name droppers

Doncha just hate name droppers on radio or TV? It's even worse when they use a familiar form of the famous person's first name, as if saying, 'You little people out there , you proles, just have to accept I'm in a different class...' Natasha Spender did this on the last 'Desert Island Discs', referring in upper-crust tones to her friends Sam Barber and Lenny, (the composers Samuel Barber and Leonard Bernstein). Sheer snobbish discourtesy to the listener.

Now, I knew her late husband, the famous poet Steve Spender, and I'm sure he'd never have behaved like that: he was a gent. I've known several famous people, including Tom Eliot, Tom Hardy, Bob Redford, Andy Motion, Johnny Mills, Larry Olivier, Willie Yeats, Jimmy Stewart and Maggie Drabble, to name but a few. I might say 'Hi, Larry!' when phoning Olivier, but would always, when referring to him on the media, use the name by which he is universally known.