/ 7 November 2004

Sex tales scare the bullfighters

Spain's bullfighters have had enough. The men in the sequinned suits say they are under attack from a new enemy far more frightening than the half-tonne bulls they kill or the animal rights activists who want their bloody sport banned. The enemy who have the matadors trembling in their silk socks and tight trousers have emerged, instead, from the bullfighters' own beds -- groupies cashing in on their sexual encounters with a rash of kiss-and-tell stories.

Spain’s bullfighters have had enough. The men in the sequinned suits say they are under attack from a new enemy far more frightening than the half-tonne bulls they kill or the animal rights activists who want their bloody sport banned.

The enemy who have the matadors trembling in their silk socks and tight trousers have emerged, instead, from the bullfighters’ own beds — groupies cashing in on their sexual encounters with a rash of kiss-and-tell stories.

After decades as the country’s top male pin-ups with, reputedly, the sort of frenetic sex lives that would put even British Premier League footballers to shame, the matadors claim they are being hounded to death by Spain’s prensa rosa , the ”pink press” of gossip magazines and television programmes.

Leading matadors put out a communiqué last week demanding protection under European human rights law. Among those backing the petition are such luminaries as Espartaco, Enrique Ponce, El Juli and Francisco Rivera. Rivera, grandson of the legendary matador Antonio Ordóñez and son of Paquirri, a bullfighter who was gored to death in 1984, has been a principal target of the ”pink press” in recent months.

Details of the young torero’s alleged affairs and his failed marriage to a Spanish aristocrat have occupied acres of space in magazines that sell more than a million copies.

”I can’t stand any more of it,” he said. ”Too much rubbish has been said about me, my family and my friends.”

Now Rivera’s fellow bullfighters have come out in support, saying they do not mind risking their lives in the ring but cannot stand by and see their honour under attack.

”Defamation is good business in Spain,” they complained. ”Honour is sold cheap. There is a trade in ‘exclusives’ from people … who directly defame others with rumours, slanderous affirmations, lies and cheating.”

Among the famous former bullfighters whose legends include amorous exploits are Luis Miguel Dominguín, one-time lover of Hollywood star Ava Gardner, and El Cordobés, whose fame and swinging 1960s lifestyle could only be measured against the excesses of pop stars.

The bullfighters’ status has not only brought them groupies but also allowed them to break the rules under which other Spaniards have traditionally had to live. Manolete, one of the greatest of all bullfighters, had an ”office” in the back of a Madrid bar where he was said to entertain women friends during the 1940s. In the strict moral climate of General Franco’s ”National Catholic” regime, Manolete and his girlfriend, Lupe Sino, were one of the few unmarried couples in Spain who dared live together openly.

The complaints of the new generation of matadors are mainly directed against the dozen television programmes who vie to bid for the confessions, scandalous revelations and imaginary tales of the bullfight groupies.

Stories often amount to nothing more than ”conjectures, rumours, statements without documentary proof, opinions, malicious messages and invasion of people’s privacy with the sole intention of winning a share in a lucrative market”, they complained. ”We call on judges and prosecutors to use all the tools available to them to put a stop to this flood of infamy.”

The bullfighters have even demanded that politicians change Spain’s laws to bring them into line with privacy rulings made by the European Court of Human Rights.

”The fines paid for those who, occasionally, are found guilty of defamation do not reach even a minimal part of the profits garnered,” they protested.

However, some commentators have suggested that, after decades of wild womanising, the tables have finally been turned.

”The national stereotype was that, after a good bullfight, toreros would then polish off some duchesses or women tourists,” the writer Francisco Umbral said.

”Now the matadors have complained they are being abused, which gives the media one of those upside-down headlines that all newspaper sub-editors dream of, along the lines of ‘Child Bites Dog’.”

But the matadors insist they would rather face a charging bull than have another microphone stuck into their faces by someone asking them about their latest alleged affair.

”We ask to be left to live without persecution,” they said. ”We want to be judged as professional people from the bullfighting world, with maximum respect for the dedication and risk-taking that we show in this profession.” – Guardian Unlimited Â