Recent history is chock full of moments like the one that found Golden Globe winning actor Hugh Grant with his literal pants around his literal ankles. I have long subscribed to the notion that his indiscretion was one thing, but the fact that he chose the sixty dollar charms of Divine Brown, who has never won a Golden Globe, over those of his long-time paramour Elizabeth Hurley. Hugh's actions only solidified the notion that men do not always make good decisions when under duress.
The irony of the Hugh Grant scandal was that he managed to turn it into a few more movies and a few more minutes of fame before the whole stammering Englishman thing wore thin. His appearance on the Tonight Show will live on in infamy as one of the great moments in damage control of all time.
Such can not be said for New York's governor, Eliot Spitzer. His honor brought dishonor on his office with a romp with a high-priced call girl. "I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself," said the forty-eight-year-old father of three teenage girls and corruption-fighting politician once known as "Mr. Clean." "I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family."
Isn't that always the way? His poor wife, standing up there on the podium with him, must have needed a whole medicine chest full of nerve tonic to keep from wringing his neck. Somewhere behind those glassy eyes must have been screaming, "What about your legacy?" She deserves some special compensation for keeping it together while her husband tried to reconcile his illicit acts with his "Sheriff of Wall Street" image.
Managing one's indiscretions is a tricky business, just ask Bill Clinton. Marital infidelity is certainly an ugly business, but heaven help you if you pay for those trysts. It's a pretty simple case of the Ten Commandments being trumped by the penal code, which in New York can be pretty stiff.
Penal code? Stiff? nyuck nyuck
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