Tuesday, the day after a judge denied her injunction request and okayed the posting of nude pics of her 28-year-old self on a porno Website, the normally outspoken Dr. Laura made her first public comments about the shots, addressing her "acute embarrassment" over the photos, dissing the man who snapped them and letting listeners know she has undergone "profound changes" in the years since.
In a statement read on her hugely popular syndicated show and later posted on her Website, Dr. Laura first thanked fans for their support. "Many letters and faxes generously say how grateful you are that some of your own past actions are buried in merciful oblivion and will never come to light. Would that I could say the same!"
She then explained how she followed her own "moral authority" in her twenties and "the inadequacy of that way of life is painfully obvious today."
As any diehard Dr. Laura buff can tell you, she eventually gave up her atheistic ways and became an Orthodox Jew.
"I have undergone profound changes over the course of my life," she said. "My early experiences have taught me how much better is it to live by an objective and absolute standard of right and wrong, preferably a standard set by God. And that is the hard-won wisdom I try to pass along to others as I preach, teach and nag."
After her confession, though, Dr. Laura blasted the man who released the pictures, former California radio shrink Bill Ballance. "I am mystified as to why, 23 years later, this 80-year-old man would do such a morally reprehensible thing," said Schessinger, who's now 51 and remarried.
She also attacked Ballance's credibility: He says he took the pictures while he and Dr. Laura were having an illicit affair, but she claimed she was legally separated and had filed for divorce from her first hubbie. She added their relationship "has never been a secret."
And, although the world can now admire her old cheesecake-posturing ways on the Club Love (www.clublove.com) porn site, Dr. Laura's apparently not giving up her holier-than-thou pronouncements anytime soon.
"Despite acute embarrassment, but with gratitude for my strong religious beliefs and the support of family, friends and so many of you, I'm still here. And you'll find me here today, tomorrow and the next day for as long as you want to keep tuning in."