Posted on 12/01/2004 1:33:15 PM PST by TheMole
| Magazine casts sex scandal spell Wed December 01, 2004 04:36 AM ET By Peter Graff
LONDON (Reuters) - A 175-year-old, right-wing political journal may not sound all that sexy. But an irresistible romantic mojo is bubbling away at one august publication, causing havoc in the Houses of Parliament.
In a country where adultery and politics sometimes seem to go together like fish and chips, everyone is wondering, what on earth is so sexy about The Spectator?
For those who have lost track of the bedroom antics of the political elite, The Spectator is the magazine at the centre of no fewer than three sex scandals -- threatening the careers of two of Britain's most popular politicians.
Not bad for a publication which grew to prominence campaigning for the electoral Reform Bill of 1832 and in more recent centuries has been seen as popular mostly with retired colonels and foreign service officers.
Lately, its (married, female) publisher has been embroiled in a paternity fight with the country's (divorced, male) Home Secretary, who may have fathered her son during a three-year liaison.
The magazine's (married, male) editor has been sacked as the culture spokesman of the right-wing opposition Tory party after an affair with one of his (single, female) columnists.
And another (married, male) columnist had an affair with a (female and much younger) receptionist, before his wife launched her own career writing a newspaper column about their divorce.
"Somebody should bottle that magazine's tap water," said an editorial in The Guardian.
Rowan Pelling, former editor of the Erotic Review, wrote in the Independent on Sunday that there was nothing quite like The Spectator's summer parties, which drive "guests to drink and to ever closer flirtation until they're found under a journalist in the bushes at the end of the garden".
"Never has there been such a party for being introduced to 'my researcher', 'my assistant', or, on one memorable occasion, 'my lovely young mistress,'" she wrote.
The magazine was proving an old adage about the allure of the political right, she added: "Vote Socialist, shag Tory".
DOCTOR OCTOPUS
The Spectator itself, known for its dry humour, seems to be enjoying its time in the spotlight.
The former lover of Spectator publisher Kimberly Quinn -- Home Secretary David Blunkett -- is depicted on this week's cover as Doctor Octopus, bad guy from the Spider-Man movies.
Blunkett is widely reported to be suing to prove that he is the father of Quinn's two-year-old son and her unborn child. He now faces an inquiry into whether he used his office to help Quinn secure a visa for her nanny during the affair.
To be sure, The Spectator cover story never mentions the scandal. But a headline asks cheekily: "Is David Blunkett really the father of the government's right-wing policies?"
The Spectator's own tousle-haired editor, Boris Johnson, dismissed as "piffle" reports that he had had an affair with the magazine's singles columnist Petronella Wyatt.
But the Tory party sacked Johnson as its representative on culture this month, saying he was lying when he denied the tryst. That could well have ended the ministerial aspirations of a one of the party's most widely recognised stars.
Those two scandals broke only after columnist Rod Liddle and his wife Rachel Royce entertained the chattering classes through the summer with duelling accounts of their collapsing marriage.
After Liddle had an affair with a Spectator receptionist, Royce began writing a column about her divorce in the Daily Mail. He responded with tit-for-tat columns in The Spectator.
She bragged of a new boyfriend "young enough to have a great body -- none of that middle aged paunch -- and plenty of stamina".
Liddle fired back that Royce had "trousered a whole heap of dosh ... for spilling the beans in every newspaper and every television programme prepared to offer her succour (and cash).
"And this despite the fact that my wife began an affair of her own about one week after we married."
How could the Reform Bill of 1832 top that?
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The Spectator: Playboy for the House of Commons. Woo-woo.
Petronella Wyatt? You can't make this stuff up....
The amazing thing about British Home Secretary David Blunkett is that he's blind and has been since birth, his guide dogs attend parliament with him.
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more!
Her mother Verushka, Lord Wyatt’s fourth wife, is a formidable Hungarian émigré.
Used to be a high-fashion model by that name (Verushka) back in the 70's. I wonder if it is one and the same.....
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