Get the latest gossip
‘University Challenge’ Octopus Row: Conservative Peer Forced To Apologize & Pay Damages To Contestant Accused Of Coded Antisemitic Attack
University Challenge's Melika Gorgianeh has received an apology from Baroness Foster over the octopus / jacket anti-semitism controversy
A Conservative Party peer in the UK has been forced to apologize and pay damages to a University Challenge contestant who she accused of making a coded antisemitic attack via an octopus mascot and jacket supposedly emblazoned with the colors of the Palestinian flag. Baroness Jacqueline Foster took to X today to apologize “for my part in posts made about” Melika Gorgianeh in the aftermath of the episode, which had caused a furore on social media as people believed the mascot and colors to be coded. The corporation stressed it was filmed months before Hamas’ October 7 attack, while the octopus is one of Oxford University students’ favorite animals and the colors of Gorgianeh’s jacket were not the same as the flag of Palestine.
Or read this on Deadline