Celebrity Mound

After Rachel Uchitel ran into trouble, she did what plenty of scandal-scarred women have done before her: She ran right to Gloria Allred.

Allred, the self-described “most famous woman attorney in the nation,” has represented women in some of Tinsletown’s biggest cases.

Now she’s taken in Uchitel, a Manhattan club hostess who the National Enquirer claims had an affair with golf legend Tiger Woods.

Dressed to the nines in one of her signature designer suits, the 68-year-old lawyer greeted Uchitel at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday with a hug.

But that soft touch was misleading. Known for her no-holds-barred press conferences, Allred is a tiger in the court of public opinion.

“I don’t think there’s been a high-profile case she didn’t like,” said Loyola Law School Prof. Stan Goldman, who has known Allred for decades.

“She’s the rainmaker. Her name and reputation bring in the clients. She’s a publicity machine, and you can’t underestimate the skills of her team,” Goldman said.

Allred got her start taking on the Beverly Hills Friars Club for discrimination, and she’s a master at making sometimes unsympathetic women look like victims of a sexist society or manipulative men.

Allred represented Amber Frey, who had an affair with married murderer Scott Peterson, Bill Clinton harassment victim Paula Jones and the family of Nicole Brown Simpson during the O.J. trial.

She took on Eddie Murphy when former Spice Girl Mel B. retained her in their paternity case and was hired by Heather Mills after the ex-model took a beating in the press in her divorce from Paul McCartney.

Not all Allred’s cases are made for the tabloids. She’s on the team working to repeal California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the Golden State.

Her brassy style have made her the butt of jokes on shows like “Family Guy” and “South Park,” where she is depicted as a shrilly and flamboyant meddler.

Allred did not return phone calls yesterday.

But she said in an e-mail to The Associated Press she and her new client “plan to meet and then we’ll decide on the next step, which we do not plan to announce to the press.”

(source)