Tym Glaser - SPORT SPOTLIGHT I'M FEELING real sorry for Vanessa and Simone right now. They shouldn't have to be going through the pain of deceit and mistrust in quasi-public view.
However they are because they are married to sport superstars. Vanessa is better-known as Mrs Kobe Bryant whose once squeaky-clean spouse has been charged with rape.
Simone's other half is none other the Shane 'Can't Stay Out Of Trouble To Help Myself' Warne who has for a second time been accused of sending naughty, suggestive messages over his mobile phone to other women.
Bryant, the National Basketball Association's posterboy, has probably never heard of the great Australian wrist-spinner who is only nine wickets away from 500 Test scalps, but if they ever got together the two sport champions would sure have a lot in common.
Some could argue that Mike Tyson would make for an interesting party of three but he's in a class on his own when it comes to crass.
Kobe has not been convicted of anything yet and may not be but after his initial denial of any wrongdoing, he admitted cheating on his wife at a press conference with Vanessa, who recently gave birth to their first child, at his side.
She's either one tough cookie, one blindly loyal one or just a dumb one, but, regardless she must also be bleeding inside. Maybe the US$4 million pink diamond ring he gave her as an "I'm sorry present" made up for the infidelity.
Still, what if he is convicted of rape? She would be in line for a bigger prize than that - alimony.
While Kobe is in the middle of a media circus for the first time for the wrong reason, Warne is a serial offender.
The blond leggie accepted money from a dubious Indian bookmaker and was fined by the Australian Cricket Board (really no more than a slap on the wrist).
He then sent salacious messages by telephone to an English nurse while playing County cricket in the Old Dart which cost him any chance of the Aussie Test captaincy.
That was followed by a positive drug test which saw him booted off the Australian team at this year's World Cup in South Africa and banned for a year.
However, it appears, trips to SA haven't been a complete waste of time as a 45-year-old mother of three called Helen Cohen Alon claims Warne made suggestive calls to her - one while, allegedly, lying next to Simone.
Cohen Alon may be no angel as, according to the Melbourne Age, she's willing to accept US$250,000 to tell her story of 'harassment' by 'good guy' and 'friend' Warne.
It can't be easy being a great sportsman with temptations thrown at you left, right and centre but it also can't be easy being the wife of a superstar and knowing deep down that your man's a target and also that when he's away, he'll probably play up.
You could reasonably argue that Simone and Vanessa should have known what they were getting into and that they have to take the wealth and fame with the bad and that's fine.
However, I liked what I saw on a Cable TV station at the weekend when the ex-wife of basketball journeyman Kenny Anderson was interviewed about player infidelity.
"At first I just did not want to know what he was doing on road trips," she said of the now Charlotte Hornet. "Some times he'd come home and give me a present like a car. When we divorced I sold a lot of the stuff and bought a Humvee."
The vehicle's personalised licence plate reads: HIS CASH.
