Back to Front: When Sportsman = Celebrity = Front Page News.

These days sports people are as likely to find themselves subjects in the celebrity front news section as in the sports section in the back pages but it wasn't always so…..

A great example was that of American baseball star Babe Ruth in the 1920s. A household name and hero, Babe Ruth was hailed in the press for his sporting prowess. A group of journalists covering one of his games were travelling together on a train when running through the carriage came The Babe chased by a woman brandishing a knife and screaming some very choice words. The journalists laughed and noted what a great story it would make but of course they didn't report it. At a time when the majority of people got their information from the print media the words on the paper were their only link to sporting heroes and that's what got - superhuman sportsmen.

With the introduction of televisions in the home from the 1950s onwards many sports became more accessible to people and they no longer relied on the print media for their information. The print media had to take a new look at sport now they could no longer just relay the 'action'. Journalists looked more in-depth into the background of sports, the managers, the strategies, the players and their personalities. Mixed with the emergence of 'new journalism' in the 1960s sports people soon found it wasn't only their sporting performance which could end up in print.

Motor racing, and in particular F1, has always been seen as a playground for the rich, famous and glamorous. When the F1 World Championship was introduced in 1950 many of the drivers still had that pre-war hedonistic air around them. The sport was yet to be commercialized - you went to the track to race and have fun. The night before races drivers would congregate in bars and restaurants and the ensuing high jinks are motor racing history - not that you'd find too many of them reported in the papers - if Schumacher and Hakkinen were to be found up a tree, drink in hand the night before a race you can bet your bottom dollar there'd be photographic evidence for us all to peruse the next morning! The drivers lived life to the full and who would begrudge them when the reality of the times was many would lose their lives for this sport? Their names could be found in gossip columns linked to some of the worlds most beautiful women, Eugenio Castellotti and singer Delia Scala, Lance Reventlow had a short lived marriage to actress Jill St John.

It was soon discovered that celebrity and gossip sells. As tabloid newspapers emerged and television became more widespread so the gossip columns swelled to become pages. We're a curious set of creatures we humans. It's the basis of much entertainment whether it be a soap opera or fly on the wall documentary. We're also a hypocritical bunch most of the time. Surely I believe sports peoples' private lives are their own business? Of course, what does it have to do with their sporting performance anyway. But imagine there's a paper across the room and it's got a really juicy story in it about a top ranking driver…..do we get out of our chair and read it….honestly?

One of the drivers who was the staple of the gossip columns for many years was James Hunt. One of the main attractions of Hunt was he seemed to embody those golden age drivers who had fun. Formula One had become commercialized, drivers were now professional sportsmen - they didn't drink, smoke or stay up passed 9pm, or at least that's how it seemed. They were superfit athletes with commitments to their sponsors. Hunt harked back to the old school, a plumy English accent, a playboy image and groovy hair. He'd happily celebrate a win with a cigarette and a blonde on each arm. He'd appear on television to play the fool with Morecambe and Wise one day and be racing on the track the next. Hunt recognized the power of the press and its ability to love or loathe you in one strike of the typewriter. A gossip story comes with no better ingredients than that of James Hunt and his first wife Suzy who left him for actor Richard Burton - a stunning woman, a dashing sports hero and a famous filmstar. Hunt admitted the story may have actually benefited his career, it raised his profile, indeed it was a factor that helped raise the profile of the whole sport. He knew what it was to experience the hero to zero phenomena and back again. 'Hunt the Shunt' one week, the pride of Britain the next.

One of the kickbacks of media intrusion is the change in sports people's behaviour. Nigel Mansell has said he actively studied the press before entering F1 so he'd be prepared. Engage brain before opening mouth is the first lesson any driver must learn when dealing with the media. And drivers do learn lessons about the media. Surrounded by PR and media relations officers to help them through the media minefield, drivers are taught the ropes on how to conduct themselves in interviews and public presentations. But on the whole the journalists drivers have to deal with are sports journalists who know stories gossip journalists would give their hind teeth for. One F1 journalist recounted a story that almost harks back to the days of The Babe. A driver who was well respected and liked by the F1 press turned out to be having an affair with his best friends wife, not an unheard of situation admittedly but whilst they never reported the story , they just want to write about the action on the track, he admitted the driver lost respect and reports about him became that bit more critical (and no I don't know who the driver in question was!).

Of course some just can't help but speak their mind. Eddie Irvine is one such case. His soundbites follow him around like puppy. He isn't the first and certainly won't be the last driver to suffer this. Before Irvine came Nelson Piquet another driver with the ability to produce acidic one liners whether he was likening a rival's wife to a farmyard animal, doubting another driver's sexual preferences or casting doubt on a team owners mental abilities. In the flesh Irvine and Piquet share a similar delivery, Irvine's humour isn't just dry it's downright arid and this never comes across in print. Words on paper are unforgiving and pretty much permanent. And if a driver is going to be so brutally honest what's left to dig up? Maybe that's what riles those people waiting with a spade.

A newspaper article after his British GP win this year suggested David Coulthard appeared disappointed he didn't seem to get an all out response from the media and public. Like many provincial drivers he suffers from performance related nationality - the Scot becomes British when he wins. His relationship with the press has been along the same undulating road most drivers go. He now finds himself front page news once more in the most tragic of circumstances having survived a plane crash which killed two pilots. His every move since has been scrutinized, will he race or won't he and what does that say about him? Psychologists have been drafted in to give their views. There's words of praise and support for his courage. A very different scenario than two years ago.

The tabloids latched onto him big time in 1997 when he ended his relationship with Andrea Murray and began seeing Heidi Wichlinski. It made not only great copy but provided a great visual edge to, Coulthard traded in a beautiful blonde model for a beautiful blonde model and the papers played spot the difference with photographs. But it didn't end there, the story had legs (other than Ms Murray's and Ms Wichlinski's). The papers spoke to Andrea's mother and hell hath no fury like a woman whose daughter has been scorned. And if David Coldheart, as he was dubbed, didn't think it could get worse a few days later it emerged he'd also had a relationship with Air Stewardess, Emma Holland whilst seeing Ms Murray, Ms Holland seemed only to happy to tell her tale her to newspaper. Such stories are mainstay fodder for the newspapers these days - it's easy to forget someone's real life is being peddled out for all and sundry. Baffled by the media interest, a couple of months later Coulthard proclaimed 'It's no one's business what I do off the track'. Exactly…

….two years down the track (so to speak) David Coulthard and his new fiancée Heidi Wichlinski invite us to share their joy via the medium that is the celebrity magazine. Appearing in an 'exclusive' interview in OK! Magazine David and Heidi (celeb' magazines are on first name terms with anyone who's anyone) let us peek into their world. Celebrity magazines are safe ground in media world - the few questions there are to fill in the space between very large, glossy photographs, start and end with a compliment - 'you have such a beautiful home, how do you manage to balance home and sporting life when you're such a wonderfully successful driver' is the type of question that passes for celebrity interrogation.

Image might not be everything but it is a big slice of the F1 cake. Perfect the art and you're made. It's just no-one ever has. There's a Spanish proverb 'Take what you want - and pay for it' or in my home tongue 'you don't get owt for nowt'. It was interesting to note that when Jenson Button entered F1 questions weren't just raised about whether he could cope with the physical and mental needs of driving but could he cope with all the related pressure - notably the media intrusion. It all started sweetly, it always does. He's been wheeled out for the young hip television shows and serious news programmes alike. But the probing has started. Many of the Silverstone reports ended with the news he had split with his girlfriend of four years, Kimberley Keay but it was reported as amicable and probably not a shock to those with more time under their belts that another relationship had faltered in the wake of F1. However, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail Kimberley Keay told a more intimate and sensitive story under the headline 'I gave up everything for the golden boy of Formula One. Even our unborn baby'. The article makes uncomfortable reading, including her account of having an abortion last year which she claims Button offered to pay for and suggesting she felt pressured into the termination as she may otherwise alienate him and his career took preference. It's a gut wrenching, emotive story which I felt difficult to read. Picking up a magazine and criticizing a drivers soft furnishings is one thing but this really hit home at just how much do we want to know? Whilst she states neither of them told their parents of the termination this personal story is now laid bare in a public forum not because it is unique but because one of them is of 'public interest' due to a sporting talent and ambition. I can only second guess her motive for going public, revenge, catharsis - we're surrounded by the talk show confessional which seems to promotes bearing your soul to the wider world will help. Button has said he doesn't feel over pressurized by the intrusion, not yet. One things for sure, there'll be more to follow. 'Take what you want - and pay for it' , and the price rises all the time it seems.

© Rebecca Hobbs

(c)RH PR 2007