An old nemesis is ready to go after Tiger

So there’s Tiger Woods, in full rehab, learning to walk again with a foot reattached after that accident last March, and along comes his old nemesis, Rachel Uchitel, looking for a little publicity and a lot of money. Or should that be the other way around?

But you knew it would be like that. So did a gentleman named Shakespeare, who long ago told us in quintessential Shakespearian dialogue that sorrow comes not in single spies but in battalions.

For Mr. Woods, there’s not only the physical pain after the vehicle rollover, which experts said very well could have been fatal, but also the renewed mental anguish of being confronted by what he and his attorneys thought would remain hidden forever.

Which, as we have learned, whether the subject is literal royalty or a symbolic version, never is the case. Someone always talks or writes.

If you thought, we — and Tiger — were done with those tales from the early 2000s of Tiger and his lady friends, including Uchitel, so did most of us.


Uchitel signed an NDA, or nondisclosure agreement, something attorneys of the frequently rich and usually famous create to keep details of their clients’ peccadilloes away from prying eyes.

But a few days ago, there was a mammoth story in the New York Times, the publication offering all the news that’s fit to print — as opposed to the New York Post, which offers the juicy stuff — about Ms. Uchitel and Tiger.

The article, by Katherine Rosman, just short of 2.900 words and headlined “This is Rachel Uchitel Representing Herself,” doesn’t have much to do about saving pars but a lot about saving face — and earning a few bucks.

Somehow all that maneuvering and legalese, the decision by Tiger’s lawyers and agent, the doggedly loyal Mark Steinberg, wasn’t worth the paper it isn’t written on, to borrow that wisecrack about an oral agreement.

The timing of all this is interesting, maybe — you should excuse the word — accidental.

Uchitel, to use a golfing analogy, seems like someone in match play, 2 down with 2 to play. Might as well pull the driver out of the bag and go for broke. Which she claims she is, the millions paid to silence her eventually going to taxes or lawyers.

These celebrity cases have a life of their own. Politicians, actors, athletes remain vulnerable — not that the issues aren’t of their own creation — and remain fascinating.

That Woods has suffered the indignities, as well as suffering the crash, has been compared to a Greek tragedy. The hero has fallen.

Rachel Uchitel doesn’t want to pick him up — just pick herself up.

Wrote Katherine Rosman in the Times, “In 2009, days after the dramatic revelation of her affair with the golfer Tiger Woods, then married, Ms. Uchitel signed a nondisclosure agreement more than 30 pages long, prohibiting her from talking about Mr. Woods with anyone. She was represented by the famed Hollywood lawyer Gloria Allred.

“In return for her silence, under pressure to protect a powerful man’s reputation and brand, she got $5 million and a promise of $1 million annually for three years to follow. ‘His lawyers are saying, “We want all your text messages and here’s the price,”‘ she recalled, ‘and you’re like “screw you” and you move into deal-maker mode and all of a sudden, it’s the rest of your life.’

“Now, at 46, Ms. Uchitel — tired of not being able to defend herself against continued insinuations from tabloids and gossip websites — is ready to blow it all up.”

Woods and his legal team have had no response to Uchitel’s tactic. One guesses that their immediate concern is Tiger’s medical situation. What a mess. Greek tragedy indeed.