Scandal maketh the man? The evolution of Hugh Grant and the celebrity confessional

ABSTRACT

Following a range of supporting roles in the late 1980s, Hugh Grant’s breakthrough performance in Four Weddings and A Funeral (1994) established him as Britain’s ‘go-to’ romantic lead. And yet, a potentially career-ending sex scandal while on the verge of Hollywood stardom could be considered the making of the man. By analysing press coverage using analytical approaches and frameworks from celebrity studies, this article shows how several flashpoints in Grant’s personal life and subsequent ‘celebrity confessionals’ have been central to Grant’s enduring popularity and evolving star persona. As I argue, scandals across three decades, and subsequent confessionals are mirrored in Grant’s maturing onscreen persona – from commitment-phobic characters, to experimentation with satire and comedy for the American market, to his triumphant return in British biography/dramedies. This article considers Grant’s evolving and unique engagement with the media as a type of ‘reverse confessional’ – where Grant’s confessions subsequently expose the shifting nature of celebrity engagement with the media, and less desirable aspects of the (British) tabloid press. In sum, I contend the reverse narrative mode employed by Grant as an ‘image restoration strategy’ has allowed him to reclaim his own narrative and expose key truths about privacy, press coverage, and contemporary celebrity culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Hugh Grant
• celebrity
• scandal
• confessional
• star persona

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Four Weddings and a Funeral grossed $245 million USD globally, on a budget of only $4.4 million (Box Office Mojo 2022)

2. Hurley’s appearance in a loaned Versace dress is credited by Four Weddings and a Funeral creators Curtis and Kenworthy for generating much needed free publicity for the film, generating reams of tabloid coverage (Lamont 2014). If one enters ‘That dress’ into Google, Hurley and the Versace dress is still the number one hit, widely credited for revolutionising, and influencing red carpet fashion for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian; for more detail on the cultural impact, see Holland (2020).

3. The 2002 murder of Milly Dowler and subsequent revelation that her voicemails were hacked by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire for NOTW, impeding the police investigation into her disappearance, caused widespread outrage (Davies and Hill 2011). This incident was one of the central charges against NOTW, discussed at length during the Leveson Inquiry (2011) into phone hacking and media standards.

4. While the press reported on Hong and Grant’s second child, the birth of Grant’s son John with (his now wife) Anna Eberstein was not public knowledge until January 2014 when he signed the birth certificate, which was then reported in the press (Andrews 2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Renée Middlemost

Renée Middlemost is a Lecturer in Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Her research focuses on fan participation, celebrity, and popular culture, and has been published in journals including Celebrity Studies, American Behavioural Scientist, M/C Journal, and the Australasian Journal of Popular Culture. She is the co-founder of the Fan Studies Network Australasia, and a co-editor of Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies.