Inside the enormous glass and steel structure known as The Baby Shard, opposite the actual Shard, central London, Rebekah Brooks steps out of the lift. We’re inside The News Building, home of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, alongside various publishing corporations. Stern-faced, suited men flank airport-level security: bags through a scanner, bodies through a metal detector.
On the 17th floor of this eerie, sci-fi, none more sign-of-the-times building sits another contemporary construct, the Media Celebrity Athlete, Tom Daley, the planet’s best-loved diver known for many ‘platforms’ (ho ho); a prolific public presence across his own YouTube channel, reality TV (Splash!, Tom Daley: Diving for Gold ) and social media (more than four million followers across Twitter/Instagram). Since his much-commended, self-motivated ‘coming out’ video in 2013 (filmed on his phone, 12 million…
