John Edwards' mistress turned baby mama Rielle Hunter's interview with Oprah Winfrey airs today, and some clips are already online. Rielle sports an elegant makeunder a la Monica Lewinsky on 20/20, and talks homewrecking and keeping Elizabeth in the dark.

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A few thoughts on Good Morning America's clip:

  • 1. Rielle looks good. Reminds me of Monica Lewinsky's post-scandal makeover—choppy layers smoothed out, pretty but subtle lipstick, bright eyes.
  • 2. The voice—is that a Valley Girl drawl? A New Ager's unwillingness to close her consonants? She's like Eliza Doolittle with the marbles, but instead of sounding proper, Rielle sounds like a lady selling dreamcatchers at a kiosk at the mall.
  • 3. A clip on Oprah's website shows Lady Winfrey grilling Rielle: "Do you regret being a mistress?" "Has he ever told you he loves you?" With dramatic To Catch a Predator-style music pounding in the background, Rielle furrows her brow and pouts a pair of slick candy-pink lips. "I couldn't understand the photos," she utters as her pants-less GQ photo shoot slides by the screen. Thank god—GMA made it sound like the whole interview was going to be who, what, when, where without any of the gleefully tawdry how's we actually want to know.
  • 4. George Stephanopoulos asks the major question lurking in the background: Why is Rielle speaking out now? My guess is pride, and enough time has passed that John doesn't care anymore. I wonder if his divorce negotiations with Elizabeth have settled down, yet.

The Associated Press reports that, in the interview, Rielle also denies being a homewrecker: "It is not my experience that a third party wrecks a home. I believe the problems exist before a third party comes into the picture…. I do not believe I wrecked his home."

…and lambasts the Edwards: "A lot of people bought into the myth of the marriage, the Edwards' marriage, as being a storybook story and it was so perfect and so wonderful and I destroyed it. It fits into the two-dimension story line." And talks about her wish that "the world can see me as a beautiful woman as opposed to all those photos that are out there of me looking like some Wicked Witch of the West."