One of the major stories relates to an unnamed premiership footballer took out a super injunction against the Sun, which was going to reveal details of his affair with former Big Brother star Imogen Thomas – the unnamed man quite rightly (or leftly) didn’t want these details splashed all over the newspapers, so he took out the super injunction and thus ensured that just speculation, instead of exact details, was splashed all over the newspapers.
The unnamed premiership footballer’s name was quickly found out and rumours spread rapidly on Twitter, to the extent that it was alleged that the unnamed premiership footballer was attempting to take legal action against anyone who Tweeted details linking him to the super injunction – this made the incident a first for two reasons:
1. It was the first time that someone had attempted to take legal action against 75,000 people that they didn’t know the details of, save for their Twitter username; and
2. It was the first known occasion where a rumour on Twitter appears to be true…
With the vast bulk of people effectively knowing who said footballer was, the following picture was printed on the front page of the Scottish Sunday Herald:
which then pushed to focus of people on Twitter to speculate as to whether Andy McNab was the premiership footballer in question – as well as providing a excellent spying device for men wearing trench coats, as they could simply cut out the eyeholes on the newspaper and spy on their subjects with ease.
During a Parliamentary debate on 23 May 2011, John Hemming MP named Ryan Giggs to be the unnamed premiership footballer whom had taken out said injunction, he used his Parliamentary Privilege in disclosing the premiership footballer’s name – and presumably it is the same Parliamentary Privilege that allowed Hemming to have over 20 extra-marital affairs and remortgage a property (under the second homes allowance) which he already owned and then use the proceeds of this remortgage to pay off the borrowings on a premises which his business operated from. Allegedly…
Nonetheless, the moment Hemming said those fatal words “Ryan” and “Giggs”, the world then knew that the words “football” and “player” could be used to describe Giggs both together and/or independently. In addition, the House of Commons in its entirety fell silent, aghast at what Hemming had said – this silence was broken by a large clunk as the Queen’s Private Secretary threw Giggs’ imminent Knighthood in the bin.
Despite all this, the injunction is still very much in place as there is of course more to privacy than simply knowing the two parties involved. It is alleged that the taking of the super injunction is to prevent the extortion of the unnamed player by Thomas – in which case then perhaps a visit to the police station may have been more appropriate course of action, instead it appears that, in terms of helping this unnamed player out, the Giggs were given to lawyers and PR people.
The reasons stated above do at least appear to be logical and there must be a serious reason for the unnamed player to want to gag the world’s media – in all honesty, if I’d been shagging the former Miss Wales for 7 months, I’d be happy to notify people of this via projecting that fact onto Big Ben (by that I mean the landmark in London – not just a large person called Ben).
Since he was named in Parliament, Giggs has continued to lead a fairly normal life and managed to play in the Champions League final; where despite speculation, his shirt bared the name “Giggs” and not “unnamed premiership footballer”. He also took part in the Manchester United end of season bus parade; where the Manchester United bus was emblazoned with the number 19 – that being the amount of players that United would have needed on the pitch if they’d have stood any chance of beating Barcelona. Unfortunately United only fielded 11 players and things got rather Messi for them…
As alluded to before though, Twitter is not necessarily the most reliable source for information, recent allegations “exclusively revealed” (or if you like, “incorrectly revealed”) on Twitter suggested that Jeremy Clarkson was having an extra-marital affair with Jemima Kahn. Khan was quick to rebut the story on Twitter and Tweeted that she was just good friends with Clarkson. Clarkson himself chose not to rubbish the rumours – presumably he Khan’t believe his luck that people think he might be having an affair such an attractive woman.
Clarkson is not the only one who has been “outed” or has tried to gag the media recently; Max Mosley was in the news after unsuccessfully taking a case to the European Court attempting to get legal direction on his idea that the media should serve notice on a person if they are planning to run a story about them. At which point this person could then go and apply for an injunction – although at least it marked a change in the respect that Mosley was trying to gag someone, instead of being gagged and whilst he was publically embarrassed, he probably enjoyed the humiliation. Allegedly.
Also, is believed that a well known Hollywood actor has prevented the press from revealing details of what he ate before going to bed – this being the first known example of a “supper injunction”…
However, in the past month two notable injunctions have been lifted: it was revealed that Sir Fred Goodwin believed that RBS stood for “Red-Blooded Stud” and he was alleged to have been having an affair with a senior colleague at RBS during the height of the credit crunch – although I suppose it is reassuring to note that the taxpayer isn’t the only person to have been shafted by him and I suppose it was good to hear about his “boning” rather than his “bonus”…
Then a few weeks ago, Andrew Marr revealed that, whilst questioning Politicians about their private lives, he had imposed a super injunction on the media to prevent them revealing that they he may have fathered an illegitimate child with an unnamed female journalist. Such an occurrence raises many valuable questions. Is it fair that the woman can remained unnamed whilst Marr’s name is out in the open?... Did the decision to award the super injunction in the first place, given Marr’s media job, increase the lack of credibility that they have?... and most importantly… Who on earth would want to have an affair with Andrew Marr?...
* Please note, any reference to Ryan Giggs is merely to state that he was named in Parliament by John Hemming MP on Monday 23 May 2011 as being the unnamed premiership footballer whom had obtained a super injunction against The Sun newspaper and with reference to Imogen Thomas. At no point am I saying that the statement made by Mr Hemming MP bares any factual accuracy whatsoever, be it in whole or in part.
Furthermore, I hope the above disclaimer is strong enough in legal terms, as I don’t want to go to prison because it’s filled with nasty men who may do unspeakable things to me – I’ve head that some prisoners have more sex than Ryan Giggs. Allegedly…
