Rielle Hunter in GQ: David Loftus

Lemme see. A nonentity hooks her wagon to a demi-celebrity, their little dance gets tripped up so she gets left out in the cold, she decides to cash in on her 15 seconds of fame, and finally she expresses shock that she doesn’t get to control everything that’s shown or said about her.

What did she hope to accomplish by allowing herself to be interviewed by GQ? To “set the record straight”? To explain that it was all just about love – really! -- between her and John Edwards? To maybe even win him back permanently after she’s dragged out the humiliation and discomfort of his collapsing marriage a little longer? How foolish can the woman be? Does she think anybody really cares?

For the record, though I don’t plan on reading the interview or studying the photos, I viewed the video GQ released in its defense after Hunter said the results of the photo shoot were “repulsive.” And though I have to say her reaction -- her ostensible naivete -- strains credulity, once again nobody comes out of this with clean hands. I suspect the other people in that room -- the photographer, the videographer, the makeup women -- all knew they were getting away with something, that there was at least a 50-50 chance their subject would not be happy with the results (photographic or buzz-wise), but they also knew they would be safely off the field by then. They’d been through this drill with other folks who hoped to control the spin and ended up getting put through the spin cycle, many times before. And I have to say that for at least the first 30-45 seconds of the video, Ms. Hunter looks a little nervous, a little puzzled, a little uncomfortable, maybe even a little trapped . . . as if it’s beginning to dawn on her what she’s gotten herself into.

I was tempted to make a crack about how it all seems rather sur-Rielle, or that she ought to get her own Rielle-ity show . . . but actually, I feel kind of sorry for the poor thing. Not as sorry as for her daughter, for Elizabeth Edwards, or for her children, but sorry nonetheless. Hunter gambled big, getting involved with Edwards in the first place, and she should known enough to walk away from the table in dignified silence the first time the roll came up snake eyes.