Thursday, August 13, 2009
Reality Literature
The length people will go to publicly humiliate themselves in exchange for cash and notoriety never ceases to amaze me. People will jump at the chance to appear on TV, especially if prizes are involved, even if they have to reveal that they were screwing their sister and her pet mynah bird.
Tell all books fall into this same category. I bring this up today because of the revelation in today's papers, generously supplied by John Murphy, a spokesman for St. Martin's Press, that Bernard Madoff was having an affair for twenty years. Mr. Murphy was made aware of this affair by Mrs. Sheryl Weinstein, the other half of the equation. Mrs. Weinstein is telling all, via a book about to be published by St. Martin's Press.
Mrs. Weinstein, it seems, was quite a catch for Mr. Madoff. She held the post of Chief Financial Officer for Hadassah, a very large charitable organization of Jewish women. Hadassah was one of the few outfits that profited from its relationship with Mr. Madoff, because they ended their financial relationship with Mr. Madoff when Mrs. Weinstein left her job.
Most men want a woman body and soul. Not Bernie. It seems that Mrs. Weinstein and her husband decided that the financial genius of Mr. Madoff warranted their continued fiduciary support. So, over about a dozen years, while Bernie was allegedly schtupping Mrs. Weinstein physically, he was also schtupping her checkbook. In the fairly recent past, Mr. and Mrs. Weinstein felt so confident in Mr. Madoff's financial prowess, they took out a second mortgage on their house and basically bet the farm on it. And so, the Weinsteins are now very poor. Poor as dirt? No. Poorer.
How will Mrs. Weinstein dig herself out of this financial mess? (fanfare music builds from pianissimo to fortissimo, punctuated by a cymbal crash) A TELL-ALL BOOK IS BORN!!!
She's calling it “Madoff’s Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me.” She should call it "Bernie Madoff Screwed Me" but then, probably nobody would buy it. After all, "Bernie Madoff Screwed Me" is already a best selling bumper sticker in Scarsdale. Still, no matter what she names the book, I can't imagine the book will sell much, and she will have debased herself on talk shows and at book signings in Barnes & Noble and Border's outlets. It may well be that St. Martin's will be unable to get her too many high line bookings and she'll be having her book events at airport and train station news stands.
Ruth Madoff, suspected with complicity in her husband's financial wrongdoings, now must suffer the further indignity of her husband's publicly divulged infidelity on top of his spectacular dive from the heights: going from head of his highly ranked multi-billion dollar company directly into a 150 year sentence at the Butner Federal Correction Complex outside of Raleigh, NC. The Madoff's golden wedding anniversary is approaching. What will THAT party be like?
I, for one, would like to be on the guest list, just to experience such a shindig. I just wonder one thing- what would be an appropriate gift for this event?
Tell all books fall into this same category. I bring this up today because of the revelation in today's papers, generously supplied by John Murphy, a spokesman for St. Martin's Press, that Bernard Madoff was having an affair for twenty years. Mr. Murphy was made aware of this affair by Mrs. Sheryl Weinstein, the other half of the equation. Mrs. Weinstein is telling all, via a book about to be published by St. Martin's Press.
Mrs. Weinstein, it seems, was quite a catch for Mr. Madoff. She held the post of Chief Financial Officer for Hadassah, a very large charitable organization of Jewish women. Hadassah was one of the few outfits that profited from its relationship with Mr. Madoff, because they ended their financial relationship with Mr. Madoff when Mrs. Weinstein left her job.
Most men want a woman body and soul. Not Bernie. It seems that Mrs. Weinstein and her husband decided that the financial genius of Mr. Madoff warranted their continued fiduciary support. So, over about a dozen years, while Bernie was allegedly schtupping Mrs. Weinstein physically, he was also schtupping her checkbook. In the fairly recent past, Mr. and Mrs. Weinstein felt so confident in Mr. Madoff's financial prowess, they took out a second mortgage on their house and basically bet the farm on it. And so, the Weinsteins are now very poor. Poor as dirt? No. Poorer.
How will Mrs. Weinstein dig herself out of this financial mess? (fanfare music builds from pianissimo to fortissimo, punctuated by a cymbal crash) A TELL-ALL BOOK IS BORN!!!
She's calling it “Madoff’s Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me.” She should call it "Bernie Madoff Screwed Me" but then, probably nobody would buy it. After all, "Bernie Madoff Screwed Me" is already a best selling bumper sticker in Scarsdale. Still, no matter what she names the book, I can't imagine the book will sell much, and she will have debased herself on talk shows and at book signings in Barnes & Noble and Border's outlets. It may well be that St. Martin's will be unable to get her too many high line bookings and she'll be having her book events at airport and train station news stands.
Ruth Madoff, suspected with complicity in her husband's financial wrongdoings, now must suffer the further indignity of her husband's publicly divulged infidelity on top of his spectacular dive from the heights: going from head of his highly ranked multi-billion dollar company directly into a 150 year sentence at the Butner Federal Correction Complex outside of Raleigh, NC. The Madoff's golden wedding anniversary is approaching. What will THAT party be like?
I, for one, would like to be on the guest list, just to experience such a shindig. I just wonder one thing- what would be an appropriate gift for this event?
