February 14, 2006--Ex Men
I hate to have to bring this story to your attention on Valentines Day. Can we chalk it up to the fact that I'm still six time zones away from my natural habitat? It is a subject about which I know a great deal--remarrying. Except that I finally got it right. Not so, apparently, Revlon's Ronald Perelman.
My thinking about this was provoked by a recent article in the NY Times (see it linked below) about Mr. Perelman’s announcement that he was divorcing his wife, the actress Ellen Barkin, and that she would be receiving $20 million, the amount they wrote into their pre-nuptial agreement. This in itself would hardly be worth noting on Entertainment Tonight much less the Times—Ronald Perelman is a certified billionaire and $20 million to an actress of her stature is about what she’d get for appearing in just four movies.
What struck my attention was the fact that this was Perelman’s fourth divorce. As a sidebar I should mention that those prior pre-nups were for $8, $80, and $30 million respectively. So these four divorces add up to $138 million, if my arithmetic is correct. They are starting to cost him real money.
Ever seeking the meaning of social phenomena of this kind—why ultra rich men (and we are talking men here) engage in serial marriages, Donald Trump comes to mind—the NY Times asked some experts. If you start with the assumption that men such as Trump and Perelman probably do not have trouble getting dates, in spite of The Donald’s hairdo and The Ronald’s everything, why after failing in marriage so many times do they keep at it? Some psychologists interviewed say they are romantics at heart, believing that there is something special about being married. Or, to quote David Patrick Columbia who writes NewYorkSocialDiary.com, “It’s ego. If you’re a big deal, you’ve got to have ways of showing it. You’ve got the house, got the car, so get the wife.” Others such as Janis Spindel, a matchmaker who gets $100,000 to find clients spouses, claims that these fellows are somehow mystics, thinking “three times is the charm.”
I remain skeptical. If it’s romance and magic they are seeking why do they call their lawyers immediately after a wonderful Valentines Day dinner to begin to strategize what kind of pre-nuptial deal to strike? Sounds to me more like business as usual than love.
Or maybe these guys are just jerks.
My thinking about this was provoked by a recent article in the NY Times (see it linked below) about Mr. Perelman’s announcement that he was divorcing his wife, the actress Ellen Barkin, and that she would be receiving $20 million, the amount they wrote into their pre-nuptial agreement. This in itself would hardly be worth noting on Entertainment Tonight much less the Times—Ronald Perelman is a certified billionaire and $20 million to an actress of her stature is about what she’d get for appearing in just four movies.
What struck my attention was the fact that this was Perelman’s fourth divorce. As a sidebar I should mention that those prior pre-nups were for $8, $80, and $30 million respectively. So these four divorces add up to $138 million, if my arithmetic is correct. They are starting to cost him real money.
Ever seeking the meaning of social phenomena of this kind—why ultra rich men (and we are talking men here) engage in serial marriages, Donald Trump comes to mind—the NY Times asked some experts. If you start with the assumption that men such as Trump and Perelman probably do not have trouble getting dates, in spite of The Donald’s hairdo and The Ronald’s everything, why after failing in marriage so many times do they keep at it? Some psychologists interviewed say they are romantics at heart, believing that there is something special about being married. Or, to quote David Patrick Columbia who writes NewYorkSocialDiary.com, “It’s ego. If you’re a big deal, you’ve got to have ways of showing it. You’ve got the house, got the car, so get the wife.” Others such as Janis Spindel, a matchmaker who gets $100,000 to find clients spouses, claims that these fellows are somehow mystics, thinking “three times is the charm.”
I remain skeptical. If it’s romance and magic they are seeking why do they call their lawyers immediately after a wonderful Valentines Day dinner to begin to strategize what kind of pre-nuptial deal to strike? Sounds to me more like business as usual than love.
Or maybe these guys are just jerks.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
7:22 PM
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