Media gets punked by Elin's twin sister in ski vacation photos

Some enterprising tipster apparently made quite a few dollars telling the British tabloids that Elin Nordegren was spending a ski vacation in Chamonix, France this past weekend. Soon photos were snapped and reports reverberated in People Magazine, at Radar.com, and several other sites, with Elin schussing about on the slopes and hanging out next to some guy who looks like her brother-in-law.
Yeah, that was in fact her brother-in-law, because the woman in the photos wasn’t Elin, it was her twin sister, Josefin Lönnborg. Just like the People Magazine report last week that Tiger was on his yacht heading toward the Bahamas, a lot of people whiffed badly on this one as well.

For one thing, the woman in the ski photos is wearing a wedding ring. Elin ditched hers two weeks ago. Josefin married Daniel Lönnborg in June. As TMZ points out, the ring in the photos looks nothing like Elin’s wedding ring.
SportsbyBrooks reports that Elin wasn’t even on the trip. Come on, people; this scenario has been a staple of TV situation comedy for more than 40 years. The identical twin mixup! If only Tiger had a twin, we’d really have some comedy gold.
Meanwhile, Howard Stern — who has been curiously subdued on the Tiger Woods situation — has come out of the woodwork to announce a Tiger Woods mistress beauty pageant. Although like the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, I don’t really see it happening.

Stern announced today that he will hold a $100,000 Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant on his radio show. Could this turn out to be one of the biggest stories of 2010 or a failed attempt to ride out into the sunset after 30+plus years of broadcasting?

Stern casually mentioned the idea for this contest shortly before he left for his annual holiday break. It looks like the prize amount dropped dramatically from his original plans of a seven-figure prize. Longtime Stern advertiser Ashley Madison will be sponsoring the contest. Stern did not reveal a date for the contest or a minimum requirement of entrants.

The Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant may get some initial buzz, but it is really hard to fathom the idea that Sirius will get any new listeners in the current economic climate off of this lame attempt at publicity. Over $12 a month for radio (which is well worth it as a five-year subscriber), is the first thing that will be eliminated from the unemployment budget and the last thing anyone is going to sign up for who is just coming out of debt with a new job.

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Elin slopes off from cheat Tiger [London Sun]
INSIDE STORY: How Elin Nordegren Spent the Holidays [People Magazine]
Opposite Day: Media Still Pretending Josefin Is Elin [SportsbyBrooks]
Howard Stern announces Tiger Woods mistress beauty pageant [Camelclutchblog]
Nordegren (Maybe) rings in new year [TMZ]