Ann Althouse posted that video as genuine. Is it possible that Ann has never been on a TV talk show or news show? I sure have, and there is no chance, none, that Graham Norton sprung a surprise request on British theater and movie icon Judy Dench, who is 88, that she deliver a Shakespeare speech or sonnet on the spot.
Guests on talk shows are always prepped; they are told what the interview is going to cover, and no competent host, certainly not a veteran like Norton, would dare risk embarrassing a guest by putting them on the spot without notice and adequate preparation time.
Of course Dench knew she was going to be asked to recite some Shakespeare, and was ready. Being an actress, she also was ready to act as if the request was a surprise. And, of course, knowing little or nothing about how show business works, most of Norton’s viewers were impressed and fell for the stunt. Norton wins. Dench wins.
And someone who styles herself a truth-teller passes along the sham as genuine.
Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day is…
Is Norton and Dench’s put-on ethical?
It’s a closer call than I initially thought. My first reaction was, “Oh, come on, this is a show. It may not be entirely scripted, but who thinks this kind of thing is spontaneous?” The answer is “Lots of people, like Ann Althouse.” Isn’t it a lie, then? I know some people think actors make up all their lines, but they are morons: this is a show that represents itself as presenting spontaneous, unrehearsed exchanges with celebrities. I suppose most viewers don’t suspect that guests are prepped in advance; heck, everyone thought Paul Lynde made up all of his joke answers on “The Hollywood Squares” on the fly. Yes, it’s standard practice, but that’s an “Everybody does it !” rationalization.
On the other hand, the objective is entertainment. If the audience was entertained by the impression that the great Judy Dench could spontaneously give a moving recitation of a Shakespeare sonnet on demand, why is entertaining them wrong? Isn’t show business all about the suspension of disbelief and illusion?
On yet another hand, this was the cynical defense offered by network executives involved in the Fifties TV quiz show scandal. So what if the contestants were secretly provided the answers? So what if the show was rigged? If the audience was entertained by being fooled, what’s the problem?
Remember, today’s “reality shows” operate on exactly that principle.
Only two of Ann’s 35 commenters so far pointed out that Dench knew that she had to have something ready; the rest declated versions of “Wow!” and “What a pro!” Here was the last comment: “It was lovely and uplifting and a wonderful diversion from what’s going on outside. But to say that this wasn’t set up ahead of time–come on.”
Bingo.
Ethics Alarms 
Jack:
“ no competent host, certainly not a veteran like Norton, would dare risk embarrassing a guest by putting them on the spot without notice and adequate preparation time.”
This answers much of your question.
Yes, the talk show is supposed to appear spontaneous, but true spontaneity would likely embarrass many guests. It may be entertaining, but only by accident.
In addition, part of the entertainment is in her delivery, which was good, and felt prepared.
Now, had she performed a more familiar set of lines (like one of Lady MacBeth’s speeches), it might be more plausible that it was something she had committed to memory.
-Jut
Are you saying she didn’t commit this one to memory? That she was reading off a telemprmpter?
No. That is not what I meant.
I would bet that she has some Shakespeare committed to memory.
However, I suspect this one was memorized for this occasion.
Of course, it is possible that this is her favorite sonnet and memorized it long ago.
Still, she would have been given a heads up.
-Jut
Right now, my only problem is her acted out hesitation. The “poke you with a stick” dialogue was cute, and I can believe it was improv, but from “Like what”, onward, when she takes time to think about what to recite. like she had NO IDEA she would be asked to do a recitation, that’s harder to swallow. I CAN believe that she would have a lot of Shakespeare memorized, and it’s just a matter of “we’re going to discuss Shakespeare, and I might ask you for a recitation”, for her to pick what she thinks will go over best and have it ready to go.
My general rule of thumb is: “Until proven otherwise, always assume an actor is acting.” I really don’t think they are capable of displaying genuine emotions. It’s in their genes. they’re always on the lookout for the effect they are creating. It’s almost a personality disorder.
Well, at least the percentage of actors who do have personality disorders of one kind or another is fairly high….
Causation rather than correlation? It’s uncanny how almost all actors and actresses are children of divorce at a very young age.
She wrote a book, of course she had something prepared. I think it was less a matter of the show telling her that she would be asked for a recitation than her telling them that she wanted to recite a sonnet, so make sure sonnets were mentioned when she was asked to recite.
That’s almost certainly how it went, so Ann’s “she was suddenly asked to recite” description is absurd.
Althouse reminds me of a college classmate’s description of his wife: “Her trademark may as well have been, ‘Why be just difficult when you can be impossible.'” Althouse is just a flake. Her commentariat is solid, however.
The wording on Althouse’s blog (at the link) is different from what is quoted here. It may imply that she thought Dench was suddenly asked to recite, but it doesn’t say that, and she may have been just challenging her readers a bit.
I have no idea what you’re referring to. The heading she wrote was, “If suddenly called on to recite Shakespeare from memory, what would YOU do?” That’s still the heading. It clearly is meant to mean that Dench was “suddenly,” as in “without warning” so asked—and she was not. Are you seriously suggesting that in my comment stating that her meaning was that Dench was “suddenly asked to recite’ is misleading because I included the “she” in the quotes?
All of acting is a form of lying, facilitating fantasy and suspension of disbelief.
It’s difficult to actually draw a line where this becomes unethical.
Personal gain? Well that’s literally their livelihood.
Of course it was a setup. I remember one Christmas Eve broadcast which was supposedly several shows, but really just one show broken up by titles during which several performers appeared and sang various Christmas songs. As the sequence of news/infotainment shows ended and before it was time to switch over to daytime soap operas, the hosts brought out all the performers, thanked them, and ask them for one more song together. The result was a wonderfully harmonized version of “Silent Night.” It all looked improvised, but who are we kidding?
On the other hand, there are plenty of credulous people out there who think reality shows are real, so I’m not sure that we should assume that everyone knows that interviews like that have advanced preparation. There’ve been plenty of times in which a guest has walked off, for example, when asked an inappropriate question (or one he or she just didn’t like) to assume that everyone watching knows this wasn’t a spontaneous performance.
I wrote a comment years ago about “The Biggest Loser” – the unhealthy weight-loss reality game show. People who compete on the show are real people and some of them did lose weight, but some viewers believed that everything they were watching was unscripted. Comments had to be turned off of one contestant’s page on the official show site because she was getting vitriol based on how she was portrayed on the show. You and I know that these shows are edited visually and vocally to create “heroes” and “villains”. Not everyone realizes that.
For me, it clearly is meant to make her readers think about how they would respond if asked to recite. Althouse is a side issue, anyway, if the ethical question is about prepared entertainment posing as spontaneous. That practice, in my opinion, is not unethical in entertainment shows.
Well yes, that is obviously the question, as well as a supposedly astute and trustworthy blogger continuing the sham and falsely representing it as genuine when it wasn’t, thus leading her readers to praise the actress for her memory and professionalism.
Well, yes, Althouse, and several media outlets and commentators as well.
I get the rationale for concluding that her recitation wasn’t spontaneous, but I am not convinced.
As she pointed out several months ago, she has macular degeneration and cannot read lines any more (which probably would rule out a teleprompter). But, she says also that she has a photographic memory and that Shakespeare has long been an important part of her life. It is no big trick to memorize a few sonnets (or other poems, monologues, etc.), and Sonnet #29 is one of the more popular ones to memorize. There is some indication that she did memorize some of the sonnets during the Covid lockdowns, but not all of them as was her initial goal.
There is, of course, preparation and rehearsals for Norton’s show (without the guests present, we are told), and an actress such as Dench surely would expect discussion about her acting, the plays, the directors, and the playwrights.
I will grant that Norton may have been aware of Dench’s ability to conger up a recitation upon request, but I’ll also grant Dench the benefit of the doubt that she did not know specifically that a request to read (i.e. recite) some Shakespeare was coming.
There is an error in your post that I think impacts on the performance. Of course, she knew in advance that Norton would ask her to quote Shakespeare and she agreed to the premise. His show is built on getting celebrities to say or do outrageous things. However, what she would quote was up to her. She could have chosen a few lines from some well-known soliloquy, but she chose to attempt to recite an entire sonnet. Not just recite it with no emotion, but also actually perform it.
Here is the error. Dame Judi Dench is not 70-years old, but, in fact, 88-years old, and remains a professional in her craft. Of course, there is some degree of deception involved in the performance. It called acting for a reason. They act as if this portrays reality. If you cannot grasp this concept … well, bless your heart.
As a professional stage director, an actor myself and an acting coach, of course I grasp that concept. The acting concept is not at issue, however. Someone appearing as “themselves” on a talk show and faking a feat that in fact didn’t take place as represented did.
I have no idea how I came to post the wrong age for Dame Judy, because I knew she was over 80. Fixed. But Bruce Willis started having trouble remembering lines at 65. One reader asked if she was using the teleprompter—I didn’t think of that, but it’s possible. Long-term memory sticks around better than short-term: I don’t find it impressive at all that she could refresh an old memorized sonnet. Audiences are always expressing amazement that actors can “remember all those lines.” Bless THEIR hearts…it isn’t that hard.