More on Tiger

The media won't stop talking about Tiger Woods' statement today, so I have been giving it more thought.

Infidelity can occur in almost any married couple, and we in America don't stone people for this lapse. Tiger's big story comes on the heels of almost countless other sexual scandals involving public figures. I probably don't need to mention any, but John Edwards is another man who has been receiving a lot of attention for his affair. In a sense it's the couple's own business. But it seems that somehow, and inevitably, this little detail of a couple's business is a far different thing when it involves someone in the public eye.

And that's precisely the operative phrase—in the public eye. Two phenomena are acting together here: a very zealous media industry—particularly tabloid newspapers which in America are evidently getting to be like the infamous tabloids in Great Britain—and a cult of the celebrity which, as I have argued in another posting, goes back to the 1920s when Hollywood publicists started to create larger-than-life personae for Hollywood film stars. The result is that no one who attains celebrity status has much right to, or expectation of, privacy. I'm not really approving of this, but it's a fact of life for these men and woman. It's the price of celebrity that no one can, for a moment, believe he's not being watched. Whether it's Michael Phelps taking a puff on a bong, or Britain's Prince Harry doing his partying thing—you just have to be on your best behavior if you don't want to have your latest caper be the subject of headlines beside every supermarket checkout lane.

Poor Tiger is just sexually addicted. Well, he was a fool if he thought the news would never leak out. When you're the world's most famous athlete, you can't be a Tiger and a tomcat, too.

Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein

The Tiger Speaks

Today they said that Tiger Woods is going to be making some public comments. Not a press conference. And this is being televised by major TV networks. Looks like Tiger is as important in the U.S. as President Obama-- but I bet some people like Tiger better.

I think that Tiger Woods and Toyota should team up and form a joint venture. Maybe call it something like T & T Damage Control, Inc.

Continuing in a light vein: Tiger Woods should also team up with Jeremy Irons and start a golf club manufacturing company. Naturally, it would be called Woods and Irons.

Copyright (c) 2010 by Richard Stein

How About These Products, Mr. Woods?

Tonight (12/14), ABC News NightLine, starting from the news item that Tiger Woods has lost some of his gigs as a "product endorser," examined the issue of whether he—and other athletes who have been somehow tainted by scandal—should continue as product endorsers.

Well, I think that Tiger emphatically should go on endorsing products. Maybe just a different set of products.

How about these?

Victoria's Secret ("I like all my ladies to wear Victoria's Secret lingerie!")
Lover's Lane (sex shops)
condoms
K-Y
mattresses

Copyright (c) 2009 by Richard Stein