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May 31, 2007

Holiday romance for Madeleine press pack

By Axegrinder axeblog

I hear that some Fleet Street newsdesks have issued a “cool down” warning to the hot-blooded pack covering the case of missing Madeleine McCann in Portugal.

But it’s not just exclusives that the newshounds appear to be chasing. According to my sangria-swilling spy, some of the reported shenanigans in Praia da Luz wouldn’t be out of place on a raucous stag trip to Benidorm.

To head off a spate of panicky denials from those involved, Axegrinder won’t name names ‒yet.

But the more colourful incidents include one story about a tabloid snapper who “satisfied” a member of a hen party in front of her cheering chums. Then, there’s the reporter from a broadsheet who enjoyed an energetic coupling with a lovestruck tabloid hack on a sunlounger.

And romance appears to have broken out between two hacks on rival papers with reports of beachfront strolls at sunset ‒despite reports he has a girlfriend back home. The booze-fuelled antics have left execs back in the UK less than impressed.

Personally, Axegrinder reckons they’re miffed to miss out and are hankering for a time when Fleet Street was more fun ‒however grim the story.

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