If you’re like me, you had no idea who Gloria Allred was until the Tigergate mistresses started lawyering up. Turns out she’s a high-powered attorney that’s been involved in high-profile celebrity cases for the last 30 years. Through her work, she’s made the world a more equal place for women. But in representing Tiger’s mistresses, she comes across as one of those cheesy, auto-accident lawyers that advertise on TV. You know, the ones you’d go to only if you were absolutely desperate or too broke to find a real lawyer.
On her website Allred calls herself a feminist and an activist who argues “on behalf of victims whose rights have been violated.” Um, is it just me or does taking the Tiger mistresses’ cases contradict that? What rights did he violate by treating a ho like a ho? Now Gloria, I think you’re reaching, just a little.
Feminists are about empowering women; there is nothing empowering about backing a group of women that knowingly and viciously undercut the marriage vows of another woman. Those kind of women deserve representation by people who flunked out of law school. They’re only getting the best because the man they slept with was worth a billion dollars. That’s the farthest thing from female empowerment I’ve ever heard.
When Tiger’s first mistress, Rachel Uchitel, hired Allred to represent her shortly after denying the rumored romance, there was cause for raised eyebrows. When Allred was also retained to represent Joslyn James, a woman that supposedly quit her job as a porn star to be with Tiger, it crossed the line.
Nothing was more laughable, though, than the subsequent press conference Allred held. Did she really sit there, sympathetic, while her porn-star client read a statement saying that Tiger, the married man she was knowingly cheating with, had lied to her about having other mistresses, disrespected her, and owed her a face-to-face apology because of it? More importantly, when she was sitting at her desk typing out the statement – you know the porn star chick didn’t write it – did she have to dry her tears from laughing so hard, or was that really a legitimate claim to her?
Gloria Allred has sought out and thrived in the spotlight of celebrity cases. Even still, I don’t understand how someone who has been a crusader for women’s rights can support Tiger’s mistresses. Argue against Tiger; yes. Say he should be held accountable for his actions; yes. But to ignore her own clients’ need for accountability and defend women who knew what they were getting into – yet did so willingly without regard for the other woman they were hurting; absolutely not.
Maybe she should have offered her services to Elin Woods. That seems more congruent with the amazing career she’s built for herself which, in my opinion, now has a huge black spot on it.
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Chantelle Anderson is a former WNBA Star and speaker on women rights. You can follow her on Twitter: @misschantelle