Scandal-Linked Ladies Who Brought Down Powerful Men

Femme Fatales

Jessica Hahn makes Tammy Faye Bakker cry.
Televangelist Jim Bakker used his PTL ministry to pay former church secretary Jessica Hahn close to $300,000 in an attempt to cover up a sexual encounter they once had. That, and other financial improprieties, led to the collapse of Bakker's religious empire, and his eventual imprisonment for fraud. Despite Hahn's model good looks and a willingness to pose nude, what people probably remember most about the scandal is the colorful way the mascara ran down Bakker's wife Tammy Faye's tearful face as she stood by her man.

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Christine Keeler brings down the British government.
In 1961, Britain's Secretary of War John Profumo had a brief affair with Christine Keeler, a photogenic showgirl. What Profumo didn't realize was that Keeler was also sleeping with Russian spy Yevgeny Ivanov at the time. When questioned about his relationship with Keeler, Profumo initially denied any improper contact. Once this lie was exposed, Profumo was forced to resign his position, and the fallout contributed to the collapse of Prime Minister Harold Macmillian's government.

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Desire for public sex with Jeri Ryan does in candidate for Senate.
Before getting the Republican nomination for Illinois senate in 2004, businessman Jack Ryan had been married to TV actress Jeri Ryan. While their union ended back in a 1999 divorce, it became a campaign issue when unsealed documents from their child custody hearings revealed that Jeri had alleged Jack insisted she have public intercourse with him at a sex club. Ryan dropped out of the race, clearing the way for Barack Obama to waltz to his first major political victory.

UPN

Rielle Hunter's fertile womb dooms John Edwards.
Although John Edwards eventually admitted to a brief affair with then-pregnant Rielle Hunter, who he had paid over 100,000 dollars to ostensibly produce videos for his presidential campaign, he continues to deny the rumor that her newborn child is his -- despite being photographed sneaking into her hotel room to hold the baby. Sex scandal or not, Edwards never had much of chance of winning the Democratic nomination, but his tomcatting still brought humiliation to his cancer-stricken wife Elizabeth, and likely cost him a spot in Barack Obama's cabinet.

Billy Farrell, PNC

Marguerite Steinheil sucks the life out of France's President.
In 1899, French President Felix Faure died while receiving oral sex from his mistress, society woman Marguerite Steinheil. Steinheil made headlines again nine years later when she was charged with using more traditional means to kill her husband and mother-in-law. After a high profile trial, Steinheil was acquitted.

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Tai Collins massages Chuck Robb out the national political picture.
With his central casting looks and well-articulated centrist views, Chuck Robb seemed destined for something even greater than his position as Virginia's junior senator. That was until 1991, when former Miss Virginia Tai Collins attached a pretty face to the persistent rumors of Robb's martial infidelities. While Collins alleged the two had carried on an affair for 18 months, Robb would only cop to a goofily damning "naked massage."

AP

Virginia Hill proves too much for mob enforcer.
Gangster Bugsy Siegel's relationship with mafia mistress Virginia Hill was a tumultuous one, which included both of them skimming money from the Las Vegas hotel Siegel was building using mafia funds. This theft resulted in Siegel being gunned down by sharpshooters as he sat in the living room of Hill's Los Angeles home. Hill vehemently denied rumors she tipped off the mob to Siegel's whereabouts. Later, she gained even more notoriety by bragging of her sexual prowess during a Senate hearing on mob activity.

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Rendezvous with Ashley Dupre makes Eliot Spitzer nation's First John.
Disgraced ex-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer ordered a "petit, very pretty brunette" named "Kirsten" from the Emperors Club escort agency." But after their tryst at a Washington DC hotel was exposed, the public got to know the call girl who saw Spitzer's black socks as wannabe singer, former soft core porn actress Ashley Dupre.

AP

Christine Beatty's bad touch brings down Detroit's mayor.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his Chief of Staff Christina Beatty both swore under oath that they had never been sexually involved. But the explicit text messages they had sent each other five years earlier on their city issued pagers suggested otherwise. Facing perjury charges, Kilpatrick accepted a plea bargain which forced him to step down and serve 120 days in prison. Remember kids, text messages and emails last forever.

Bill Pugliano, Getty Images

Blaze Starr edges Earl Long towards the nut house.
Late in his third and last term as Louisiana Governor, Earl Long was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital by his wife. Although Long's behavior had always been erratic, many suspect that Blanche Long's real motivation for institutionalizing her husband was a visible affair he was carrying on with Blaze Starr, a New Orleans's stripper. While Long died soon after his funny farm ordeal, his relationship with "The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque" made him interesting enough to be the subject of a biopic starring Paul Newman.

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