The tabs this week are full of juicy political “news.” We read them so you don’t have to. From the August 24 editions:
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is this week’s headliner in the Globe, which reports that she and “first dude” Todd Palin are splitsville due to stress over her political success, daughter Bristol’s illegitimate child, and ongoing rumors that Palin had an affair in the mid-1990s. The Globe claims that Palin is “so fed-up with Todd, 44, that she’s thrown her wedding ring away, booted him from her bed and is planning to move with her kids to Montana, where she is said to have purchased land.” A Palin spokesperson denies all charges. “No divorce. No affairs. No land in Montana. Nothing! All lies and fabrications,” she tells the Globe. (No links, btw. The tabs are strictly paper products.)
The Star also leads with the Palin marriage crisis, observing that after Palin publicly resigned as governor on July 3, she jumped into a waiting SUV and bolted, leaving husband Todd at the curb. “They left me,” Todd reportedly chuckled—a sign, the Star notes, of things to come. The Star also provides a handy photo chronology of Palin’s bare hands to back up claims that she threw her wedding ring in Lake Lucille shortly after her resignation speech. A photo dated July 26, from Palin’s swearing in of the new governor, shows she still wasn’t wearing it three weeks later.
John Edwards is back in the National Enquirer, which is reporting that the former presidential candidate has taken a secret DNA test that proves he is the father of mistress Rielle Hunter’s love child. No surprise there! Edwards is supposedly working out child support payments for 18-month-old Frances. An interesting tidbit: The Enquirer claims that Hunter sought the test because she stopped getting payments from Edwards’ former national finance chairman Fred Baron, who died last year of cancer. Baron had reportedly been renting a house for her in California, and after he died, the money dried up and Hunter was forced to move in with a friend in New Jersey. Baron was a prominent trial lawyer who made his fortune in asbestos litigation. He was a major force in Democratic politics and his death seems to have caused Edwards a number of problems.
According to the Enquirer, Hunter also sought the test after Edwards’ wife Elizabeth dissed her on her book tour and referred to Frances as an “it” on national TV. The comment supposedly prompted Hunter to bring the baby with her when she testified before a federal grand jury probing Edwards’ campaign finances so that the baby would be in all the media photos. Perhaps another reason Elizabeth should have skipped the book tour!
The Enquirer also reports that Chelsea Clinton’s getting married at the end of the month on Martha’s Vineyard and that she and fiancé Marc Mezvinsky are apparently having a heck of a time working out the guest list. Mezvinsky’s father, former Iowa congressman Ed Mezvinsky, will be coming to the wedding fresh out of a halfway house, where he was released last year after doing time for investment fraud. Chelsea apparently has her own embarrassing family members to deal with, namely uncles Roger Clinton and Hugh Rodham.
And across the Atlantic, the Globe speculates that Prince William is expecting a love child. How fun.
