Hugh Grant admits he's a douchebag

Hugh Grant admits he's a douchebag

That's always been one thing that keeps Hughie above the level of the worst douchebags like Donald Trump. At least he's smart enough and self-aware enough to understand what a douche he is.

Let me be serious for just a second, to be fair to Grant. If you watch the show in question you'll see that Jon Stewart's bitterness was motivated by more than just Grant's bad behavior backstage. Grant also totally humiliated Stewart in the interview, and Jon obviously wasn't happy about it. Jon started to ask some questions about the crappy movie Grant was there to talk about, and it was soon apparent to Grant that Jon had not seen the movie and had not even read anything about it. Grant might have handled that tactfully, of course, but he didn't. He called Jon out and forced him to offer a grovelling apology for his lack of preparation.

I have to say that Grant was right to push the issue. Jon Stewart never lets an unprepared guest off the hook, so no guest should let him wiggle away either. But the point is this: Grant humiliated Jon in that interview, so you can see that Jon's antipathy for the guy was motivated at least in part by his having been schooled in front of his own audience.

That's not to say that Grant didn't deserve criticism, as he himself admitted today, but there is always a second side to any story.