AS any actress is well aware, her choice of dress/jewellery/ hairstyle at a high profile event, such as a premiere or awards do, will determine the amount of media exposure she gets.

When Liz Hurley wore that safety pin dress to the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral a quarter of a century ago, she went from being Hugh Grant’s plus-one to a tabloid darling. Lady Gaga’s raw meat dress, clinging to her at a 2010 awards ceremony, didn’t exactly go unnoticed, and last year Rita Ora rocked up at the MTV Europe Music Awards in a bath robe and towel turban, gaining her maximum coverage for simply turning up.

In Emma Watson’s case this week, it was all about the skin ink. At a post-Oscars party, the actress showed off a rather garish tattoo on her arm, paying tribute to the Time’s Up campaign - with the apostrophe missing. Instead of gushing tweets and column inches praising her statement-making support for the anti-sexual harassment movement, Emma has been mocked on social media for her punctuation error. The star was quick to poke fun at her gaffe, tweeting: “Fake tattoo proofreading position available. Experience with apostrophes a must".

In the scheme of things, a missed apostrophe might not seem like a big deal. But getting something so simple so wrong doesn’t say much for someone who sets themselves up as an inspiring, intelligent role model for young women.

I learned about grammar and punctuation at primary school, and presumably most other people did too. It’s a basic writing skill, so I’m often baffled by how many grown adults get it wrong.

Greengrocers were traditionally the main culprits, with their handwritten signs for “apple’s” and “potato’s”. But now the misplaced apostrophe seems to be everywhere. I regularly see a van driving around Bradford with “Atkin’s” on the side. It sets my teeth on edge. I just know the name isn’t “Atkin”, so why the possessive apostrophe?

Other clangers include "it's" and "its" and "they're" and "there". Don't get me started on "of" instead of "have".

Poor punctuation sneaks in everywhere. I once saw The Simpson’s advertised on TV. My friend was shocked to see, outside her children’s school, a banner with “Infant’s and Junior’s” printed across it. When she mentioned it to a teacher she was told: “No one really cares about that sort of thing anymore”.

Maybe they don't. Maybe punctuation, like indicating when you're about to turn left or right in your car, isn't the done thing anymore.

If that's the case, it's a shame. And our written language is all the poorer for it. If caring about commas, semi-colons and other punctuation marks makes me a pedant, so be it. It makes me wince to see a misplaced apostrophe. My sister once warned me never to read Fifty Shades of Grey, not because it's rubbish, but because the poor grammar would annoy me.

I applauded the self-styled "grammar vigilante” who, it was reported last year, ventured out at night to tidy up messy punctuation and poor English on shop fronts and street signs in his home city, Bristol. He even built an “apostrophiser” with a long handle, allowing him to reach up to shop signs. I love the idea of him prowling around, checking out signage, like a superhero righting grammatical wrongs. It was, he insisted, a cause worth pursuing. Hear, Hear. Or, as a fake tattooist may write: Here Here.

* I HAVE often listened to Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, which invites guests to play the music that shaped their lives, and wondered what songs I would choose. This week I got that chance, when I was invited onto BCB's One to One show to talk about songs that mean a lot to me. Chatting on the radio isn’t as easy as it sounds, but thanks to lovely presenter Jan Winter, who put me at ease, I enjoyed the hour-long show, pre-recorded for today’s all-female BCB special, celebrating International Women’s Day.

* MY brother has, in my opinion, the best dog in the world. He's a runt-of-the-litter called Duncan and everyone who meets him adores him. The day we say goodbye to Duncan will be desperately sad, but we'll take comfort from knowing he had a great life. His utter joy during a moorland walk is infectious.

Saying goodbye to her beloved pooch was, it seems, not enough for Barbra Streisand, who revealed in an interview that two of her pet dogs have been cloned from cells of her late dog.

There's something unsettling about pet cloning, said to be on the rise in America where, unlike in the UK, it is perfectly legal. I find it chilling, and hugely self-indulgent. Instead of cloning her deceased pet, Streisand should've given a home to a rescue dog. There are plenty of them to go around.

* LIKE all great divas, Storm Emma made a jaw-droppingly dramatic entrance and left a trail of destruction.

My namesake left a lasting impression when she rolled in from the Atlantic and collided with the 'Beast from the East', causing havoc across the UK. I'm sure many cursed her when, like me, they battled to work through icy blizzards last week. But, hey, I quite enjoyed sharing my name with a bout of extreme weather.

Far better to be a raging storm than a mild, grey day with occasional showers...