A bit of moderation please

The idea that Sydney's most literary frangipani, Marieke Hardy, is her own cyber-stalker stretches even this blogger's credulity to breaking point. 

Thus, news that Marieke has been ordered by the courts to pay out $13000 to the man she wrongly accused of being said cyber-pest has an irony even her posturing on the First Tuesday Book Club could never hope to trump.

Bluepepper is among the first to recognise that some very nasty things have been blogged about our Marieke over the years, but as one who has so obviously coveted a public profile (constructed, I might add, on very shaky foundations), she should have been prepared for the flip-side of celebrity (it is, after all, the enduring obsession and governing principle of a certain Sydney milieu in whose serried ranks I have been known to stamp and bellow). Penning a shabbily written "memoir" peppered with rather pedestrian sexual adventures cannot have done much to soothe these savage cyber-beasts, none of whom seem to have warmed to her predilection for Old World smarm. 

I am not sure of my legal position here, and thus I will err on the side of caution and not repeat any of the poisonous bile directed at that flower in her hair. Thankfully the disgusting blog, "Marieke Hardy is Scum" has been closed down and speculation continues over the identity of the blogger.

Suffice it to say, Marieke has posted her apology to the wrongly-accused, forked out her 13 grand to same, and hopefully learned a hard lesson in the price of fame. It is the sincere hope of Bluepepper that in the future she perhaps learns to moderate her public profile to be more in keeping with her literary pretensions, removes that ridiculous flower, and concedes that there is an element to irony more substantial than her Cheshire grin.