Cheaters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bill Cosby

Discussing the legacy of William H Cosby Ph.D. is becoming increasingly complicated. Cosby is a towering comedic talent. Cosby's albums and books sold millions of copies across the globe. He broke color barriers by starring in three US hit television series. The most notable was "The Cosby Show", which during its 1984-1992 run was the top rated US show for five years. Much of Cosby's humor was based on his own life and family and he preached fidelity and patience. Cosby married the former Camille Hanks in 1964 and together they raised five children.

Bill Cosby has also been an outspoken social critic deriding the lack of personal accountability. Cosby has railed against the use of vulgar language by comics and the culture of "low morals" he believes exists within the African-American community. As such, he made himself a target for an aggressive backlash when his personal flaws were discovered. In 1997, he admitted to an extra-marital affair in the 1970s that produced a child. Cosby has also been forced to admit to numerous other extra-marital relationships, some of which include more serious allegations of the use of drugs to secure nonconsensual participation. Overall, these allegations have led to a reevaluation of Cosby's reputation.

Answer: John Profumo

The Profumo Affair reads like an Ian Fleming novel. John Profumo was a World War II hero and had served as the youngest member of the UK Parliament when first elected in 1940. After the War, Profumo continued in politics and by 1960 rose to the position of Secretary of State for War in Conservative PM Harold McMillan's government. Profumo was considered handsome and in 1954 he married the beautiful actress Valerie Hobson. Together the Profumos were a highly public attractive couple with a bright political future. In July 1961, Profumo met a 19-year-old model named Christine Keeler at a party. Profumo and Keller started a sexual relationship.

Profumo ended the relationship when he learned that she was also sleeping with a married Soviet naval official and admitted spy named Yevgeny Ivanov. While unconcerned about the morality of his relationship with Keller, Profumo was concerned that if discovered he would be thought a double agent or a dupe caught in a "honey pot" spy game. Indeed when the Profumo/Keller affair came to light in late 1962, Profumo was forced to resign from government in June 1963. Despite the rapid fall from grace, Valerie Profumo remained by his side until her death in 1998. Profumo redeemed his reputation by dedicating the remainder of his life to charity and service earning a knighthood for his actions from Queen Elizabeth in 1975.

Answer: Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was a towering giant of South African history and for civil rights worldwide. Mandela spent 27 years in South Africa's worst jails essentially as a political prisoner and yet spearheaded the effort to change the racist apartheid government. Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and used his tremendous influence to negotiate a peaceful transition of power from the white-only government to a democratically elected South Africa. In the first open elections held in 1994, Mandela became the President of South Africa as his party the African National Congress (ANC) gained over 62 percent of the national vote. Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

In his personal life, Mandela was not as lucky. Mandela and his second wife, Winnie, married in 1958. The couple had two young daughters and appeared quite happy before Mandela went to prison in 1963. Winnie spent the next 27 years alone, helping to fight for Nelson's freedom and the end to apartheid. When Nelson was released in 1990, unfortunately, the couple's reunion was not so sweet. Winnie had an on-going affair with a younger ANC lawyer named Dali Mpofu. Unwilling to reconcile to his wife's actions, Nelson separated from Winnie in 1992 and the divorce was finalized in 1996. As an example of Nelson Mandela's commitment to leading South Africa to a peaceful future, he appointed his now-estranged wife Deputy Minister of Art in 1994.

Answer: Harry S Truman

All of these Presidents were members of the US Democratic Party. Thus for fairness, I mention that allegations of in-office sexual shenanigans were raised about Republican Presidents including Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. At the same time, men from both parties including Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Harry S Truman survived their terms as President with their reputations for marital fidelity untarnished. Harry Truman first asked Bess Wallace for her hand in marriage in 1911 but was rebuffed at that time. Truman and Wallace reconnected in 1919 when Harry returned from service in World War I. The couple were married in 1919 and remained devoted to each other until Harry's death in 1972.

Harry Truman was an unlikely man to serve as US President. In 1919, Truman opened a clothing store in his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. The store went bankrupt in 1921. Truman served as a country clerk (judge) in Jackson County for ten years and was elected Senator in 1934. Truman was undistinguished as a Senator, but in 1944 was chosen as a noncontroversial running mate for Franklin Roosevelt in his successful bid for a fourth term. When Roosevelt died in 1945 Harry Truman became President. Truman is best remembered as the man who agreed to launch the atomic weapons that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and for guiding the US during the Korean Conflict.

Answer: Elizabeth Taylor

Between them, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton kept florists and tabloids in business with a total of 11 weddings, albeit two of those were to each other. The story of how Taylor and Burton started their tempestuous romance begins with Taylor's third marriage in 1957 to Academy Award winning movie and theater producer Mike Todd. Todd died in a plane crash on March 22, 1958, less than 13 months after marrying Taylor, leaving the actress alone with their six-month-old daughter. Into the breach steps singer Eddie Fisher, who was Todd's best friend. Despite being married to actress Debbie Reynolds, Todd went from consoling his friend's wife to an affair with Taylor, finally divorcing Reynolds and becoming Taylor's fourth husband in 1959.

Taylor met Richard Burton during the filming of 1963's "Cleopatra". He played Mark Anthony to her Cleopatra. The two married actors starting an off-screen affair that was both public and scandalous, earning a papal rebuke and making Eddie Fisher look like a fool. Taylor and Burton divorced their respective spouses and were married in 1964. Despite being a union of well-matched passionate people, the couple divorced in 1974. Less than 16 months later Taylor and Burton remarried. However, they divorced again for good in 1976. Taylor rounded out her marital octuplet by marrying Virginia Senator John Warner and finally construction worker Larry Fortensky. Eddie Fisher meanwhile rebounded from being divorced by Taylor, by marrying the beautiful and talented singer Connie Francis as well as two other women bringing his total to a respectable five marriages.

Answer: Charles

What is with this power of the Keppel women over the Windsor men? There are several remarkable similarities between the eldest sons of Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II. Albert Edward was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of England and her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The future Edward VII was born in 1841 and became the Prince of Wales in December 1841. He married Anne of Denmark in 1863. Edward served as the heir apparent for 59 years during which he had numerous sexual relations and long-term affairs with women other than his wife. Edwards's paramours included the famous actresses Lillie Langtry and Sarah Bernhardt. Perhaps Edward's longest relationship was with the also married society hostess Alice Keppel. Keppel and the now King Edward VII all but lived together for 13 years before Edward's death in 1910.

Charles is the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II. He has served as the Prince of Wales and heir apparent since 1958 (invested as Prince of Wales in 1969) nearly matching his forefather's dubious record in that office. Like Edward, Charles married for political reasons. Charles wedding to Diana Spencer in 1981 was a world wide spectacular. During the marriage, rumors of infidelity followed both Charles and Diana. In Charles case, the alleged mistress was his first lover Camilla Parker Bowles. Camilla was herself married, and remarkably was also the great granddaughter of Alice Keppel. Charles and Diana divorced in 1996. Diana died in 1997, and Charles married Camilla in April 2005.

Answer: Eldrick Woods

Eldrick "Tiger" Woods is arguably the greatest golfer of his generation. By the end of 2009, Woods had won 71 tournaments and 14 of golf's "majors" placing him second on the all-time list behind only Jack Nicklaus. Woods had married the gorgeous Swede Elin Nordgren in 2004, and the couple had two young children. The Woods were seemingly the perfect couple, but that all changed in November 2009 when reports of an affair between Tiger and a night club manager were publicized. The family drama hit the international news when pictures surfaced showing Tiger in his car after hitting a fire hydrant with cuts and lacerations on his face. Tiger claimed the cuts were from the accident. However, credible reports indicate that Woods was in the car fleeing from an attack by his wife with one of Tiger's own golf clubs (a 9-iron for the purists).

In short order, dozens of women came forward and indicated that they had affairs with Tiger during his marriage. The aftermath of the revelations has been massive. Woods lost millions of dollars in corporate endorsements, was pilloried in the press and reportedly had to pay Elin over 100 million dollars as in a divorce settlement. Since the incident in 2009, Woods has won some golf tournaments but has not regained the form that made him dominant.

Answer: Monkey Business

There are many life lessons that can be learned from the almost comedic fall from grace experienced by US Senator and presidential hopeful Gary Hart. My favorite lesson is that you should never challenge the press to prove you are having an affair, while you are actively engaging in the affair. Gary Hart was a handsome and charismatic US Senator from Colorado. In the run up to the 1988 US Presidential election, Hart was the leading candidate for the Democratic Party nomination and considered a strong challenger to George H Bush. Hart had been married to Lee Ludwick since 1960, but rumors of a series of sexual escapades outside the marriage followed Hart. However in April 1987, Hart emphatically told the US press that he was not a "womanizer".

Based on tips from anonymous sources reporters staked out a townhouse in Miami Florida frequented by Hart. They observed a woman entering and leaving the townhouse. Hart continued to deny he was having an affair, stating that reporters were free to follow him around. Within days more details of Hart's on-going affair with a young model named Donna Rice surfaced. Amongst the most damning were details, including photos, of an overnight cruise from Florida to the island of Bimini (Bahamas) by Hart and Rice aboard the aptly named sailing ship the "Monkey Business". Hart was forced to admit his actions and dropped out of the Presidential race in disgrace.

Answer: Jesse James

Sandra Bullock has been one of the world's most popular actresses since the early 1990s. Bullock combines a "girl next door" natural beauty with a self-effacing comedic style that audiences love. Her movies include 1994's "Speed", 1998's "Hope Floats" and 2000's "Miss Congeniality". Thus it was surprising when Bullock married motorcycle builder, reality TV star and confirmed "bad boy" Jesse James in 2005. James had only recently divorced his adult film actress Janine Lindemulder after having divorced his first wife in 2002.

Bullock's life seemed to reach a zenith in March 2010 when she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in 2009's "The Blind Side". Bullock and James were (unbeknownst to the public) in the process of adopting a child. Yet even as she was basking in the glow of her award and planning life as a parent, the tabloids were filled with reports that her husband had been carrying on an affair. By the end of March 2010, James admitted to having a relationship with a tattoo artist named Michelle "Bombshell" McGee. By April 2010, Bullock had filed divorce. Bullock continued the adoption and is the proud mother of Louis Bullock.

Answer: Jimmy Swaggart

There are no shortage of sad tales of religious figures preaching against avarice, adultery or condemning same-sex relationships and then being "outed" for falling short of practising what they preach. Perhaps no fall from grace is more poignant than that of American televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Swaggart was a charismatic preacher with a large congregation in the conservative Protestant Assemblies of God church. In 1975, Swaggart's ministry moved to television and by 1983 over 250 stations broadcast Swaggart's show. Swaggart's ministry raised over 140 million dollars in 1986 alone. Swaggart was a frequent critic of "false" preachers and often called out fellow ministers such as Jim Bakker as frauds and sinners.

In 1986, Swaggart broke the news of the extra-marital affairs of rival minister Marvin Gorman. Gorman was defrocked by the Assemblies of God. In retaliation, Gorman hired men to gather evidence that Swaggart was visiting a prostitute. In 1988, Swaggart admitted the action and begged his audience for forgiveness. Despite appeals for mercy, the Assemblies of God defrocked Swaggart soon after. Swaggert continued his ministry as a non-denominational minister, but in 1991 Swaggert was again found in the company of a prostitute following a traffic stop. Despite his transgressions, Swaggart has remained married to the same woman since 1952.