Rooneygate and more news about dicks
I want to start this by looking at the justification for the latest Wayne Rooney stories. It's pretty much the same justification that we all remember from the Tiger Woods tales about what he'd been up to and what he'd been doing with his dick.
News about dicks - the same old story. Except we're meant to believe that there's a reason for all this, beyond the giggling prurience and the intrusion into someone's private life. You can see the figleaf over at the News of the World's original story:
Rooney's earlier brush with scandal came in 2004 when he confessed to visiting a seedy massage parlour in a rundown area of Liverpool for £45-a-time sex, including a romp with a 48-year-old grandmother nicknamed Auld Slapper - the first time he was caught cheating on devastated childhood sweetheart Coleen.
Since then Rooney, who played for England on Friday night at Wembley, has crafted a brand of happy family life that's helped win big-money sponsorships and endorsements.
But the tawdry truth is just a year ago he was at it again.
But interestingly enough, that defence is torpedoed by Max Clifford in today's Sun:
Publicist Max Clifford believes football fans won't be bothered by the allegations surrounding Rooney's private life — as long as he keeps on scoring goals.
Mr Clifford said: "The only thing Wayne Rooney has to worry about is his wife, whether she, like all the others, is prepared to accept her husband's alleged infidelities.
"Nobody in football gives a monkey's as long as he's winning on the pitch. Will it stop people drinking Tiger Beer? No. Will it stop people buying Coca Cola? No. Will it stop parents buying Nike for their children? No."
Well, of course it won't. But the gleeful press attempted to scramble up to the moral high ground during the Tiger Woods revelation by claiming that it was Tiger Woods's family-friendly image - and not the fact he's one of the most spectacular golfers in history - that was responsible for his ever-growing list of endorsements. Some of them are doing the same, this time - but others are being a little more honest.
Because this isn't about exposing the hypocrisy between a person's public image and private life - this is pure and simple about digging dirt. Rooney's past transgressions didn't stop him from getting endorsements, and nor will this, so long as the goals keep going in. I don't remember Avram Grant having a load of picture spreads in Hello! magazine with his wife, but that didn't stop the papers ferreting around in his private business last year.
Perhaps the most telling paragraph in all of this business is to be found in the Sun's coverage today:
Wannabe glamour model Natalie, whose dad is Wayne's uncle John, also said: "Other footballers have girls begging to have sex with them. He pays for it. Lost all my respect for him now! He's obviously got more money than sense."
I'm no prude, but there are times when even I start yearning for a gentler time before all of this stuff was considered fair game. I don't think there should be rules preventing it from being published; I just wish people, no matter how famous, could be allowed to have private lives, and there wasn't a market for this grubby kind of story. I don't have a huge amount of sympathy for Rooney at all, of course, given what he's done. But that doesn't mean I think it's a worthwhile story for the papers to be covering. But cover it they have, and not just the red-tops:
I don't care what Wayne Rooney does with his dick, just as I don't care what William Hague does or doesn't do or did or didn't do with his. Maybe that puts me in the minority, but so be it. It's always a different justification... it's about the taxpayers' money, it's about the endorsements, it's about the hypocrisy... no. No it isn't. It's about digging up sleaze, that benefits no-one, but titillates a few. That is all it has ever been about.
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September 6th, 2010 - 18:43
As it happens, I don’t especially care for this shit either. I don’t buy the line that footballers are meant to be role models for young people so should behave in a moral and good way. Like everyone else, they can do what the hell they like off the pitch. Provided it doesn’t affect what they do on the pitch, I don’t especially care.
Unfortunately, people continue to buy up this stuff. The newspapers that publish it get larger circulations, they get more readers by doing so. Until they’re persuaded otherwise, it’ll continue. If it didn’t sell, they wouldn’t bother printing it. So there’s not a lot we can do about it.
September 6th, 2010 - 19:02
Unfortunately while you don’t care what Rooney does with his dick, and I don’t care what Rooney does with his dick, and presumably most of the people reading your blog don’t care what Rooney does with his dick, it seems that a huge number of people out there genuinely do. They’re positively enthralled by the thing. Sadly, as long as there’s a market for tawdry celebrity dick stories, they’ll just keep on getting published.
September 7th, 2010 - 03:39
Whilst I see your point about celebrities and intrusion into their private lives, I don’t have a tremendous amount of sympathy for these people – how can they watch their colleagues and other people in their social circles fall foul of fame hungry girls who are willing to kiss and tell, and think it won’t happen to them? It just doesn’t make sense to me. I also hate the absolute lack of concern the press shows the families of these people – Colleen, Mrs Woods and Fion Hague to name a few.
September 7th, 2010 - 07:59
andyinthesmoke
I’m not sure if you’re right. Listening to Talksport last night, I’d say 99% of callers said they couldn’t give a monkey’s. Your assumption is based on the fact that the papers are printing the stories. But do people stop buying a particular paper because it prints a story they don’t care about? In most cases, i’d say they don’t.
A few people have made the comparison with the John terry farrago, saying that he lost the England captaincy over his indescretion, so Rooney should be amde an example of as well.
The difference there was that Terry’s misedemenor directly affected the England football team, due to involving a team mate. In Rooney’s case, it’s only affected the team because it’s brought a media circus to bear on them right before a vital match. Which begs the question, the media constantly claim they support the England team, and want them to do well. So why not hold off on the story until AFTER the match? They are more than capable of keeping a story quiet until it suits them (or a publicist). Look at how Ashley Cole stories always seemed to appear just before Cheryl was releasing a new single…
September 7th, 2010 - 09:37
it’s pretty shit what he did, and i hope his wife is alright. but it isn’t news.
now, the article about honour killings by robert fisk in today’s independent is news. the fact that the UN knew about the 240 rapes of babies and women in the congo is news. andy coulson hacking phones is news.
i don’t see that splashed on the front of the times or the express or any of the papers.
September 7th, 2010 - 09:45
Personally I kinda feel sorry for Rooney- and all the other celebrities who get mobbed by the media circus like this- it seems like the punishment doesn’t really fit the crime.
I saw a article in the Metro yesterday with the title “Rooney powerless to stop articles about his private life”. More like “Barely-regulated papers can write whatever the heck they like!”
September 7th, 2010 - 11:33
I’m not interested at all in the private lives of public figures, and I don’t believe that most people are. But it’s what is shoved in our faces by the media, and I hate it.
Having said that, footballers are paid way too much money, and live a gilded life with seemingly no regard for anyone but themselves. I find it profoundly depressing that the vast majority of young girls aspire to be WAGs.
September 7th, 2010 - 11:40
I would dearly, dearly love Rooney to call a press conference and state “Yep, £1200. What of it? That’s small change to me. Really, it IS. Paying for sex might be illegal, but let’s face it folks, there are FAR worse things I could be doing. GET IN!”
That said, yeah ~ I don’t really care for the story or the people it features. But I DO care (like many of us here), that the press is increasingly amoral (and swaying towards immoral) with every passing week.
Mind, I should point out that when last week’s non-story was being dragged out, I REALLY wanted William Hague to call a similar conference and say “Yeah, I bummed him, what of it? He wanted it!” purely to see how the press coped.
September 7th, 2010 - 11:48
That would’ve been the best press conference ever. XD
September 8th, 2010 - 14:46
Paying for sex isn’t even illegal (unless the prostitute has been ‘subjected to force’).
September 7th, 2010 - 11:47
Hmm, I’m in two minds on this one. On the one hand, the fact he has form for this sort of behaviour leaves him wide open. I understand you disagree with me on this on, but IMO if you’ve had to have your name dragged through the mud already because of past dumbassry, you can’t really complain when you repeat said behaviour and get caught again.
However, I do agree that, in general, people should be entitled to a private life, including Rooney. What is more, the judgmental editorials are beyond laughable. OMG a famous person had *sex*! Who’d have thunk it? And what the hell is with the press actually calling the parents of the woman Rooney supposedly slept with? Like this isn’t toe-curlingly horrible enough for them!
One thing that doesn’t seem to have received much attention but I thought was very interesting: the woman known so charmingly as Auld Slapper has apparently lost quite a lot of money trying to sue the press because she claims she was only ever a receptionist at the brothel and never slept with any clients. Given the amount she’s in the hole, I’m wondering whether she might be telling the truth.
September 7th, 2010 - 15:51
Most people might not really care what Rooney does with his winkie or want to make a moral judgement on it but they like reading about it nonetheless as it sells lorry loads of papers. I can saddle up on my moral high horse with the best if them when it comes to our tabloids but I wanted to read it on Sunday.
There’s also some validity to the argument that if you’re going to flog photos for vast sums to glossy mags depicting your fairytale lifestyle, and you’re then caught getting blowjobs off a prostitute in a nightclub kitchen, you get what you deserve.