Right now – amidst Brexit and Trump – there is one man keeping us going. And that man is Richard E Grant. Here is for why…
- Richard E. Grant has been nominated for an Oscar for the first time in his career. On the day he found out, he posted a video of himself standing outside the Notting Hill bedsit he’d once lived in LITERALLY ECSTATIC that 36 years later, at the age of almost 62, he was now an academy nominee. Save the video. Watch it 1993848748393993 times. At no point, will the joy diminish.
- As a life-long super-fan of Barbra Streisand, he posted a photo of himself outside her house in LA, telling the story of how he wrote to her when he was 14, inviting her to stay with him and his family while she recovered from her break-up with Ryan O’Neal. It included inspiring Shakespeare quotations to help her during this difficult time. Because the Universe responds to joy with more joy, Barbra herself tweeted him to say thank you. He posted a picture of himself crying when he heard what she’d done. If you’re not crying now too, you need to check your pulse. Because you’re dead.
- He has gone fan-mad at all the award ceremonies he is attending and has posted a succession of genuinely terrible selfies with famous people. Here is squashed between Glenn Close, Shirley MacLaine and Frances Fisher. That might be him with Spike Lee. Hard to tell when it’s that blurred. Some of them only contain half his face. Even then, you can still see how UNBELIEVABLY FUCKING HAPPY he is.
- He didn’t win at the BAFTAs. But he stood up for almost everyone who did. And then he helped the 79-year old Thelma Schoonmaker onto the stage to receive her fellowship and the nation felt a blow to the solar plexus because this love is enough to knock the wind out of you.
- His daughter took a boomerang of him hopping about, post BAFTA, so we could all see the red soles of his Louboutin shoes. Like he cares he didn’t win. Literally dying right now.
- The comments he is getting will restore your faith in humans. Yes, social media can be a sinkhole for humanity – but it is also allowing us to share his joy.
Thank you Richard E. Grant. You have totally won at life.
