Monday, March 28, 2011

Tony Hawk's Latest Half-Pipe





Did you hear that skateboarding mogul Tony Hawk left his third wife to take up with the wife of his BFF?

This month it was revealed that Tony has filed for divorce from Lhotse Merriam, and is now spending time with Cathy Goodman.  Lhotse learned of the affair late last year when she stumbled on a plane ticket for Cathy to join Tony for a special trip.  Who is Cathy Goodman?  The wife of Tony’s business partner of 15 years, Matt Goodman.  Matt and Cathy have been married for 20 years.  Tony and Matt have been friends since childhood.  Matt was in the wedding party of each of Tony’s three weddings.

A few days after the news of Tony’s divorce surfaced, Matt assured Radar Online that it’s all good.  He and Tony ended their business partnership in 2005; he and Cathy separated last year; he’s dating someone else anyway; he wishes Tony and Cathy (and Lhotse!) all the best.

Tony, it seems, is something of a hound dog.  This line from a news report is priceless:


Hawk married Merriam, his former publicist, in 2006, 
two years after divorcing his second wife, Erin, his former nanny.


It’s tempting to write Tony’s behavior off as a symptom of the same immaturity that leads a 42-year-old man to play with skateboards instead of getting a job.  But a man who can parlay an adolescent obsession into $180 million net worth hardly classifies as a failure to launch.  No, I think the relevant behavior here is that specific drive to pursue the thrill without regard for the risks.  I suppose that is a characteristic of adolescence (see: Pregnancy, Teen).  But that’s also the sort of recklessness you need if you’re going to execute a 2.5-revolution aerial spin and pioneer the sport of vertical skateboarding.

And Matt Goodman?  Well, it sounds like he had already left Cathy for another woman.  So he knows he’s not really in a position to complain.  But he wouldn’t be the first wandering husband to suffer pangs of jealousy when his betrayed wife starts letting someone else rock her ride.

What I can’t explain is how Cathy let herself be wooed by Tony.  Especially since she’s known him -- and witnessed his weddings -- for 20 years.  Is this affair the product of some mid-life crisis, where the good wife and mother deliberately chooses to do something stupid?  Or is she just trying to piss Matt off for doing a 180 and leaving her for another woman?

Image credit

No comments: