What Tiger Could Have Learned From Letterman, Chris Brown and Kobe

By Jo Piazza Posted Dec 4th 2009 08:55AM

Why hellllo Hurricane Tiger Woods. The professional golfer is living in the eye of the perfect media scandal storm this week, and early predictions say life for the former boy phenom isn't going to get easier any time soon.

Did Tiger's multi-million dollar team of brand managers and image consultants go on an extended Thanksgiving holiday? We just ask because it hasn't been Tiger's "transgressions" that have been driving this scandal, it has been the way they've been handled.

There is no lack of examples to draw from when it comes to the rich and famous ... transgressing. Here are a few of the plays Tiger should have borrowed from the School of Celebrty Scandal playbook to ease the pain of the past couple of days.

Like David Letterman, just come clean, early and often. "The recent David Letterman situation was handled well. He came forward and admitted the affair and explained the situation clearly and quickly. He took responsibility for his actions and apologized. It is not possible to entirely avoid some hit to your public persona when you have done something wrong. But, David Letterman shows that the public can be forgiving when you are honest and show remorse," says public relations expert Jennifer Cody, director of public relations with Wongdoody.

Like Chris Brown, go on TV. Tiger could opt to do a high profile televised interview (or like Chris Brown, 6 of them!!). "One televised interview with a serious and well-liked journalist would allow him to move past this. He doesn't need to go into tons of detail, but right now his refusal to talk is what's creating all of this demand for the stories from the other women," says Alexandra Golaszewska, of Eastern Star Communications.

Like Hugh Grant, make a funny. After Grant was arrested for indulging with Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown, he appeared on "The Tonight Show." In addition to proffering his apology to Jay Leno and all of America, Grant was funny and apologetic. The problem here is that Tiger isn't that funny, and definitely isn't as charming as Hugh Grant so maybe he should remind the public of just how boring he really is. "Best thing he could do is a long, long PBS type interview to remind everyone just how dull he is. Everyone seems to have forgotten why we never cared about him in the first place," says PopEater's own Rob Shuter, who has a former publicist knows a thing or two about celebrity crisis control.

Like Angelina Jolie, kill them with kindness. No one can hate a wife-stealing temptress when she adopts babies from all over the globe and works as a United Nations Global Ambassador. Well except Jennifer Aniston, who can still hate her a little.

Like Kanye after he acted like a jerk at the MTV Video Music Awards, blame it on the stress of just being you. "So many celebrities, they never take the time off," West said on Jay Leno's primetime show. "I've never taken the time off to really -- you know, just music after music and tour after tour. But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve." And, don't forget to cry a little.

Like Kobe, just play the game. If Tiger comes back from all of this and wins the Masters Tournament, all transgressions will be forgotten, because everybody likes a winner. No one mentions Kobe Bryant's little transgression anymore as long as he's playing some fierce ball. "Kobe Bryant had sex with another woman. He held a press conference with his wife next to him (sporting a new diamond ring). To this day, there are a few jokes heard but he gets on "SportsCenter" almost every night for his incredible basketball skills, not infidelity," says Justin Herndon, director of publicity and news for The Publicity Agency.

Comments

(27)

Friday 04 December

By jerry

Vote down Vote up Report this

It seems the whole world is nothing but whores and queers these days.God will punish all who goes against the word.America has turned it's back to God by the way we live,God will turn his back on the U.S. for doing this and for all the non-believers--hell and damnation is your reward.

Sunday 06 December

By Andrea

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Jerry,

I think 'hell and damnation' is in store for homophobes as well.

By Trish

How about they just act like human beings instead of selfish horses a**es. How about integrity and honor...the public is no longer buying their canned PR apologies. I have no respect for the lot of them.

By TomW

Lowest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Big difference between Tiger and the other creeps, especially Letterman. Letterman was raping his staff members and thats not what Tiger was doing. Oh are you one of those who wants to think that it was all consensual sex with Letterman's staff? Surely every 25 year old secretary just craves sex with a 55 year old, buck toothed, quad bypass, skinny butt creep like Letterman. Or maybe they just needed their jobs. Thats called rape in criminal court. So don't equate Tiger's cheating with Lettermans sexual assaults.

Saturday 05 December

By n45young

Speak for yourself. I think Letterman is very sexy. Smart and funny are also sexy. Doesn't sound like he had to rape anyone.

By JEK

LIFE AS A CELEBRITY AND BEING FILTHY RICH MUST BE EXTREMELY BORING..YA CAN'T FIX STUPID!

By ajgorm

Tiger is a golfer what do you expect. He is obsessed with trying to get a hole in more than one.

By marc

Can't help but wonder if Woods' problem derives more from the inflated ego, an errant and obsessive sexual deviancy- or well... um.... both. God help us all.

By wontspeakspanish

sure,sure she, is lovely to look at.i don't know what she is like(she seems nice enough) behind closed doors...i had a friend once who ate steak every other night and when i asked why he stopped..he told me he was tired of the same thing every other nite and wanted to spice up his diet!

By Nate

This is a good,thoughful article. I think Tiger should have handled this the way Letterman did. Be honest from the beginning, take responsibility and apologize. We are all flawed human beings, and people realize that everyone makes mistakes and errors in judgement. If you are are honest and sincere, it goes a long way toward helping people relate to you as a falable human and they can begin the process of forgiving you. If you try to stone wall the situation, like Tiger did, and is still doing, it makes room for all kinds of wild speculation to get out there and muddy the waters further. You are much better off putting out the true facts yourself and dealing with the fallout from what actually occured than you are trying to deal with a firestorm of speculation, rumors and outright wrong information. Once people think that you are trying to hide something, their imaginations run wild and you run the risk of being scarred in the public eye for what people think you did, which may be worse than what you actually did.

By PR

Nah, Tiger thinks he's too special to have to go before the public and explain himself. It's not required of him either, and with his huge ego and arrogant nature, I'm sure he feels it's not necessary. Oh, also, according to Tiger it's a private matter and the media should leave him and his family alone. Yeah, right Tiger, it's the media's job to make people like you squirm when events like this unfold and you did this to yourself, so be a man and stop whining and own up to what you did.

PR, you are so right. Tigers arrogance and sense of entitlement seem to have caused him to make a bad situation worse.

By tom

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

I've ALWAYS refused to call this monstrosity of an ego- "Tiger". Its always been - Woods. Calling this moron Tiger- just feeds into the morose over the top mentality of this idiot and all those who fall all over themselves kowtowing to this goon. Wife and g-friends- included. Sadly, they get what they idolize. A amoral and ethically bankrupt empty suit with a sneer.

By GINA

tiger woods with all his money is a thug.he was known to be rude to his father even. i notice in the pics tiger acts like his beautiful wife is annoying him.tiger is no handsome man,and probably a small brain. for syre he is no barack obama.

By Ella

I read a statement, how can anyone cheat on her, just like they cheat on anyone, why didn't they say what they really meant, I will not go into it. I'm not saying that cheating is right, it was wrong. This was all about money, I bet she had her sight set on Tiger for a long time, and the reason why Jesper introduced her to him in the first place was due to his wealth. When will these rich athelets learn, if they were not rich these gold diggers would not give them a second look.

By Diamon

I agaree wholeheartedly. I am so tired of these journalists talking about how "beautiful" she is. What has beauty got to do with the price of tea in china? Noone knows what goes on behind closed doors.

ella i could not agree more. well said

By spackle

Here's the problem. The one you marry, isn't usually the one you want to have nasty sex with. That's what whores are for.

By timber

Throw the bum under the bus! Hey tiger, buy a Hummer...you may get away next time you CRASH! I`m sure there will be, a next time.

By Leonard Pal

My goodness, and they say that gays would ruin the time-respected institution of marriage.

Page 1 of 2