In 1976, at the age of 27, Patricia Rose began a relationship with the married, 62-year-old billionaire
John Kluge. At the time, Kluge owned
MetroMedia, a company that started life as the Dumont TV network and would go on to become Fox television. Previously, Patricia had been married to British pornographer Russell Gay. She had posed nude in
Knave Magazine and had a bit part as a
belly dancer in
The Nine Ages of Nakedness. In 1981, Patricia Rose and John Kluge married. Soon after, construction began on the
Albemarle Estate, a 29,000 sq ft., 45 room home in Virginia. Patricia and John were
the 1980s power couple. In 1990, they divorced, and Patricia kept the house and went on to found the
Kluge Estate Winery. Now, everything has come
crashing down.
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear
on Jun 25, 2011 -
35 comments
Billionaires have more grandchildren through their sons than through their daughters, because the status advantage is more reproductively valuable to the sons. Therefore, it would be adaptive for the mothers of their children to bear more sons than daughters. But surely that can't be; mothers can't control the sex of their children.
Oh but so it is: billionaires have 60% male children.
[more inside]
posted by grobstein
on Jan 17, 2009 -
69 comments
The
public shaming of Orange County billionaire Henry Nicholas continues apace. While his
financial crimes may not have drawn more than a passing reference, his drug use and other, more unsavory acts, have gotten widespread coverage -- as early as
last year. Perhaps, it's because Nicholas was
famously involved in supporting tough sentencing laws (his sister was murdered by her boyfriend in 1983.) However, some of the "tough on crime" policies he has backed as recently as
a few months ago are said to
unfairly worsen the punishment for those who commit crimes much less serious than those for which he was
just indicted.
posted by noway
on Jun 7, 2008 -
22 comments
News Flash! Gates loses billions! Yet,
he still sits comfortably atop the list of the wealthiest people in the world.
Larry Ellison, meanwhile, lost $21 billion, but fell to only #4.
The
Billionaire Club now includes 538 members in 46 countries, with an average net worth of $3.2 billion. Is it more disturbing that, for a comparison, the GDP of Afghanistan is a paltry $21 billion (bested by the list's top 5)? Or that the GDP per capita of the U.S. is a relatively microscopic $36,144?
posted by padjet1
on Jun 22, 2001 -
11 comments
So we've got opinions about
Bill Gates. But what about billionaire
George Soros? He funds, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, various causes in
the US, in
Europe, and
elsewhere. He's a critic of what he sees as the
excesses of late capitalism. But does Soros represent a good thing? (More inside...)
posted by snarkout
on Dec 27, 2000 -
9 comments
