Some people would say the American media handles some of their stars roughly. David Beckham might have to give the Italians that title.
Beckham, recently re-signed on loan by Italian soccer giants AC Milan, was giving an interview outside of an event in Milan, when Elena Di Cioccio came up alongside the English midfielder and groped him, to put it in a politically correct way, “below the belt.”
Is Di Cioccio just a crazed fan of Becks? The crazed part may be left to the court of public opinion, but she did indeed have a motive to her madness.
As host of an Italian comedy show entitled Le Iene (The Hyenas), Di Cioccio decided it would be a solid gag for her to do some investigative reporting into how Beckham compared “down there” to his work as an Armani underwear model. Beckham was recently dropped as Armani’s spokesman in favor of Real Madrid, but that didn’t stop Di Cioccio from attempting to complete her quest for knowledge.
Adorned in yellow-rubber gloves, Di Cioccio made her move, but Beckham reacted rather calmly, considering he had just withstood an unknown woman fondling him in the streets of a major city.
The television program later released an apology to Beckham, but according to Yahoo Sports’ Dirty Culture blog, the soccer star just shrugged it off.
"It did surprise him at the time, but David saw it for what it was — harmless fun," his representative said.
Maybe the Italian way of life is different than the American or English way of life, but could you imagine Kevin Garnett’s reaction to an attack like that in the streets of Boston?
