Being Fergie’s hubby certainly has its perks but if you allegedly cheat on her with an Atlanta stripper, well, you might just end up on the covers of both People and Us magazines.

That’s what happened to Josh Duhamel, best known as a lady’s man on the NBC show “Las Vegas” from 2003 to 2008. I enjoyed that show, a guilty pleasure along the lines of “The Love Boat.” It was never a huge hit but it had its goofy fun moments. And Duhamel played the strutting male eye candy role well.

I have to say it must have been a slow gossip week for both Us and the more respectable People magazines to make this their cover story. (I guess Jon and Kate didn’t do enough squabbling.) Both mags were effectively following up on the National Enquirer breaking story a week earlier.

I picked up both hard copy magazines today at Publix. Most folks I’ve spoken to seem to have only the dimmest awareness of who Duhamel is but most have seen Fergie quite a bit thanks to her solo and Black Eyed Peas hits the past five years.

People chose to blow up Fergie’s photo and only place Duhamel as an insert. Us used the word’s “Fergie Betrayed” as its big headline. (The entire story is only available in print in both cases.)

Duhamel, since the end of “Las Vegas,” has gone into movies including “The Transformers” and a comedy called “Life As We Know It,’ shot here in Atlanta.

Fergie today finally released a statement to Entertainment Tonight, calling the allegations “nonsense.” Duhamel has already denied the allegations as well.

Duhamel and Fergie married earlier this year and have been dating quite awhile. They appeared to be quite happy. Fergie on October 27 was telling People and Us how great things were between the two of them.

Things changed a day later. Nicole Forrester, a 34-year-old mother of two and stripper, gave her story exclusively last week to the National Enquirer, saying she slept with Duhamel at the St. Regis Hotel after he met her at Tattletales strip club in Atlanta.

On Monday, Q100’s Bert Show got the first live interview with her and the station got credit in both magazines. There, Forrester defended herself, saying she passed a lie detector test and has text messages to prove her story is true.

Jeff Dauler, one of the morning personalities at Q100, said after the story broke, he and producer Tracy Kinney worked to track Forrester down. It took a couple of days to find her attorney. “I was shocked” he said yes to a live interview request, Dauler said. Q100 did not pay them a penny and the attorney did not restrict the questioning.

Us magazine actually called me and a bunch of other journalists I know in Atlanta hoping we can help out with the cover story this past weekend. In the end, eight reporters worked on the story for them. (Not me!) People used six reporters, though none in Atlanta.

Anyway, the stripper is now talking to TV, as in “Inside Edition.” Here’s a press release I just got. She’s going to be on tonight on WGCL-TV at 7:30 p.m.

STRIPPER WHO SAYS SHE HAD SEX WITH JOSH DUHAMEL

SPEAKS OUT TO INSIDE EDITION

To be broadcast Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009

New York, NY – Nov. 5, 2009 – For the first time on television, the stripper who says she had sex with actor Josh Duhamel is talking to INSIDE EDITION. 34-year-old Nicole Forrester says she had a wild night of booze and sex with The Transformers star, who is married to the music superstar Fergie.

Forrester: “Men have different tastes, and we know men cheat, don’t they?”

Forrester says the attraction was immediate when Duhamel walked into the Atlanta strip club where she works. He was in Atlanta shooting a new movie.

Forrester: “I was like, ‘You’re absolutely gorgeous.’ He said, “You’re pretty hot yourself.’”

She says that she gave him a lap dance and he asked for her phone number.

Forrester: “He said, ‘I’m in town for a couple months. And I’d like to hang out.’”

A few days later, she says she got a text from him. She says he told her to come to his suite at the St. Regis Hotel.

Forrester: “He offered me a drink…He was definitely intoxicated…We started having sex.”

She also tells INSIDE EDITION that she didn’t know Duhamel was married.

Forrester: “I did not know he was a married man at first.”

Duhamel denies having sex with Forrester, and says her story is “absolutely ridiculous.” Forrester insists that she’s telling the truth, and that she has proof – racy text messages that she exchanged with Duhamel. She says she has copies of the 20-25 text messages Duhamel sent her.