Newspapers go wild for WAGs

LONDON - There she is, dripping wet and grinning broadly on the front page of the ordinarily serious-minded Daily Telegraph, nestled between stories about Guantanamo Bay and Tony Blair's political woes.

Forget clashes in Gaza and problems with Iran -- in this scorching World Cup summer, no newspaper is complete without a front-page WAG.

The word, which appears to have been coined within the last month or so, means Wives And Girlfriends, and refers to the bevy of blondes and brunettes who have accompanied the England football team to Germany.

The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror, the Sun and the Daily Star all devoted today's front pages to Colleen McLoughlin, the dimpled girl-next-door flame of young striker Wayne Rooney.

She happened to be soaked through in a clinging stripey tank top, while out with the glamorous WAGs of six other teammates for a paparazzi-trailed girls' day out at a German theme park.

Meanwhile - scandal! - the uberWAG herself, ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, wife of team captain David, had skipped the girls' day out to fly back to London for some solo shopping and a visit to the hairdressers.

Was she - as the Star screamed - "Too Posh To Splash!?" And what about that leather skirt and the open blouse revealing her cleavage?

The obsession no doubt reflects two iron-clad laws of nature: that rich and famous men tend to have pretty wives, and that photos of said women tend to sell newspapers.

But even by the usually brassy standards of the media, this year's WAG-mania seems to have gone over the top.

Newspapers, even serious ones, have been full of tales of who wore what, with whom, and where. And, of course, what did they buy?

Steamy television series Footballers' Wives has helped create a national myth, depicting a weekly fictional diet of cocaine-fuelled orgies and fabulous clothes.

Inevitably, there has been the reaction -- a welter of press criticism bordering on the catty.

Scottish newspaper The Herald redubbed the WAGs "Witless Anorexic Girlfriends".

The Yorkshire Post swiped: "They spend, spend, spend, and still they look like over-blinged barmaids in a soap opera".

It praised Victoria Beckham for being the only WAG to avoid "the big-bags-and-boobs look". If praise is the right word:

"She may be unappetisingly emaciated, but the woman has wit in the style department," the paper wrote.

But there are still those who come to the WAGs' defence.

"Oh, I know we're all supposed to deplore them. In our enlightened, postfeminist age, we're supposed to feel contempt for this tribe of pneumatic bimbos with their fake tans, fake hair, fake nails and fake values," columnist Helena Frith-Powell wrote in the Daily Mail.

"As one friend of mine put it: 'Imagine being famous just for being someone's girlfriend and being good at shopping. Wouldn't you just hate it?'

"Well, er, no, actually. I'd love it. I absolutely relish the thought of waking up, even for just one morning, and worrying about nothing less serious than what time Gucci opens."

- REUTERS