Jun 25, 2009 07:55 PM
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Wed Feb 10
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Guanabee, because they speak Spanish, connects all the dots: This woman, named María Belén Chapur, is being identified by Argentinian television as Mark Sanford's paramour. It's not that other lady from Facebook.
Earlier today, Business Insider posted unattributed video that was apparently taken from an Argentinian TV broadcast today, showing what Business Insider said was Chapur in an "audition for a newscast in 2001." Guanabee has translated and clarified: The broadcast from today was by Argentina's C5N TV, and the station was re-airing footage of Chapur taken in 2001 when she was reporting, not auditioning, from New York shortly after 9/11. According to C5N, that María Belén Chapur is Sanford's lover.
Guanabee also found the original video of that 2001 broadcast, which is much clearer than the C5N report.
That video makes it exceedingly clear that the "Maria Chapor" whose Facebook photos Business Insider and others circulated is not the María Belén Chapur that Sanford was sleeping with. They don't look alike at all.
It also calls into question TMZ's report earlier today that Sanford's mistress has dirty-blonde hair, although women are known to dye their hair on occasion, so who knows? As we noted earlier today, we do not. Though if CN5 is right about Chapur, it's a far stretch to imagine that those Facebook photos are the same person.
CN5's report also jibes with what CNN was reporting last night, which is that the woman is a "former journalist."
Send an email to the author of this post at john@gawker.com.
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