At the start of the week, they were titillated. By the middle of the week, they were scandalised. Now, a week after details of David Beckham's alleged affair with a former Kuala Lumpur model emerged, Malaysians are appalled at how the story has developed.
The level of government concern has shot up as fast as the reputation of Sarah Marbeck - 'barrister's daughter' to British tabloids on Monday, 'high-class hooker' by Wednesday and 'slapper' by Friday - has plummeted.
As the doubts gathered over her story, Deputy Information Minister Zainudin Maidin appealed to the country's media to tone down their reporting of the scandal and described 29-year-old Marbeck as a 'bad influence on youngsters'.
Marbeck claimed in last Sunday's British tabloid News of the World that she had an affair with the married soccer star after meeting him at a party in Singapore in July 2001, when Manchester United were on their Far East tour.
If the allegations are proved, they could have an impact on Beckham's appeal in the conservative Muslim country, where the damage to his lucrative image as a family man may be more keenly felt than elsewhere in Asia.
In the sleepy colonial-era town of Seremban, an hour's drive from the Malaysian capital, Marbeck's aunt and cousins have been trying to come to terms with seeing their family name dragged through the newspapers across the world.