This week saw the downfall of one of Britain’s business tycoons, spectacularly yanked out of the closet by the ever-gracious Associated Press (home of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.)
There are several aspects to this story that make me sympathize with Lord Browne, former head of BP. Firstly, despite the fact that the newspapers gleefully called his male lover a “rent boy”, this was actually a long term relationship, lasting over four years. Hardly the sort of sordid affair that the term “rent boy” tends to imply, regardless of the fact that Browne met Jeff Chevalier through an escort agency. Secondly, Browne made a huge, silly mistake of lying in court about how he met Chevalier, in order to prevent the type of headlines that we saw the very next day. Is it any wonder he told this little white lie when we saw the way the newspapers treated the relationship?
Thirdly, Jeff Chevalier has been paid a large amount of money by the Mail on Sunday for his story, plus numerous “expenses”. He has turned his back on a former lover, one that treated him very well, and sold his story. Hurt feelings must abound indeed. Fourthly, questions have been raised by the Mail on Sunday regarding Lord Browne’s financial affairs within BP. No evidence of fiscal wrongdoing has been found thus far. It is therefore highly hypocritical of the MoS to point the finger at Lord Browne for funding Chevalier’s lavish lifestyle when the newspaper itself paid for Chevalier to go on foreign holidays in the name of “evidence gathering.”
The whole news saga smacks of pettiness. Yes, Lord Browne should not have lied, but even today public figures still run the risk of damning headlines if their private lives are revealed for what they truly are. The media are as always obsessed with sex and scandal, frequently holding the front page for yet another kiss and tell story- which is what Chevalier’s sorry tale essentially boils down to.
Isn’t it about time we started concentrating on more important things than who sleeps with whom??
. i feel sorry for lord browne. but perhaps if he had just said, "yes, i know him, we had a relationship, so what?" it might not have gone further
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2007-05-05 @ 16:01