Radio's maven of morality had a fling on the side while married ... and left behind the evidence which is now on the internet. Should "Dr. Laura" be blaming atheism for her personal indiscretions and peccadillos?

"There is no time like the old time,
when you and I were young."

-- I.W. Holmes, "No Time Like the Old Time"

"There is always something rather
absurd about the past."

-- Max Beerbohm, "1880"

irtue maven and radio celebrity Dr. Laura Schlessinger is, well, angry. After establishing herself as the nation's #2 advice-meister, and second in air ratings only to Rush Limbaugh, the 51-year old author and commentator has been stung by nude photos of her posted to the internet by a former lover. Known as "Dr. Laura," Schlessinger was outraged when the nudie pics appeared late last month on the "clublove" web site owned by Internet Entertainment Group. IEG obtained the "dirty dozen" pics -- twelve in all -- from Bill Ballance, a former boyfriend who took the photos and reportedly had an affair with Schlessinger. She was married to her first husband at the time the pics were made.

    That behavior seems at odds with the squeeky-clean and morally righteous stance which Schlessinger had constructed, something which energizes her 15-million daily listeners. Schlessinger "sternly dishes out moral advice," notes a recent Associated Press dispatch. Her list of do's and don'ts which appear in her numerous books and talks include avoiding premarital sex, having children out of wedlock, putting kids in daycare, or trying to raise a child in a single parent environment. She boasts her credentials as a conservative Jew, and frequently takes aim at the "short-term thrills and long-term agony" mentality which she insists dominates modern society. Indeed, Schlessinger has become the guru of personal responsibility. In books such as "How Could You Do That?!: The Abdication of Character, Courage and Conscience" and "Ten Stupid Things Women Do To Mess Up Their Lives," Schlessinger excoriates the permissive liberal culture and demands that people assume personal responsibility for their actions.

   Schlessinger's embrace of religious faith has moved her close to the ideological orbit of conservative proselytizers like James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Like Dobson, she is full of advice which touch on themes of family values and traditional sex roles. But she is also more complex, at times difficult to classify. She certainly does not follow in the footsteps of other radio "feel good" shrinks who dispensed quickie diagnoses and folksy, new age advice. If anything, she may be indicative that at least that nauseating brand of cultural narcissism is dying a well-deserved death. "She urges women emphatically to lose a domineering jerk of a lover and pick one of the 'good guys'," announces a publicity broadside from her publisher, Harper Collins. Readers are warned, "If you're looking for an all-approving hand to hold, you won't find it here." Instead, steel yourself for a "clear-eyed look at your self-diminishing behavior."

   Schlessinger's public image as a family values and discipline crusader, though, was tarnished recently when former lover and radio personality Bill Ballance sold nude photos he took of Schlessinger to Internet Entertainment Group. IEG has its own reputation to contend with, of course; it is the company which first put up the "Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee" video which showed intimate scenes between the former Baywatch queen and her hard rocking husband. It was also at the center of controversy this past summer, when the company announced that it would host an internet broadcast of two 18-year olds supposedly losing their virginity. "Our First Time" turned out to be a hoax, instead, and IEG quickly backed off and distanced itself from the project.

   Not so with the "dirty dozen" Schlessinger pics, however. Within hours of IEG putting up the photos on October 22, the radio psychologist obtained a temporary injunction shutting down the site. That lasted until last Monday, November 2 when Federal Judge Dean Pregerson of the U.S. District Court lifted the ban. IEG President Seth Warshavsky said that his company was "delighted" with the ruling, adding, "We never doubted our legal right to put the photos and story on the Web... What makes them so interesting is that Dr. Laura has set herself up as some sort of stern archetype of virtue who mercilessly attacks callers if they reveal an extramarital affair."

    Warshavsky added, "The photos and news story show that she, too, is human and has defects of character."

    The photos were taken by Ballance nearly thirty years ago. Schlessinger was married, and Ballance -- who recently turned 80 -- was playing the role of father figure and coach, having helped Schlessinger along in her career. The aging radio jock said that Laura willingly posed for the photos, some of which show frontal nudity. "We had the kind of love affair that most men would die for," Ballance writes on the IEG web site. "Of course I was much older than her, but that didn't bother her. She was still married to her first husband at the time although she told me she was going to get a divorce." Twisting the knife, Ballance then goes on to add, "I remember the affair as thought it were yesterday. Nobody who ever went to bed with Dr. Laura will ever forget it. She was quite something between the sheets."

    In the September, 1988 issue of "Vanity Fair," Schlessinger admits to things in her past "I regret and have shame for," adding that she is "repentant: I have moved on, I see no reason to embarrass myself." Mr. Ballance's motivation in this is questionable, of course, but what will strike many -- fans and critics alike -- is Schlessinger's ploy of somehow blaming atheism for her alleged indiscretions. If anything, there is not necessarily and inherently wrong with posing for nude photos; the lack of taste in this matter may involve Ballance, and possibly IEG which, though legally in the clear, is still engage in a hurtful escapade. There is little argument, though, with the description IEG President Warshavsky makes: "With these photos she (Schlessinger) could become a poster girl for her own best-selling book... Here's a case of a woman who sets herself as a paradigm of virtue and it turns out she has a few salacious moments in her own life."

    Instead of accepting responsibility, however, Schlessinger blames atheism, having once -- or so she claims -- been an atheist. "In my 20's, I was my own moral authority. The inadequacy of that way of life is painfully obvious today." She has spoken of her transition "from atheist to observant Jew." The Entertainment Wire notes: "Schlessinger, now 51, is married to Lew Bishop, who manages her career, and the couple has a 12-year old son. She converted to Judaism and is allied with the strict Orthodox branch of the faith, and she frequently is seen wearing a Star of David around her neck. At public appearances, she has been known to pass out buttons reading, 'Character Does Matter.'"

    The Schlessinger-Ballance escape gives rise to tantalizing questions. Would "Dr. Laura's" devoted listeners be willing to use the "forgive and forget" standard in judging, say, the present culture archetype of 60s-era hedonism, President Bill Clinton? Is Schlessinger right in using her brutal, tough-love verbal cudgels on callers, when she once committed an indiscretion with an older man? Is attempting to legally suppress the nudie pics "facing up to one's responsibility," or concealing the truth? And blaming atheism? Atheist news groups are buzzing about Dr. Laura's naughtiness; but like this editor, most writers seem willing to forgive even her of involving herself in a relationship which, at that point in her life, she well might have needed and probably enjoyed. The moral crime here may not be so much one of infidelity, but in attacking a legitimate philosophical and moral position -- one of atheism -- which Dr. Laura Schlessinger, despite her cultural persona as virtue guardian and self-esteem guru -- chose to either not fully comprehend, or abandoned.

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