>>837 I hate to say this, but my main prediction if he doesn't step back is a nervous breakdown.

I think he is a fairly fragile personality - a people pleaser, highly ambitious even for this business, thin-skinned and overly concerned wth his online rep (checking his twitter tag and so on).

Since Tayto he has been under enormous pressure. His projects have received a mixed reaction, he has a lot riding on Thor/SI, he is getting older, he has been mocked in a way that he had not experienced before, and that has had a hangover so that small silly things like the GG speech get a disproportionately unkind reaction. (I am not interested in assigning ultimate blame for this, or saying "oh it's his fault for fauxmancing" - I am just saying that we are where we are and he is currently the press's whipping boy, despite the fact that there are a lot more unattractive characters floating around (cf the Mel Gibson rehabilitation)).

So he is under a lot of strain, probably exacerbated by the poor counsel he is receiving from whoever thought that the underpants shot was a good thing, and either thought a fauxmance was ok or failed to manage a real relationship in the press.

I think he needs a proper break - for himself primarily and secondarily to let the press forget about him as a target. He had such a (semi compulsory) break in 2012-13 and I heard rumours of some kind of breakdown at that time. I think a long rest is on the cards, probably followed by a return via the theatre (as previously).