Out of Bounds: Should we really feel sorry for Elin?

— Elin Nordegren: Tragic victim, or fortunate gold digger? Get your opinions in now, folks; because I have a feeling this is the last we'll be seeing of the Swedish Miss for quite some time. With her People interview now complete, she's finally on the record and will most likely fade from view in Grace Kelly fashion, if we let her. The paparazzi are a tenacious breed, and avoiding them will not be easy, even in Scandinavia. But Elin has the perfect complexion to blend in with snow. I think we've pretty much seen and heard the last of her.

So, why the People interview in the first place? What was her end game?

Nordegren (she's had the "Woods" part of her name surgically removed) figured that in order to truly be free, to escape the notion that she was a money-grabbing hussy just out for Tiger's dough, that she would have to bet it all and play the ultimate card: the one with V for 'victim' in two corners. The People interview was replete with it. We had Elin the plucky survivor:

"I've been through hell. It's hard to think you have this life, and then all of a sudden --- was it a lie? You're struggling because it wasn't real. But I survived. It was hard, but it didn't kill me."

Elin, barefoot and pregnant:

"I'm so embarrassed that I never suspected --- not a one. I felt stupid as more was revealed --- how could I have not known anything? The word 'betrayal' isn't strong enough. I felt like my whole life had fallen apart. For the past 3 1/2 years, when all this was going on, I was home a lot more with pregnancies, then the children and my school."

Elin the magnanimous:

"Forgiveness takes time. It is the last step of the grieving process."

Elin the meek:

"There was never any violence inside or outside our home. The speculation that I would have used a golf club to hit him is just truly ridiculous. I did everything I could to get him out of the locked car. To think anything else is absolutely wrong."

There's no chance that Tiger is going to address this mess anytime soon, so Elin had the court of public opinion all to herself, and she played it perfectly. To hear her tell it, she's almost a saint.

But the fact remains that there's always going to be a segment of the public who consider Elin a conniving opportunist. She's a nanny who got the world's richest athlete to marry her, and cashed in for $100 million-plus. I can't help but think of the Woody Allen movie Love and Death here:

SONJA: "I guess you could say I'm half saint, half whore."

BORIS: "Here's hoping I get the half that eats."

I'm also thinking of Ray Romano, as strange as that sounds. It was at a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe a couple of years ago, when Romano was seen ogling a gorgeous lady near the first tee. A man in the gallery yelled out, "What's your wife going to say?" And Romano replied, "Tell her to go cry on a bag of my money."

No matter how deftly Elin plays the victim's role from now on, there are always people who are going to tell her to go cry on a bag of Tiger's money. That's probably not fair, but that's the way it is.