Furious Sir Sean Pulls Out of Festival Audience

The Festival of Politics is launched in Edinburgh today, but without the expected participation of Scotland's biggest star, Sir Sean Connery. The former Bond actor had agreed to take part in a public discussion with the presiding officer of Scotland's parliament, George Reid. Sir Sean declined to appear after Mr Reid told a magazine he was prepared to ask the star some difficult questions about his attitude to women.

In an interview with Holyrood Magazine the presiding office maintained "He (Sir Sean) will be asked some difficult questions - about did a slap never do a woman any harm, for example," Mr Reid said.

This refers to a comment Sir Sean Connery made to an American magazine in 1993 which has dogged the actor for years, in which he stated: "To slap a woman is not the cruellest thing you can do to her."

When he read Holyrood speaker George Reid's remark and saw the press headlines it had generated, Sir Sean declined to appear in the Festival of Politics interview event.

A former current affairs broadcast interviewer before taking up politics professionally, Mr Reid tried unsuccessfully to persuade Sir Sean to change his mind.

A spokesman for the Scottish Parliament said: "The Presiding Officer offered his apology to Sir Sean for the hurt and annoyance caused by the resulting media coverage. The Presiding Officer stated, however, that the principles of the Festival of Politics meant he had to conduct an uncompromising interview in a BBC style."