quentinLara Bingle and the sportsworld
March 10th 2010 23:42
There has been only one thing that has been the topic of great discussion around water coolers all over Australia over the past few days. I of course refer to the scandal surrounding the Lara Bingle/Michael Clarke relationship.
Everyone knows that Lara Bingle likes her famous people. She's been linked with AFL star Brendan Fevola, an unnamed NRL star, surfer Taj Burrow and King's Cross identity John Ibrahim. Currently she's been dating cricketer Michael Clarke and up until recently, they were happily in love and in fact had been engaged for 2 years.
Sadly, things have crumbled recently for "Australia's Golden Couple." Pictures of them appeared in the Daily Telegraph apparantly arguing at the SCG recently but the past 2 weeks have been nothing short of horrendous. Women's Day published a photo that had been doing the rounds among AFL players and Cricketers of Bingle in the shower. The photo in question was alledgedly taken by Fevola.
Bingle then subsequently hired celebrity agent Max Markson and decided to sue Fevola. It got even strager when she sold her side of the story to Women's Day for a reported $200,000. Michael Clarke quit the tour of New Zealand to come home and deal with this crisis with rumours now growing that the relationship is over.
Now let's have a look at a couple of aspects of this, that are just frankly unusual.
FACT: Lara Bingle was 19 years old when that photo was takent.
FACT: At that time she was having an affair with Brendan Fevola after meeting him on the set of The Footy Show
FACT: Brendan Fevola was married to wife Alex at the time and yet he still saw fit to dally around with Bingle
FACT: Brendan Fevola should never have taken the photo as anyone is entitled to privacy in the shower and looking at her face, you know the photo isn't consensual.
FACT: Fevola should never have distributed that photo and his behaviour in this instance is reprehensible.
Looking at the above facts, you could say that Bingle might've been a bit naive at 19 but Fevola should know better. In fact, I'd take it one step further and say that Brendan Fevola is to blame for this whole scandal. Distributing a photo is a disgraceful effort, let alone taking one of a girl when she's having a shower. I could speculate and say that photo may have caused Bingle and Fevola to break up but without knowing the facts there, it's not really relevant.
Having said that though, the media need to be held to account for a couple of things as well.
1. What are they doing publishing photos of people in the shower?
2. What is the obsession with celebrities and couples?
3. Do these people get kicks out of relationship turmoil?
4. Why are we still hearing about it 2 weeks later?
As for Bingle, well I had sympathy for her because this is something no-one should ever have to go through but my sympathy ran out the moment she decided to "sell" her side of the story for $200,000. It's a nice cash grab but what would endear her to people is if she donated it to a women's cause (i.e. breast cancer research). Unfortunately she has a reputation for being a homewrecker and she's not liked but $200,000 has made a lot of people pissed off.
I guess, to finish on a sporting note of sorts, the big questions that should be occupying the minds of people at the present moment is; How will this scandal affect Michael Clarke's cricketing career? Is his mind in the right place at present to be playing cricket? Could this scandal destroy Clarke's captaincy ambitions?
Everyone knows that Lara Bingle likes her famous people. She's been linked with AFL star Brendan Fevola, an unnamed NRL star, surfer Taj Burrow and King's Cross identity John Ibrahim. Currently she's been dating cricketer Michael Clarke and up until recently, they were happily in love and in fact had been engaged for 2 years.
Sadly, things have crumbled recently for "Australia's Golden Couple." Pictures of them appeared in the Daily Telegraph apparantly arguing at the SCG recently but the past 2 weeks have been nothing short of horrendous. Women's Day published a photo that had been doing the rounds among AFL players and Cricketers of Bingle in the shower. The photo in question was alledgedly taken by Fevola.
Bingle then subsequently hired celebrity agent Max Markson and decided to sue Fevola. It got even strager when she sold her side of the story to Women's Day for a reported $200,000. Michael Clarke quit the tour of New Zealand to come home and deal with this crisis with rumours now growing that the relationship is over.
Now let's have a look at a couple of aspects of this, that are just frankly unusual.
FACT: Lara Bingle was 19 years old when that photo was takent.
FACT: At that time she was having an affair with Brendan Fevola after meeting him on the set of The Footy Show
FACT: Brendan Fevola was married to wife Alex at the time and yet he still saw fit to dally around with Bingle
FACT: Brendan Fevola should never have taken the photo as anyone is entitled to privacy in the shower and looking at her face, you know the photo isn't consensual.
FACT: Fevola should never have distributed that photo and his behaviour in this instance is reprehensible.
Looking at the above facts, you could say that Bingle might've been a bit naive at 19 but Fevola should know better. In fact, I'd take it one step further and say that Brendan Fevola is to blame for this whole scandal. Distributing a photo is a disgraceful effort, let alone taking one of a girl when she's having a shower. I could speculate and say that photo may have caused Bingle and Fevola to break up but without knowing the facts there, it's not really relevant.
Having said that though, the media need to be held to account for a couple of things as well.
1. What are they doing publishing photos of people in the shower?
2. What is the obsession with celebrities and couples?
3. Do these people get kicks out of relationship turmoil?
4. Why are we still hearing about it 2 weeks later?
As for Bingle, well I had sympathy for her because this is something no-one should ever have to go through but my sympathy ran out the moment she decided to "sell" her side of the story for $200,000. It's a nice cash grab but what would endear her to people is if she donated it to a women's cause (i.e. breast cancer research). Unfortunately she has a reputation for being a homewrecker and she's not liked but $200,000 has made a lot of people pissed off.
I guess, to finish on a sporting note of sorts, the big questions that should be occupying the minds of people at the present moment is; How will this scandal affect Michael Clarke's cricketing career? Is his mind in the right place at present to be playing cricket? Could this scandal destroy Clarke's captaincy ambitions?
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