I think the following should be a requirement for everyone: you're sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning, rubbing Friday night out of your eyes, leafing idly through the paper when you're suddenly assaulted by an article describing in detail why you, personally, are a complete idiot. At the same time, a random stranger is banging on the kitchen window, screaming that you're a menace to society, you're stupid and your mother's ugly. Welcome to the bad press and hate mail experience.
Believe me, there's no feeling like it. The only thing you can really do with either is yell NO YOU, which doesn't do much and certainly doesn't make you feel better. We're brought up to avoid doing things that make people hate us and to avoid telling people when we really hate them, so when it actually does happen it throws you for a loop. Bad press has always been around, but hate mail has reached a kind of renaissance with the internet. Now every random loon with a chip on their shoulder and a computer can tell you that you suck. Thanks technology!
During My Million Dollar Year I got a lot of hate mail. A LOT. A lot of bad press too. I was accused of everything from being fat and ugly to singlehandedly bringing down the economic system of the entire Western world. It was an interesting experience, incredibly surreal - like reading about someone that I vaguely knew. I started a collection of the most inspired pieces of hate mail. It's great.
I still get hate mail. This has inspired me to start work on a little online tool that will allow you to send anyone hate mail with a few carefully selected options from drop down menus. Keep watching this space.
In the meantime, if you'd like to send me hate mail, go here.