Charm schmarm, sez I. Evans (left, with probably the most famous of his exes, Ali McGraw) is right on only one point: After awhile, when a playboy has enough money, there’s no need to yak about it. It’s obvious he's got it, for God’s sake!
Unlike what Evans would have you believe, money doesn’t lurk in the background of charm, like some wallflower at a wild party; it bestows charm.
Case in point: celebrity financial advisor Ken Starr (no, not Bill Clinton‘s nemesis). Take a look at his picture on the upper right. A bit like a svelte Wallace Shawn, wouldn‘t you say? Not physically prepossessing. But, as a recent New York Magazine piece noted, one woman smitten with him (or, rather, with the wealth created by his famous clients) was Scores exotic dancer Diane Passage (in the picture with him), who managed to lure Starr away from his third wife.
Then came Starr’s indictment for running a Ponzi scheme, and faster than you can say “Fast-Buck Frieda,” Ms. Passage was leaving him high and dry in jail as she sought a divorce.
You might, in a way, read the article as a not-so-veiled attack on capitalism. Not only did Ms. Passage, while being wined, dined and won, see her new sugar daddy as a fellow hustler, but she sized up his entire environment in a similar light: “The majority of women on Park Avenue are probably up to worse stuff than I ever was,” she said.
Money is, for Starr and his ilk, a kind of steroid, endowing them with capabilities they wouldn’t ordinarily have. No, the real playboy--and most of us have known one or two in our lifetimes--needs no such artificial enhancements. He can do more with a gleam in the eye than a dream-obsessed money manager on a Starr-crossed Passage ever could manage by waving dollar bills in the air in front of fleetingly willing women.
No comments:
Post a Comment