When Stephen Fry referred to his friend and costume designer Jenny Beavan as a "bag lady" at the BAFTAs, the TV host caused spark and outrage among viewers. However Jenny, who was dressed casually in jeans and a leather jacket for the ceremony, has insisted that she is "absolutely not upset" by the remarks.
"Yes we are friends, and I am absolutely not upset," Jenny told The Telegraph. "But I don't want to talk any further because if I talk about it, it will just create more fuss."
The "fuss" refers to the heavy criticism Stephen received after he made the joke. The 11-time BAFTAs host had said, "Only one of the greatest cinematic costume designers would come to the awards ceremony dressed like a bag lady," after Jenny collected her award.
© Photo: Getty Images"Yes we are friends, and I am absolutely not upset," said Jenny Beavan
Stephen was forced to take to Twitter to defend his gag after fans demanded he apologise to Jenny. "So just a word to the tragic figures who think calling Jenny Beavan a bag lady was an insult. She's a dear friend and she got it. Derrr. Christ I want to leave the planet," he tweeted.
The 58-year-old also posted a picture of the duo at a BAFTA afterparty and captioned it: "Jenny Baglady Beavan and Stephen Outrageous Misogynist Swine Fry."
© Photo: Getty ImagesStephen Fry closed his Twitter account after being heavily criticised for his 'bag lady' joke
Stephen has since decided to leave the social media networking site and in a lengthy blog post on his official website, the Brit said that Twitter had become "a stalking ground for the sanctimoniously self-righteous who love to second-guess, to leap to conclusions and be offended – worse, to be offended on behalf of others they do not even know."
A couple of days after the BAFTAs, The Sun reported that Stephen and his husband Elliott Spencer were planning a fresh start in Los Angeles.
© Photo: Getty ImagesHe clarified in a blog post that he and husband Elliott Spencer have no plans to move to the US
However Stephen set the record straight in another post, writing: "Apparently the plan is for me to hide in Hollywood as a response to the 'Twitter storm' in which I was recently caught. Which paints me as even stupider than I believed I could be.
"According to one emailer it's The Sun newspaper that says that I'm going. But of course these things catch on and now it seems to have become a truth. Despite being nonsense from first to last."
Insisting that he has "no plans at all to swap the UK for the US", Stephen clarified that he has had a green card for years, after purchasing a property in New York in the nineties. He has since sold the property and bought a place in LA last year.
