Criticism of Welsh opera crossover singer Katherine Jenkins — whom I last mentioned (respectfully) here: Using your marketing ‘assets’ — makes Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir look petty and shabby.
Apparently the beautiful and talented Ms Jenkins used her participation in the recent London Marathon (impressed yet?) to raise £25,000 for a cancer charity. Ms Moir accused the singer of ‘stealing the limelight’ and, it seems to me, wrote an article slamming her, mainly for looking good. Perhaps Ms Moir doesn’t understand how celebrity fundraising works these days?
She had lashings of pink lip gloss, sooty false eyelashes and sweeping, coal black eyeliner. Not to mention a perfect silvery manicure, those ever-tanned limbs, her blonde hair pulled back into an immaculate ponytail and raisin-sized diamonds in her ears. At points during the race she would pop on a pair of £200 Prada sunglasses just to add to her athletic mystique
Whatever, here is Ms Jenkins’ rather wonderful Twittered response:
Jan (Moir), I wish you love & happiness in your life. I adore & support other women and I only wish you could do the same. I ran on Sunday in memory of my father & to raise money (£25,000) for an excellent charity (@macmillancancer) who helped him when he was dying. Yes, I twittered about it but I did so to share my progress & day with those kind people on twitter who had supported & sponsored me. I ran in sunglasses because it was sunny. I tied my hair back in a pony tail because I expected to sweat. As if you had some insider knowledge you wrote I was wearing eye shadow, eye liner& lip gloss. Wrong again – none of the above – I had Vaseline on my lips, handed to us by St Johns Ambulance on our way round the route. You can knock me all you like but you cannot take away from me what I know I accomplished last weekend. Next time you run a marathon Jan, I will be the first to sponsor you, because I know how much guts, hard work & determination it takes.
Class.
– P
PS I’m on my second pair of Vuarnet sunglasses. (I lost my first pair after five plus years when we capsized a dinghy in the surf coming back from checking the crayfish pots down at the beach.) They’re expensive, but they’re optically superior — they actually relax my eyes. I totally understand why Ms Jenkins would choose quality eyewear.
Via a retweet by Toby Manhire @toby_etc
Tres excellent.