Former VP Al Gore copes with polluted image as divorce and alleged scandal makes headlines
To many, including one licensed massage therapist in Oregon, Nobel Prize winner Al Gore was "Mr. Smiley Global Warming Concern" - a pure-of-heart environmental hero.
Now the globe-trotting, do-gooding Gore is catching a lot of heat - with none of it related to global warming.
Gore
is dealing with some inconvenient truths - and a few ugly rumors -
since the end of his marriage was followed by suggestions of sexual
scandal.
The high-profile activist typically profiled in magazines like The New Yorker was suddenly splashed across the front page ofThe National Enquirer.
"AL
GORE SEX ATTACK!" howled the Enquirer's front page, referring to a
purported 2006 incident with the masseuse in an Oregon hotel suite.
[...]
The
red-headed masseuse - who said she voted for Gore in the 2000
presidential race - detailed his alleged transformation from statesman
to "crazed sex poodle" during a late-night massage in his hotel suite.
"He
had a dramatic display of violent temper as well as extreme dictatorial
commanding attitude besides his Mr. Smiley Global Warming Concern
persona," the woman says in a 67-page transcript of her interview with
police.