Girlfriends, Mary Jo Eustace has written an entertaining essay about the Tiger scandal that I think is worth the digital space here on Book End Babes. As someone who has been left for another woman, Mary Jo brings a sensible voice to the debacle. As a blog about celebrating girlfriends, it’s important to bring this to light – why women continue to do this to each other. Think about it. If women didn’t cheat with married men, then infidelity would be a much smaller problem than it is today. I’m not kidding, ladies, when I say, READ A GOOD BOOK INSTEAD. You’ll add some excitement to your lives and the guy won’t dump you at the end. If you read a romance, you are ASSURED of getting a happy ending. Even better? No lives get ruined in the process.
What can we do but set good examples in our own lives and make moral choices? As my grandmother used to say – God rest her soul – it takes two to tango.- ML

By Mary Jo Eustace, Author of Divorce Sucks: What to do when irreconcilable differences,
lawyer fees, and your ex’s Hollywood wife make you miserable

Just when you thought the world was safe and that beloved sports
figures would stay beloved, another ball finds it’s way into the sand
trap of life. Tiger Woods — the most disciplined and seemingly
perfect man of all time has shanked big time and he wasn’t even
holding a golf club — someone else was. . . .

December 3, 2009 on the Joy Behar show and probably every other media
outlet as well, this was the topic of discussion. I joined the panel
via satellite from Los Angeles with Joy and her guests, publisher
Judith Reagen plus a woman who was an expert on marriage (god help
us)!! We were supposed to use it as a jumping off point to talk about
women who no longer wanted to stand by their man, but things got a
little murky right from jump.

First of all, am I the only one who thought Tiger Woods didn’t have
sex? I know he has 2 children and a very hot Swedish wife but he just
seemed so above the fray and wholesome like he was practicing his
putting 18 hours a day or constantly re-washing his golf balls. I just
assumed that even though he was powerful and rich and had access to
everything that he was a still “good boy.” I mean really — his life
seemed pretty kick ass — a fantastic career, a net worth of over 1
billion dollars, aforementioned hot wife and 2 beautiful children.
What else could he possibly want?

Probably NOT a creepy car wreck on his front lawn, where he is driving
barefoot and runs into a neighbors tree? Or a party girl who can
barely string a sentence together hiring a victim advocates lawyer
(Hello Gloria Allred — how are you?) to probably ink the deal on her
new reality show planing “bottle” parties for the PGA? Or how about a
lovely cocktail waitress from Las Vegas who just happens to have saved
over 300 text messages from Tiger on her pink and glittery cell phone?
You know — just in case he wanted to show his wife when there was a
lull in the dinner conversation. How about her? Is this really what
Tiger Wood’s went looking for?

It makes you wonder — a few things. I guess the first aspect of it,
and to a certain extent I have been through this — is it really
anybody’s business? Does the public really have the right to know
every gruesome detail of someone else’s personal business? Now mine
was just kind of low rent and tacky, but it was public and humiliating
and in it’s own way a car wreck, but at least I wasn’t driving.

Yet when something like this happens I always think of a few things.
Firstly, how could any of our truly beloved figures have ever remained
beloved — John F. Kennedy. Martin Luther King, Bob Hope (yes even Bob
Hope was known to swing his club in a extra curricular fashion) if
they had of been under this type of public scrutiny? It would have
been impossible and distracting and would have most likely altered
their public contribution and legacy. Do we really need to know
everything??

Yet the combination is intoxicating — infidelity, anger, image and
perception — perhaps even a little domestic violence. No wonder we
are hooked. Our culture is firmly rooted in the building up and taking
down of those we revere.

Which leads me to my next point — even when a man presumably has it
all is it never quite enough? Story after story of the fallen male
figure — from the glib and permanently tanned politicians and
religious leaders to the much respected David Letterman and now Tiger
Woods.

I don’t get it — really I don’t. Their choices seem a little —
yucky. And kind of insulting to the women they are with. These women
they choose to stray with might as well be aliens from another planet
they are so different from their wives. And the risk — not to just
themselves but the things they hold most dear — it just makes no sense.

So another one bites the dust and I am kind of nervous to see who is
next. So is my Aunt Sue, one of my favorite people and the best nun
ever. She has put all her faith in Obama and I am hoping with a little
divine intervention (maybe from Aunt Sue’s boss) he will be fine. . . .

Just stay away from the golf course.

©2009 Mary Jo Eustace, author of Divorce Sucks: What to do when
irreconcilable differences, lawyer fees, and your ex’s Hollywood wife
make you miserable

Author Bio
Born and raised in Toronto, Mary Jo Eustace, author of Divorce Sucks:
What to do when irreconcilable differences, lawyer fees, and your ex’s
Hollywood wife make you miserable, is an author, actress, singer,
chef, and mother to Jack and Lola. Mary Jo was married to Dean
McDermott for thirteen years before Dean met Tori Spelling on the set
of the Lifetime made-for-TV movie Mind Over Murder. After her highly
publicized divorce, Mary Jo returned to her native Canada with her son
and newly adopted daughter to film her cooking show, He Said, She Said
with Ken and Mary Jo for Canada’s W Network. Mary Jo is the author of
the bestselling cookbook By My Side. She has also written for the
bestselling anthology The Other Woman and has been featured on
Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, and The Today Show.

For more information please visit maryjoeustace.com