First off, I would like to say welcome and thank you for reading my new column. GalleryBeat Media, as Mr. H-O likes to call it, has been quiet and rather dusty as he chases after documentary film subjects while letting this perfectly nice piece of real estate right here lay fallow. I told Mr. H-O that I would be happy to take care of his little estate in return for room, board and cultural opinion/enlightenment in his squalid little guest house.

I have been intrigued by the arrest of Dominique Straus-Kahn here in New York and what a mess it's become because it was about sex. We don't know what kind of sex took place but if the news reports are nominally factual it would seem that Mons. Straus-Kahn left his manly signature splashed about his posh hotel room. Even discounting the maid's contention of rape to say, half rape, it's still a mess and if you don't know who DSK is then you may have to search International Monetary Fund ex-chairman and likely-dashed-hope-future president of France. Now the accuser has brought suit against Rupert Murdoch's NY Post for calling her a prostitute on the front page.

What has this to do with Paris or London or art?

It's not as disconnected as you would think, though it has scant connection to the business of art, which is the staple of the professional participants of masterful deception cloaked in academic palaver. Deception is the key, history plays a role, sex and subterfuge mark the twists that bring down the house on both sides of the Channel, or the Atlantic Ocean. (for the art connection see Paris for Perverts, Slate.com)

Since the French are relaxed about sexual escapades then it's interesting that it may have derailed DSK from the presidency, and the British are historically shaking with unquenched sexual desire yet seem to have no problem with parliament and tabloids snogging over their Pimm's cups at polo matches. Until now. (The Americans are hysterical about everything, almost all the time)

The speed at which things are unraveling is breathtaking. The Murdochs are back paddling like mad and even killing off their tabloids may not suffice. It's like a fairy tale.

On July the 4th, just the other day; Nick Davies, the dogged reporter for the Guardian, reported the extremely poor treatment by Rupert Murdoch's News of the World had hacked the cellular phone of a murdered 13 year old girl named Milly Dowler. The case had been going on for years, but the new allegations are so damning, it may very well bring down David Cameron, the current Prime Minister of England. Murdoch's NoW "Hackergate"  has roiled the readership and beyond, the People want blood. Now the houses of Parliament are screaming because they had been hacked just as badly as the celebrities or Royals. It just goes into the sewer, and then the tabloids go to press.

I think it's interesting that movie star Hugh Grant had declared back in May 2011 that all the Fleet Street tabloids should be out of business, the sooner the better. Mr. Grant had been the victim of NoW's cellular hacking, his PIN #s, his banking information, his relative's private information and now the police have said that thousands of people had been hacked, not just celebrities or royals that hadn't got much public sympathy until now. That the police were hacked along with terror victims families from 7/7, so that doesn't help Dr. NoW's cause very much either.

Since today is 7/7.

Thank you! MT