Villain
Michelangelo’s David, says Carol Midgley in The Times, for shamelessly parading “his marble Jolly Roger”. An American school principal has had to resign after parental complaints about children being shown the statue, tackle-out, in a Renaissance art class.
Hero
Liam Neeson, at least in the minds of Hollywood producers, who endlessly send him scripts for action movies. The 70-year-old actor has to ring up his agent and say, “Do they know what age I am?”
Hero
King Charles, for his top-notch German pronunciation. On his state visit to Germany his week, the monarch made sections of his speeches in the local tongue, even managing to nail the word rechenschaftspflicht – which roughly translates as “accountability”.
Villain
Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s joint presidents, who flew to last year’s COP27 climate talks in Egypt on a private jet. Michel, the head of the European Council, has used chartered air taxis for 72 out of the 112 foreign trips he’s taken since entering office in 2019, says Politico. Europe’s famous trains have been used for just six of them.