Mmm … Blackmail

By: Martha | March 14th, 2007

Mmm ... Coco. So, it turns out this wave of blackmail in Italy is due not to a bunch of individuals catching footballers (and others, it turns out) in compromising positions and trying to make a Euro on it, but rather to a single, ambitious paparazzi (paparazzo?) who has been very busy over the past few months. The man in question, one Fabrizio Corona, is accused to targeting loads of Italian celebs with his naughty photos, though how many paid him has sadly not yet been revealed.

From the world of football, in addition to David Trezeguet, Gila, and Totti, Adriano and poor Francesco Coco — who will surely be very happy to see the back of the 2006-2007 season — were also reportedly targeted. (I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m extremely disappointed to hear that Coco seems to have successfully paid Corona off. What? The man never plays anymore, we need any new photos we can get — the one over there is way too old.)

Lo Gazzetta Dello Sport apparently published partial transcripts of court testimony yesterday, but the only one I can find online is Trezeguet’s, which is singularly uninteresting. All we learn is that someone called him and said he had some pictures of him with a woman (Trez repeatedly calls her a “friend,” and says she’s someone he’s known “for a long time.” I hope his wife is reading.) — it’s really hard to tell, but I’m not sure he even saw the photos before buying them. Which, if true, suggests there was definitely some inappropriate touching with this friend which he assumed was caught on camera. Doh!

Edit: So, I went and bought the actual, paper version of Lo Gazzetta dello Sport, and I can now reveal that Coco paid €6000 for the pictures Corona had of him. He paid, he says, because it was a “dark time.” And by “dark” he appears to mean “potentially really, really embarrassing.” Because — and I could easily be terribly mistaken here — based on my dictionary and Google-aided translation of the Italian, I really think the reason Coco found the pictures so threatening was because they made it appear as if he was “with” a transvestite. Swear to God! The questioner repeatedly asked him if the other person in the photo was a woman, and Coco assures him (over and over and over again) that it was: “Si, Si. Era una ragazza” ad nauseum. Mmhmm. I don’t know, Francesco. This might be a case of protesting too much …

Of course, if “trans” in Italian actually means “red car,” “laptop computer,” or “willing cow,” please let me know and I’ll edit immediately.