A dishy new book proposal by a former aide says former Senator John Edwards wasn’t merely cheating on his long-suffering wife Elizabeth Edwards. According to Andrew Young, the senator promised Rielle Hunter he’d marry her after Elizabeth died from cancer in a rooftop ceremony in NYC with the Dave Matthews Band playing.

Urgent memo to Senator Edwards: Making romantic plans for after your wife’s death = tacky! [New York Times]

This week’s humpday brought on lots of, well, humping. If it’s not about baby daddys, baby mamas, or new relationships, it’s not in the tabloids this week. And let me remind you—it is the time of the season for loving. If you haven’t had a summer fling (or five), it’s time to claim yours and get in some kissing under the boardwalk. And because you should be busy with your summer lovin’, I’m going to recap this week’s tabloids so you can’t use reading them as an excuse to stay in tonight.

Maybe I should start reading the National Enquirer more often. They may have been right about John Edwards being the father of Rielle Hunter’s baby. Last August, Edwards confessed that he’d had an affair with Hunter, his campaign videographer, and went on to divulge way too much information on ABC’s “Nightline” about their trysts. But he’s always held fast that he couldn’t be the father of Hunter’s now 18-month-old baby because they were done before the baby was conceived. North Carolina news station WRAL says inside sources have told them that Edwards is close to stepping up to the plate and admitting he’s the baby’s father. Poor Elizabeth Edwards. I’m not sure which is worse—having a husband who cheated and denies having a love child or having a husband who has a love child. [Gawker]

We take anything we hear reported in the National Enquirer with a huuuge grain of salt, but the trashy tab was correct about John Edwards’ affair with former campaign employee Rielle Hunter. Therefore, we’re inclined to give a listen to their wild ‘n crazy rumors. The Enquirer says Edwards allegedly took a secret paternity test that proves that he’s the father of Hunter’s 18-month-old daughter, Frances, and is allegedly arranging child support payments. Vicious rumor or another rare fact in the Enquirer? Time will tell. [National Enquirer]

Despite the fact that, like, dozens of politicians have been busted cheating on their wives since, John Edwards is still in the news for his affair with Rielle Hunter. According to the book proposal from former Edwards aide Andrew Young, a sex tape featuring Edwards humping Hunter exists. Young would know—he’s the man who famously took the fall for Edwards when he asserted that Hunter’s child was his not the Senator’s. But in the book proposal he admits that was a lie and that the child is Edwards’. He also says that Hunter told him that she and the Senator discussed getting married once Elizabeth Edwards passed away from cancer and that he actually found and has seen the sex tape the two made. Um, can I?

Much has been written in the media this week about men cheating on their wives. We have the tale of two Jo(h)ns: John Edwards, whose scorned wife, Elizabeth Edwards, appeared on “Oprah” yesterday to promote her new book, Resilence, in which she addresses her husband’s much publicized affair, and Jon Gosselin, costar of the hit TLC reality show “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” whose rumored affair has become tabloid fodder. The former is a tale as old as journalism itself: a man in power cheats on a wife who, from the outside, seemed a supporting and loving spouse undeserving of her husband’s unfaithfulness. The latter is another familiar tale: a man under an enormous amount of pressure is regularly and publicly emasculated and treated like dirt by his wife and seemingly seeks solace with another woman. In both cases, the men are vilified—but is it possible that maybe, just maybe, at least one of the women had it coming?

Oprah’s interview with Elizabeth Edwards has aired, and Elizabeth came across as poised and loving, especially considering all she has dealt with and is still going through. On the show, Elizabeth told Oprah she found out about John’s affair a few days after he announced his intent to run for the presidency. When he first told her, he said it had happened once. Then, a year and a half later, he told her the rest of the story. The two are still working to redevelop their trust.

Among the other topics Elizabeth and Oprah discussed were her fight against cancer, how women need to respect other, and how John and she are working on their marriage. When Oprah asked whether she’s still in love with John, Elizabeth said, “... I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t in love with him.” After the jump, another clip from the show.

In her new memoir, Resilience, out on May 12, Elizabeth Edwards describes how she found out that husband John Edwards had an affair with Rielle Hunter and why she decided to forgive him. Elizabeth, who is terminally ill with cancer, refers to Hunter as a pathetic “parasite groupie who invaded the Edwardses life,” according to the New York Daily News. Hunter initially hit on Edwards by telling him, “You are so hot,” outside of a hotel. When Edwards finally confessed to his indiscretion—after being busted by the National Enquirer—he continued lying, telling Elizabeth that he had only cheated once, when, in fact, he had had a long affair with Hunter. So, why did Elizabeth forgive him? She writes:

“I lie in bed, circles under my eyes, my sparse hair sticking in too many directions, and he looks at me as if I am the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. It matters.”

More attention is paid when a famous couple calls it quits than when they tie the knot.  How come?  Because they’re more interesting duh!  While breakups are sad, there’s something about famous people that makes the 50 times more dramatic.  Perhaps it’s the various media outlets they trash talk to, the rumors surrounding them, or just the fact that everyone knows about it.  Here are our top ten splits in ’08.

Ever since John Edwards explained away his affair with Rielle Hunter, saying, “I started to believe that I was special and became increasing egocentric”, we’ve been thinking about how it is just SUCH a dealbreaker to date a guy who’s a narcissist. After all, who wants to end up in a bitter divorce battle like Christie Brinkley, whose ex-husband, Peter Cook, (who admitted to lying and cheating) was diagnosed as narcissistic by a court psychiatrist during their publicized divorce trial proceedings. But how do you tell if a person is a narcissist before you get caught up in their web of egocentricity? We took a look at the actual key factors in the diagnosis for narcissism and found out that a lot of women we know have the real life experience to back up the facts. All the info you need to know, after the jump…

Campaign songs have caused more of a ruckus in this presidential race than teenage pregnancy and extra-marital affairs combined. It all started with a John scandal, when John McCain stole “Our Country” by John Cougar Mellencamp from John Edwards after he got axed in the primaries. Then, Mellencamp told McCain to stop using the track, because the liberal musician didn’t want his tune affiliated with the Republican candidate. After that, hippie balladeer Jackson Browne sued McCain’s campaign to protest the use of his “Running On Empty” in an attack ad against Barack Obama. So, we here at the Frisky decided to put together a voting day soundtrack that everyone can groove to. We might have some differences on our ballots, but our booties bump to the same beats. After the jump, The Frisky’s Election Day Mixtape.

Back in August, John Edwards confessed that he’d cheated on his wife. Since then, we’ve heard barely a peep from him or his wife. Elizabeth Edwards finally spoke out about his affair in an exclusive interview with the Detroit Free Press. Though she had known about the affair for a long time before it became public, Elizabeth said that since his admission, she’s been focusing on her children and health care reform. “There’s a lot of adjustment to make,” she said. “When you mention trust, that’s probably the most difficult hurdle.” But she isn’t saying much more than that. When asked whether she’d forgiven her husband, she replied, “I don’t want to feed the monster, if you don’t mind.” She pointed out that if her leg had been amputated—rather than, say, her husband having an affair—people wouldn’t ask her: “Are you over that leg thing yet?” More importantly, she’s battling stage IV breast cancer, which has spread to her bones, although she isn’t wallowing. Instead, she’s testifying before Congress on health care reform and listening to Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem.” You go, girl. [Detroit Free Press]

We all know sexism is alive and well in America.  Hollywood’s seemingly endless celebration of the chubby, schlubby, slacker dude is sexist as hell, given that chubby, schlubby, slacker girls get nowhere in Tinseltown, least of all the big screen. And yes, much of the media’s coverage of Hillary Clinton’s campaign was sexist too—and I wasn’t even a Hillary supporter, so this isn’t just a P.U.M.A.’s bitterness talking.

The latest accusation of sexism in the media comes from Governor Sarah Palin, the Vice Presidential nominee for the McCain campaign. Her supporters, her spokespeople, and conservative commentators like Bill O’Reilly assert that she is the target of sexist smear campaign. This is surprising for two reasons: 1) O’Reilly has consistently pooh-poohed claims of sexism in the past and 2) wasn’t it only a few months ago that Palin said Clinton should “stop whining” about sexism herself?

Last Friday, John Edwards finally fessed up to having an affair with Rielle Hunter in 2006, after reports surfaced in the National Enquirer.  Over the last two decades, political sex scandals have become as common as nipple slips in Hollywood. Initially, we were fascinated and titillated by the little glimpses the media gave us into the private lives of our public figures. But after the media began inundating us with more scandals than we could stand, we stopped caring, we stopped judging, and we became utterly numb to the bad behaviors of these political leaders. In light of Edwards’ confession, do we even care anymore? Do we care that while his wife was battling cancer, he was out schtupping his campaign’s videographer? Or do we expect politicians like Edwards to behave badly?

The same week John Edwards admitted to cheating on his wife with Rielle Hunter, Mad Men‘s Don Draper lost his (short) battle NOT to cheat on his wife. The comparisons are easy, if shallow—both dashing, charming, well-manicured, with wives that ooze kindness, morality, loyalty, and selfless struggle. While John Edwards does not have the luxury of his affair being fictional, Don Draper, nevertheless, remains at the top of our “Most Boinkable on TV” list. But how is it that we still have such a girl-boner for a character who not only cheats on wife, but also just had one of the more sinister moments we’ve seen on TV?