Photo: John Edwards 2008
Andrew Young, former aide to 2004 vide-presidential nominee John Edwards, has pitched a scandalous tell-all about the embattled politician’s affair with photographer Rielle Hunter. His plans to author a book aren’t shocking. After all, Elizabeth Edwards is said to partly blame Young for her husband’s affair, because he helped him with the cover-up and even took the fall for Edwards, claiming that Hunter’s baby was, in fact, his.
According to the New York Daily News, Young’s proposal includes shocking revelations, including allegations that Hunter left a videotape at his house that featured Hunter and Edwards and was of a decidedly X-rated nature—quite a far cry from the official videos that Hunter was hired to create.
The obvious comparison is to Paris Hilton’s 1 Night in Paris, ranked the top-selling and most-rented adult video of 2005 by Adult Video News. So the question is: would Edwards’ tape beat that?
Probably not. His popularity is highest in a demographic that most likely would not rush to the adult video store to rent his tape. But, that said, his many similarities to Paris Hilton may pay off: both are incredibly (read: unnaturally) tan, clearly have hairstylists on call twenty-four hours a day, and made their money in unquestionably sleazy ways (sure, Paris inherited tons from her family, but she’s made her own money through club appearances and reality TV – definitely trashy). The only question that remains is whether the American public would recognize these similarities and come to the inevitable conclusion that John Edwards is Paris Hilton’s new BFF. Forget about her low-rated reality show, she should just reach out to someone who has so much in common with her!
Since his political career is on the backburner, maybe Edwards could use some public exposure, even if it’s in the form of a potentially embarrassing sex tape. After all, Paris’s tape heightened her stardom, leading to lucrative reality TV shows, books and movies.
Paris followed up her tape’s release by starring on The Simple Life with Nicole Richie. Maybe Edwards and Sanford could find their own pink pick-up truck and do the same?
Okay, now onto the slightly less raunchy aspects of Young’s proposal. According to Young, he agreed to claim Hunter’s baby as his own because he believed so strongly in Edwards. He invited Hunter, still pregnant, to live with him, his wife, and three children; she moved away once she had given birth. Hunter presumably left the video in his house, and Young found it when unpacking in his new California home.
Young also claims that Hunter told him about a discussion she had with Edwards about getting married, planning a wedding in case Edwards’ wife, cancer-stricken Elizabeth, passed away. Hunter told Young that she and Edwards even talked about the music for their first dance at their hypothetical wedding.
Ultimately, this is a much more disturbing incarnation of the affair than was originally reported. Previously, the worst aspect of it was Elizabeth’s illness, which made the romance even more tawdry and inappropriate than it would have been otherwise. These new details add an impenetrable layer of sleaze that will seriously hinder any political comeback Edwards may consider staging in the future.
That takes us back to our original recommendation, which is a reality TV career. The seedy underbelly of the TV industry, which has so embraced Hilton, will find no fault with, and even welcome, Edwards’ sordid behavior and attitude. As an added bonus, his bright orange, perma-tanned skin will contrast much less with that of the trashy TV elite than with that of Beltway insiders.
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