America’s Woman in Red, actress and 1980’s sex symbol Kelly Lebrock, made a recent celebrity appearance on Rai’s prime-time, live, audience-packed variety-show ‘I migliori anni’. She was kitted up in one of those translation headsets and presenter Carlo Conti was doing what he does best.
How can you want money and still hope to be a convincing victim of sexual abuse?- Michela Spiteri
Mid-interview, Lebrock was asked how she managed to land such a great role in the 1984 film The Woman in Red, which was effectively her first film and acting debut.
Without mincing words, re-positioning herself in her seat, or so much as twitching or batting an eyelid, she coolly and unswervingly declared that it was because she happened to be sleeping with the producer.
In this nauseatingly stifling, equal-rights, politically correct, verbally constipated, emotionally repressed, hypocritical world we live in, I find these rare departures from socially acceptable and expectable norms of behaviour, very refreshing. The few who are bold enough to tell it as it is are invariably perceived, as nuts, deviant, loose cannon, liars or all of the above.
Conti apparently felt the same way I did and congratulated the 51-year-old actress for her honesty as did the rest of the audience who immediately broke into thunderous applause. I found myself wondering how a similar remark would have been received here. Imagine the hoohah and ensuing panic if someone were man or woman enough to admit to that on one of our local television stations.
I dread to think what a local presenter would have to say although I imagine they’d probably think it was horribly opportunistic. How can you sleep with someone, simultaneously enjoy monetary gain and a career legs-up and still be respectable?
Or more to the point – how can you want money, make absolutely no attempt to hide it, and still hope to be a convincing victim of sexual abuse? Some people seem to think that Lawrence Grech’s one-track money-minded unrelenting pursuit of what he feels is morally and rightly his due, puts his credibility into question.
Can you trust someone who admits he was prepared to give an interview to the BBC or Al Jazeera in exchange for money? Well, you know what? It happens all the time.
I’m not sure why or wherefore, perhaps it’s that dreaded combination of sex and money which is somehow taboo, but the sense I am getting from the man in the street is that Grech and co. should stop making nuisances of themselves. They had their day in court, they were believed. Now it’s high time they shut up, shrunk away and made themselves invisible. All this talk of money you see is not kosher and certainly not doing them any favours.
People can’t reconcile Grech, the innocent, unassuming, orphan boy, with Grech, the apparently mercenary adult who is about as subtle as those little cards that find their way inside wedding invitations, reminding you that the newlyweds want cash.
You know, when their story first broke out, I was probably the only columnist who didn’t write. It took me months to pen a story about the victims and not just because I have the same relationship with my column that I have with rock concerts and blockbuster films like Titanic. If everyone else goes there, I won’t.
No, it was definitely something more. You see, because of the serious nature of the allegations, I suppose I was overcome by an acute case of McCannitis (remember how nobody believed the grabby, interview-happy Gerry and Kate McCann), and I allowed myself a period of reflection.
And yet, although I wasn’t one of those who jumped straight onto their bandwagon, the minute I made up my mind that I was going to believe them, it was unlikely that anything would change my mind. And if it did, it would have to be something overwhelmingly monumental and significant. Certainly not something as silly and cliche’ as money. If anything, Grech’s unabashed admissions, his financial transparency shows an unusual sincerity and forthrightness a la Kelly Lebrock.
Money – the great leveller; the great divider. It’s why people wake up every morning and why they end up in court. It ends marriages, friendships. It’s the main cause of sibling rivalry and family feuds. And now it can even stop you getting a divorce. And people still have to pretend they don’t care about it. Otherwise they come across as vulgar and not quite our class. It’s really quite amusing.
A woman who marries a rich man will come under strict scrutiny as the rest of us ponder whether she genuinely loves her husband or whether she’s in it for the money.
The funny thing is that people don’t have the same reservations about poverty. You’d never catch anyone questioning the woman who was attracted to the hippie precisely because he was a social zero.
That would be perceived as the purest love. My point – if poverty doesn’t get in the way of true love, why should wealth? Why does money get such a bad rap?
Power, success, vocation, a sense of humour, duty, drive and determination – those are perfectly fine. When you’re standing around at a wedding with a glass of wine in your hand you can trust yourself to say that you always wanted to marry a doctor because that will score you points. Saving lives is pretty noble and doesn’t make you sound greedy.
Even admitting you were blown away by someone’s beauty is par for the course. But, whatever you do, under no circumstances should you ever admit that it was the bulging wallet that drew you initially, before you fell in love. Bad, bad idea.
The truth is that it’s one and the same. Power, social-standing, affluence, grinta. It’s about as different as asking for cash gifts or throwing in a wedding list instead.
I don’t think Grech is a liar. I think he might be too honest. He needs to smart up, tone it down, exercise some subtlety and get with the programme – although perhaps not with Bondiplus.
michelaspiteri@gmail.com