Sex scandals &#8212; who cares?

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Michael Breen

Sex scandals — who cares?

Posted : 2010-05-13 18:10

Updated : 2010-05-13 18:10

By Michael Breen

In the latest international celebrity gossip, a lady named Violet Kowal has claimed to have had a sexual affair with the 54-year-old actor Mel Gibson.

Well, I'll be. Apparently ― and I'm going on a report on this newspaper's Web site about an alleged interview in the National Enquirer, a U.S. tabloid (access to whose site is denied to we inquiring minds in Korea) ― Ms. Kowal said her eight rogerings by Mr. Gibson were her best to date.

And though only 26 and Polish, and therefore probably a Catholic, she's probably had more than a few, because she's a porn actress.

Now that you're titillated at Mel Gibson's expense, I should point out for the record that none of this is necessarily true. Gibson's lawyer was quoted calling it all fabrication.

True or false, though, it has a certain allure. But, why? Why do we care about this story? Not only is it none of our business, but our very interest in this type of tittle-tattle is demeaning.

Just this year, we've seen Tiger Woods exposed as a rascal, then the husband of actress Sandra Bullock. This week, the Sun, the most widely-read British newspaper, reported that the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, had once been late for a meeting with the Queen because they had been, erm, romping. Zut! Knaughty knickerless!

This stuff is front-page news in newspapers that politicians and others with an ear to public opinion have to pay attention to. But why? That human beings have sex is not breaking news. At any given moment, the planet is rocking with reproductive activity. Frankly, it's far less offensive than defecation, which all men do every day ― women don't, of course.

So why be so weird? And we really are weird to the point of being downright undignified. The British tabloids are notorious commercial manipulators of this human weakness. When I read them, which I do occasionally online, I am reminded of the old caricature of the working class British housewife leaning over the wooden garden fence, her hair in curlers, a fag (in the British sense) hanging from her mouth, gossiping with her pal about the new neighbors. ``They're at it day an' night. It's disgustin'. I've got kids."

These tabloids cleverly titillate their readers at the same time as give them a sense of moral superiority through their condemnation of the sinful stars.

But they dumb society down so far it's not true. I asked a taxi driver at Britain's Heathrow Airport once what was happening in the country and he started to tell me about some actress who had left one of the long-running soaps. This was the top story for him.

How much do citizens who consume such daily drivel really know about their own society?

I am familiar with the argument that public figures are fair game, that our prurient interest in their private lives is the price of fame. I'm also familiar with the argument that a politician's love life is a clue to his moral character and that if the president can cheat on his wife with an intern in the White House, he might not be trustworthy on national security. But it is silly nonsense.

Would it not be nobler to grow up and allow public figures their privacy? Women may have a problem with Tiger Woods, but a lot of men can understand him. For reasons that are none of our business he was not satisfied at home and he found himself in parallel universes which one day collided. So? He is history's greatest golfer. Period. If he were the Pope, OK, he got ousted. But outside of golf, his struggle is none of my business. Nor is Mel Gibson's.

Best in her life, eh?

Michael Breen is an author, former foreign correspondent and the chairman of Insight Communications, a public relations consulting company. He can be reached at mike.breen@insightcomms.com.