Bloody hell, someone’s got an axe to grind – but at least he’s quite witty about it. Piers Morgan is delighted by this whole Russ and Ross phone scandal – because he can’t stand Jonathan. “Sorry if I'm missing something here, but can someone please explain to me why Jonathan Ross hasn't been fired yet by the BBC?” he says in a column for the Daily Mail. “Russell Brand, his vile cohort in this quite appalling incident, is almost an irrelevance in this. He's just a sex-obsessed ex-junkie, a pre-Raphaelite version of Bernard Manning who will say literally anything to make a cheap tabloid headline, however lewd, crude or downright disgusting… But Jonathan Ross is different. He is the highest-paid star in BBC history, their flagship hero, a man given £18million of taxpayers' money to amuse and entertain the nation on the airwaves. Dwell on that amount for a few seconds while you work out how to pay this week's food and petrol bills. What you probably don't expect for all that hard-earned cash is that Ross will use it to abuse and insult a kind, gentle, well-loved, 78-year-old actor with gratuitous sexual sneers about his granddaughter.” And so he goes on. Piers also reveals that he and Jonathan used to be friends. “But recently,” he explains. “Our relationship 'hit the rocks' as they say in showbiz circles, for reasons I was never able to entirely fathom – though I suspect it may not be entirely unconnected to the fact that I am going to host a big new rival interview show for ITV.” Nice plug there, Piers – real smooth. “He loves dishing it out, but can't stand it coming back at him,” he adds. “And as his pay packet rose, so his behaviour, temper, and standards, deteriorated – the classic sign of a humungous ego (and I speak of something of an expert in this area) now writing cheques the body can no longer cash.” Blimey, kicking the dog while he’s down, or what?
Piers lets rip at Ross