Last updated at 12:43, Tuesday, 17 April 2012

There's a woman making a bit of stir at the moment – as only a woman can.

Her name is Brick and – she being about as subtle as one – reckons, immodestly, that she’s routinely hated by all other women because she’s too beautiful for her own good.

Samantha Brick – to give her the full Sunday moniker – has been writing reams about herself in a national newspaper. Her subject – debilitating perfection – is her particular handicap.

It’s a burden, you see. Being incomparably lovely is such a pain – at least, until you learn how to make money complaining about it in print.

Since beauty is supposed to be in the eye of the beholder, it would do no good here to point out I hadn’t reckoned on her as much of a head-turner. But lots of women do, apparently – and loathe her for it. Men, on the other hand, fall at the 41-year-old’s feet.

They routinely dash to pay for her cab fare, train fare, shopping. They present her with flowers and go all glassy-eyed in her presence.

“Do I think I’m good looking? Yes I do. Is that a crime?” she said to Eamonn Holmes when asked to defend her narcissistic opinions on TV’s This Morning.

Well, of course it isn’t. Self-esteem issues are difficult, which ever way they swing.

It isn’t a crime to believe yourself to be the bee’s knees, better than the rest, misunderstood by lesser – uglier – mortals. It isn’t even a crime to be thick as a brick or impervious to the cringes and furious exasperation expressed by people around you every time you open your heavily lip-glossed mouth.

But when Ms Brick’s comments caused a worldwide storm of online fury and socially networked, frantically gossiped outrage, another issue slipped into place.

How could so many be bothered to give a crass, ambitious, self-publicist credence with any kind of opinion at all? Never mind seeing fit to share those opinions with millions.

“I never buy that paper so won’t be funding her,” said one angry tweeter.

”I can honestly say I have never read her – just what I heard on Twitter and today’s Loose Women.”

Oh good grief! Is this really what we’ve come to?

First published at 11:24, Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk