It's no surprise that the reaction from the British media and critics was so vehement, although Adrian had a British grandmother, and although he himself had an assumed British nationality, and although his first movie was filmed in London and was full of British dark humor, he was always an American!
While the UK and US are politically allies, culturally, they mostly hold each other in disdain—the Americans think the British are hypocritical and rigid, while the British think the Americans are rude and uncultured. It would be unimaginable not to have a head-on clash after a long time. Perhaps this strange situation seems laughable to outsiders, but to the middle classes of the UK and US, it's quite normal.
