If you're feeling a little out-of-touch with Lance Armstrong these days, there's a profile running on the cover of the Sunday's Fashion and Style section that brings us up to date.
Entitled “It's Not About the Bike,” the article examines the two sides of Lance — anticancer champion and Texas playboy.
The 7-time Tour de France champion and cancer survivor was running around New York City recently to promote his new commercial website — livestrong.com, billed as a health, fitness and lifestyle website created in conjunction with Demand Media.
Meanwhile, his livestrong.org website is still a destination for people seeking answers or support about cancer issues.
The Times describes Armstrong as one of the nation's top advocates in the fight against cancer.
But it also talks about his private life, and his well-publicized relations with Sheryl Crow, Tory Burch, Ashley Olsen and now Kate Hudson. The article quotes one expert who says all the focus on who he's dating detracts from his anti-cancer work. Says a New York University professor of philanthropy:
“He should be concerned about the impact of how he dates on the seriousness of his legacy.”
A Nike exec who works with Armstrong shifts the responsibility to the media:
“It would be nice if the media would pay as much attention to him in the cancer wards of hospitals as it does to him in Cannes, France.”
For his part, Armstrong left the following message on the reporter's answering machine:
“Despite the perception that there might be other discussions about the good stuff that’s going on, it became clear to me that you were going to discuss my private life, which I didn’t want to talk about because it’s mine and it’s not anybody else’s.”
But some consider all this other publicity a good thing. Even if the headlines and TV entertainment shows feature Armstrong's latest girlfriend, it “still gets a little bit more out there about cancer.”
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