What a mess.

Last Tuesday, my inbox started filling up with images of the popular Croatian singer Severina Vuckovic romping around in bed with a man initially thought to be footballing legend Davor Suker.

It turns out that the guy is a Bosnian businessman, the pictures are from a private video he made with Severina two years ago, and the Internet now has a new Paris Hilton. (Or should that be Zagreb Hilton?)

To be honest, I had absolutely no idea who she was or why so many people were sending me compromising pictures of her. After reading this post by top Croatian blogger Dragan Antulov, the pieces slowly started falling into place.

Antulov continued posting (reluctantly, at times) as the story exploded across the Balkans and beyond. And explode it did. By the next day, CNN had it, causing one astute Croatian to remark:

“Page 109 of CNN Teletext… Franjo Tudjman had to die and Goran Ivanisevic had to win Wimbledon to get there.”

The video was flying around the globe. Four million viewers by one estimate. A lot of them probably had no idea who Severina was, or where Croatia might be. As one guy put it:

“I didn’t even know they had pop stars in Croatia. But I’m not one to complain. Any country that can bring us a sleazy sex tape is okay by me.”

It’s safe to say that the genie is out of the bottle and isn’t going back in, regardless of Severina’s appeal to “return or destroy” the explicit pictures. Her strategy now seems to have shifted to what’s known as “Massive Attack,” i.e. lawsuits galore. Index.hr, which first posted some of the pictures, is a potential victim, as is the dodgy site that first posted the video. Slovenia’s national broadcaster RTV Slovenija and the private station POP TV are also being mentioned.

In short, this story isn’t over yet. And the mess will get a whole lot messier before it’s over.