Rupert Murdoch, the head cheese over at NewsCorp (the company currently embroiled in the UK hacking scandal), narrowly escaped taking a pie in the face during his questioning before a parliamentary committee yesterday.
Scotland Yard confirms that a 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of assault for allegedly trying to hit media mogul Rupert Murdoch with a plate full of shaving cream.
Though the act itself has been around since the Silent Film era (producer Mack Sennett is credited with popularizing it), protest by pie-throwing is a relatively recent invention, with politicians and celebrities like Canadian PM Jean Chrétien, G. Gordon Liddy, and...Elmer Fudd all targeted by hurled pastries. However, shaving cream has often been favored lately for its relative ease in smuggling, compared to a full-size banana crème.
Yet here at Rocks Off, we noticed few (if any) musicians have been harangued by meringue, or..."harried by cherry," unless you count Anita Bryant or William Shatner. And we don't.
Why not? Would the pie-throwers of the world have us believe there are no musicians aggravating enough to warrant a face full of banana creme or Burma Shave? We beg to differ, and offer up this list of potential targets, ranked in ascending order of obnoxiousness.
10. Mumford & Sons
Pie-ing Offense: Playing the banjo and saying "fuck" in your single seems pretty edgy at first, but when that same song is repeated ad nauseum - minus the f-bomb, of course - for ten months, we just want to lock them in a room and make these guys listen to Crass for a week nonstop. But since we're in a conciliatory mood, pies in the face it is.
Patisserie Punishment: Smacked with a stargazy.
9. Lady Gaga
Pie-ing Offense: While her stance on gay rights is admirable, and the music scene will always have need of giant puppet monsters (especially when Iron Maiden isn't touring), there's such a thing as just too damn much Gaga. Enough already.
Patisserie Punishment: Though we imagine Stefani Germanotta prefers something simpler, nothing less than razzleberry will do for Lady Gaga.
