up to avoid embarrassment. Few people would admit to being the shameful homewrecker, much less try to profit from it.But times have changed, with a worldwide media that moves fast, loves gory details and is willing to pay for them. So within days of going public with her affair with Bullock's husband and West Coast Choppers CEO James, Michelle "Bombshell" McGee — whose age ranges from 24 to 32, depending on the source — admitted to making $30,000 from a tell-all interview with In Touch Weekly. She also admitted hoping coming forward would make her a "mainstream celebrity."
Bingo. Well, at least for a while.
The tattooed ex-stripper and mother of two was all over television and the Internet this month. Just like many of Woods' alleged mistresses the previous few months. Just like Rielle Hunter, the mother of former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards' love child who earlier this month gave a lengthy interview to GQ, complete with racy photos.
Multi-tasking
In the growing "getting-famous-for-sleeping-with-the-famous" ranks, they join Ashley Dupre, the prostitute whose relations with then New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer caused him to resign in 2008. She became famous enough to try her hand at a music career (reports had her making as much as $1.4 million on downloads of one of her songs after the scandal broke). She also became a sex columnist for the New York Post and will appear in an eight-page spread in Playboy in May.
All have at least one thing in common: Very few people knew their names until they had affairs with famous men.
And it only seems to be women — at least among those getting famous from the affairs. Not that celebrity women don't have affairs, but they seem to choose other famous men or we just don't hear about their partners-in-adultery.
With the advent of the Internet, we've gone from a few famous '80s and '90s mistresses who didn't initially seek fame — Jessica Hahn, Donna Rice, Amy Fisher and Paula Jones — to a torrent of women the past couple years turning affairs into celebrity. (The same period also produced Gennifer Flowers, who came forward about her affair with President Clinton and ended up selling her story for $500,000 and posing for Penthouse.)
"The guilt and shame associated with cheating has diminished because of people airing their dirty laundry on talk shows, and because of the 15 minutes of fame that has become associated with this," says media psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman, author of "Bad Boys: Why We Love Them, How to Live with Them and When to Leave Them." "The mistresses take pride in showing the world that they were able to get a powerful man to submit to them. Our society has become obsessed with fame, and people feel validated only if the world watches them."
All the blame doesn't necessarily lie with the women. Media image consultant Michael Sands says the egos of the men involved make them feel invincible, despite the constant presence of paparazzi documenting their every move.
"The guys hang out in bars and really fancy themselves as God's gift to lonely women," says Sands, who appeared on E! News last week discussing the Bullock/James story. "They're bulletproof. They let their defenses down and forget everything they read (about other celebrities getting caught)."
'Buyer-beware'
Sands says the men can't separate their private life from their show business persona.
"They use it to be a big gun," he says. "And it's buyer-beware. These guys are asking for trouble."
When the stories go public, most of the women are ready, with sexy pictures, a Web site and contact information. They get agents. One of Woods' alleged girlfriends, Joselyn James, has started a Web site devoted to exposing Woods' explicit text messages to her.
Others have hired lawyers and threatened lawsuits. McGee is on the cover of this month's Tattoo Revue magazine. Playboy model Loredana Jolie says she'll write a tell-all book about her alleged affair with Woods. Rachel Uchitel, the New York City club hostess first linked to Woods in November, landed a job as a correspondent for TVs "Extra." Jamie Jungers parlayed her new fame into jobs pitching vodka and an auction Web site, and has appeared on the "Today" show and "Dateline."
Jungers also won $75,000 in a Tiger Woods' Mistress Pageant, hosted by Howard Stern. Upon winning, she cried and thanked God. Second-place finisher Jamie Grubbs won $15,000 and stormed off the set.
Tattered reputations
The men sometimes recover from the bad publicity (though Woods has lost millions in endorsements, Edwards' and Spitzer's careers seem unsalvageable, and James is currently the scourge of Hollywood), the women usually end up on the D list or as trivia questions. They write books and columns, do magazine photo shoots, and whatever else they can to hold on to their scrap of fame.
McGee, who told Radar Online.com she started the affair with James for money, has signed up to referee a May 7 celebrity boxing match between porn star Gina Lynn and Hailey Glassman, the woman who became famous last year for dating Jon Gosselin, of "Jon and Kate Plus 8" fame, while his marriage was crumbling.
The quick money angle apparently works for some, but chances are their fame won't last.
"You can't help but notice that most of these women had no major accomplishments of their own," says Michal Ann Strahilevitz, an associate professor of marketing at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. "It seems like easy money and it sends a sad message to young women when we give random mistresses so much attention. Sadly, I don't see the trend going away anytime soon."
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