Like everyone else, once this crazy Tiger Woods car-crash story hit the headlines, we had a lot of questions. Primary among them: Who the heck is this Rachel Uchitel chick who — according to many speculators — sparked this whole mess after being linked to the golfer in a National Enquirer story? Well, we’ve done some digging around for you people, and we’ve found some answers. Here’s what we know about her so far.
1. According to our sources, she was indeed bragging about sleeping with Tiger Woods a while back. Uchitel has denied this. “I don’t appreciate my name or what people think of me being dragged through the mud by people who don’t even bother to research what or who they’re talking about,” she told BlackBook. “They should research who these stories are coming from, who they’re believing as a credible source.” She says the Enquirer did contact her, but did not use any of her quotes. But we’ve asked around, and the people we’ve talked to say she was definitely claiming to have slept with him. “Rachel had told many friends of hers that she was sleeping with Tiger,” said one nightlife source who is friendly with her. “She would subtly drop hints and sometimes talk about it openly.”
2. She is a VIP relations director at Griffin nightclub. What the hell is that, you ask? Well, it’s a person who brings in celebs or important clubgoers, who entertains them in the club (not, as you might guess, as a hooker) and controls who gets into VIP areas, etc. She’s performed this role for Pink Elephant in Southampton this summer, for Marquee nightclub, and for places like Stanton Social and Dune. She got her start out in TAO Las Vegas, and her rapid rise may have had something to do with TAO and Marquee owner Jason Strauss, whom she has dated more than once.
3. She is not just a pretty face. She worked in a television production role at Bloomberg News for five years after college, according to BlackBook.
4. She has creatively named dogs. Her affenpinscher is named Ozzy Osbourne and her Brussels griffon is named Rudy Giuliani.
5. She means business. She has already flown to Los Angeles and been spotted with celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who has represented such high-profile women as Amber Frey in the Scott Peterson case, and one of the women who sued Sacha Baron Cohen after Borat came out.
6. She’s dated other celebrities. “Although I’ve been romantically linked to a famous baseball player, a Broadway star, a musician, and various film and television actors,” she told BlackBook, “I will never kiss and tell!” Or not. Most recently, she’s been publicly linked with married Bones star David Boreanaz.
7. She actually has a sad backstory. She lost her fiancé in the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. An old friend recognized her when her tearful face appeared on the cover of the New York Post. According to the Times, Steven Ehrenkranz — who’d met her when she was dating his friend Strauss the first time — got in touch and eventually the two fell in love and got married in late 2004.
8. She really loves that Jason Strauss. Uchitel and Ehrenkranz have since divorced, and she’s pictured on Patrick McMullan making out with Strauss again as early as 2006.
9. She has a Paris Hilton eye situation. You can’t see it in this picture, but you can detect it in other images of her from Patrick McMullan. It may just be a trick of the camera, but it may also explain why she was wearing sunglasses at night in these strange paparazzi pictures. As to why the paparazzi would know where or why to find her in the first place, we have no explanation.
Related: Industry Insiders: Rachel Uchitel, VIP Diva [BlackBook]
Earlier: Okay, So How Much Time Did You Spend Talking About Tiger Woods This Holiday Weekend?
