The Story of Wife No. 3

Let's see: We the media have done Jeri the trophy wife. Elizabeth the cancer-stricken, Coulter-challenging strategist. Bill the questionable, once-philandering spouse. Andrew the disaffected son. Chelsea the once-and-possibly-future First Daughter.

And now it's Judith Giuliani's turn.

Rudy's former mistress already had a big rollout in the media when the couple sat down with Barbara Walters and the former mayor said she could sit in on Cabinet meetings. Then there was the revelation about the second ex-husband who she had somehow failed to mention. Judith disappeared for awhile.

The problem for her is that she can't freely talk about how they met (in a Manhattan cigar bar, it turns out) and courted because she was, at the time, the Other Woman in one of the ugliest public divorces in modern history. Even by New York tabloid standards, the accusations that were hurled between Hizzoner's camp and Donna Hanover's side were extraordinarily personal.

How interested should we be in Rudy's third wife? After all, Giuliani isn't one of these David Vitter Republicans who preached about family values. So he's had a messy love life -- so what?

That might be fine in a gubernatorial race. But if he wins, the former Judith Nathan would be first lady of the United States. She would automatically become one of the most high-profile women in the world. There is, quite simply, no way to wall her off from the media coverage.

Now comes Vanity Fair, with a Judy Bachrach profile of Mrs. G that is, shall we say, less than flattering. Some highlights:

"Within Giuliani's camp the picture of who Judith is is not much clearer. 'When I see her, she's only interested in my jewelry, where I buy my dresses,' says a friend of the former mayor's. 'Does anyone really know Judith Giuliani? Let's be honest: no one does.' "

Ex-husband Bruce: " 'My wife drinks often,' Bruce had maintained for years. 'She is a manipulator and a pathological liar and exaggerator.' It was all fuel for the tabloids. Everything in Judi's life was.' . . .

"According to a number of Giuliani's good friends, the former mayor insists on Judith's presence at events for his offspring -- and when this demand is thwarted, he doesn't attend. He was not present, they say, at Andrew's graduation from St. Joseph Regional High School in New Jersey. Now 21 and a Duke University junior, the son tells friends he doesn't speak to Rudy, according to one of his classmates -- this at a time when his father is desperate to attract conservative, family-values backing . . .

"She has become used to getting her way. An organizer of a recent fashion shoot received a call from one of Rudy's business associates warning her to address his wife as Judith. According to this source, Judith became so smitten with the dress she was modeling 'that she simply didn't want to take it off. She didn't offer to pay. She made it very clear she wanted it for free. You know how it is when someone stalls.' . . .

"If Giuliani's third wife became less popular as time went on, it was in part due to the feeling that she had a private list of Rudy loyalists she wanted fired . . .