“THERE is no such thing as bad publicity” is a sentiment that has been embraced wholeheartedly in recent years by an increasing number of fading, B-list celebrities desperate to keep their name and brand alive.

The method chosen by many of them has been an odd one, namely using what little profile they have to air increasingly right-wing political views, seemingly in the hope that these expressions would generate some fresh interest.

The most obvious example is Katie Hopkins, who, some time in the distant past, was nothing more than a runner up on The Apprentice.

Quickly gaining a reputation for being “outspoken,” Hopkins quickly managed to repurpose herself as the go-to columnist or chat-show guest if you wanted someone to say something controversial or horrible. Realising that she had little else to offer, Hopkins made hate her stock in trade.

To this list we can now add one Laurence Fox. Until last week, Fox was best known, apparently, for his role in Inspector Morse spin-off Lewis, and for having once been married to Billy Piper. Then last Thursday, Fox made his already infamous appearance on BBC’s Question Time.

The fact that he had seemingly been invited on solely because his social media output had taken on a distinctly right-wing hue is one reason among many why Question Time should be avoided at all costs. During the show, Fox clashed with university lecturer Rachael Boyle on the issue of Meghan Markle’s racially charged treatment by the British press.

When Boyle stated the pretty obvious fact that Fox was speaking from a position of white privilege, Fox, a member of the somewhat privileged and most certainly white Fox acting dynasty, laughably accused Boyle of being racist, an assertion which instantly drew  applause from the audience, another reason why QT should be ignored. The clip of the exchange instantly went viral, with the right applauding Fox for “speaking the truth” and the left calling him out for minimising racism.

Fox’s Twitter following instantly doubled, and Edward’s nephew, clearly smelling an opportunity, seemed to revel in the negative attention as much as in the support he received. The Hopkins Career Trajectory model now presented itself, and Fox didn’t hesitate to jump aboard.

But while it took Hopkins a year or two of consistent hideousness to become the hard right’s poster girl, things move a lot more quickly these days, and within days Fox had made appearances on all the usual right-wing shows and podcasts, being interviewed by Brendan O’Neil, James Delingpole and Julia Hartley-Brewer. A trip to Paul Joseph Watson’s basement can’t be far away.

Without being deliberately snide and resorting to the usual “I’ve never heard of them” approach adopted online by people of all political persuasions whenever a celebrity posts an opinion they disagree with, there is no question that this is more publicity than Fox has had in his entire career to date.

Of course, it’s entirely coincidental that Fox happened to have a new album to flog. As well as an actor of limited profile, Fox is also a singer-songwriter whose new album just happens to be available for purchase now.

Far be it from me to criticise anyone’s song-writing or singing abilities, but, judging by the clip of him performing on the Jeremy Vine show, Lozza’s music sounds like someone has just heard a thirty-second clip of a Leonard Cohen album and decided to start a musical career on the basis of it. It’s highly likely that the album would have passed almost entirely under the radar were it not for the controversy of his Question Time appearance.

Which brings us back to the collateral of hate. Fox has made a very clear decision, whether premeditated before Question Time or opportunistically decided upon when the furore started, to try to position himself as the alt-right’s actor/songwriter of choice. It’s an interesting and odd market to try to corner, and one has to wonder at the career longevity possible from this position. Undoubtedly, his album sales would have seen a spike in the last week, particularly among people whose Twitter profile consists of a Union Jack or a picture of “Tommy Robinson” with some duct tape over his mouth.

But can these people sustain a career for someone who is likely to have alienated a lot of a TV and film industry that is largely liberal in outlook?

Having opposing political views to your colleagues shouldn’t be an impediment to anyone’s career, but the extent to which Fox seems to have gone balls-out on this, reacting to the inevitable Twitter storm with the usual right-wing lingo — slurs like “cuck,” “snowflakes,” “wokies” etc. surely won’t help his chances of future employment.

His most recent gaffe, criticising director Sam Mendes for showing a Sikh soldier in his WWI movie 1917 as “forcing diversity on people” and calling it “institutionally racist” shows both a lack of knowledge of history and a determination to say anything he possibly can about race, in the hope it keeps the momentum going, regardless of how stupid it makes him sound.

If one were to be generous to Fox, it could be argued that his outburst on Question Time was down to ignorance and a lack of understanding of the issue he was discussing.

For this to happen, though, Fox would had to have responded to the furore by perhaps retracting the ludicrous accusation of racism, or at the very least attempting to clarify his position. Statements like his Mendes one, and complaining to Delingpole about his nieces and nephews being mixed race, however, are undeniably racist, and are likely to lead to many people in the film and TV industry refusing to work with him. And I can’t imagine a spot on O’Neil’s podcast is going to compensate for that.

So there is little option for him to keep his brand alive than to double down on his “anti-woke,” anti-liberal views. And, as with Hopkins, he’ll no doubt find that, in order to keep himself relevant, he’ll have to keep upping the ante. If he really wants to get the Rebel TV gig that seems the final refuge for right-wingers who have been ostracised by their industry or de-platformed by the major channels and outlets, he’ll have to do a lot better than tweeting about having a steak during Veganuary whilst wearing garish yellow trainers.

Those outraged or offended by Fox’s comments will soon realise, if they haven’t already, that replying to him, quote tweeting him, and indeed writing articles like this is merely giving him the one thing he craves and which he didn’t have before; attention.

Once that dies down and another barely known celeb chooses the same career path, Fox for his part may find that many avenues of employment are, for the first time, closed to him and, having painted himself into a particularly nasty corner, he will have no option but to keep painting.