“Hiking the Appalachian Trail” seemed to be a lock for Scandal Phrase of 2009.
But here comes a late entrant: the Kobe Special. TMZ.com claims that Tiger Woods told a friend on Friday that he was going to need a “Kobe Special” to placate his wife Elin.
The reference is to NBA star Kobe Bryant, who gifted his wife Vanessa with a $4 million purple diamond ring after he was arrested for alleged sexual assault of a Colorado resort clerk in 2003. Kobe admitted adultery, got the assault charge dismissed, and eventually settled with the resort clerk out of court.
Woods, of course, had an early-morning accident on Friday, and TMZ (among many others) is claiming that it followed an argument with his wife over Tiger’s alleged affair with a woman named Rachel Uchitel.
The “Kobe Special” seems to have worked for Bryant: he is still married to Vanessa, they had a second daughter in 2006, and Bryant remains one of the NBA’s superstars. Just five months ago he led the Lakers to the NBA Championship.