A discussion of modern celebrity culture was never going to be calm and the three monochrome-clad writers all had planned quips to use, whether they related to the interviewer’s questions or not.

Antonia Quirke wrung her hands, lamenting OK magazine and the trash-journalism industry “built on contempt”.

She maintained better movie-making would help, as genuine stars would never have their cellulite-ridden body parts highlighted in magazines.

Cosmo Landesman, his hands conducting expansively, lamented the artistic decline in dinner-party conversation, chauvinistically chastising: “It’s depressing to see two intelligent women squabbling over back issues of OK.”

He attacked Marina Hyde’s book on celebrity spokespeople: “It examines the sweat stains of their minds!”

“If that’s what you think, Cosmo,” she responded levelly, flashing red-soled Louboutins as she crossed her legs.

The audience asked thoughtful questions and when Hyde declared “we all” constantly self-publicise online, a ripple of tolerant confusion spread throughout the room.

One genteel-voiced lady, perhaps a Borat-style plant, proposed the audience members wouldn’t read celebrity magazines because they were educated, although “I’m not saying uneducated people aren’t very nice…”

The ensuing gasps and voluble arguments demonstrated this debate is far from over.