Sex, lies and scarlet women

When celebrities have affairs, it’s the cheating women who pay the price, while the men philander on regardless

IT WAS A celebrity scandal like any other. On July 24th, US Weekly magazine published photographs of actress Kristen Stewart in what appeared to be a steamy clinch with Rupert Sanders, the 41-year-old married director of Snow White and the Huntsman, in which 22-year-old Stewart starred.

The following day, Stewart and Sanders released statements to online gossip websites, admitting to their infidelity and begging the forgiveness of, respectively, Robert Pattinson, Stewart’s are-they-aren’t-they boyfriend of an indeterminate number of years (the pair play the star-crossed vampire-human lovers in the multimillion-selling Twilight franchise), and Sanders’s wife, the model-turned actress Liberty Ross, who also had a role in Snow White, playing, unfortunately, Stewart’s mother.

Their admissions of guilt, in light of photographs that would have had any other celebrity pair playing the “comforting a good friend” card, were all the more bizarre because Stewart was publicly apologising to Pattinson for (as far as we know) kissing another man even though she has never publicly admitted to dating Pattinson.

Instead of her usual media silence, her statement, to People.com, was grovelling, to say the least: "This momentary indiscretion has jeopardised the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I love him, I'm so sorry."

Sanders’s apology, though less surprising, was equally saccharine. “My beautiful wife and heavenly children are all I have in this world,” he wrote – although not in a text message, email or even a letter to his wife, but to US Weekly’s website.

In the wake of the “scandal” – if the philandering of a married 40-something with an unmarried 20-something can be deemed scandalous instead of sadly inevitable – the least-surprising outcome has been the ensuant rush to lay the blame squarely at the feet of Stewart, who the clever internet has now dubbed a “trampire”. TV3’s Xposé, meanwhile, went with the delightfully alliterative “Hollywood harlot” while others have tiredly accused her of “sleeping her way to the top”.

Stewart has cancelled a promotional event for her new release, On the Road, although Pattinson has begun doing the promotional rounds for his role in David Cronenberg’s latest, Cosmopolis. Pattinson has also been confirmed to play Lawrence of Arabia opposite Naomi Watts in Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert, while Stewart is being carefully excised from the sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman.

Only time will tell whether Stewart’s heretofore ascending star will be slowed by this romantic hiccup, but the tide (among Twi-hards devoted to the off-screen love story) has most certainly turned for the actress. Watch this space.

Brad Pitt left Jennifer Aniston to pursue a relationship with Angelina Jolie – rumoured to have begun on the set of Mr and Mrs Smith – but it is Jolie who was dubbed the maneater, while Pitt retained his wholesome image.

In late 2011, Imogen Thomas, former Big Brother winner and “glamour model”, revealed that she had been having a six-month affair with married footballer Ryan Giggs. Although it was later revealed that Giggs was also having an affair with his sister-in-law, Thomas has never quite shaken the “other woman” moniker.

Rebecca Loos may be the best-known Spanish PA in the world, after she revealed details of a four-month affair with David Beckham. Beckham remained untarnished, while Loos became the butt of a series of jokes involving an extra “e”.