Eliot Spitzer: just another Crime of the Heart

Why do people do the things they do? Good question.

As a former Hollywood screenwriter (My Favorite Year; Welcome Back, Kotter, etc.), now a licensed psychotherapist and mystery author, I figure I have as much right as the next guy to weigh in on the former governor of New York. Let's face it, Spitzer's story has everything a blogger could want: sex, crime, the downfall of the powerful, and a spouse standing by her man.

Not to mention the prostitute alleged to have been involved with Spitzer. Another case of Instant Celebrity: just add Fox News and stir. She's already being showered with book deals, talk show offers and speaking engagements. It wouldn't surprise me if she got her own cable reality TV show (maybe co-hosted by Heidi Fleiss?).

Wait a minute, I think I'm onto something...Get William Morris on the phone!

By the way, Instant Celebrity is just one of the things I'll be blogging about here---as well as creativity, the media, and psychology today. Or the latest trends in mystery and crime fiction. Or politics. Or---well, you get the picture.

I'll also try not to join the growing crowd of bloggers whining about the End of Western Civilization. Not that there isn't plenty of evidence for it. Like this current frenzy over Governor Spitzer. God knows, we've been here before. Where you don't know whether to laugh or cry. Where it's either another sad commentary on the human condition, or just more stand-up fodder for Leno and Letterman.

But what if it's neither? As the title of Beth Henley's play suggests, we're probably all guilty of "crimes of the heart." At least one time or another. So rather than make jokes about the Spitzer marriage, or demand that Mrs. Spitzer get a divorce, or guess how many times the word "hypocrisy" will be tossed around by media pundits, I'd rather just say this: let's hope the sorry couple get the professional help they need, and that the rest of us stay the hell out of their lives.

After all, don't we have our priorities screwed up, anyway? I mean, it's okay to lie to us about the reasons we're going to war, but our moral outrage is triggered when a penis goes astray? I guess that's one way to keep Iraq out of the headlines.

But that's just me. What do you think? Feel free to let me know.

And stay tuned.