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Change Your Life! |
"British boys really suck" |
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News
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August 11, 2000
LONDON (AP) - The 15-year-old daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Britain proved anything but diplomatic in a searing indictment of local lads written for this month's Tatler magazine. Her verdict? "British boys really suck." In the three years since Mary-Catherine Lader's lived in London, she concluded British boys were scrawny, pale, anti-social, sulking and - the ultimate fashion faux pas - "their trousers are too tight." "Even most British girls I know admit that American guys beat the English when it comes to looks," Lader wrote in a two-page article for the society magazine, parts of which were reprinted in British newspapers Thursday. Lader's diatribe spawned an immediate media backlash. The Times and The Daily Telegraph newspapers ran columns criticizing Lader's "startling" claims, while tabloid newspapers praised American pop star Madonna for her discerning taste in dating British director Guy Ritchie. "I wasn't aware diplomatic bags came as young as 15," wrote The Mirror's columnist Bill Borrows. "Perhaps she should pack up her Prada bag (and) go back to the land of Jerry Springer." Lader's article left no doubt as to her patriotic preferences, developed after she relocated from South Carolina to London in 1997 with her father, U.S. envoy Phil Lader. "At first I gave all the boys who had underwhelmed me the benefit of the doubt but, after three years, I've finally distinguished what it is - that American guys have it and Brits don't," Lader wrote. Lader, who attends St. Paul's Girls School, wasn't just quibbling over style, however. She also found British boys "cheap" and far too quick to make a pass. "I'm not sure it's actually possible to become friends with a British teenage guy. He'll befriend you because he fancies your friends, or once you've already dated him," said Lader. Her onslaught was tempered slightly with Lader's praise for Britain's other advantages. "I certainly do not want to start an international conflict, so I should add that I love the English countryside, the Scottish Highlands, the sheep in Wales and living in London. When I return to the United States I will miss everything except...the boys." Tatler said Miss Lader sent them the article before the U.S. ambassador had the chance to read it. Lader was reportedly vacationing with her family and a U.S. embassy spokesman refused to comment on what he termed "private views." |