Variety's apology to Carey Mulligan shows that the critic's ivory tower is toppling | Peter Bradshaw

It may be timid and half-baked, but the magazine's mea culpa is evidence of shifting dynamics in a post-#MeToo film industry

Until relatively recently, an apology in the arts review columns of any publication was vanishingly rare, if not non-existent. If crow had to be eaten, it would be the end result of some unprecedented legal action in which defendant and plaintiff had grimly established - through a poker-game exchange of solicitor's letters - what the likely outcome would be in court.

In the immortal words of Christopher Hitchens: 'Apologies are a bore. What we want is an explanation'