Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010

Cheaters still think they can win

It still amazes me that people in the public eye - and elected officials no less - think they can get away with adultery, believing not only that their spouses won't find out, but that our celebrity-driven culture won't be in on their worst-kept secrets, too.

Gone are the days when the press will wink and nod and overlook a president diddling a starlet.

I'm pretty sure Michelle Obama has the president's gonads in a jar of formaldehyde resting on the White House mantle, so I don't really see him straying too far and say, have an affair with Rihanna.

But you never know, do you?

I mean seriously, who would've thought that S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford was Mr. Don Juan, I-can't-live-without-my-Latin-soul-mate?

And who would have thought that squeaky clean, seemingly uptight Tiger Woods was banging every golf cart hussy that moved, from Pinehurst to Pebble Beach to Merseyside?

Seriously, did anybody covering the PGA have any idea that Woods was getting more than his club shaft greased on every PGA tour stop?

As a non-wealthy man with no power (other than the words I write in this column), I can certainly understand the allure of having dalliances with many attractive women that basically throw themselves at you.

If I was a high-profile dude with money and power, I think it would be awfully hard to resist those female advances.

But my big question is if you're in that position and know you can't keep it in your pants: Why get married?

Why not stay single and enjoy the single man's life?

You can't have it both ways. I mean, you can try, but just ask Tiger, Gov. Sanford, John Edwards, and heck, even David Letterman. You will be found out. You will not get away with it.

And furthermore, why would you want to?

It's not just dudes. Look at Leann Rimes, she couldn't keep it zipped up, either. And the tabloids are abuzz that serial man-eater Angelina Jolie is about to chew up and spit out hubby No. 3, Brad Pitt.

What have these prominent cheaters done for romance and the institution of marriage, other than make all of us look bad? And speaking of amorous times, romance of the above-board variety should be in the air this weekend, as Sunday marks another Valentine's Day, when you should be letting your significant other know how much your love means.

So, in honor of Valentine's Day, we enlisted correspondent Ian Anderson (a local law enforcement officer who previously penned our Dec. 10 cover story comparing TV crime scene investigations to reality, not that flute-playing' dude in Jethro Tull) to delve into why people cheat, why it seems to be all around us, and why it's still such a taboo topic to talk about, especially here in the Bible Belt. You can read his report starting on page 10.

Also part of this week's cover package, turn to page 13 for a report on a different kind of V-Day being celebrated, including right here on the Grand Strand.

And keeping with our theme of cheaters, turn to page 22 for this week's Pod Picks which are dedicated to the cheating hearts of Tiger Woods, John Edwards and Gov. Sanford. (If you want a hilarious bonus track that you can dedicate to the intern-lovin' President Clinton, search out the song "Eatin' Ain't Cheatin'" by Steel Panther.)