All The Mayor’s Women

Tony Castro blogs:

Five months ago, Jan. 16 to be exact, I was at one of Antonio’s news conferences in North Hollywood, standing a couple of feet to his left when I noticed that he wasn’t wearing his gold wedding band. Antonio and I had compared our relatively similar wedding rings during a Starbucks meeting in 2003, so I knew he wore one — even though some paper I mentioned his to weren’t so sure.
I then did an extensive search through photos in Getty Images and WireImage as well as the Daily News’ own photo files. What I learned was that sometime around Labor Day of last year Antonio had stopped wearing his wedding band. There were no photographs of him after that time in which he was wearing the ring. I also learned that he and Corina had not been seen in public since las summer’s visit from the former president of Mexico.
Then there was the Hollywood Christmas Parade. In 2005 Antonio had been the grand marshal, appearing with Corina and the kids. Last December Antonio and the kids attended the parade without Corina.
There was also strong evidence that Corina had never moved into Getty House with Antonio and the kids and that she had continued to quietly reside at their Mount Washington home where she was often spotted.
What happened next was baffling and Keystone Cops-like.
My popularity with Antonio and the Villaraigosa press office at an all-time low after last November’s "The Man/The Myth" deconstruction of the Clinton-like yarn Antonio has developed about his childhood and growing up period, it was thought best if someone else popped the question about "where’s your wedding ring?"
It was a disaster. The Villaraigosa people suspected it was me digging into the mayor’s personal life and relaunched their campaign to discredit me.
A long piece I was preparing on the Villaraigosa marriage hit gridlock.
Enter Luke Ford.
Just coincidentally, Luke had all the same information I had dug up and posted it on his website.
The Villaraigosa office then countered with that absurd denial at Getty House where the mayor couldn’t even cajole Corina to even make an appearance, but getting the Times to suck up and report that it was all untrue, conceding only that Antonio and Corina were going through typical strains in the 20-year-marriage.
Last week, I’m told the powers that be behind the mayor called my powers that be shortly before the separation announcement, kissing up and apologizing for their hit campaign against the paper and me. Yeah. All the mayor’s men and women.