Paper Monitor
13:42 UK time, Thursday, 17 July 2008
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
How old is Ekaterina Ivanova, the Russian cocktail waitress who has supposedly caused Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood to fall off the wagon?
Originally, when the story broke less than a fortnight ago, in the Sun, the paper said she was 18 - a "fact" echoed in the Daily Mirror and Evening Standard (a local London paper) when they hastily squeezed the story into their pages, so as not to seem behind the pace.
Following it up a day later, under the headline "Ronnie Wood goes on a bender with Russian blonde, 19", the Daily Express noted Ms Ivanova had been 18 when she FIRST MET Wood.
Others, such as the Mail on Sunday, clearly weren't convinced and continued to toe the line that Ronnie's "muse" was 18.
Then "Eka's mum" sought to put the record straight in the Sun, explaining "she is not 18, she is 20."
Yet today's Daily Mail and Mirror quote Miss Ivanova thus:
"Katia is so naive. She is just 19" - Mail.
"She is so depressed and she is crying a lot. She is just 19" - Mirror.
It's not just her daughter whose age is causing some furrowing of the brow. While today's Independent (yes, that's right, even the Indy has got its teeth into this one) is one of several papers to note that Ms Ivanova Senior is 48, the Sun tells it like this: "Tearful Irina, 45...".
It could all be down to translation - after all, as a native Russian speaker who could blame Irina Ivanova for getting confused? But given the column inches devoted to this story in recent weeks, Paper Monitor wonders if it's time for the papers to call on the services of a translator.
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