This was dubbed the "aw, shucks" defence by prosecutors, who argued that he feigned ignorance but was, in fact, a micro-manager who even bothered to endorse the idea of saving money by scrapping free coffee for staff.
Law Shucks (lawshucks.com), a website that tracks layoffs from big law firms, puts the casualties since January at 9,946, 4,046 of them lawyers and the rest support staff.
In its slightly "aw shucks" approach, it reminds me of the Quality Chop House, another restaurant of seriously great produce served with deceptive simplicity.
He throws himself around, shucks off his clothes with an insolent twist, grinds the floor, hoists women into his lap.
Eddie Redmayne has a virginal look, and a knocked-silly amazement when the most famous woman in the world shucks her clothes in front of him and jumps into a freezing river.
He took gestures that he had refined onscreen (the soft, sideways jerk of the chin, for example, that opened his mouth, blew out a "heh," and signalled anything from a loving shucks to a tolerant exasperation), and floated them into the methodology of a canny public servant.
