* UPDATE June 2017: Loving Dalston was first with this story, and it sold all around the world. Profitable though this may be for an under-funded news site, it is also dismaying how a story about slebs appeals to news editors more than, say, a serious bit of dirt-digging. — Editor

HOW DELIGHTFUL to see a couple cuddling up in a cinema to watch a movie. Ain’t love grand?

Sure is. But in the case of the Hackney Picturehouse’s screening of Forgotten Man, an 84-minute drama shot in East London, the lovers comprised the power couple Rupert Murdoch and model-actress Jerry Hall, who had a cameo role in the feature.

Yep, the media magnate-Hollywood mogul, instead of saying “Why can’t we just watch it at home on video?” agreed to travel — in a tycoon-comfy four-wheel-drive, of course — all the way from his Mayfair pad to the Mare Street movie house. Romantic or what? 

A security man had cased the joint and given the all-clear: the 86-year-old and his 60-year-old wife were all set for a relaxing session in the back row.

Alas, things did not go altogether well. Leaving as the lights went up to signal the start of a question-and-answers session arranged by the programmer, the East End Film Festival, they were spotted by a young Corbynista in the near-full house.

Murdoch paused in his shuffle towards the exit as a loud voice rent the air: “We are the majority now, you [James Blunt]!” Except he used a single word.

David Altheer 170617

* Footnote: Not that Murdoch seemed bothered: the chauffeured Range Rover next pootled off to the barn-like Well Street Lidl on the way out of Hackney, where a bottle of champagne (£9.99) was, claims a political reporter, bought for the Texan and the media giant. Or did they just pop the bubbly in the FWD’s mini-fridge for later?

* Main picture © DavidAltheer [at] gmail.com  for sale for reproduction. Other image: publicity pic. Image from Twitter includes pic taken by Hetty Einzig.

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