Once upon a time, there was a married couple. They were going through a rough patch in their relationship. He fooled around. And she fooled around. But they worked it out and went on to live happily ever after.

The above tale would be pretty unremarkable except that it was shared at a press conference held the day after that husband was sworn in as governor of New York. And that the vacancy he was filling came about because the previous occupant had fooled around on his wife—and ended up paying dearly for the pleasure. 

I get what Governor Paterson was doing—and actually don’t disagree with his strategy of airing out one’s own dirty laundry before someone else has a chance to. It’s just…do we need or want to know the specifics of every public figure’s sex life? Personally, I really don’t care what anyone’s doing behind closed doors, whether their last name is Spitzer or Paterson or Spears. It’s all, Too Much Information. Pretty please, can we stop the public confessions now?