Ralph Fiennes and the Naughty Nymph

A Qantas Airlines flight attendant, Lisa Robertson, was given the boot after allegedly having sex with actor Ralph Fiennes in one of the airline bathrooms. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, she told a British Newspaper this: "[I] had hoped the relationship would continue and was hurt and disappointed that Fiennes wouldn't support [me] when [I] was sacked. The experience was a lot more than just about sex."

There are surely some that feel that the 38-year-old attendant is a victim of the actor's seductive ways and that he should compensate her in some way for her loss.

Let's play Devil's Advocate for a moment here. Let's say that Robertson truly believes that a quickie sexcapade in a public restroom followed by an encore in a hotel room is a solid foundation for a meaningful relationship. Stardom aside, who would be responsible for her being fired from her employment? In the case of her being a victim, it would be reasonable to assume that Fiennes is responsible for her being fired, right? After all, if she is indeed a victim, she must have been duped into having sex with him.

Now, if that is so, what sort of compensation does he owe her? Perhaps he should take her out to a restaurant and buy her dinner. This is one so-called "typical" method of dating when both adults somehow acknowledge that they will engage in sex afterwards. That way, maybe she won't feel like such a victim, maybe she will feel that she was treated like a lady and seduced properly.

But she lost her job, you say, her self-respect. Okay. Let's go with that. Is he now required to pay her a year's salary? What is the going rate? If he pays her, isn't that treating her more like a professional prostitute than a woman that simply decided on her own that she wanted to have sex with him?

The problem that seems to come up with consensual sex between a non-famous woman and a famous man is that the man is often made to appear to be the callous aggressor and the woman an inexperienced innocent. This is very true sometimes, but it does not seem to be the case here. And yet, Robertson will benefit from selling her story and saying that Fiennes didn't care about her and refused to support her after she was fired for her conduct.

While it's unfortunate that she lost her job, as a 38-year-old she is obviously not an innocent young woman, inexperienced and potentially unaware of the consequences of such actions. If she were in her twenties, this might be possible to a certain extent, but even if she were, in this day and age most people-regardless of gender-know the consequences of getting caught in such activity while at work. Being that Ralph Fiennes is an international star, it's impossible to think that she didn't realize that she would get caught. Many people on the plane probably tracked his every move. The employees most certainly would, and did.

What it seems to really boil down to is this--Fiennes and Robertson knowingly engaged in consensual sex while Robertson was on the job and she suffered the consequences. It was her job and her responsibility to at least try to abide by the rules of that particular line of work, one of which is to not engage in sexual activity while on duty. If they had waited and simply met at his hotel later on, as they did anyway, she would still have her job. There are no sexual victims in this case, not yet anyway. If they did, as she claims, have unprotected sex, then there may be more scandal yet to arrive.

Perhaps it would be kind of him to pay her since she lost her means of income, but since she is being compensated handsomely for the story-and vilifying him in the process-that hardly seems necessary. So for those that would see Robertson as a hapless victim, reconsider that stance. After all, who's really benefiting from all this publicity?

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald