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Tiger Woods apologized for more than 13 minutes Friday for cheating on his wife.

"I convinced myself that normal rules don't apply," golf superstar Tiger Woods said during his public mea culpa on Friday. "I felt that I was entitled." Psychologists suggest that's a sentiment shared by many famous and powerful men who stray.

Following the affairs of Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Mark Sanford and dozens of other prominent men who've been caught up in sex scandals over just the past two years, it's tempting to ask whether there's something about the famous and powerful that makes them more likely to cheat.

The answer is both yes and no.

"If you're famous, even if you look like a beluga whale in a suit, you're going to be far more attractive to people than you were in high school," said Keith Campbell, a University of Georgia psychologist.

Occasions of Sin

Powerful and famous men tend to be presented with more "occasions of sin" than, say, carpenters and teachers. Power may be the "ultimate aphrodisiac," as Henry Kissinger put it back in 1973, and people in entertainment and politics tend to be away from home a lot more often than most people.

But celebrities don't need any special circumstances to cheat. David Letterman's tactics were time-honored: those of the older boss hitting on the staff.

Attention Will Be Paid

Of course, it may only seem like celebrities stray more than average men. It's hard to get good data on adultery, which is all based on self-reporting in social science surveys. Researchers can't be sure that people are telling the truth about infidelity one way or another. The best estimates suggest that at least 15 percent of men will cheat sometime during their first marriage.

When men in the general population stray, and they get caught, only their wives' divorce lawyers will care. They're not going to dominate news coverage for days the way Woods and Sanford did.

Celebrities and politicians are "subject to more scrutiny, and they also have enemies who are eager to put this into public view," said Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College.

'Legends In Their Own Minds'

That's not to say there isn't something about people who succeed in high-profile professions that makes them liable to temptation. Pursuits like politics and sports require enormous self-confidence, as well as the ability to win the affection of strangers.

"People don't arrive at these positions if they're passive or let other people take credit," says Charles Goodstein, a psychiatrist at New York University.

Once they reach peaks of power and fame, their innate confidence often translates into a willingness to take risks. Powerful men become "legends in their own minds," as Goodstein says, imbued with the sense that they can get away with anything they want because of who they are.

"He [felt he] was entitled to seek out and obtain what he craved, instantly." That's something historian Robert Dallek wrote in his biography of John F. Kennedy, but Dallek could have just as easily been describing any man who feels that flings should count among the spoils of success.

"I convinced myself that normal rules don't apply," Woods said during his public mea culpa Friday. "I felt that I was entitled."

It's A Guy Thing?

Though there have been some high-profile examples of women in power getting caught cheating (see the case of Irish politician Iris Robinson, who was exposed last month for having funneled thousands of pounds to her teenaged lover), for the most part, it does generally seem to be powerful men who stray.

That gender bias tracks with trends in the general population: Married women commit adultery less frequently than men — perhaps as few as 5 percent, according to psychologist David Schmitt of Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.

But it also may reflect some differences in what men and women find sexy, suggests Gunnbjorg Lavoll, a psychologist at Northwestern University.

"Attractive women find power extremely attractive," Lavoll says. "Attractive men in general don't talk about powerful women as attractive."

On January 2nd, a previously unreleased Michael Jackson song began circulating around the blogosphere. The song is called "Another Day," and is an alleged duet with Lenny Kravitz.

On June 25th, Kravitz wrote a letter about Jackson published in Spinner, where he mentioned working on a track with Jackson: "I got to work with Michael on a track that has not been released and it was the most amazing experience I've had in the studio. He was funny. Very funny and we laughed the whole time."

We’ve been following the Drew for Sale Twitter name auction, in which Drew Olanoff’s #BlameDrewsCancer campaign found an innovative new way to raise money for the LIVESTRONG foundation.

TV’s Drew Carey has been continually upping his bid to secure the coveted @drew Twitter name, first pledging $25k and shortly thereafter upping it to $100k if he received 100,000 followers at his current @drewfromTV account by November 9. When the campaign began to spread like wildfire and that limit seemed easily achievable, Carey upped the ante yet again, pledging $1 million to LIVESTRONG if he could reach as many Twitter followers by the end of 2009, with the total donation to be “pro-rated” at a dollar per follower by year’s end.

As if that weren’t enough, the latest in the series of upped pledges basically seals a $1 million contribution to the LIVESTRONG foundation for its cancer-fighting work. Carey now promises to donate that amount once the combined total of both his and Livestrong’s Twitter accounts reaches 1 million followers, regardless of the date. In other words, you can follow either @DrewfromTV or @Livestrong and ensure a $1 donation to LIVESTRONG once the total followers reach a million. The faster news spreads and supporters sign on to follow either account, the quicker the $1 million donation goal will be reached.

We’ve seen a lot of social media campaigns for charity and there’s no shortage of ways to do good on Twitter, but the #BlameDrewsCancer and @Drew auction campaigns stand out as particularly creative initiatives that infectiously spread positivity in the face of a widespread and formidable disease. Have you participated in the campaign thus far? Will you be following @DrewfromTV or @Livestrong as a result of the new auction “rules”?

Just as the American economy has destroyed the middle class family, the Big Music Machine has decimated the middle class musician. There are now only two choices for musical artists to survive: go big or go home. We all know what it means to go home. Endless nights in anonymous bars, playing for the same ten people on your mailing list. 

Going big means you need to control all forms of media for as long as possible. It means you're seen on the Target commercial, the World Series, the Grammys, the Nick Jr. show, the Amex magazine ad, the iPhone app, the Walmart end-cap, and the home page of Yahoo! It means you never go away, for fear you may never get to come back.

Going big means the same 20 bands follow us everywhere we go, while the other 20,000 wait for us to discover them in a "you might also like" widget at the bottom of our browser window. And therein lies the great irony of the Internet age: We have more choices than ever, but we still get force-fed only a few by Big Media.

Here are five artists who went big in 2009. I'd like them to go away in 2010 to make room for someone else. Just for a year. You can come back, I promise. Plus, you don't need me. You have the money to buy your way back in.

Kanye West
This one goes without saying. 2009 was the year that Kanye imploded. Between paparazzi punching, VMA acceptance speech crashing, and the crop circles 'do, we witnessed West going into full meltdown mode. The good news? His series of faux pas may have finally done the impossible: deflated his ego. The better news? There is so much hot air in his head, it will probably take most of the year for it to entirely empty. That means a Kayne-free 2010. Happy New Year!

The Jackson Family
Michael dying was the best thing that ever happened to the Jacksons' careers. Were any of you thinking about Tito before June 25? Are any of you thinking about Tito now? Thought so. Still, the long good-bye continues with an A&E series, authorized books, unauthorized books, talk of a tour, and God knows how many unreleased tracks being prepped for release. It took months for the Jacksons to bury Michael. How many months will it take them to let us rest in peace?

U2
U2 recently worried aloud to the Associated Press that their brand of larger-than-life rock may be over. They may be right. Their album "No Line on the Horizon" was met with a tepid audience and radio response. It wasn't for lack of trying: U2 did a five-day residency on Letterman, played for college kids on "Good Morning America," sat on a London rooftop, and broadcast their Rose Bowl concert on YouTube. Still, the Irish quartet's earnestness may never be a match for the latest "American Idol" or "X Factor" winner. U2 goes back on the road in 2010 to make us love them some more (plus, they have to pay off the mortgage on that crazy "claw" stage). But how can we love you if you won't go away?

Susan Boyle
I wrote about our fragile Scottish heroine in a post last week. Susan Boyle has set just about every 2009 sales record imaginable. Her debut album, "I Dreamed a Dream," has sold more than two million copies less than two weeks after its release, and it's #1 in seven countries. Boyle will certainly be pushed out onto every venue imaginable in 2010. Still, I wish she'd go away and return to her neighborhood Scottish church before this whole thing really starts getting strange for everyone — mainly her. I don't think anyone needs to know how far Boyle can be pushed into the limelight before it totally fries her.

Black Eyed Peas
I gotta feeling that 2010 is gonna be a long, long year. The Black Eyed Peas will never go away. Their hostile takeover is certain to continue well into the new decade. will.i.am and his faux-futuristic pranksters will win a bunch of Grammys before continuing on their world tour and sucking the life from every radio and TV on the planet. The Peas' energy never dies, but it might kill the rest of us.

Honorable Mentions:

Taylor Swift

Beyonce

miley cyrus

The Jonas Brothers

Lady GaGa

Adam Lambert

American Idols

Playgirl passes the opportunity to publish Tiger Woods' nude pictures, saying the snaps 'were impossible to 100 percent verify.'

In the wake of Tiger Woods publicly acknowledging infidelity, Playgirl confirmed that it won't publish the golfer's nude photos which reportedly have been shopped around since last week. The announcement was issued to People by Daniel Nardicio, the director of marketing for the online adult magazine.

"Playgirl has decided to turn down the alleged Tiger Woods nude photos, reportedly taken by camera phone by Woods himself," Daniel said. "They were impossible to 100 percent verify, hence the unwillingness to go there."

On another news, Tiger Woods, who is rumored to get a visit from the Florida Department of Children and Families over the weekend, has lost several deals with sponsors. Gillette and At&T were two of the giant companies which distanced themselves from the athlete.

Bosses at Proctor & Gamble, which owns Gillette revealed, "As Tiger takes a break from the public eye, we will support his desire for privacy by limiting his role in our marketing programs." As for At&T, the company stated, "We support Tiger's decision and our thoughts will be with him and his family. We are presently evaluating our ongoing relationship with him."

Most recently, Accenture, a international consulting and outsourcing firm, is also ending their relationship with Woods, reasoning, "After careful consideration and analysis, the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative for its advertising. We wish only the best for Tiger Woods and his family."

Michael Jackson spent the last years of his life buried in debt. But the King of Pop's death is likely to yield a financial bonanza more lucrative than any comeback tour ever could, as fans snap up his music and memorabilia and perhaps one day get the chance to tour his Neverland home.

"Quite frankly, he may be worth more dead than alive," said Jerry Reisman, general counsel for the Hit Factory, a recording studio where Jackson produced his best-selling album "Thriller."

Jackson's death at age 50 leaves a multitude of questions about a financial empire that included his own music, as well a 50 per cent stake in a library that held the rights to songs by the Beatles. But Jackson reportedly had US$400 million in debts, and it isn't known yet how his estate will be divided and who the beneficiaries will be.

This much is clear: Jackson's heirs, music labels and opportunists will probably be mining his legacy for decades to come.

In that way, his death may parallel that of the music industry's original King - Elvis Presley, who died in 1977 at age 42.

Like Jackson, Presley hadn't had a hit album in years. At the end of his life, he was mostly relying on royalties from his past hits and doing shows in Las Vegas. But in death he became a moneymaking phenomenon.

Presley's estate was valued at just $4.9 million at the time of his death. In 2005, a company run by media entrepreneur Robert F.X. Sillerman paid $100 million for 85 per cent of the estate and a 90-year lease on his Memphis mansion, Graceland.

By some estimates, Jackson's estate could be worth more than $1 billion. Besides the master recordings of his own music, Jackson owned half of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a jewel estimated to be worth $2 billion by itself. The 750,000-song catalogue includes music by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Lady Gaga and the Jonas Brothers.

Creditors will get first crack at the estate.

"I think the first question is, 'Is there anything left after you pay off the debts?"' said Robert Rasmussen, the dean of law at the University of Southern California.

Jackson might have shielded some of his estate from creditors and ensured that his children were taken care of by placing a life insurance policy and other assets in an irrevocable trust, said Steve Hartnett, associate director of education for the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

The pop star left behind three children: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11; and Prince Michael II, 7. The elder children were born to ex-wife Deborah Rowe, while the youngest is his biological son, born to a surrogate mother.

Other potential beneficiaries include Jackson's parents, his five brothers, three sisters and a long list of nieces and nephews. His children's nanny was believed to be close to Jackson.

The contents of Jackson's will have not been released. Typically, a will becomes public within about 30 days of a person's death.

In a statement Friday, Joel Katz, Jackson's entertainment affairs attorney, gave no clues to how Jackson disposed of his estate.

"Michael Jackson was a perfectionist, and his business affairs are worldwide," Katz said. "Many of them are quite ongoing and will be dealt with appropriately."

One big question will be what happens to Neverland, where Jackson surrounded himself with animals, rides and children. Jackson nearly lost the ranch to foreclosure in March, but billionaire real estate investor Thomas Barrack bailed him out, setting up a joint venture with Jackson that took ownership of the 1,000-hectare property in Santa Barbara County.

Barrack declined to comment.

Fans, meanwhile, are rushing to buy Jackson's old songs in a scramble that began within minutes of his death. Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble reported selling out of Jackson's CDs, and his music accounted for the most downloads at Apple's iTunes store.

Amazon's sales of Jackson's albums and MP3s were 700 times higher on Thursday after news of Jackson's death, and they were running at an even higher rate Friday, according to Bill Carr, the company's vice-president of music and video.

"It's really hard to express what someone dying really means and how it absolutely brands that individual into the culture," said Del Bryant, CEO of Broadcast Music Inc., which collects royalties for the use of "Beat It," Billy Jean" and other songs composed by Jackson. "If you look at everyone from Patsy Cline to the Big Bopper to Buddy Holly ... the effect on the catalogue is tremendous.""

Bryant said expects revenue from public performances of Jackson's songs to triple this year because of his death.

Sillerman's company, CKX, controls licensing of Presley's image, which has been slapped on dozens of pieces of merchandise, such as T-shirts, watches, belt buckles and figurines. In 2007, Presley's brand earned $52 million - beating out living acts like Justin Timberlake and Madonna, according to Forbes magazine, which has put Elvis atop its list of top-earning dead celebrities for two years running.

Jackson's heirs may similarly explore ways to make money from the singer's likeness and art, perhaps through T-shirts, compilations of previously unreleased music, or stage productions based on his songs.

It's also easy to envision Neverland becoming the next Graceland, said Steve Gordon, an entertainment attorney who worked at Sony Music during the 1990s.

The singer's death could also boost business for the legion of Jackson impersonators. Adrienne Gusoff, who runs the New York-based impersonating agency Bubbygram.com, said she expects the dozen Jackson clones she represents to be about as much in demand as entertainers who impersonate stars like Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe.

"I think his death will make him an even bigger star," Gusoff said.

First, though, her Jackson impersonators will have to get over the loss of their hero. "One of my guys in New Jersey is devastated," she said. "It's like a family member died."'

L.A. rehearsal, May 6: Michael Jackson at CenterStaging in Burbank, Calif., where he worked on his upcoming shows. Those involved with the production say that in rehearsals, Jackson resembled the King of Pop they remembered from the past.

 A hovering orb, a flaming bed, mutant spiders, 20-foot puppets, 3-D effects, pyrotechnics and the return of the crooning, spinning, moonwalking King of Pop. Michael Jackson's farewell concert tour had every crowd-pleasing lure — but no crowds.

Fans had ponied up $85 million for 750,000 tickets to Jackson's 50 shows at London's O2 arena, a marathon swan song, aptly titled This Is It, that was scheduled to begin July 13. Instead, the final curtain fell Wednesday night at a rehearsal in Los Angeles' Staples Center, where Jackson sang and danced for the last time.

Jackson's death Thursday at age 50 derailed an ambitious campaign to restore luster to a career tarnished by scandal, debt and creative false starts.

"He was trying, and succeeding, in structuring the biggest, most spectacular live production ever seen," says Johnny Caswell, co-owner of CenterStaging in Burbank, Calif., where Jackson polished the show from late March to early June before shifting rehearsals to larger venues.

"By the time he left my facility, he had graduated through several studios and was on a soundstage taking up 10,000 square feet," Caswell says. "They moved to The Forum, outgrew that and needed the height at Staples. The show was getting so damn big, they couldn't finish it in time. That's why they had to delay."

Reports that the singer postponed the London start date by five days because of poor health were "nonsense," Caswell says. But after Jackson's death, reports surfaced of longtime prescription drug abuse, including suspicions raised by Jackson's family through the Rev. Jesse Jackson that the singer has been receiving injections of the painkiller Demerol. The physician who was with the singer when he died, Conrad Murray, was interviewed by Los Angeles authorities over the weekend.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's office has withheld a declaration of the official cause of death until toxicology tests are completed. The singer's family had a second autopsy done by a private pathologist, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Wednesday at Staples, Jackson worked with his band, crew, choreographers and a dozen dancers, roughly 80 people total, to fine-tune what was expected to be his comeback after a 12-year absence from the tour circuit. It was a hiatus during which he faced rising debt, a child sexual abuse trial and waning record sales.

Back in the game

Jackson's goal of returning to prominence seemed easily within reach to the few who saw Wednesday's rehearsal.

"He was energetic, passionate, diligent, prepared, excited and an effective leader," Caswell says, adding that Jackson was an inspiration to his crew. "These folks followed him like he's the Pied Piper. He was a perfectionist. This guy was ready to go."

Says Ed Alonzo, the "Misfit of Magic" who created illusions for Britney Spears' Circus tour and joined Jackson's show six weeks ago: "It was an amazing show. The thing was just days away from being perfected. It was incredible. Even though it was just a walk-through with the dancers, his moves were dead-on — the same Michael Jackson we (saw) through the years in music videos."

When Jackson kicked off what turned out to be his final rehearsal, he donned a headset microphone, strolled to an elevated platform and launched into his 1991 hit Dangerous— first a cappella, then with the band.

"He wasn't singing full-out, but he was singing," Alonzo says. "They ran the number a couple of times and started to bring more props onstage that he looked at for the Thriller number. Every song he was doing was not just singing, but surrounded by huge production — gigantic spiders and 20-foot puppets. I feel I was so blessed to see the only performance of this concert."

Jackson appeared underweight but not sick, he says.

When they hugged, "he felt very thin," Alonzo says. "Even the first time I met him, 20 years ago at Neverland (Jackson's ranch in Santa Barbara County, Calif.), he was thin. So it didn't strike me as odd, other than he seemed fragile. But his energy and the way he moved and spoke had a lot of impact. His soul didn't seem fragile at all. This is just a thin guy."

Longtime Grammy Awards producer Ken Ehrlich, summoned to Staples on Wednesday evening to meet with Jackson on their potential collaboration on a television project, likewise found Jackson upbeat and energetic, overseeing every aspect of the production from video footage to prop cues.

After their discussion, Jackson invited Ehrlich to stick around for the rehearsal. "Michael was ready," says Ehrlich, who had worked with Jackson on various projects and booked his performance at the 1988 Grammys.

"The show wasn't all there yet, but it looked extremely creative," Ehrlich says. "You could see how much thought had gone into it. There were impactful moments."

The 10 or 11 songs performed during the rehearsal unfolded in a casual setting, but Jackson occasionally unleashed the full force of his stage persona.

"I've seen him in rehearsal mode several times over the years," Ehrlich says. "Michael is extremely methodical. He's not going to give it all until he knows he's got it all.

"But sometimes, he'd jump into it, and it was really exciting. As he got more comfortable with the props and where the dancers were, he got more animated. This was a guy who did it all, and here he was doing it again."

'He ... was electric'

In earlier rehearsals, Jackson had seemed restrained to some observers.

But after worrying that the frail singer might not have the strength for the London shows, lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe was reassured after seeing Wednesday's preview.

"He came on stage and was electric," he told BBC's Radio 4, describing the show as complicated and challenging. "Suddenly he was performing as one had remembered him in the past."

Crewmembers were astonished by Jackson's talent, charisma and verve.

"There was a sense we had actually seen this comeback that was so important to him," Woodroffe says. He says he wasn't sure Jackson would have lasted through the tour's March 6 finale, "but he would have made it to the start of the race."

Frank DiLeo, Jackson's manager, told The Hollywood Reporter that after finishing the rehearsal sometime after midnight early Thursday, the singer expressed joy about the night's work.

"He found me and said, 'Frank, I am so happy. ... This is really our time.' He put his arm around me," DiLeo told the newspaper.

Alonzo had designed dazzling effects for the show, including a glass sphere that would float around Jackson during the opening song, 1982's Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'.

The globe was designed to light up and grow brighter as it drifted over the crowd before landing in Jackson's palm. Jackson's instructions, according to Alonzo: "I want people to scream for miles."

For a splashy version of Dirty Diana, Jackson wanted a flaming bed with a pole-dancing aerialist "playing the part of the fire," Alonzo says.

The elaborately plotted stunt: Jackson intended to be pursued around the bed by the "fire woman," and each time she touched the stage, flames in the form of fluttering crimson fabric would shoot skyward.

After she caught him, she would lash him to the bed's tall posts with gold rope and a sheet of red fabric would billow before him, illuminating his struggling silhouette.

When the sheet fell, the magic trick would be triggered — the woman would be revealed as the one ensnared, and Jackson would materialize on a stage in the center of the arena.

Grieving fans, huge losses

Details of Jackson's extravaganza have been scarce because all parties involved were required to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Now fans are gleaning clues about what would have been a towering spectacle that's being dismantled as its creator is mourned around the world. (Refund details for those who bought tickets — which cost 50 to 75 pounds, or $69 to $103, when they went on sale, according to Billboard— will be announced this week.)

Wednesday's rehearsal was videotaped, but it's unclear whether Jackson's performance will be made public, such as through the sale of a DVD.

Caswell, crushed that Jackson's camp didn't allow the CenterStaging rehearsals to be filmed, says the show's death means heartbroken fans, huge losses for promoters and a missed opportunity to remind the world of Jackson's talent. He sees a solution in a stage bromide: The show must go on.

"I would do the concert as a tribute to Michael," he says.

"Do every song with a different major artist. Film it and put it in IMAX theaters. Then box it up and sell it for the next 30 years."