Stephen Fry ‘no longer in service’ on Twitter
The comedian and writer Stephen Fry has hinted he has posted his final message on the micro blogging site Twitter following controversial remarks about women’s attitudes to sex.
Has Stephen Fry departed Twitter forever? The TV personality and broadcaster appears to have quit the social network site – for a second time. His profile picture has been changed, bizarrely, into an image of some wood flooring and the star has replaced his biography details with “no longer in service”.
It follows a spat with a newspaper over the weekend.
The Observer had quoted an interview Stephen Fry had given to the magazine Attitude in which the writer reportedly said: “If women liked sex as much as men, there would be straight cruising areas in the way there are gay cruising areas… It doesn’t happen. Why? Because the only women you can have sex with like that wish to be paid for it.”
In comments, which the paper described as “uncharacteristically extreme,” the 53-year-old comedian had apparently continued: “I feel sorry for straight men. The only reason women will have sex with them is that sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship with a man, which is what they want.
“Of course, a lot of women will deny this and say, ‘Oh no, but I love sex, I love it!’ But do they go around having it the way that gay men do?”
In a Tweet posted yesterday afternoon, Fry had hit back at the report, claiming he had been misquoted: “So some ******* paper misquotes a humorous interview I gave, which itself misquoted me and now I’m the Antichrist. I give up”.
His final message on the site currently reads “bye bye”.
The Observer insisted its quotes had “fully and accurately reflects the opinions he expressed” during the interview.
Harry Potter row
Fry has become one of the most popular and prolific figures on Twitter, boasting nearly two million followers for his observations on his daily life.
The row came just days after it emerged he had removed two pictures he had taken on the set of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films.
Fry had been filming the latest Sherlock Holmes instalment at Leavesden studios in Hertfordshire when he posted snaps of the teenage wizard’s “overgrown” home at Privet Drive, and also of the Hogwarts school in ruins.
He later wrote: Oops. I’ve been sent to the naughty step…”.
When asked by a Twitter follower whether the decision to remove the pictures had followed pressure by film maker Warner Brothers, Fry added: “Your words, not mine…”.
It is not the first time that Stephen Fry has threatened to quit Twitter.
In October 2009, he announced his retirement after being accused of being “boring” during an online row with another user.
“Think I may have to give up on Twitter. Too much aggression and unkindness around,” he wrote, although he later changed his mind following an outcry from many of his followers.
In 1995, Fry went missing for several days after walking out of a production of Cell Mates in London’s West End. He eventually resurfaced in Belgium and later revealed he had contemplated suicide.