My children aren’t allowed to watch TV at home. They think this is oppressive and unjust. I disagree about the former, but can’t deny the latter, because I watch television all day long at the office. That is why I can report that last Monday morning, as Wall Street teetered from a subprime debacle which threatens to push the US economy into recession, not to mention the minor matter of a power grab in Pakistan, America’s TV news screens were devoted to communicating the essential information that supermodel Gisele Bündchen is demanding to be paid in euros.

I saw the story first on CNBC, illustrated, of course, with images of the lovely Brazilian sucking on a flower and rolling around in what looked to me like a bikini (to be scrupulous, I should admit that it may have been lingerie). Before CNBC’s report was over, the story flashed up on CNN, also featuring Bündchen in a bikini top, although in this case wearing a transparent jacket over it. Next I spotted a photo of Bündchen in a low-cut dress on a WSJ blog. That reference linked to a Bündchen image on forex analyst Kathy Lieu’s site, and was accompanied by the sweetly frank admission – “it’ll drive some traffic to her [Kathy Lieu’s] site, (which is why we’re posting a Gisele pic ourselves)”. Britain’s Daily Telegraph posted a photo of Bündchen in a bikini on its website, where the story was the second most popular item of “business news” by lunchtime in New York. The FT’s Tim Harford picked up the story in his blog this week too. I eventually traced the scoop – at least in English – to that uber-business tool, Bloomberg.