I WANT TO EAT A NUT OF LAERMA!

AT HOGWARTS, THE LEGAL DRINKING AGE IS ONLY 17...

When Toronto Police raided the Alexander Keith's Angry Scotsman's house a couple of weeks ago, many articles noted that, in his fridge, police found not just Keith's but also several bottles of Corona.

That came as a shock to me. Okay, not quite as much as what he was arrested for, but, still, it left me wondering what the Alexander Keith Angry Scotsman was doing with Corona in the fridge.

I think I might have found the answer: he could have seen the following photo.



Yep, that's Harry Potter's Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger, drinking a Corona. Or, at least, she's posing with a Corona at her lips. The bottle isn't quite tipped enough that she can swallow any of the contents so it could just be her posing with one of her parents' (or guardians') drinks as a gag.

But, let's assume that she really is drinking it. Emma Watson turns 16 in April. The legal drinking age in England is 18. Legally, she's over two years too young to be imbibing that in her part of the world.

So, would this picture disturb me if she was drinking it?

Not at all.

First of all, as you can see from the place settings on the table, Emma didn't sneak into a bar. It's obviously a restaurant, and she seems to be with at least one adult (as well as whomever snapped the photo).

And the beer is Corona, which is only 4.8% alcohol, not quite light beer, but certainly on the weaker side of the beer spectrum. One Corona is not going to corrupt her for life. Maybe, considering her small size, she'd have been light-headed for a couple of hours, but that's about it.

Finally, I really don't have a problem with a 15-year old having a single beer at what seems to be some kind of special occasion with her parents' blessing (preferably with one of them present), as long as these "special occasions" aren't more than a couple of times a month. My parents did the exact same thing with me when I was her age (possibly even a year or two younger) to take the mystery and the lure of the forbidden out of alcohol, and, while I still drink beer (and the very occasional vodka screwdriver) I don't drink to excess. I very, very, very rarely (like maybe only a couple of times a year) have more than one beer at once. I don't drink nearly enough for people to consider it a problem. I'm the very essence of drinking in moderation. It's far better to teach your kid to drink in moderation than it is to demonize alcohol to the extent that drinking large amounts of alcohol becomes too enticing to resist for a rebellious teenager.

I don't know how else they treat her, but, in that one photo, they appear to be raising Emma quite correctly.

Though, if I was her agent, I'd be a little uncomfortable with letting my famous 15-year old client be photographed holding a beer.

posted by Steve Brandon @ 1:19 AM