In recent years, some famous people have branched out from their chosen specialist subject and lent their name to certain consumer products.
Paul Newman’s salad dressings spring to mind, as do Loyd Grossman’s pasta sauces (which are actually pretty good). Hey, even Cliff Richard produces his own wine.
Now at the time, some of these seemed pretty weird, but we’ve got used to them. You can imagine my surprise then, when I was sauntering along the aisles of my local supermarket and spotted on sale umpteen jars of, I kid you not, Barry Norman’s Pickled Onions.
Here’s a quote from the supermarket’s website:
Barry Norman never buys pickled onions. He doesn’t need to. Using a 19th century recipe handed down from grandmother to mother to son he makes them himself.
The ploughman’s favourite side order are apparently grown on Bazzer’s own farm and the former BBC film critic has decided to cash in and lend his name to the product,
The question is, does this totally undermine the credibility that he has built up over decades of movie reviewing?
From All About Eve to alliums…