comments. I do think he has done something wrong. I just don't think he has done anything criminal. Unlike Cheryl Cole, who actually beat someone up for being black.