Opinion | Tone-deaf posts from Virgil Abloh and J.K. Rowling show how even celebrities have human failings

I’m going to tell you a story, but I won’t name names as I quite fancy working in the future and I’m not here to dunk on them more than I have to.

Years ago, I was given the opportunity to interview a famous, incredibly talented hip-hop producer and rapper. I was elated, having fallen in love with his music in college and followed his career closely, happily forking out hundreds of dollars to see him live a few times.

The interview was scheduled for a hot July afternoon at an art gallery.

Arriving at the venue, I was met by a series of strange sights. There was a group of young people dressed in clothing more appropriate for a British winter – rain macs, fedoras, three-piece suits – all taking pictures of each other, and a famous street artist milling about on his own. The rapper’s enormous security man was lying down on a chaise longue and three attractive women in little black cocktail dresses were giggling over a smartphone. Finally, the star himself was standing in the centre of the room on a Persian rug, head tilted back, mouth open and inhaling McDonald’s fries. It all fit perfectly with my vision of the eccentric rock ’n’ roll lifestyle.

Alas, that’s where the fun ended. The interviewee had been told beforehand what kind of interview we were going to do – a profile piece – but after the first three questions his eyes glazed over. After the sixth question I was getting a lot of sighs, short, one-word answers and passive-aggressive suggestions that I should google the answers.

It was going badly and I wanted to end the interview as soon as I could but then I figured I would ask him what he wanted to talk about. Of course, at this point he became animated, name-dropping all his friends and new projects, talking endlessly about stuff that didn’t meet the story angles I had pitched to the editor.