Ms Campbell has been appearing in the House of Lords this week, in a landmark case. But as parents we know that only one thing really counts in the embarrassment stakes, and that’s knowing when to leave your children to fight their own battles.Private self-help is real public interestNaomi Campbell doesn’t sound like an awfully nice woman. In a short gossip item yesterday, the Daily Mirror described her as “stroppy”, “ill-tempered” and “a diva” because she had “left the Brits organisers in the lurch by refusing to present an award” and “pulled out” of a fashion show 90 minutes before the start. Now though, I’m beginning to wonder.Maxine Carr, still serving her sentence, is said to want nothing more than to return to the bosom of her mother. Interestingly though, since Ms Capp’s alleged crime is a serious one, the two women could find themselves passing each other at the gates to Holloway.Unpalatable as it may seem, parents can learn something from these two. Telling off-colour anecdotes, wearing unseemly clothing, dancing, singing, laughing, breathing: All these may be anathema to our children. This, suggested the prosecution, was proof that Ms Carr had known about the fate of the girls Far from it, countered the defence.

Ms Carr was indeed crying at the loss of Holly and Jessica, as so many people did, but she did not at that time know anything about her lover’s involvement I was perfectly happy to swallow this, and so was the jury. Gibson joined a breakaway Catholic group in 1956, at the time when Vatican II declared that Jewish people were not to be held collectively responsible for the death of Christ. His track record as one of the most embarrassing fathers ever is clearly a long one.What makes this an extraordinary week though is the fact that a potentially embarrassing mother has emerged as well. Shirley Capp, maternal guide to Maxine Carr, has, it turns out, been charged with intimidating a witness at the Soham murder trial.Marian Elizabeth Westerman testified that she has seen Ms Carr weeping after looking into the boot of Ian Huntley’s car. They simply got up and left! They were all over the Bronx and Brooklyn and Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles,” he said.Nor is there any hope of wiggling out of this parlous situation by suggesting that Dad has gone a bit ga-ga.

Gibson Jnr was therefore quick off the mark in distancing himself from such smears.Gibson Snr, however, has a different defensive strategy, and has gone on US radio to indulge in some flamboyantly robust Holocaust denial.”They claimed there were 6.2 million Jews in Poland before the war and after the war there were 200,000 Therefore Hitler must have killed six million of them. Vehement denial is definitely the best policy under all circumstances. They are not, it is safe to say, the children of Hutton Gibson.Mr Gibson is the 85-year-old father of the Australian heart-throb Mel Gibson, who is looking forward to the release in America next week of his new film, The Passion Of Christ Mel’s movie has run into some problems, though. Not only is it rumoured to be an endlessly exploitative gore-fest, cashing in on the murder of Christ by selling pendants in the shape of “Crucifixion-style” nails, it also stands accused of anti-Semitism.Now, whatever one’s view on the all-too-frequent bandying around of this accusation, one thing is certain.