“Fact-free, amoral, bigotry-apologism of a celebrity today” and “superior, dismissive and arrogant” are among the barbs exchanged by two globally known British figures who have been engaged in a Twitter battle since Sunday.
The war of words between Harry Potter author JK Rowling and TV personality Piers Morgan took another amusing turn on Tuesday, after Morgan slammed a write-up that sung praises of the novelist, without realising that they were his own words.
Rowling on Tuesday tweeted a screenshot of an article that described her commercial success, wealth and the “squillions of awards” she had won that ensured that she “definitely matters”. Morgan then quoted the tweet, calling it “Priceless #humblebrag BS”. “Nobody plays the celebrity game more abusively or ruthlessly than you, Ms ‘Intensely Private Billionaire’,” he said.
A BuzzFeed reporter said it was “the best day of his life” after he realised that the writer praising Rowling was, in fact, Morgan. He went on to tweet a number of screenshots to prove this.
It did not take Morgan long to respond to the reporter. Switching to damage control mode, he claimed he knew what the article had been all along and was merely questioning his judgement. “Relax, quarter-wit. I knew what it was. Just surprised I put her as high as 97th,” he said, referring to an article titled, “The 100 British celebrities who really matter by Piers Morgan (100 to 79)“. Morgan’s retort was received mainly by memes that said things like “Sure you did”.
The Twitter battle that has audiences grabbing tubs of popcorn began after the Harry Potter author tweeted a clip of HBO’s Real Time in which another guest of the show swore at Morgan for suggesting that there would have been minimal difference between Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidency and the Donald Trump government. “Yes, watching Piers Morgan being told to fuck off on live TV is exactly as satisfying as I’d always imagined,” she wrote on Twitter.
Morgan responded hours later, saying, “This is why I’ve never read a single word of Harry Potter”, and heralding the beginning of the Rowling-Morgan. He claimed everything he had said on the show had been factual, to which the author replied with her usual snark. “Would you like a couple of hours to mock up some pictures of refugees carrying explosives to substantiate your position?”
Rowling has yet to respond to Morgan’s latest attempt to cover his slip up, but it can be assumed that she’s behind her screen “roaring with laughter” as she did while watching the HBO programme.
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