The perfect wife?

[Hammock Parties]

http://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_3565004#

Sex 'allowance' from wife is national buzz

By Phil Miller

The Salt Lake Tribune


Andrei Kirilenko and wife, Masha Lopatova, are a hot topic after her "one-woman allowance" comments. (Associated Press file photo)
Muddling along in their anonymous, flyover-state, sub-.500 news vacuum, the Jazz finally received some national attention Thursday. And it had nothing to do with defense, rebounding or scoring.

Well, not defense or rebounding.

Andrei Kirilenko's once-a-year "allowance" from his pop-star wife piqued the imagination of talk-show hosts, chat-room posters and yes, even some comedians. As Masha Lopatova, married to Kirilenko for nearly six years, said Wednesday night in the Delta Center, "People in this country are so interested in how athletes live - [and] they are most interested in sex, for some reason."

Her point was proven Thursday, from radio to TV to the Internet.

Kirilenko, the 25-year-old Jazz forward, reveals in the
current issue of ESPN The Magazine that Lopatova, mindful of the presence of women who congregate around wealthy professional athletes, has granted permission for him to indulge himself, so to speak, with another woman once per season.

"If I know about it," Lopatova said Wednesday, "it's not cheating."

That philosophy was applauded, frequently in jest, in a variety of settings.

On ESPN's own "Pardon the Interruption" television show, for example, Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon asked, "Ain't Mrs. Kirilenko the coolest wife in the world or what?"

His co-host, the Post's Tony Kornheiser, agreed: "She is a Top 5 wife, all-time. In fact, she is up there right now on the Mount Rushmore of wives."

That was the consensus on the sports network's morning radio show, "Mike & Mike," too, where co-host Mike Greenberg, calling Kirilenko's allowance "the best story we've ever had," lamented that his wife doesn't share Lopatova's attitude. "I'd just like one day of guilt-free golf," Greenberg joked.

Nationally syndicated radio host Jim Rome took up the topic as well, though he doubted Lopatova's premise, that removing the thou-shalt-not prohibition from marital infidelity also would remove the temptation to stray. "It's the same way raising children," Lopatova explained Wednesday. "If I tell my child, 'No pizza, no pizza, no pizza,' what does he want more than anything? Pizza."

Argued Rome on his daytime talk show, "NBA groupies are probably like potato chips: You can't have just one. Once he breaks open that bag of groupies, he'll probably fire right through the entire bag."

Kirilenko, recovering from back spasms that kept him out of Wednesday's loss to the Bobcats, did not comment on Thursday. But his marriage was debated on message boards and by e-mail much of the day. On deadspin.com, a sports-discussion Web site, for instance, Kirilenko's wife was described as the "anti-Mrs. Doug Christie," a reference to the recently retired NBA guard and his famously devoted wife.
One post on the site also called her "the anti-Anna Benson," meaning the wife of Orioles pitcher Kris Benson who once announced that if her husband was ever unfaithful, she would sleep with each of his teammates.

Added a poster nicknamed MikeyUtah, "As a Jazz fan for almost 20 years now, it might be the funniest moment in our history." Another post lamented, "I just got punched for showing this story to my girlfriend."

Not everyone found the couple's arrangement funny or titillating, however.

More than two dozen readers e-mailed The Salt Lake Tribune with comments on the story, and while most supported the couple, three or four of them did not.

As Salt Lake resident Bill Bogdan wrote, "It is accepted by anyone who has a half-clear thought that when someone sleeps with another person, he sleeps with everyone else that person has slept with. We have enough social problems in our society without giving permission to add to our already existing problems."

[Hammock Parties]

Andrei Kirilenko has been granted restricted free agency - by his wife.

Masha Lopatova, a former Russian pop star who has been married to the Jazz forward for nearly six years, understands the temptation NBA players are faced with as they travel around the country for seven months a year. And she believes that forbidding something only makes it more tempting. That's why, she revealed in a story in the current issue of ESPN The Magazine, she allows Kirilenko an "allowance" of one night per year with another woman.

"What's forbidden is always desirable. And athletes, particularly men, are susceptible to all the things they are offered," Lopatova said before the Jazz's loss to Charlotte on Wednesday. "It's the same way raising children - If I tell my child, 'No pizza, no pizza, no pizza,' what does he want more than anything? Pizza.

"So this is the arrangement that Andrei and I have," she said, adding, in the spirit of openness, that she does not have a reciprocal agreement with her husband. "If I know about it, it's not cheating."

Kirilenko, according to the magazine story written by Salt Lake City freelance writer Chad Nielsen, has no plans to exercise his "allowance."

"Of course it was a surprise," Kirilenko said. "I'm not planning to do anything. But she said, 'If you want to do it, you can do it.' "

Lopatova said she doesn't worry about revealing something so personal, even in conservative Salt Lake City. "Me and Andrei, we're very open people. I barely have secrets. It's not like I'm one person in Salt Lake City and a different person in Moscow. My whole life is on the surface," said Lopatova, a celebrity in Russia who has a 4-year-old son, Fedor, with the Jazz veteran. "I find that people in this country are really interested in athletes and their [families], for some reason. They don't want to know what kind of books I read, but they prefer to know what kind of underwear I wear."

Now that the not-so-secret is out, Lopatova joked in the ESPN story, "Girls will be lining up outside his hotel door."

[ROYC75]

They are just letting the cat out of the bag, probally been swinging it for years now.

[dr00d]

hell...it is either that or he divorces her ass and keeps all his money...that is the real reason he has freedom.

[ChiefsFanatic]

Originally Posted by dr00d

hell...it is either that or he divorces her ass and keeps all his money...that is the real reason he has freedom.

Maybe you missed the fact that she has her own money.

[Braincase]

Saw Famke Janssen last night of ST:TNG playing "the perfect wife". Sorry guys, but she wins, hands down. The Metamorph!

My wife is a very, very understanding and forgiving woman but, one per year isn't very much.... with all my groupies, she gives me a 10 allowance. I probably shouldn't have said anything....

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by ENDelt260

Yeah, but all your groupies are dudes. I wouldn't feel threatened either.

Her ass might feel threatened.

[CoMoChief]

Originally Posted by goxlibutscrale

DRAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dr00d]

in the meantime she gets to screw a bunch of roadies on a bus.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by goxlibutscrale

Kirilenko, according to the magazine story written by Salt Lake City freelance writer Chad Nielsen, has no plans to exercise his "allowance."

"Of course it was a surprise," Kirilenko said. "I'm not planning to do anything. But she said, 'If you want to do it, you can do it.' "

I could see this developing into a strong secondary market if the rights could be transferable.

Originally Posted by ENDelt260

Yeah, but all your groupies are dudes. I wouldn't feel threatened either.

They may be dudes, but at least they're hotter than Masha.

[Iowanian]

My first instinct was
"thats great.....Who has she been effing?"

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Phobia

They may be dudes, but at least they're hotter than Masha.

Bah...that's not a very good photograph. I bet she's fairly good looking.

[el borracho]

Masha! Masha! Masha!