Monday 1 February 2010

Score

There seems to be nothing - absolutely nothing - that the tabloids love more than a good old fashioned sex scandal. Over the last week I've become aware of two rather interesting cases: one over here in Blighty, the other over the waters in the US of A.

First, to the home grown territory. John Terry, captain of the English football team and also captain of Chelsea FC, has been scoring away from home (not my pun, sadly) with the ex of one of his England team mates, Wayne Bridge. The girl in question is a French underwear model. But then, she would be, wouldn't she?

My comments to this, I must say, are no way connected to the fact that I am an Arsenal FC supporter and Terry plays for Chelsea: He's an idiot. First of all, have you seen his wife? Seriously, she's stunning. Why the hell would anyone want to cheat on the likes of her? It's about as likely as a porn script winning Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, but it happens all the time. Footballers' Wives, the rather hit-and-miss soapy gloss that ended here a few years ago, was all fun and naughty make believe but this is serious stuff. Terry has kids, and they're bound to be affected by the excrement that's due to hit the fan.

Terry was booed by Burnley supporters on Saturday night when Chelsea played away at Burnley, and he scored the last winning goal for his team (again, scoring away from home, and again, not my joke) - this conduct towards him is going to continue at every away game for the next few months. Should he be sacked as England captain? That's for the manager, Fabio Cappello, to decide. However, ideally the decision should be made on whether this revelation is going to affect Terry on the pitch. If it does, then maybe a break wouldn't be such a bad idea. Give someone else a go for the World Cup campaign, maybe.

Over in the States, it's a politician in the docks (the other most famous kind of tabloid scandal usually involves politicians). John Edwards, a one time presidential hopeful, is involved right now in a damning sex case where his former mistress, a Rielle Hunter, has won the right to claim back a sex tape that the couple made, as well as some interesting photographs. His former aide, Andrew Young, has just published memoirs which claim these exist, and further proving the point that he was asked to claim Hunter's daughter as his own and not that of Edwards, which she so obviously is.

Edwards' wife is leaving him, his political career is in tatters, and now every dirty old man and interested student is going to be surfing the world wide web for a One Night In Paris scenario featuring Edwards and Hunter.

Peter Griffin says in an episode of Family Guy: "Oh, it's fun to watch rich people be naughty". And it is, in a way. Affairs happen 24/7; there's probably one going on right now as I type. It's tragic, stupid and immoral (unless you happen to be in an open relationship, in which case, if that's what makes you happy, go with it). But when rich and famous people get caught, we feel like it's some kind of vindication. Yes, if we get caught then there's bad news on the horizon for us. But at least we won't get the media attention that Terry and Edwards are now having to face. At least we won't get booed by thousands of people at football games and political rallies.

Celebrities need to take more care in their lives - it's incredibly difficult, I'm sure, as we're such a celebrity hungry culture that we just eat this stuff up for breakfast. But what kind of a message does it give people? Mind you, the fact that it's been treated in such a negative way may arguably seen as a good thing. After all, if people see how much rubbish is thrown at you if you are guilty, maybe then people will think twice before cheating.

Laters.

No comments: