My once-met net friend Mike who used to blog at Troubled Diva, now uses his blog as a repository for his successful but (to me) incomprehensible music writing for the Nottingham Evening Post Entertainment Guide.

Last week, I mentioned on Twitter that Giles Coren, star of the Supersizers, looked hot in his 80s gear. Deliberately a little ambiguous, but of course I meant that he looked attractive.

Mike agreed on Twitter, conceding that his “Guilty crush” might move on from Alistair Campbell to Giles Coren.

A few hours later, Mike got an unexpected personal response from @CampbellClaret:

@miketd why move on, say I?

Awww!

It’s a lovely graceful reaction to news of a covert crush that might fox a lesser man: although Alistair Campbell is definitely a sex god to a number of Labour women I know, I wonder how many gay men he counts among his followers?

It clearly shows that Alistair Campbell is carefully searching on instances of his own name showing up across the twitterverse – a latterday equivalent of grepping the newsfeed for your own name. I’m divided on whether that is a vain or sensible thing to do for someone in the public eye.

And it’s an object lesson in how a very simple gesture – five words! – can completely make someone’s day. A bit of a lovebomb from time to time can do great things to your reputation.