• Sweden edition

Nobel fashion quips land writer in hot water

Published: 22 Dec 09 13:14 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Updated: 22 Dec 09 14:46 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/23998/20091222/

While the neckline of Princess Madeleine's gown is often under scrutiny by the media during Nobel Week, fashion commentary by one Swedish freelance writer earned her a ban from the leadership of top Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).

DN editor-in-chief Gunilla Herlitz said in an interview with Swedish Radio over the weekend that freelancer Linda Leopold would never again write for the newspaper after her “disparaging” comments about the attire of several prominent female guests attending the Nobel festivities, including Queen Silvia.

“It's not at all just about Queen Silvia but about all of (Leopold's) comments about all of the dresses that were written in an incredibly disparaging way, which I just didn't like at all,” Herlitz said in the interview with SR.

In the original article published on December 11th, Leopold described Nobel literature laureate Herta Müller as “the most attractive thing to have come out of Romania since Dracula” and wrote that Queen Silvia looked like she had “draped herself in curtains from Drottningholm Palace.”

Elsewhere in the text Leopold, on maternity leave from her editorial job at Bon Magazine, likened Madeleine's dress to an evergreen tree.

Economics laureate Elinor Ostrom was also on the receiving end, with the Indiana professor's African creation suggesting to Leopold that she had not been to a party since Woodstock.

Linda Leopold was not available for comment when contacted by The Local.

Charlotte West (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

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14:25 December 22, 2009 by skatsouf
freedom of speech?
14:32 December 22, 2009 by jose_s
were her comments even printed and if so shouldn't the editor take the heat for allowing it to make it to press?
14:40 December 22, 2009 by Luckystrike
freedom of speech?

I guess this is only allowed for the lower clas folk..
14:43 December 22, 2009 by Beynch
I don't know what makes this Linda Leopold an authority on good taste. For whatever it's worth, I happened to like Princess Madeleine's dress. I also think that when it comes to the Royal family an element of class and decorum is appropriate when commenting on their attire. Leopold did not have that. One can be critical without soaking one's comments with in disparaging sarcasm. I belive DN has acted correctly.
15:36 December 22, 2009 by salalah
What did the editor do when she was supposed to edit do??? .... sleep?
17:07 December 22, 2009 by Canada_Girl
That's hilarious. When you are able to link the Nobel prize, Dracula, and a tree, you know you're dealing with some good writing.
18:04 December 22, 2009 by karex
I don't think freedom of speech has anything to do with this. Just by reading the few parts of her article here I would have fired her myself if I were an editor at DN. It's a matter of good taste and DN not wanting to be associated with gutter journalism.

Hadn't I known better I would have sowrn the article had been written by a scorned Drag Queen. Not a seriious journalist.
18:04 December 22, 2009 by peropaco
Freedom of expression is a pipe dream. It come to show no one is allowed to criticize the turkey neck Silvia, the constipated King and the retarded looking kinds. Take a load on that Gunilla Herlitz, the aze kisser,. She resemblance to Bela Lugosi. so here we have the whole convention of vampires sucking out the blood of this poor girl who's only crime was to voice her opinion in this "democratic" land of ours. Cazzo
19:19 December 22, 2009 by Beynch
@peropaco: Freedom of expression indeed. But what about decorum and decency? Leopold seems to have gone out of her way to disparage everyone in sight. Is she so full of hatred for the Royal Family and the Nobel event, that she has to drag them all through the mud? I suspect she went on the attack for reasons other than just fashion. Or she may just be of infantile mind and immature.
03:28 December 23, 2009 by Davey-jo
@ Beynch

Sometimes decorum & decency is just a mask for a rotten system. You can hide many a rotten corpse behind a jewelled dress and a "royal" smile but in the end there remains a dead and decayed royal necromancy.
07:46 December 23, 2009 by Soft Boiled
Toeing the line macht frei!!!
11:28 December 23, 2009 by Rebel
Okay, I am confused - who made the original complaint? Was Dracula ticked off with the comparison? And wasn't it Herta Müller who ripped on Russia during the event? Was that "decorum"?
11:32 December 23, 2009 by calebian22
Maybe she is irritated that Sweden pays 110 million SEK every year to support the the figurehead royals.
13:42 December 23, 2009 by Beynch
@Davey-jo: Oh? Is that the case with the Swedish Royal Family and the Swedish system?
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