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The John Edwards/Rielle Hunter 'Affair'... and Webisodes
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Follow-up reporting has been sparse in the days since the National Enquirer's alleged (for the second time in a year) that former Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards was embroiled in a "love-child scandal" with 44-year-old videographer Rielle Hunter (aka Lisa Druck) at the Beverly Hilton. Both Hunter and Edwards denied having the tabloid's initial salacious cover story last October.
Now, a handful of videos in which Hunter, as producer, documented John Edwards' travels over the course of six months in 2006 have resurfaced. The rather innovative web shorts -- noted even in Businessweek's Year in Web Video feature -- reportedly vanished from the Internet last September. Definitive evidence that a pregnant-looking Hunter, as photographed by the Enquirer last December, was indeed knocked up by Edwards, yes?
Was the mysterious disappearance of the five-part "Webisode Series: Following John Edwards," -- before Edwards declared his candidacy last year -- perpetuated by the Edwards campaign or Hunter? Or were they only taken down mistakenly as part of an elaborate fabrication by the Enquirer? This "disappearance" only bolstered the veracity of the Enquirer cover last October and last weeks' subsequent piece alleging the affair / love-child of Edwards and Hunter. Perhaps nothing adds up to make the tabloid's claims worth advancing or coloring between the lines. Or perhaps we should be reminded to expect no less from the "creeps and weirdos" running the show in Washington.
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photo of John Edwards with Mayor Villaraigosa taken June 21 by Damian Dovarganes, AP
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