Heroes for Today: Hugh Grant, actually.

Who’d of thunk that an actor who once became notorious for his run-in with a streetwalker would end up turning the tables on the paparazzi who made his private life virtually nonexistent thereafter? Or that he’d become a hero to all the people victimized by Rupert Murdoch’s junk-journalism empire in the process?

Certainly it never occurred to Hugh Grant when his car broke down in Kent last December, making him late for a meeting…and, in true comedic style, his “rescue” came in the form of a noisome former paparazzo who still kept his camera in the glove box for just such an occasion. Grant did some real journalism of his own, and ended up getting all the poop on just what the tabloids are willing to do to get those hot exclusives, illegalities and all. You can read the whole story on that at the New Statesman website, and see him on the BBC’s video site, handing that same paparazzo his arse with about as much elegance and class as I’ve ever seen.

Now the infamous News of the World is done for, and it looks like it may just be the tip of a very large iceberg.

Well done, sir. Jolly well done!

PS: When can we expect the movie?