They will compete in categories such as “Swimsuit”, “Personality”, and “Talent” to earn the judges’ votes.
When Mr. Stern first announced the idea of the pageant, he said that it would take place only if more than three women responded. All of them had to have been named in news publications as lovers of the golfer.
The prize money for Mr. Stern’s pageant will be supplied by AshleyMadison.com, a “discreet dating service” company. The site, which has 4.5 million users, advertises itself with the slogan “Life is Short, Have an Affair”.
The stunt caps an astonishingly swift downfall for Woods, once a magnet for multimillion-dollar corporate sponsorship deals because of his clean-living image as well as his success in a previously white-dominated sport.
The first hint that Woods had been unfaithful to his Swedish wife came in November last year, with a story in the National Inquirer, a US tabloid. Two days later he was involved in a bizarre car accident amid reports that his wife had chased him out of his $2.4 million Florida home with a golf club. Over the following weeks the names of several alleged mistresses emerged, including that of Rachel Uchitel, a Manhattan VIP party planner who lost her fiancé in the World Trade Centre attack of 9/11.
Woods broke his silence on the scandal last Friday by issuing a lengthy apology at an invitation-only press conference.
“I knew my actions were wrong but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply,” he said. “I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself ... I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have far to go to find them. I was wrong. I was foolish. I don’t get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. I brought this shame on myself.”
The speech was praised by commentators such as Glenn Beck, the Fox News anchor, who argued in a speech to a conservative political conference that American politicians should modify the same apology for their excessive spending of taxpayers’ money.
“Politicians don’t think the rules apply to them,” Mr. Beck said. “They only think about getting themselves re-elected. They’ve run throug the boundaries of the Constitution.”
Mr.. Stern was’t so impressed. On his daily radio show, he questioned the golfer’s sincerity. “[He] looked like he wanted to be anywhere on the planet but in that room. It didn’t seem like this was his idea, or anything he wanted to be a part of.”
The broadcaster, known for his outrageous pranks, has offered a judging spot to Elin Nordegren, the golfer’s estranged wife and the mother of his two young children. She has not responded to the invitation.
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