I’m sure he knows that a bit of “controversy” makes any project look more interesting, though. (x)
‘She never married and had various close friendships with women – however, there is no evidence that she was a lesbian’ [x]: Hullo, it was the 19thC, and have the ‘commentators’ never heard of the historical suppression of women’s (and especially poor women’s) sexuality and historical lesbian invisibility? Mary Anning’s orientation could have been anything, including lesbian.
Also, the ‘distant niece’* of Anning secondary-quoted in Pink News seems to want to slam a not-yet-made film from every possible angle: ‘the lesbian storyline is “pure Hollywood”’ (ha, she’s clearly never seen a Francis Lee film), but ‘if Mary Anning was gay she should be portrayed … by a gay actress’. As we all know, a blood relationship is an immediate qualification for knowing your ancestor’s sexuality: see also the descendants of T. E. Lawrence who persist in denial that TEL was, in his own words, ‘so funnily made up, sensually’ [x].