How ‘Nadia Cartel 4’ night of nose beers went from fun to $5000 fines

From a “divorce party” to Nadia being set up, the conspiracy theories around Bartel’s snorting video give Dan Andrews and his broken back a run for his money.

“Pass the plate.”

“Whose line is it anyway?”

The phone buzzes, or is it text messages, pinging more than the eyeballs of the group dubbed the Nadia Cartel 4 to the incriminating video accidentally loaded on the ‘Gram.

“OMG”

“WTF Ellie. What. Have. You. Done? What have you posted? Furious expletive. Furioso expletive. Expletive. Expletive. Just get it offline.”

High spirits while carrying a box of TarraWarra Estate wine and gearing up for the big night in, faded faster than the scant seconds it took to hoover up the nose beers and lose those lucrative brand endorsements.

Bartel with best friend Ellie Pearson. Picture: Matrix

Perhaps the normally Insta-savvy, manicured fingers aren’t so sharp a few bumps in.

But an excruciating ten minutes followed THAT Thursday early evening as the group partying in THAT Richmond bathroom tried to remove THAT damning blow-by-three-second blow video from the ‘Gram.

As Socrates would have said: “On the internet, nothing ever dies.”

The now infamous video has been viewed and analysed by everyone from the local hairdresser, to the 84-year-old retiree reclining in his La-Z-Boy.

As the video went viral Friday morning a lawyer from Nadia’s team consulted Simon Pristel, former Seven News director and Herald Sun editor now turned Headline PR manager.

After hours of back and forth to ensure the right tone and remorse was captured, the apology was released, you guessed it, on Instagram, just in time for the nightly news bulletins. Pristel has no ongoing role with Bartel, who is managed by IMG. The statement was also handled by heavy-hitting fixers Chris Newman and Mark Hawthorne of Civic Reputation.

The rate at which a scandal can spread, especially anything with the slightest sniff (eek, don’t write sniff) of footy in this AFL obsessed city, puts the Delta variant to shame.

Victoria’s chief Covid commander Jeroen Weimar and his team of contract tracers would quite simply have been overwhelmed.

Bartel issued an apology via Instragram.

A screenshot of the video posted on Instagram.

And the conspiracy theories give Dan Andrews and his broken back a run for his money.

There has been talk the illegal gathering was a “divorce party” to celebrate the official end of Nadia’s marriage to Jimmy.

It appears the girls were some of Bartel’s old pals from her previous job at Pacific magazines before starting blog The Chronicles of Nadia.

Only Ellie Pearson, Bartel’s bestie and Spray Aus business partner, is publicly known.

Pearson made headlines some years back with her own leaking scandal. The ex-partner of former Cat’s premiership player Josh Hunt sent a group email about his new girlfriend in 2011, writing “feel free to spit on him.”

But one can’t help feel for Pearson, the BFF who filmed and sent that damning video. Having gone to ground this week and shutting down her social media accounts, Pearson told Page 13 she is “heartbroken” and “devastated.”

It appears the new Instagram settings, where “save” is next to “your story” may have proved Pearson’s undoing.

Spray Aus creators Bartel, Emily McKay, Rebecca Judd and Ellie Pearson

The girls were bombarded by texts from people wondering what was going on. The video was also uploaded to Facebook and wasn’t removed for ten minutes.

Pearson was allegedly trying to send the video to her sister Bonnie.

Sources close to Pearson said she is “struggling to even function” adding she is “taking a breather from her phone and everything until things die down.”

Why on earth would you film Nadia doing nose beers? It’s the text doing the What’s App rounds, along with other conspiracy theories.

There is again chatter about Bartel’s rumoured squeeze, Richmond’s Josh Caddy, or then there is the one about Nadia and Jimmy secretly reconciling behind closed doors.

Then there are the savage “Nadia was set up” theories and that her close friends and fellow WAGs and influencers will distance themselves in an attempt to keep their own noses clean.

The glamorous mum-of-two has been ditched by sponsors, copped a stinging $5452 fine for breaching Covid rules, as well as becoming the butt of online jokes since the video surfaced. Everything from the $1000-plus Fendi monogrammed sandals she was wearing that night to the $1.50 Kmart plate she was snorting from has been discussed.

Bartel has lost lucrative endorsement deals in the fallout. Picture: Media Mode

Spin doctors say Bartel can weather the storm as long as she keeps her head down and rides out the next two to six months.

Her social media pull is undeniable though, Bartel has not lost, but gained 10,000 odd to her already half million plus followers. As one brand manager said, everything Nadia touches turns to gold.

But as another remarked in this era of cancel culture, it will be a brave brand that is the first to sign the influencer back on.

Even the Premier called out her behaviour saying he was absolutely certain he would want the law applied equally to her “regardless of whether you used to be related to a footballer.”

Low blow (oops, did it again).