On Monday, media gadfly Gloria Allred announced that she would be holding a press conference in New York with another accuser against Alabama Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore; the accuser is expected to state that Moore sexually assaulted her when she was a minor. Moore was accused last week of molesting a 14-year-old girl in the pages of The Washington Post; he has denied all such charges, while admitting that he may have dated underage women when he was in his early 30s (he says he can’t remember).
Allred’s sketchy history won’t help ease feelings among would-be Moore supporters that this is a political hit job against Moore. Allred has represented high profile clients from Scary Spice to Rachel Uchitel (a Tiger Woods mistress) to Ginger Lee (a former porn star who said that Anthony Weiner asked her to lie). Allred is known for her outrageous penchant for the spotlight, and for jumping in front of cameras to represent people like Sharon Bialek, a sexual harassment accuser against Herman Cain. Here’s Tablet on Allred:
Her hunger for media attention, even when it doesn’t seem to help her clients, appears almost pathological. Beyond that, Allred’s cases, especially those involving jilted lovers of famous men, increasingly represent the depressing terminus of a vision of feminism based solely on victimization, one in which every wronged woman deserves a legal remedy….Perhaps the nadir of Allred’s career came last year, when she represented two of Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriends: nightclub promoter Rachel Uchitel and porn star Joslyn James. Allred demanded, on James’ behalf, that Woods issue a public apology for cheating on her with other women.
Allred’s addition to the case isn’t likely to quell controversy. It’s more likely to add to it.