Edwards Update: Elizabeth's Media Blitz Meets John's Nightlife

John Hudson 19 Views Jun 30, 2010
After some relative quiet, John and Elizabeth Edwards are back in the headlines. Giving interviews to the Today Show, Larry King Live and People, Elizabeth spoke openly for the first time since she legally separated from her husband in January (appearances that nicely coincide with the paperback release of her memoir).  John, for his part, is the subject of a profile in The New Republic that explores his vibrant social life.

In the John Edwards piece, reporter Gabriel Sherman asks John's friends about his post-scandal recreational habits. The article's subhead "John Edwards parties on" just about sums it up:
Edwards is refusing to follow in the tradition of other disgraced figures like Tiger Woods and Eliot Spitzer, who initially kept low profiles after they were publicly humiliated. On the contrary, since January... there have been frequent Edwards sightings around Durham. On a given night, he might pop up at The Federal, a dimly lit Durham dive bar, or The Wooden Nickel, a bar in nearby Hillsborough that features “Club 69”—an honor bestowed on patrons who consume at least one drink from every bottle behind the bar. (“Club 69” members have their portraits engraved on hand-carved wooden plaques lining the wall.)
Sherman finds unflattering moments even in Edwards's Haiti relief trip. He describes one cocktail party in which Edwards "regaled the group with tales from his trip to Haiti, talked about his newfound bachelorhood, and joked about how young women flirt with him." Another scene has Edwards at a prom-themed party "dancing to everything from salsa to Wreckx-n-Effect’s 1992 rap hit 'Rump Shaker.'"

Elizabeth, meanwhile, is keeping busy other ways on TV. On Wednesday she gave a long interview with NBC's Matt Lauer. The discussion touched on her disappointments with John, battle with cancer, and new material in her book:

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She also appeared on Larry King Live where she weighed in on Rielle Hunter's GQ photo shoot:
I did see the pictures and I think it's really important when you're a mother to convey that's the role you value and I think she just had too many T's to cross... She also wanted to be viewed as sexy and everything else. At some point you can be sexy but that can't be your goal.




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