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Easy, Tiger

Telling the truth

by US Staff (Tue Dec 01, 2009)

The Tiger Woods debacle in Florida this past weekend, the one in which he crashed his car into a tree in the middle of the night and was rushed to hospital, unconscious with facial lacerations, got me thinking. How much of an invasion of a celebrity's privacy are we, the public, entitled to?

The kneejerk responses of ‘none' and ‘total' do not sit well with me because these are complex and layered situations.

In Tiger Woods' case, he is one of the most famous people in the world. That in and of itself, in my opinion, does not entitle us to anything. But, if you combine that with the fact that dozens of companies hire him and hold him up as a standard to which we should all aspire in relation to the clothes, cars and food (among many other products) we buy, well, then I say it entitles us to at least an explanation. And I want my explanation from Tiger Woods and not some mouthpiece. I want Tiger Woods to tell me whether he had a fight with his wife and whether or not domestic violence was involved. I want Tiger Woods to tell me how he crashed his car at 2:30 in the morning, sober apparently, and why his wife busted the windows with one of his golf clubs. I want Tiger Woods to tell me if he was being unfaithful to his wife and his children.

And, the reason I want him to tell me these things is because I have listened to him tell me why Buick is the car I should own, and why Nike makes the sports apparel my family should wear and why General Mills makes the cereals I should eat.

Tiger Woods owes me that much.

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Toni

Posted Tue Dec 1, 2009 at 1:38 pm Reply Delete

Gosh, I could not disagree more. Yes, he's been selling everything from sports products to fancy watches (not that that gives us any rights in my view) but he's also remained a very private person. He never pitches up at the Ivy, in fact he is rarely seen by the papparazzi, so why he should have to disclose anything now is beyond me. He has so far not been charged with anything, no one else seems to have been hurt, and he's not even required to talk to the police. As he says, he is very embarrassed by the incident, and as you say, it probably did involve some sort of a fight with the missus. But he could also be being set up by a very cunning "other woman", who coincidentally turned up at LAX (surrounded by papps) and has the infamous Gloria Aldred as her lawyer, all to say that she isn't having an affair with Woods. Doesn't that smell of some sort of publicity stunt? If it turns out that this is true, she, more than anyone else owes us an explanation.

1 reply, Last reply by zoolady on Mon Dec 7, 2009 at 8:47 pm

zoolady

Posted Mon Dec 7, 2009 at 8:47 pm Reply Delete

@Toni : I'm with Toni. This whole episode has left me sad and even angry at the media and the people who hang onto every word of scandal. Tiger Woods never had a normal childhood and has spent his entire life on a golf course. Were it not for his fame and fortune, I doubt that women would pay much attention to him--ESPECIALLY the women who are now leaping into the spotlight, eager to be noticed and become famous by association. He seems to have been a very easy target. Obviously, serious mistakes of judgment were made here but...what does it matter? Unlike some other men who've been "busted" with other women, he never claimed to be a paragon of religious virtue. All he did was live his life. Why do people feel such GLEE when they can tear down someone they've admired? Is it because he was living his live in a private, outwardly dignified way? Honestly, you'd think he was caught selling secrets to an enemy, wouldn't you? It's all the media focused on for days and days! Shaking my head and feeling ashamed for the media and the public.

LiveLady Report Abuse

Posted Tue Dec 1, 2009 at 10:10 pm Reply Delete

Sorry, I want to be understanding like the rest of you but I am not. I think he should say what the hell happened and that he cannot enjoy all of the trappings of celebrity and being a role model without accepting some of the responsibility that comes along with it.

1 reply, Last reply by Toni on Wed Dec 2, 2009 at 1:39 pm

Toni

Posted Wed Dec 2, 2009 at 1:39 pm Reply Delete

@Noname: See, I just don't get why celebrities owe us an explanation for their private lives, especially when they have kept the rest of it private. I could understand if he lived in the spotlight like Brittney Spears. You can't encourage the papparazi and then expect them all to go away just when you want them to. Princess Diana did that and it wasn't very endearing.

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