OTTAWA -- Conservative leadership candidate Belinda Stronach's "close friendship" with former U.S. president Bill Clinton has been splashed on the front page of a popular American supermarket tabloid. The blaring headline in the Feb. 17 edition of Globe reads: "Hillary screams Divorce over Bill's new Blonde!"
The Globe, which sells hundreds of thousands of copies in North America, said Clinton's wife New York Senator Hillary Clinton is threatening her hubby with divorce unless he ends his relationship with the former CEO of Magna International Inc. because it's hurting her own political ambitions to become president.
The pair have been spotted together on a number of occasions, including in 2002 at the Toronto restaurant Truffles, and the story suggests they were also skiing in Aspen last month.
The racy paper reports Hillary Clinton read her husband the "bimbo riot act" at news her husband and Stronach had plans to meet last month during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"Forget about this blonde," the Globe reports Hillary Clinton telling her husband. "I want you to concentrate all your attention on my political career, not hers!"
Stronach didn't go to Davos.
According to an insider quoted in the story, Mrs. Clinton "seethed with jealousy and annoyance as their friendship generated speculation of an affair in the American and Canadian press."
Stronach's campaign spokesman Mark Entwistle called the article "absolutely ridiculous on all counts, on all its substance and content."
Speaking from Halifax where Stronach and her rivals Stephen Harper and Tony Clement were campaigning yesterday, Entwistle denied Clinton is acting as a political adviser to Stronach and that the pair are romantically involved.
"They know each other from various charity events and that's it," he said.
"She entered into this (leadership campaign) with eyes wide open, she talked to a lot of people ... one of the things she was warned about by various associates and friends ... is that this kind of stuff happens. She knows it's part of the landscape."
FRIEND IN NEED (Clinton to help Belinda Stronach take over Canada's Conservative Party)
Canadian Papers were running items about what was called 'a close and personal business relationship' between Bill Clinton and Canadian Billionaire Belinda Stronach, chief executive of auto parts maker Magna International Inc.
Stronach, who is in the process of divorcing her Norwegian 4 time Olympic skating husband, met two years ago when Clinton spoke at a charity golf and dinner event at Magna's private golf course in Toronto.
Theyve been spotted several times since including a private dinner party in September to honor rock legend Ronnie Hawkins.
Canadian and US Tabloids featured a photo of Clinton and Stronach at the event.
The more recent Canadian attention may have been sparked by the impending divorce and perhaps Clinton being in the Stronach family box at the Preakness..