Upper class English actor refuses to shake hands with Pakistani bus driver’s son” would be one way of looking at it.

The British film actor Hugh Grant has been accused by the UK’s Pakistani-origin chancellor of the exchequer, Sajid Javid, of being “incredibly rude” after the former refused to shake hands at the glitzy premiere of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman in London last month.

Grant, 59, best known for playing the charming, effete Englishman in films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually, is known to be notoriously thin-skinned in his personal life.

For years he went round with Elizabeth Hurley who hit the headlines in 1994 by wearing “that dress!” — a Versace outfit held together with large safety pins.

In recent years, Grant has been running a campaign called “Hacked Off” to protect the personal lives of celebrities such as himself from intrusion by tabloid newspapers.

Javid revealed that at the premiere of The Irishman, “I recognised him and put my hand out and said, ‘Lovely to meet you,’ and you know what he does? He refuses to shake my hand.

“He says, ‘I am not shaking your hand.’ I am completely shocked.

“He said, ‘When you were culture secretary you didn’t support my friends in Hacked Off.’ I think that is incredibly rude.

“I wonder if people like Hugh Grant think they are part of the elite and they look down on working class people no matter what station they reach in life.”

Sajid Javid (AP photo)

In civilised British life, it is considered courteous for opponents to shake hands if they happen to bump into each other in public.

Since the affair has slightly racist overtones given Javid’s origins, a spokesman for Grant put a different spin on why the handshake did not happen.

When offered a handshake, the spokesman said: “Grant’s words were, ‘If you don’t mind, I won’t shake your hand because you were rude and dismissive to the victims of press abuse when you met them as culture secretary.’

“Hugh would like to point out that the victims in question were not celebrities. They were people with personal family tragedies who had been abused by sections of the press.”

He said Grant was referring to a meeting between Javid and “the victims of press abuse... (who) reported back that his attitude in the meeting was ‘borderline contemptuous’.”

Grant, who has had five children with two women, has been of more than passing interest to the tabloids.

In September 2011, he had a daughter, Tabitha, with Tinglan Hong. His daughter’s Chinese name is Xiao Xi, meaning “happy surprise”. Grant and Hong had a “fleeting affair”, according to his publicist.

In September 2012, Grant had his second child, a son, with Swedish television producer Anna Eberstein. Meanwhile, Hong gave birth to Grant’s third child, a son, in December 2012, after they reunited briefly.

In December 2015 he and Eberstein had a second child together, Grant’s fourth, a daughter. In early 2018, their third child together, Grant’s fifth, was born, and Grant and Eberstein married on May 25, 2018.