October 19, 2011--"Thank God They Don't Have Children"

So said Susan Gutfreund about her friends Sid and Mercedes Bass who are divorcing.

I do not know any of these people though I do notice that they frequently show up on the New York Post's Page Six and in the society pages of the New York Times.

The women always seem to be wearing Oscar de la Renta and the men always appear to be unhappily in tow. Unless they opt out of another gala and their wives are forced to show up with a "walker."

But from what I am now reading, it looks as if Sid Bass is opting out permanently.

A little background--

Sid is loaded. In fact, all of them are. He got his hundreds of millions from his great uncle who wildcatted in the West Texas oil patch before hitting it big. When the good uncle passed on, Sid became instantly wealthy and had lots of time on his hands to do whatever, became instantly attractive to a string of glamorous wives, and entered into the pleasures of their glamorous lives.

He met the most-recent Mrs. Bass, Mercedes, when she was Mrs. Francis L. Kellogg whose then husband was special assistant to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. She was known as quite the party girl, and quite the card, famous for her proclivity to dance on the tops of tables at various New York hot spots and for tossing food and silverware around at toney parties in the Hamptons. In fact, that's how Sid met her--she hit him in the head with a dinner roll one night in Southampton.

Shortly after that, they ran off together to Paris but were quickly discovered and special assistant Kellogg was soon to learn that Mercedes was about to leave him for Sid.

They had a very gay life, Sid and Mercedes. She especially became interested in the opera. That is opera at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. So interested that she got Sid to make the largest gift the Met ever received from an individual benefactor--$25 million in 2006, when that was still real money. And for that money, the Met named the Grand Tier for her--The Mercedes Bass Grand Tier.

But, in truth, Sid hated opera. On those occasions when she dragged him along, he was often noticed to be snoozing. What he did come to love, though, was painting. His painting and that is apparently the reason for the divorce, which is reported to be proceeding, at least for now, amicably.

He is 69 and wants to withdraw from the social swirl and devote himself fullish time to his version of art (he recently completed a portrait of Barbara Walters). Mercedes, 67, continues to want to go to the opera. They have obviously grown apart.

And I say--Good for them! Follow your bliss! You only live once. Or, with hundreds of millions, maybe twice or, at most, three times.