Actor Charlie Sheen, star of the popular CBS-TV situation comedy "Two And A Half Men", is a vivid example of the approval-seeking male. He announced that he was divorcing his first wife of six months because he had married the wrong person. He really wasn't ready to get hitched anyway, and, in retrospect, he should have taken time to get to know supermodel Donna Peele, whom he had wed after a six-week courtship. Shortly before this marriage, Charlie testified in the trial of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, admitting under oath to ordering Fleiss's prostitutes at least twenty-seven times at a cost of more than $50,000.
Like most mirage men, Charlie Sheen eventually found the Mr. Sensitive persona he had adopted to win a supermodel to be overwhelming. "I couldn't breathe," Charlie recounted of their time together. "I like breathing too much. I had to come up for air."
Given Charlie's media-doumented wild history, one can imagine the horror his new wife experienced when Charlie decided to "come up for air" and be his true self. If only Charlie had given Donna the chance to choose or reject the real Charlie Sheen before their whirlwind courtship and wedding. But that is what mirage men do in the second stage of the Tiger Woods Syndrome: they deceive their girlfriends for the "good" of the relationship.
