The Bingle

This is Lara Bingle. Pretty no? She rose to fame as a spunky 19 year old in the Australian tourism ad which featured the line "Where the bloody hell are ya?" to much disgust from our English friends. That was around 2006.

This is Brendan Fevola. He plays football (that's Australian rules) for a club called the Brisbane Lions. Prior to this he played for Carlton football club where he was dumped for unfavourable antics. He is a douche. This will become more apparent later.


This is Michael Clarke. He plays cricket internationally for Australia. Generally a like able character. Is rolling in the money hence he brought Lara an Aston martin car. He and Lara hooked up about 4 years ago and were until recently engaged.

Brendan and Lara had a relationship in 2006. Lara claimed to have never known that he had a wife and 3 kids. While in this affair, Brendan allegedly took a topless camera photo of Lara in the shower. The photo was released to the media by another anonymous footballer who claims that it is widely circulated around many footballers phones. Woman's Day, a fluffy 'celebrity' magazine reportedly offered her $200,000 for her story, after they published it last Monday.

This is Dermott Brereton. He played football for Hawthorn in the 80s, and is currently a sports media personality. Whatever that means. Friday just gone he claimed that before Lara and Brendan began their affair he had informed Lara that Brendan was married. "And her reply to me verbatim was 'Do you think he'd still have a go after me?' " Lara's agent Max has denied this claim.

On Friday 12th March, Michael Clarke flew from New Zealand where is was playing in an international game to be with Lara. On Saturday night their engagement was called off. No other comment was given.

This story has generated so much attention in Australia it is practically the first news item for the last week since it broke. Now there has been talk of Lara allegedly flushing her $200,000 engagement ring down the toilet and a plumber had to be called as it blocked the pipe.She has copped so much flak for this whole thing, primarily because people saw her as a money grabbing 'model' who has really done nothing since the ad campaign several years ago, and Michael Clarke is seen as a nice wholesome cricket player who has been swindled by Bingle. The annoying sexist thing is that Brendan Fevola who is well known as a cad is not getting the same criticism she is. Regardless of whether she knew he was married or not, he definitely knew he was married with children and shouldn't have pursued a relationship full stop.

I'm not one to usually harbour any friendly feelings towards models (except for Megan Gale, she seems so cool). Primarily because I find it ridiculous people should be paid astronomical amounts of money just for looking like whatever is in fashion at the moment. And right now that seems to be very thin, tall, and sort of same same in my opinion. But then Tyra will tell me you have to be able to walk down a runway and pose and contort your body to what the stylist/photographer wants in shoots, which would be harder than it looks I'd imagine. Secondly I'm more than likely majorly jealous that I'm not making an astronomical amount of money for being young and hot! Back to Lara's situation and in particular the topless photo of her taken by Brendan. The rampant sexism still prevalent in football is disgusting. they have their 'ladies days' but the fact that so many footballers still felt the need to forward this picture around on their phones shows that not a lot has progressed. Saying that Bingle has not handled the situation very well. What could have been a sympathetic situation towards her, perhaps under the right management, has turned into a publish backlash against her. She obviously did not want her photo taken in the shower, it is obvious she is not posing for it and is unhappy. If she had just agreed to an interview immediately after the photo was published and donated the money to some kind of women's charity group, it may have been over in a manner of days. Instead she publicly denounced the media, essentially biting the hand that feeds her, not to mention her agent orchestrated the whole media circus ring around her. The result is a broken engagement. She is only 22, and while I can't say I feel sorry for her, I don't believe she deserves the backlash she is receiving at the moment. I think it shows the narrow mindness of the Australian media that it was even made into such a big deal, when there is no much more going on in the world. Or maybe it the enormous thirst for 'celebrity' scandal we seem to have.