1. NEWS COVERAGE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Enduring Appeal of ‘Wagatha,’ Now on Stage and Screen
The wives and girlfriends of soccer players — commonly known in Britain by the acronym WAGs — have long been followed by tabloids, but Rooney’s post caused an online furor. Its escalation into the legal realm led to breathless coverage, drawing in powerhouse lawyers and unearthing revelations about both women’s personal lives.
But the case’s power as a story has lived on, with production companies, documentary makers, podcasters and journalists finding the unfolding trial and its cast of characters just too irresistible not to dissect, all helped by the availability of the weeklong case’s court transcripts.
“It’s the old adage of: You can’t write this,” said Thomas Popay, the creative director of Chalkboard TV, which produced a two-part dramatization, “Vardy v. Rooney: A Courtroom Drama,” that aired on Channel 4 in Britain in December. “We literally didn’t. We took the transcripts and recreated them.”
In her 2019 social media post, Rooney described how she concocted a sting operation to reveal the betrayer by posting false stories that were visible to a single account — Vardy’s — to test if they would turn up in The Sun, a London tabloid. The popularity of the post led to Rooney being nicknamed “Wagatha Christie” — a portmanteau of WAG and Agatha Christie, the mystery writer — for her detective work. Vardy quickly denied she was the leaker and sued Rooney for defaming her.
“We are absolutely interested in people’s misfortunes and what goes on in celebrity lives,” said Adrian Bingham, a professor of modern British history at the University of Sheffield who has studied media and gender issues. The women’s involvement with the soccer world gave their dispute resonance with a wider audience, he added, while the legal case gave the non-tabloid media a legitimate reason to cover it. Producers of the adaptations say they have asked their own lawyers to look over scripts, lest they find themselves accused of defamation.
Hennessy, the writer of the West End play, also relied heavily on the court transcripts, but took liberties by leaning into the soccer world, structuring the play like a game itself. Reading the transcripts, she said she was struck by the humanity of the two women, who have both been criticized (Vardy has said that people made abusive threats toward her and her unborn baby following that fateful post, while the trial laid bare tensions in Rooney’s marriage and her experience growing up with fame).
Still, the enduring appeal of the high drama of “Wagatha Christie” is also simple, Bingham said. “The reason people are telling it is not because it’s insightful,” he added. “It’s because it’s a great story — with great lines.” “It does ask how complicit we are in creating public figures, and tearing them down when they don’t meet our standards,” Hennessy said.
[Expression]
▶acronym = 머리글자, 두음
▶furor: 열광, 열광적 유행, 격노
▶escalation into the legal realm led to breathless coverage = (이 사태가) 법정 싸움으로 비화하자 숨 가쁜 보도 경쟁이 이어졌다
▶just too irresistible not to dissect = 도저히 파고들지 않고는 못 배길 (만큼 매력적인 [흥미로운])
- dissect: 해부하다, 분석하다
▶It’s the old adage of: You can’t write this = (이런 건) 일부러 쓰라고 해도 못 쓴다는 옛 말
- adage: 속담, 격언
We literally didn’t: 말 그대로, 우리가 쓴 건 하나도 없다
▶concoct = 만들다, (음모 등을) 꾸미다
▶sting operation = 함정수사
▶portmanteau = 혼성어(두 낱말의 일부가 결합하여 만들어진 단어)
- a portmanteau of WAG and Agatha Christie, the mystery writer: 추리소설가 애거사 크리스티와 WAG을 합해서 만든 혼성어
▶defame: 헐뜯다, 명예를 훼손하다
▶gave their dispute resonance with a wider audience = (이번 분쟁이) 보다 많은 사람들에게 반향을 불러일으켰다
▶legitimate = 정당한, 타당한, 합법적인
▶take liberties with = (특히 책에 대해) 제멋대로 [무분별하게] 고치다 [바꾸다]
- took liberties by leaning into the soccer world, structuring the play like a game itself: 축구 요소를 들여와 극을 축구처럼 만드는 방식으로 자유롭게 각색했다.
※take the liberty of doing [to do]: 마음대로 하다 (If you say that you have taken the liberty of doing something, you are saying that you have done it without asking permission. People say this when they do not think that anyone will mind what they have done.)
▶lay (something) bare = (비밀 등을) 발가벗기다, 낱낱이 폭로하다
▶complicit = 연루된 [공모한]
▶enduring = 오래가는 [지속되는]
▶line = (연극, 영화의) 대사
2. IDIOM
① an accident waiting to happen
If you describe something or someone as an accident waiting to happen, you mean that they are likely to be a cause of danger in the future, for example because they are in poor condition or behave in an unpredictable way.
-예기된 사건, 위험 천만한
② go under the hammer
be offered for sale at an auction (= a sale at which things are sold to the person who offers the most money)
-경매로 팔다
③ too little, too late
not enough and not soon enough to make a difference. Her efforts to improve her grade were too little, too late.
-진작에 잘하지!
④wire to wire victory
The definition of wire to wire is leading the race from start to finish. An example of a wire to wire race is when a runner is in first place for the entire duration of the race.
- (경주·토너먼트 등에서) 처음부터 끝까지의 완승
