New York:
A nightclub hostess, said by US tabloids to have been having a fling with golf star Tiger Woods ahead of his mysterious car crash, said on Tuesday that the story was no truer than "aliens on Earth."
"It's the most ridiculous story. It's like they are asking me to comment if there are aliens on Earth," Rachel Uchitel told the New York Post daily.
The Enquirer and Star gossip tabloids have reported that Woods was having an affair with Uchitel and that the dalliance prompted a violent dispute between the megastar and his wife, leading to Friday's car accident.
Uchitel, a statuesque brunette pictured in figure hugging trousers, shirt and waist-length leather jacket, told the Post she had met Woods only twice while working as a VIP nightclub hostess.
"Tiger and I are not friends," she said.
She also said that the fact she was in Australia at the same time as Woods this month was a coincidence.
"Like I could just walk up to the 35th floor and go to the Presidential Suite if Tiger Woods was staying there? Like they would hand a girl a key at the front desk and let her go to Tiger's room. I didn't see him at all in Australia. I was just there with friends."
Uchitel said the source of the tabloid stories was someone she knew slightly and was not close to. She described the woman as a drug user and high-priced prostitute.
"This girl was never around me for any of the time she was saying she was. If I was having some big, lurid affair, I would not tell this girl. It's just ridiculous."
Uchitel called herself a homebody who spends most evenings with her dogs and a gay friend. She was hoping to end up with "a nice, normal guy" and worried that her reputation was jeopardized.
"I look like a home wrecker and an a-hole."
"My statement," she said, "is I work in clubs and I am a businesswoman. I do not have sex with celebrities and I have not had an affair with Tiger Woods."
Woods, 33, has refused to speak to police about the accident after which he was found unconscious and suffering light injuries.
His only comments about his wife have been to praise her for acting "courageously" in coming to his aid after he hit a tree near their Florida home.
He also denounced "unfounded and malicious rumors" that he'd been fleeing an assault by his wife, a Swedish model.