A new side to macho Murray - in Marigolds
WITH a wrist injury that kept him out of Wimbledon, fans could expect tennis sensation Andy Murray to be resting up.
But candid snaps posted on his website show that he has swapped a racquet for a paint roller and embarked on a little DIY at his new penthouse flat.
In the photos - posted surreptitiously by his girlfriend, Kim Sears - daubs of white paint cover his black training shoes and famous tousled hairstyle.
A friend of the 20-year-old tennis star from Dunblane said: “Andy had been keen to get started on his flat, but soon he was covered in white gloss.
“Kim decided to send them into his website just to embarrass him. Everyone thought it was hilarious.”
As well as simply representing a still-life moment in Murray’s luxury London flat, the pictures also represent the growing trend of stars who choose to give fans a sneak peek into their lives, courtesy of the internet.
The reclusive JK Rowling has used her website as a conduit to fans, speaking more candidly there than she does to the media. Only last week, David Beckham presaged his arrival in the United States by launching www.davidbeckham.com. In a chatty prologue, the footballer says: “It does seem incredible that in all my time playing professional football, I haven’t had my own website.”
Paris Hilton, fresh from her spell in jail for drink-driving, updated the world on her holiday in Maui, adding the injunction: “Remember to be responsible and have a designated driver!”
So why do celebrities feel the need to engage in this constant online confessional?
PR adviser Phil Hall says his client Heather Mills uses her website to circumvent the mainstream media. “The reason Heather has a website is there has been so much inaccuracy about the reporting of her situation, it’s the only way she can be certain that it is reported as it really happens.
“These days, because a story can be on the web in hundreds of different forms, you need a website there to be the definitive authority on a person’s story.”
But why does Murray imagine we want to see him whitewash the ceiling?
Michael Butcher, editor of celebrity magazine Reveal said: “Some celebrities do have fans who are interested in everything they do, and that’s what some celeb sites cater for.”
Psychologist Nadine Field, an expert in narcissism and celebrity, said famous people doing mundane things was interesting because of the public’s “ambivalent” relationship to celebrity.
“We want to know what they will do in their future life but we are really fascinated by what they do that is some ordinary activity we can all relate to,” she said.
In the cases of some celebrities, however, she says the motive for their vanity publishing is simple - they genuinely believe their every action is fascinating. THE POWER OF BLOGGING ON
BOTH Andy Murray and David Beckham use the “blog” sections of their websites for informal updates. Blogs - effectively online diaries - have revolutionised the web because they require minimal technical skill.
Users do not need to fiddle with graphics or complex codes, but simply type text into a box. There are now around 70 million blogs, with one created every second. Networking site Facebook is becoming a sensation because of such ease of use, attracting 4.8 million UK users a month.
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