Bewildering Age Gaps.

What is the attraction of wide age gaps between couples in film and drama? Do viewers really enjoy watching middle-aged men chase after women young enough to be their daughter or granddaughter? Do the producers think there is a demand for it? Why? I don't get it.

There is a remake of Bouquet of Barbed Wire soon to be broadcast. Hermoine Norris plays the wife of a man who is sexually attracted to his daughter. She says of it, "When the 1976 version was made, it was a really taboo subject - the story of a man's obsession with his daughter, an incestuous relationship." Is she implying incest is no longer taboo? Are there many fathers having sexual relationships with their daughters? I had no idea. In the programme, I think the father also has a relationship with another woman young enough to be his granddaughter. Lovely.

In the American comedy Modern Family, a beautiful young women played by Sofia Vergara is married to a portly middle-aged man old enough to be her father. Why is she attracted to him? Why is it the basis of a comedy? Is this what the viewers want to see? I don't understand it.

There is a film starring Michael Douglas called Solitary Man in which his character chases after a teenage girl. Whether he has sex with her, I don't know, and I don't want to know. There is a 45 year age difference. Good grief. Is this what the viewers want to see? I really don't understand the appeal. Funnily enough, the teenage girl in question is the same person who plays the incestous daughter in Bouquet of Barbed Wire. I think she really needs to start acting alongside love interests nearer her own age!

One of my favourite actresses is Catherine Zeta Jones. Yes, she who is married to the aforementioned Michael Douglas, who is 25 years older than her. Some guys have all the luck, in personal life and at work! Back in the nineties, Catherine appeared in a film called Entrapment alongside Sean Connery, who is 40 years her senior. You know what's coming next. After the script had been written, Connery insisted the script be re-written to include a passionate love scene with Catherine. The dirty old man! He made it obvious to everyone that he was sexually attracted to Catherine and wanted his bit of fun with her, and wasn't ashamed in doing so. I wonder what his wife's feelings were about it?

Despite being a big fan of Catherine's, I can't watch this film. Having a love scene and relationship with a man old enough to be her grandfather would leave a sour taste in my mouth. There is no need for it. Once again I have to ask, is this what the viewers want to see? I very much doubt it.

So it's 2010, and incest isn't taboo anymore. Men having relationships with women young enough to be their daughter or granddaughter definitely isn't taboo. Will there come a time when paedophilia isn't taboo anymore? It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.