We shouldn’t be surprised by Bartel snort scandal

Nadia Bartel is “embarrassed” a video of her snorting white powder went public but it’s only a matter of time before she’s posting silly selfies again.

What was Nadia Bartel’s biggest faux pas?

Breaking lockdown to celebrate her divorce with friends?

Snorting a white substance that looks suspiciously like cocaine?

Or maybe having a friend silly enough to film her doing the two illegal acts, and then even stupider to accidentally post it on Instagram.

It’s no wonder Bartel says she’s “truly and deeply sorry”, embarrassed and remorseful.

Some wits argue Bartel’s biggest mistake was being photographed using a $1.50 Kmart plate. According to satirical site The Shovel, the Kmart plate used to snort cocaine was also “embarrassed and remorseful after being videoed in the same room as Nadia Bartel”.

It’s all why the Bartel cocaine-snorting scandal has kept us enthralled this week.

What a fascinating insight into the life and times of fashionable influencers.

You know, the kind of women who make a living pushing hair grooming products on Instagram, holding contorted poses in the bathroom mirror and wearing bikini thongs in tropical locations.

A new nude hue of eyeliner is a life-changing event for these looks-obsessed ladies. They’re the ones on Insta calling themselves content creators (they love free stuff), photographers (they own an iPhone), personal trainers (they want to get paid for working out) and stylists (more free stuff).

When their follower numbers sink, they go braless and watch the clicks climb.

Classy Bartel, who weathered a nasty break-up from Cats player Jimmy a few years back, has long been the Queen Bee of this beautiful bunch.

We expect this sort of thing from MAFS contestants or The Bachelor cast-offs, but not someone with Bartel’s standing.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. The industry may be worth $15bn, but it doesn’t mean its brightest stars are all that savvy.

All the how-to guides for budding influencers include helpful hints such as “don’t remove negative comments”, “only work with brands that you believe in” and “be trustworthy”. Perhaps in future they need to include “don’t snort cocaine”, “don’t breach lockdown” plus “don’t let your friends film you when snorting cocaine at a party that breaches lockdown”.

You might think even influencers may take a bit more care in the middle of a pandemic, but it would seem not.

Leading US social make-up scion Jeffree Star released his The Cremated make-up line last year. Despite many thousands of people dying every day, Star promoted beauty items such as “Grave Digger,” “Death Certificate,” “The Morgue,” “Mausoleum” and “Casket Ready.” Classy.

There was also influencer Arielle Charnas who posted all about getting Covid, then skipped town for the Hamptons with her family in violation of stay-home orders. Did she really think her 1.3 million followers wouldn’t keep a secret?

And there’s Gold Coast influencer Chloe Szepanowski, who’s been caught out in a hairdressing salon without a mask.

She’d previously been caught going maskless in Big W when masks were mandatory. She said she made a mistake not wearing one but continued not to wear one.

Who cares about public health orders when you’re a “conscious mama” who “understands life energy and frequency”? Pity she doesn’t understand mask rules.

Recently, too, influencer and reality TV star Hayley Vernon was seen leaning out of a convertible car without a seat belt. Vernon was too busy to pay attention to road rules because she was lifting up her shirt in the back seat at the time. Of course. She was in a car driven by co-star Ivan Sarakula, who posted the clip to Instagram. It’s now the subject of a police investigation.

It’s no wonder a whole Insta account is devoted to the silly things influencers say and do.

It features posts about “laminations” (lamingtons), poor photoshopping of products, and most famously model Elyse Knowles spelling voila as “wallah!”

There’s also the time a model tried to pass off a quote from someone else as her own. “Still … I rise” she posted, momentarily overlooking the fact that this is the name of one of the most famous poems by US poet Maya Angelou.

There’s no doubt Nadia Bartel is doing a bit of soul-searching after the infamous Kmart plate incident.

I am sure she cannot wait to get back to celebrating National Nail Polish Day and filming herself cleaning out her bathroom cupboard. #cleanyourshelfie.

In the meantime, put out your mascara wands for Nadia. #putoutyourwands