The Meltdown has started as Sponsors begin to pull out on Tiger Woods....

Holly Sampson, 36, former porn actress: the star of 'Emmanuelle in Paradise' has refused to comment on allegations that she slept with Woods at a bachelor party

The smiling face of Tiger Woods has vanished from American television screens during the commercial breaks, amid signs that the sponsors who helped to turn the golfer into a billionaire are heading for the exit.

As the scandal showed no sign of abating, Joslyn James, a hardcore porn actress from Las Vegas, yesterday became the latest addition to the list of women alleged to have had affairs with Woods.

Some sponsors that have so far stood by the golfer now appear to be tempering their public backing of him. Gatorade, the soft drink brand, has stopped its range of Tiger Focus energy drinks, while commercials featuring Woods have disappeared from prime-time television and many cable channels after reports of his extramarital affairs, according to Nielsen, the media monitoring company.

It noted that the last occasion he appeared in a prime-time advertisement was a 30-second spot for Gillette on November 29, two days after the Florida car crash that exposed his problems. The world's highest-earning sportsman was also absent from last weekend's NBC World Challenge golf tournament, which typically features at least one Woods appearance at every commercial break.

"I would bet that most of his corporate partners do have morality clauses in their contracts with him," said William Chipps of the IEG Sponsorship Report, which tracks and analyses corporate sponsors.

"Generally it would be along the lines that 'if you participate in behaviour that we as a sponsor deem as inappropriate, we have a right to cancel' . . . There will be a lot of talk going on behind closed doors right now.

"This is a ride they just don't want to be on right now, it wouldn't surprise me if they are dropping ads. As much as these companies originally partnered with him to bask in the positive glow of Tiger Woods, they are just as quick to move away when that association becomes negative."

Woods's public ratings have also dropped, affecting the likes of Gillette, Nike, Tag Heuer, Accenture and AT&T, whose marketing campaigns have been modelled on Woods's clean performance both on and off the fairways. Some retailers are reporting a reduction of up to 33 per cent in sales of their Tiger Woods action figures.

According to the Davie Brown Index, which is used to gauge the ability of personalities to influence shoppers, his ranking as the sixth most powerful celebrity endorser has fallen in less than two weeks to 24th.

His "favourable" rating with the public, which was at 84 per cent in June, is now at 60 per cent, according to a Gallup poll for CNN and USA Today, which also found that 80 per cent of people were "talking negatively" about Woods.

The father of two has not been seen in public since his car crash on November 27. The incident was said to have been precipitated by a row with his wife, Elin Nordegren, 29, after she discovered his alleged affair with Rachel Uchitel, a nightclub hostess, and pursued him from their home in Orlando with a golf club.

He issued a statement on December 2 that said: "I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behaviour my family deserves."

Ms Uchitel, 34, has repeatedly denied having an affair with Woods and in an interview with OK magazine she rebuffed reports portraying her as a woman of loose morals.

"I'm not a whore. I'm not a tramp. I'm not an escort. I'm not stupid or a bimbo," she said. "I made mistakes, but I'm not those things. I have very good qualities."

With no end to the kiss-and-tell stories, Woods could prove one of the most challenging customers yet for the Hollywood legal company Lavely & Singer, which is reported to have been hired by the golfer to defend his reputation.

The company's lawyers have been called "the attack dogs" of celebrity law, who boast of their ability to bite back at any scandal that may befall their A-list clients. American newspapers have reported that the powerful Los Angeles company is involved in a damage limitation exercise aimed at sparing Woods from any further revelations.

Jay Lavely, 65, and his partners have also defended Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Travolta, Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lopez.

But in some quarters the damage has been done. The scandal has hurt Woods's standing in the black community, where the world's most prominent and successful African-American sportsman has long been a cause of discomfort because of his reluctance to identify himself as black. He chooses to use the term "Cablinasian" — a blend of Caucasian, black, Indian and Asian.

The white women who allege that they have had affairs with the golfer have also been questioned. Denene Millner, author of several books on black relationships, said that his preference was not unusual among successful black sports stars.

"Why is it when they get to this level . . . they tend to go directly for the nearest blonde?"

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