Corby circus likely to last
The mad spectacle of Schapelle Corby’s arrival back in Australia after more than 12 years as a guest of the Indonesian justice system suggests that this extraordinary saga is not over just because she has regained her freedom.
She has been released into a world where being a celebrity is now a career option. Expect there to more chapters in the Schapelle Corby story which, rightly or wrongly, has held people agog since she was arrested with 4kg of cannabis at a Bali airport in October 2004.
Corby touched down in Brisbane on Sunday, with her minders comprehensively outwitting a pursuing media pack.
The meticulously planned homecoming operation involved a last-minute change of planes, the possible use of a body double, supporters in bizarre masks, and an exit from the arrivals area of Brisbane Airport through a service tunnel.
A spokeswoman for her security company – reported by one outlet to be the former army officer who planned the whole thing – then stepped in front of the cameras.
She appealed for the family’s privacy in a spirit of ‘‘humility’’ and ‘‘dignity’’, even as reporters were involved in a bizarre chase across southeast Queensland, trying in vain to find Corby in a fleet of black decoy SUVs which went off in different directions.
The term ‘‘media circus’’ seems very apt, and the reporters were made to look like the clowns. Frustrated news organisations were reduced to blasting each other’s excesses in the coverage, and writing articles wondering who was paying for Corby’s orchestrated escape.
Channel Nine broadcaster Karl Stefanovic decried what he called the Corby chaos: ‘‘There are far more important things in life than pursuing and losing Schapelle Corby. We in the media have a responsibility to inform but I reckon we were all made to look like idiots – and to what end?’’
Yet, the Corby story has always been sensational. Her 2005 trial verdict and sentencing was broadcast live across Australasia. A 2006 autobiography sold 100,000 copies. A similar number of Australians signed a petition calling for her release. A 2014 television drama based on her story drew an audience of nearly 2 million.
Do not expect Corby to now fade into obscurity. In the years of her incarceration and subsequent parole, the focus of an increasingly competitive and audiencedriven media has shifted from covering matters of public interest more towards reporting things in which the public are simply interested. And people remain very interested in Schapelle.
Lucrative offers will be made to Corby for everything from women’s magazine cover stories to reality TV shows. Will she accept them? If Corby had intentions to lie low, she would not have started an Instagram account last week which immediately attracted 100,000 followers.
Opinion remains divided on Corby’s guilt or innocence in the drug smuggling case. Whichever, she has now served her sentence and is free to exploit her fame in whatever way she pleases.
Her first Instagram postings turned the camera on her pursuing media posse, and showed an image of the champagne flutes used to celebrate her freedom. They suggest that Corby’s definition of ‘‘humility and dignity’’ might be combative and assertive.
Expect the Australian news media at least to lap it all up.