Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Sick joke

This morning I had to pop out to the supermarket and, as usual, son 1 asked me to pick up a copy of Heat magazine for him. I've just had a quick look through it myself and came across the free stickers being given away inside. Amongst them is a picture of the oldest child of Katie Price (aka Jordan), along with the words Harvey wants to eat me.

For those who don't know of Katie Price, or her son Harvey, 5, he has considerable physical and developmental disabilities, including being blind and on the autistic spectrum. He also has a medical condition which causes a growth disorder, making him very big for his age and no doubt very difficult to care for.

Now there are a lot of things about Katie Price that I'm not so keen on, but I have to admit that I have always admired her for the way she has been so up front about Harvey's issues and the fact that, despite their celebrity status, she and her new husband Peter Andre do care well for him at home (albeit with some help, I'm sure, but they do have two other very small children). It can't be easy for them.

So I have to say I found this sticker to be the lowest of the low. Harvey is a very disabled child whose size is the result of a medical problem, not over-eating. As a parent I feel for Katie and Peter, because son 1 has been on medication which has also made him put on a lot of weight. A known side effect of a medicine which helped to save his life. How would I feel if he were to be lampooned in this way?

Heat have really sunk to the depths this time. I'm glad to say I'm not the only blogger who thinks so...read India Knight here and Caitlin Moran here for a start. You can also see the sticker on their posts, I'm not going to give Heat any more publicity by putting it on here.

Three notable things:

1. Son 1 had his medication reviewed yesterday and has been taken off one of them (see above).

2. I have written my Three Little Pigs play (yes really!) for my OU Start Writing Plays course. Phew. I'll leave it for a couple of days and take another look later in the week.

3. We keep getting post delivered here which was intended for a family in a similarly named road and with a surname not unlike ours ( well the first two letters are the same...) I wonder how much of our post they are getting?

6 comments:

Lane Mathias said...

That defies belief.
Somebody actually designed that, and it must have passed by umpteen people before it reached publication and they all thought it was ok???

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with you about the way Katie Price has dealt with her son's disability. Well done to her for publicising it too, autism needs all the publicity it can get. I don't read Heat, I find it trash. You have just proved it to me.

Crystal xx

Anonymous said...

Good on ya Katie! Heat, never flipped the cover.

Boatwoman said...

Geesh, how much lower will the tabloids and magazines go. It begger belief it really does. I am not a reader of the tabloids or mags anymore because they are trash and they print trash.
I have a lot of respect for Katie, who does a lot of work for charities etc, and has been very open and honest about her sons condition.

Cathy said...

Heat certainly is trash.Obsessed with Z-listers from Big Brother and knocking the figure and clothes of celebrities.
Cx

Helen said...

This has made me really angry. I hear now that Katie is going to complain to the PCC. Good. I won't be buying Heat again.