Editorial: Arise, plain Danny Boyle

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

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So Danny Boyle, who directed the Olympics Opening Ceremony with such wisdom, wit and ingenuity, has turned down a knighthood. And good for him. Not because a knighthood per se is a bad thing, though we have misgivings about the whole honours system, but because acceptance would have been a betrayal of everything he has said and done in his artistic career. Above all, it would have negated the spirit of cocking a snook at the Establishment, the ingredient that distinguished London's Olympics opening from so many others.

Let's hope the Queen, who gamely went along with his casting of her as a new-style Bond girl, doesn't take his refusal amiss. On the contrary, she might find it as refreshing as we do to encounter a subject for whom the public acclaim for his art is recognition enough.