Saturday March 8th, 2003

DC Settling Down?
Scottish playboy David Coulthard admitted to some embarrassing tales about his private life at his pre-season press lunch - and he reiterated his decision to remain young(ish), free and...attached on his arrival in Melbourne. Coulthard teamed up with blonde Canadian beauty Andrea Murray in 1994, then got engaged to blonde American model Heidi Wichlinski a couple of years but split with her eventually.

In between times, Coulthard had enjoyed events such as steamy bubble bath romp with Briton Ruth Taylor and afterwards went on a love spree with famous females such as British model Lady Victoria Hervey, German model Heidi Klum and Brazilian Kendja Demoraes. He now seems to have found love with Brazilian model Simone Abdelnour, who he has been with for 18 months - but he has warned her not to expect a ring anytime soon. Instead, Coulthard is determined to enjoy the pleasures without the commitment.

"I'm very much in love with my girlfriend, very happy in that relationship but I'm not engaged. Some guys are married and have kids, and that's great for them, but it doesn't fit into my lifestyle at the moment because that would take time and commitment," he said, before adding: "But it's a bit like any of us saying 'I'm going to give up that sex game'. Why retire from something that does give you a few seconds of pleasure? It's fantastic."

Domestic Disorder
There are fears that this weekend's Australian Grand Prix will lead to an increase in domestic violence in the local Melbourne area. The bizarre revelations have come from a new report into violence against women from Women's Domestic Violence Crisis Service 'What's Love Got to do with It' which showed phone calls to crisis lines soar during the Grand Prix weekend as well as on AFL Grand Final day and at Christmas.

"We anticipate a 10 to 20 percent increase on demand this weekend," said service director Dr Rhonda Cumberland. "It is traditionally our maximum time for receiving calls. I think celebratory events like this have widespread appeal and anything that is run on that scale will have an impact on families. But in terms of the Grand Prix you also have to consider that alcohol and recreation are very much linked together through sponsorship and the culture."

Celebrity Driving School
Australian tennis ace Pat Rafter will join his country's other favourite celebrities to take part in a charity race at the Albert Park circuit this weekend. Rafter, who only recently retired from professional tennis, joined other stars such as model Megan Gale, 24, weather presenter Sami Lukas, actor Alexandra Davies and television celebrity Mieke Buchan for some pre-race training at the nearby Sandown race circuit, but seemed not to realise quite why he was there. Rafter seemed oblivious to how he would perform in the race, which will see the celebrities driving in Mini Coopers. "There's a lot of attractive women," he said, taking his eyes off the road. "All the women here are very pretty."

Crowd Trouble
Albert Park suffered a little crowd trouble on Friday: not enough people turned up. The first-day crowd was down by 4,000 on last year and the total of just 47,300 marked the second worst turnout in eight years of Formula One at the Melbourne track. Race organisers spent $5.9 million (USD) on new safety fences and they need a crowd boost to save face - but chief Ron Walker insisted it is not all his fault.

"Like the tennis and like other sporting fixtures, it's very tough at the moment," he said. "The economic conditions are tough at the moment with the threat of war and the drought and bushfires. A lot of people are cautious about spending entertainment dollars and we are fighting for every ticket sale we can get. I've got doubts whether we will be able to match last year in this economic climate."

The economic benefits of the race to Victoria, the state in which the race takes place, were estimated at $130 million (USD) according to a 2000 study and Walker made sure he talked up the ability it has to attract people to the state. "We have 27,000 overseas visitors here - which is a record - and we have 19,000 interstate visitors. It's an amazing event of world proportions. It's unchallenged as Australia's largest sporting event on a daily sales basis and we should get 129,000 on Sunday." Last year's four-day crowd of 371,800 has only been bettered in the debut year of 1996 when 401,000 fans attended.

Published at 06:51:01 GMT

Picked from the Bunch:	<<  Previous  |  Mar Index  |  The Grapevine |  Next  >>
(03-11-2005): Australian GP Paddock Gossip (03-09-2005): Greece Finds Site for Formula One Track (03-09-2005): Red Bull Set to Get Honda Engines in 2006 (03-08-2005): Schumacher in Line for Sporting Oscars (03-07-2005): Daily Grapevine Sunday Analysis - Australia

© 1995-2005 Kaizar.Com, Inc. Copyright & Terms