This morning, I dropped by one of the more baffling photo-slash-charity ops that’s come down the pike—and that’s saying a lot, given the crush of tsunami-related events, appearances, and concerts (the latest Down Under: "Wave Aid") that have taken place in recent weeks.
I guess you’d have to call this one “Porsches for Beslan.” The featured stars were Russian-born star Maria Sharapova, Leonid P. Moiseev—the Russian ambassador to Australia—and a black Porsche Cayenne S, strategically parked so that Melbourne’s Crown Towers hotel would appear in the background in the photos.
The WTA party line was that Sharapova had decided to make a charitable donation of the Porsche Cayenne that was part of her booty for winning the WTA tour championships, and that the 17-year old native of Russia had understandably decided to give it to victims of the Beslan school hostage crisis in which more than 350 people died last September. This was somewhat baffling—what were the people of Beslan going to do with a Porsche Cayenne? I made some inquiries and learned that Sharapova actually was donating the proceeds ($56,300) of an auction of the Cayenne to people of Beslan. It gets even more complicated.
Sharapova did not exactly give up part of her prize for winning the championships; Porsche had put the vehicle up with the stipulation that the winner had to donate it to charity.
Kind of takes the edge off the idea of giving, doesn’t it? In any event, it was witheringly hot outside the Crown Towers. Sharapova appeared, wearing a short, taupe skirt, a diaphanous flowered top, and spike-heeled pumps that appeared to be decorated with tiny multi-colored stones. The photographers set up Sharapova and Moiseev by the black Porsche
and snapped the hand-off of the $56K check. They got Sharapova, who was still smarting from the blow dealt to her in the semifinals yesterday by Serena Williams, to do some of those hair-flipping, lip-licking, foot-turning model poses, although she may have been flicking her hands about her face more to ward off flies than to look glamorous.
This is no small matter, by the way. If you’ve never been to Melbourne in the summer, you can’t appreciate how annoying the flies are down here. Our houseflies in the U.S. zip around like little jets; these suckers down here are like ponderous, droning, military cargo planes. They buzz around your face, touching or landing on you repeatedly. Yet they have this uncanny ability to escape just as you’re about to smack them—although you do actually nail one just often enough to make you regret it as the thing goes squish on your nose or ear.
Ever see one of those wide-brimmed Aussie hats
with the tiny corks dangling off it, all around the brim? It’s one of the few effective ways to keep the flies off you. Of course, you—much less Maria Sharapova—wouldn’t want to be caught dead wearing anything so stupid looking. So Maria got through the photo op, the Russian ambassador shoved the check in the breast pocket of his dark suit, and Porsche apparently got some kind of PR benefit from this tortured stunt.
I followed Sharapova and her entourage into the lobby of the hotel, where she bumped into—who else?—Serena. She was heading off to practice, dressed in white shorts and tennis sneakers. Her eyes locked on target, Sharapova’s pumps. “They are so sexy!” Serena exclaimed. “I love them!”
I’m all for charitable giving, and theoretically it shouldn’t matter that the giving seems increasingly tied to commercial gain for the donor—the important thing is that the afflicted are comforted, right?
Still, I’m already a little weary of this new trend—call it “conspicuous giving.” Now, it seems that every time a tennis star donates a used racquet or a couple of used sweat bands to a needy group, he or she is hailed as the second coming of Mother Teresa, and the tours fire off another volley of “For Immediate Release” advisories on the giving.
Better to follow the example of Carlos Moya. After winning Chennai (which took place shortly after the tsunami disaster), he spontaneously handed over his prize-money check of $52,000 to a relief agency. The ATP tour did ultimately pick up on it and issue a press release, but there was nothing planned about the gesture when Moya made it.
Nothing wrong with keeping some semblance of dignity, right?