The rugby player, the hooker and the athlete

I was not going to write about this topic, as I think it has been beaten to death. But, then I felt I had to beat it further as it gets on my nerves.

To those of you who live on Mars, let me add a bit of backround. We have two 'celebs' in South Africa, who love the media attention. They actually thrive on it. You magazine has them on the cover every second or third issue-they invited them to share their wedding, the honeymoon, the birth of their kids....you get the picture. They have been called the Beckham's of South Africa- They are (drum roll...trumpets ..)-Joost Van Der Westhuizen and Amor Vittone. Their likeness to the Beckams does not stop at their continuous need for public attention, like David, Joost was a successful sportsman, and like Victoria, Amor tries to sing. (Both have sold many albums though.....another day I will comment..)

A couple of months ago a video tape was released that showed Joost and a woman (stripper or hooker) snorting the good stuff and getting really friendly. It sent shock waves across the country..how could this happen to this perfect couple.
Of course Joost denied it and hired a mafia type PI to investigate...a lie detector test was even performed by the Victim (his outlook). The hand picked PI announced that Joost had passed the lie detector test and he was not lying...turns out the lie detector test said he was lying like pinochio on a good day and it was Pretoria PI and Joost who were lying-about everything. Funny when a Celeb screws up, they always portray themselves as such a victim.

After a while it blew over, as most big story's do.......until......and this came as a shock to ALL of us......
A book was released. Now who saw that coming.....

The publicity was awesome. Then it dawned on me what a clever bit of pre- marketing the video was. It created massive free advertising, he could NEVER have bought that. Since the announced book release, he has been interviewed on every radio station, in every newspaper- and once again, in his favourite publication, You magazine. Free advertising. Amor has also done her share of tearful adverts as well.  (watch out for a future book deal here I am sure.)

As a result, the book was sold out on it's first weekend of release. Joost maintains that he is not really benifiting from the book sales (ja, right) and that he did it to clear the air, to set the record straight so to speak (pretty noble). Of course, many will buy into this, as they have bought into the brilliant advesrtising campaign that has cost Joost little more than his dignity, and book wil be a success. Small price to pay I guess.

At the time of the Video release, a then unamed athlete claimed she has also taken a ride on the Joost express and now she has proudly given her name- Charmaine Gail Weavers. (Another book?)
In the You interview Joost stated that he will not comment on claims by other woman that they have had an affair with the player (see the double meaning here)..where there is smoke hey!

The book, 'Joost: The man in the mirror' is sold at all good bookstores. Seriously though, this is a lesson for people. If you live in the public eye, and you sell your soul to be famous, you can also learn to use it effectively to sell many, many books as people stamped to read your dirty little not so secrets...and save millions of Rands on advertising. Watch this space in the future and I will probably announce the second in  the series of the Joost novels or the film version perhaps.