Attorney Gloria Allred, left, and her client, Veronica Siwik-Daniels,an alleged mistress of Tiger Woods, complain at a press conference about a set of golf balls "Tail of the Tiger" being marketed by a Canadian company. (Photo by Gary McCarthy)
Story Published:
Feb 4, 2010 at 4:02 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Feb 4, 2010 at 5:33 PM PDT
A former porn star and alleged mistress of Tiger Woods lashed out at a Canadian company Wednesday for marketing a set of golf balls bearing images of the golfing great’s various purported girlfriends, saying they promote violence against women.
“I have come forward … because I feel that it is wrong for a golf ball to have my picture on it, because golfers hit their golf bars with a lot of force,” Veronica Siwik-Daniels, also known as former porn actress Joslyn James, said at a Los Angeles news conference.
“As a victim of violence myself, it bothered me to think that someone would be standing with a dangerous club hitting a ball with my photo on it,” she said.
Siwik-Daniels’ attorney, Gloria Allred, said she sent a letter to Creative Classics, the Canadian company that sells the “Tail of the Tiger” golf ball set, demanding that the firm halt production.
“We have pointed out that encouraging golfers to use clubs to hit a woman’s face that is portrayed on a golf ball is a dangerous and reprehensible act because it encourages violence against women,” Allred said, adding that her client has not authorized anyone to use her name or face on any product mentioning Woods.
Creative Classics owner Mike Caldwell, who created the golf ball set, said the claims by Allred and Siwik-Daniels were frivolous.
“I think probably it’s Gloria at her finest trying to get her face in front of a camera,” Caldwell told City News Service.
He said the allegations that the product promotes violence against women have “no basis at all.”
As for the reference to golfers hitting the balls “with a lot of force,” he countered, “I recommend people put them on the green and hit them gently.”
Caldwell said the product has been on the market for less than a week and they are “selling very well.”
“The Web site is getting orders from all over the world,” he said.
The set of 12 balls is available “for play” for $44.95, or a collectors edition “for display” for $49.95.
According to Allred, Siwik-Daniels had a long-term relationship with the married Woods. Allred said Woods sent her client a text message last October that said, “Baby, I’m not going anywhere or doing anything. You please me like no other has or ever will. I am not losing that.”
Siwik-Daniels said she was in love with Woods, “and because of what he said to me and the fact that we were together for so long I believed that he loved me too.”
“I don’t think that Tiger would want my picture on a golf ball and I know that I don’t,” she said.