A feud between Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan and actor Ewan McGregor has escalated after Morgan called McGregor “a pedophile-loving hypocrite.”
The actor pulled out of an interview on Morgan’s breakfast show on Tuesday after not agreeing with Morgan’s criticisms of the Women’s March last weekend.
Morgan had said that he would be organizing a men’s march in retaliation to the women’s marches, held across the world in protest of the incoming US administration. He called the marches “anti-democratic.”
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Morgan has continued to defend his words since then, and eventually started targeting Madonna on his show, saying she’s “fuelling an idea” to “assassinate” President Trump after she spoke at the Women’s March in Washington D.C. (He was one of several notable personalities to chide the singer.)
On Saturday, Madonna said that she was angry after the election and had thought “an awful lot about blowing up the White House.”
Morgan also took to Twitter to condemn the singer’s outburst.
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McGregor pulled out of ITV’s Good Morning Britain Tuesday morning, once he heard that Morgan would be the host.
Morgan’s response belittled McGregor for being an actor, implying that his opinion is less valid than other people’s.
Morgan continued to bash McGregor on the show, saying, “Sorry that Ewan McGregor’s not here. He couldn’t bear the thought of being on the sofa with me because he doesn’t agree with me about the Women’s March… I have to agree with what an actor thinks about a particular issue because they’re actors. And as we know, actors’ views are more important than anybody else’s.”
Morgan even published a column about McGregor on Tuesday, which dissects McGregor’s professional relationship with Roman Polanski, the director who fled the US in 1978 after pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.
“Had we done the interview, I might have asked him how his heroic support for women justified him working for director Roman Polanski, a self-confessed and convicted child abuser, on the film, The Ghost Writer,” Morgan wrote. “‘He’s a legendary filmmaker, one of the best,’ gushed McGregor in a 2010 interview about the pedophile, for whom Meryl Streep once gave a standing ovation at the Oscars.”
Morgan added: “A new warrant was issued for Polanski’s arrest during the movie’s post-production stage. McGregor, who has four young daughters, was asked about it and said: ‘I felt sad for Roman because he’s an old man who I’m incredibly fond of. I like him as a man.’”
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McGregor was appearing on Good Morning Britain to promote T2: Trainspotting. Morgan accused McGregor of trying to gain publicity for the film, which opens in the UK Friday, by cancelling his appearance.
“Ewan McGregor had his fun with me today and gained plenty of publicity for his movie in the process, which may well have been his main motivation all along.”
As of this writing, McGregor has not responded to Morgan’s comments.