Did Woods pay to quiet one alleged mistress?

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   >>> but we begin with the latest twist in the scandal surrounding tiger woods . why did a woman linked to him cancel her news conference? nbc 's peter alexander has the latest.

   >> reporter: with salacious reports mounting about his off-the-course activities, tiger woods , whose image until now has been as well-manicured as golf's finest greens, is facing a deepening personal crisis.

   >> did tiger tell you not to say anything?

   >> i don't have any comment for you.

   >> reporter: rachel uchitel , the striking manhattan nightclub hostess who's denied reports she had an affair with woods , abruptly canceled a news conference thursday, her lawyer citing unforeseen circumstances. tmz.com is reporting that uchitel and woods spoke by phone wednesday night, only hours before she was expected to share her story publicly. uchitel first gained attention as one of the grieving faces following the 9/11 terror attacks, where she lost her fiance. the newly released "people" magazine reports the 34-year-old, who's become a fixture on the club scene , catering to celebrities and sports stars, joined woods just last month at a tournament in australia.

   >> a source tells "people" magazine that rachel uchitel was so happy that she declared that she was in love with tiger woods , that they had a total connection, and that they were "really into one another."

   >> reporter: uchitel is just one of the tiger trio, three women caught in the headlines this week, reportedly attached to the billion-dollar star.

   >> i'm not making any comment.

   >> reporter: 24-year-old los angeles cocktail waitress jaimee grubbs has been chased by paparazzi since claiming to " us weekly " that she's been woods ' mistress for the last 2 1/2 years. " us weekly " says grubbs also claims to have received this voice mail from woods , worried about his wife elin finding out about the alleged affair.

   >> hey, it's tiger . i need you to do me a huge favor. can you please take your name off your phone? my wife went through my phone and may be calling you.

   >> reporter: nbc news has not confirmed that it's woods ' voice on that call, and the latest name identified in connection with the superstar, kalika moquin, a 27-year-old nightclub promoter in las vegas who denies any relationship. woods has not admitted to any affairs, but he has apologized for what he calls his transgressions. still, the scandal could cost him millions, not in lost endorsements, but potentially from his wife. "the daily beast " reports woods has offered his wife, the mother of his two children, $5 million immediately to stay with him, that he's renegotiating the couple's prenup and reportedly promised to give his wife $55 million more to stay with him for another two years.

   >> if you're a huge celebrity with a lot of money, you can't make the crisis go away, but you can certainly use the money to help shut it down and help ease the pain and help keep other people quiet.

   >> reporter: nbc news has also obtained the audio of a police interview with woods ' neighbors following last friday's bizarre crash. woods ' neighbors told investigators they found him lying shoeless, and apparently, asleep.

   >> was he conscious? unconscious?

   >> at that point, he was, uh, he was snoring.

   >> he was snoring?

   >> he was actually snoring.

   >> reporter: heading into the weekend, woods remains under scrutiny but still in seclusion, even missing his personal charity golf tournament as he deals with more pressing personal issues at home that reportedly include intense marriage counseling . for "today," peter alexander , nbc news.

   >> gerald posner has been covering this story exclusively as the chief investigative reporter for thedailybeast.com. jeanine pirro is a former judge and prosecutor and host of "the judge jeanine pirro show." good morning to you both.

   >> good morning.

   >> thanks. good morning.

   >> joe, if i can start with you. yesterday, rachel uchitel suddenly cancer yells this news conference she was going to hold because of "unforeseen circumstances." what do you know about the possibility that those circumstances involved a phone call between her and either tiger woods or his representatives?

   >> well, look, there's no question, meredith, that tiger has his checkbook open right now, and i can't prove that money was paid to rachel and a transfer was made. let's not be silly here. but tiger is offering his wife money to stay as an inducement, to try to make the marriage better. but he is probably one of the few athletes that has the money to settle each of the girls, even if he's had multiple affairs, and buy their silence. so, this is something where you're trying to keep a $100 million a year brand together in terms of scholarships. it's certainly worthwhile for him to do so, so i wouldn't be surprised at all. gloria allred , her attorney, is not shy in front of a microphone. so she canceled the news conference, i guarantee you there was a good reason to do so.

   >> you talk about woods renegotiating the prenup and her being offered millions to stay in the marriage. it sounds like a sports deal, leak a signing up bonus.

   >> yeah, it's remarkable, because it does sound like a business deal . you know, that sounds tawdry, almost, but i call it the $5 million signing bonus . that's the offer that was on the table as of wednesday night. nothing had been signed. so if anything, it's going to move north of there. but clearly, one of the things they're doing -- they've been now for four days in counseling. but in addition to that, you know, elin may stay because of the children. she may stay because she actually loves tiger and is shocked by the fact he had affairs. there's any number of reasons why women stand by their men in the end, but the tiger camp believes that one of the things she needs is a financial inducement, as they call it, and therefore, they are dangling in front of her millions of extra dollars. very interesting that tiger approaches it almost like a business deal , saying that, you know, i'm going to protect the brand in part by making sure that you're happy, and part of making you happy is doing that. kobe bryant , remember, back in 2003 , when he had his own problems on sexual charges, bought his wife over a $1 million diamond ring . that was his equivalent of the $5 million gift. so, this isn't unheard of.

   >> jeanine, let's talk about tiger 's wife, elin. what does she have to gain from all this?

   >> well, she's been humiliated, dragged through the mud. now there are three women out there and it's only been a few days. more may come up. what she gets out of this is hopefully a sense that she can, number one, keep her marriage together. but the idea, meredith, and you referenced it earlier, is that why does someone immediately go to the money issue? i mean, you're worried about -- you've been humiliated, you've got children, do you keep the family together? you know, how do you go out in public? are people talking about you? this is a very quiet, discrete woman. to actually go and re-up or renegotiate a prenup is really incredible in this period of time.

   >> so, legally, where does she stand, then?

   >> legally, where she stands is she certainly can divorce him, and then that's going to make his life worse. the endorsements are going to go out the window, i guarantee it. i don't think we've seen the end of this. or she can decide to stay. and in order for her to stay, she may feel that if i get some money, i've got some more dignity, i've got the ability to move on. she may love him. she may want to keep that family together. and i suspect he does as well.

   >> what about these reports, and they may very well be unfounded, that his bruising was a result of her beating him up, essentially? could she face domestic violence charges?

   >> i think the florida highway patrol has already made it clear that they are not going to be filing any more charges here. they kind of let him slip a little with the careless driving versus reckless driving , and i think they're allowing the same at the other end. if you start at the end -- why does a wife come out with a golf club and smash windows out of a car? why doesn't she call police? why is there no blood on the steering wheel? why is it that, clearly, text messaging will establish and corroborate forensically that there was a fight. there is no question she could be faced with a domestic violence charge. and if it were she who were chased with a golf club , everybody would be yelling, let's charge him. but there is a double standard in this country. there is no question about it. and i think some people would say, just as you have a crime of passion , that the woman who thought she had the perfect life is now confronted with three women who are out there saying i had sex with tiger .

   >> joe, you were just about to say?

   >> yeah, i think jeanine is absolutely right, there is a double standard . remember, tiger isn't the first one to have this. in 2007 , john daly , one of the top golfers on the circuit, showed up at a tournament with cuts on his face. it turned out, he told reporters at the time that his wife had come at him with a kitchen knife , in part over his own ka rousing. she had tried to install cameras on his bus to stop groupies from getting on. and as you know --

   >> you have a piece coming out today that speaks to that. you say that tiger woods had a reputation as a womanizer, but that's par for the course --

   >> so to speak.

   >> -- when it comes to people in the golf world .

   >> i was surprised with that. what we were surprised, the lay public with this news on tiger , because he had such a perfect image, but in the golf world , they weren't surprised. and when you do an investigation as i have and you talk to cabbies, ex-pga workers, ex-players, you find out it turns out to be like any other sport. they have groupies, they have carousing sex, they have wild stories, people talking about taking amphetamines the following day because they partied all night. so, groupies follow them the same as mick jagger and the same way they follow nba players. there may not be as many, but golf has a steamy sex side, and why should we be surprised? it's a professional sport with players worth millions of dollars. you need $500,000 a year just to make the cut. and so, it's not that unusual.

   >> all right, gerald posner , jeanine

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