Last Night's Winner: Elin Nordegren, "Private Person"

In sports, everyone is a winner-some people just win better than others. Like the former Mrs. Tiger Woods, who waited two whole days after landing a nine figure divorce settlement before signing off on a big People Magazine puff piece.

Fabulously wealthy. Achingly beautiful. Internationally famous. Still only 30, and I don't think being a single mom is going to curtail her dating life. And yet, she says she's "been through hell." Pass the hankies and a tiny, tiny violin.

Nordegren spoke to , which is expected to be such a big seller they upped the print run and cover price, for "19 hours over four visits to her Windermere, Fla., rental home." It doesn't say whether this was before or after the divorce papers were signed Monday, but she wasted no time.

What's the point? Sure, People pays its interview subjects. But she doesn't need the money. Does she want to launch some kind of career in the public eye? Shop a book deal? Clearly there was no stipulation in their divorce agreement that she would have to keep quiet. (Which makes sense; she probably doesn't have much on him, like Tiger's mistresses do. They were paid handsomely to keep their mouths shut.)

There has been and is going to be a lot of vitriol directed at Nordegren from the almost-exlusively male world of sports media, for perceptions that she's a gold digger and attention seeker. And that's not really fair. The media wants a Tiger Woods redemption story, but he's no victim. A number of the mistresses have employed Gloria Allred, but they're no victims. Nordegren's the only one who's blameless and who was done wrong. (And the kids, of course.)

My girlfriend has a theory: when a woman marries a professional athlete, she assumes that he's going to cheat on her constantly. She has to be willing to deal with this to receive the perks, and it doesn't preclude the idea that they might still actually love each other.

So what does this make Nordegren, who insists her marriage was real, but that reconciliation failed it would be "without trust and love?" Naïve? Calculating? No, mostly just fabulously wealthy, achingly beautiful and internationally famous.