The Hogan family has done everything in their power to deflect blame for their son’s August, 2007 drag-racing accident that left his passenger, a young Marine, in a vegetative state for life. Instead of saying he’s deeply sorry and will live with the results of his careless actions that day for the rest of his life, 17 year-old Nick Hogan blogged excitedly about continuing his amateur racing “career,” and then asked us to “keep [his victim] John Graziano in your prayers.” When the Hogans issued a statement through their lawyer about the accident, they said they were “concerned” about Graziano, but also maintained that their son really wasn’t driving that fast, and made sure we knew that the guy who will no longer walk or talk thanks to him wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, anyway. At the beginning of this month Nick was arrested on several charges for that accident, including third-degree felony reckless driving, and is out on bail awaiting trial.

Now, like countless other reality show couples before them, The Hogans are divorcing, and I hope their asshole son Nick is cowering in a corner, sobbing uncontrollably. Hulk Hogan’s wife, Linda Marie Bollea, filed a petition for divorce from him after 23 years on Tuesday. Hulk Hogan, real name Terry Gene Bollea, was blindsided by the divorce, and was first informed by a newspaper that called for comment. He told the paper that his wife had been away for three weeks and that the news left him “shocked” and “off-guard”:

Reached by phone on Friday night, Terry Bollea said he had no idea his wife had filed for divorce. When informed during the call that the paperwork was submitted on Tuesday, Bollea said politely, “Thank you for the great information,” and hung up.

He called back about five minutes later.

“I’m kind of shocked,” he said. “You caught me off-guard. My wife has been in California for about three weeks. … Holy smokes. Wow, you just knocked the bottom out of me. … I just pulled over to the side of the road for five minutes to find out what was going on here.”

Asked whether he and his wife had discussed divorce, he said, “That’s my private business.”

Phone calls to Linda Bollea’s cell phone went unanswered on Friday night.

The couple first met in Los Angeles at a restaurant in 1983 and carried on a long-distance relationship for two years, according to the show’s Web site. They married in 1984 and Linda Bollea, a California native, moved to Tampa.

They had a daughter, Brooke, in 1988, and then Nick two years later, the Web site says.

“Linda also encourages her son Nick’s love of cars,” the Web site says. “When Nick was thirteen, Linda bought him a car to keep in the garage just to work on, now Nick is quite the car expert.”

[SPTimes.com]

A recently video came out showing Linda Bollea whooping it up while street racing in Florida as part of a documentary called “Vehicular Lunatics.” It was filmed prior to her son’s accident, but considering how they all responded to the charges I doubt much has changed.

The Hogans were shown on the verge of divorcing on their VH1 Reality Show, Hogan Knows Best, but they attended counseling together and reconciled. Like most reality show romances, that quick fix, captured and packaged for maximum drama, may have made for good television but the cameras probably did more harm than good.

The classy Hogan family is shown at the VH1 Big in ’06 Awards on 12/2/06, thanks to PRPhotos.