Jeremy Irons hits out at political correctness

Hollywood star Jeremy Irons has hit out at political correctness, suggesting that women do not need to use the law to "deal with it" if a man places a wandering hand on her bottom.

The Oscar-winner said that a mountain of legislation had been created by politicians with an excess of time on their hands.

Irons, 62, a self-confessed smoking "addict", said: "It's gone too far. There are too many people in power with too little to do, so they churn out laws to justify their jobs.

"I hope it's a rash that will wear itself out."

Irons, who shot to fame as Charles Ryder in the 1981 TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, added: "Most people are robust.

"If a man puts his hand on a woman's bottom, any woman worth her salt can deal with it. It's communication. Can't we be friendly?"

The British actor, who has been married to actress Sinead Cusack for 33 years, also spoke about his own private life in the interview for Radio Times.

He said: "Lack of privacy is faintly aggravating, particularly if you have a salacious private life, which I hope most people have. We only live once.

"There are newspaper gossip girls who chat you up at parties when you're in your cups and should be at home. And there it is the next day on the breakfast table."

Irons is about to be seen as the debauched 15th century Pope Alexander VI in new TV series The Borgias.

He said of the drama: "I hope the Vatican won't object, in the same way Her Majesty wouldn't say Shakespeare's Richard III is terrible.

"It has no relevance to the present organisation, although I think the Catholic Church deserves a huge amount of criticism and has lost its way for the past 300 years.

"The child-molestation scandal has broken its stranglehold, which is probably a good thing."

He added: "At their best, Jesus' teachings are nonpareil, but the Church has gone off with the fairies.

"It would be wonderful to have a man in each village who could help the poor, the sick and remind the rich of their responsibility."

The French Lieutenant's Woman star also plays the boss of a Wall Street bank in his latest film, Margin Call, loosely based on the Lehman Brothers collapse.

He said of his film character: "He's pretty amoral, like most guys in that business. They say they'll go abroad if they're over-regulated: call their bluff and let them."

Irons, who owns seven homes, told the magazine that it was more difficult for his son, Max, 25, than it was for him starting out in the acting business.

He said: "My heart is in my mouth for him. It's 'grab 'em and spit 'em out'. In my day it was like that for Rada girls, but it now seems the same for boys."