Woods just latest celebrity in crisis

Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — Pop culture, like nature, abhors a vacuum, and its forces won’t rest until the vacuum is filled. That’s a lesson Tiger Woods has spent the last week learning.

His apology acknowledging transgressions, published Wednesday on his Web site, capped a roller- coaster ride of tabloid rumors and canceled appearances as the high-profile golfer with the low-profile personal life found himself the unwilling star of the latest celebrity scandal.

The Tiger Woods story began with sketchy reports of a strange, single-vehicle accident Friday, then segued into days of tabloid-driven reports of affairs and marital unrest. Through this, the world’s No. 1 golfer and one of its most famous athletes remained steadfastly silent.

That is, until Us Weekly’s cover story, headlined “Yes, He Cheated,” spotlighting his 31-month affair with a Los Angeles cocktail waitress, who offered 300 text messages and a late-night voice-mail message from Woods as proof. It was released Tuesday afternoon, and by early Wednesday, Woods used tigerwoods.com to acknowledge: “I have let my family down, and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart.”

The private superstar went on to complain about “tabloid scrutiny” and protest that “personal sins should not require press releases, and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.” He concluded with a “profound apology” to “all of those who have supported me over the years.”

And so this nation of sports fans and entertainment-news consumers has gone through another workshop in brand-crisis management as a celebrity scandal runs its cycle.

“Tiger Woods has had a very controlled career and a very controlled reputation,” said Rachel Weingarten, a New York-based personal- brand strategist and image consultant.

“But he refused to acknowledge that events had moved beyond his control. He tried to avoid the sensationalism of a celebrity scandal and in so doing, failed to take into account that that kind of hush-hush approach feeds the sensationalism,” she said.

Control over his personal life and image has been a hallmark of Woods’ career. Since his record-smashing victory at the Masters in 1997 when, at 21, he became the golf tournament’s youngest winner, Woods has become the sport’s most-dominant player and one of the world’s most-recognizable athletes, thanks to high-profile endorsement deals such as Nike, Buick and Gatorade.

In the early stages of this scandal cycle, Woods’ reputation was often described as pristine, a reflection of how little was known and how guarded the superstar was of his private life with his wife, Elin Nordegren Woods, and his two young children. He even named his 155-foot yacht, the boat that fame bought, Privacy.

Woods’ insistence on privacy and his complaints about media intrusions are just the latest outbreak in an ongoing cultural debate.

In comments posted to Woods’ Web site, one writer sympathized, “There is a level of privacy that you deserve.” But another countered, “We all thought you were so private because you were a good father/husband trying to protect your family from the media — now we find out it’s because you have so much to hide.” The privacy issue is complicated by the varied roles Woods fills.

“Tiger Woods, like all successful celebrities, has a lot of audiences to communicate with,” said Erin Powers, a Houston-based specialist in legal affairs and crisis communications. “There’s the business side, the legal side and the public side to what he is and does.

“The irony built into celebrity is that the same forces that helped make him so successful and hugely popular are also driving the intense scrutiny he’s now contending with,” she said.

This Tiger tale is just the latest in a series of media conflagrations over a scandal-struck star, most recently David Letterman’s on-air revelations of blackmail and sexual liaisons.

Letterman went public early with disclosures of his misdeeds, a tactic praised by many public- relations experts. In contrast, Woods refused to speak, to either law-enforcement officials or the press, until unseemly speculation became irrefutable evidence. Then came the apology.

“An earlier statement would have helped, would have prepared the public, particularly those who were inclined to disbelieve the tabloid coverage initially,” Powers said.

As for the future of Woods and the Tiger Woods brand, there’s a lesson in the story of another tarnished sports figure — Kobe Bryant. The basketball star’s 2003 arrest on a rape charge, which later was dropped, set off a storm of bad press that devastated his status as celebrity athlete and spokesman. Six years later, he’s back on top, coming off a championship season.

“Long term,” Powers said of Woods, “his reputation should be all right — as long as he does not find himself in trouble again for this sort of misconduct.”