Back in July we learned that a long-held dream was in reach: Lisa Maria Falcone and her singing, swinging, and generally dazzling pig, Wilbur F. Falcone (*the ‘f’ stands for Fucking-fabulous), in our living room, every week. Wall $treet Wives was coming to town. Not too soon after that, said dream was shattered. The preliminary cast for the new reality TV show was announced, and it included neither Lisa nor Wilbur and not even a glimpse of Phil. Instead, we got New Canaan resident Devon Flemming, the wife of a Deutsche Bank wealth manager who, during the crisis, “made a fortune, lost a fortune, and learned valuable lessons through it all,” Melissa Matthes, who is married to a hedge fund manager and teaches religion at Yale Divinity School, Yvonne Evelyn, who is “married to a successful Wall Streeter and is among the few black power couples in finance,” Lisa Najarian, who is married to a Fast Money contributor, a Handelsbanken executive (whose husband is “an unemployed Wall Street financier/Spanish playboy”), a broke and divorced clothing designer, a young Australian married to “a successful young Wall Street financier,” and a real estate agent whose appearance “will add visual interest.” At the time, we expressed our disappointment and put a plea out into the universe that Fleming would at least come with a goat who plays the trombone. That did not happen. Having said that, the show has apparently added a potential je ne sais quoi element to the mix. Continue reading »
Diane Passage
Though she need no introduction, for the uninformed, Diane Passage is a former Scores girl, former wife of money manager/convicted Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr and full-time hustler/life coach. Recently she’s been making the rounds doling out advice to current and would-be Wall Street wives and today offered the women of the world 8 tips for “how to have men eating out of your hand.” What does this have to do with you? While some of her suggestions have little relevance, others can be readily applied to your situation, like repeating the mantra “My presence is a gift- I know my value” come bonus time, remembering it’s your “right to act bitchy on occasion” before going into major negotiations, and, particularly if you work at a Swiss bank “I can create my own outcome and accomplish any goal.” Continue reading »
Think you don’t need to perform your own quarterly audits of your husband’s business to check for any discrepancies? Think again. Choose not to take regular looks at your meal ticket’s book and you could go from dining on the finest shellfish money can buy (“Some of those black-tie events were so fucking boring. We went to one at Blackstone? Their holiday party? I was like, I can’t believe I spent so much time getting ready for this”), chairing charities (that include pole-dancing fundraisers), residing in a $7.5 million townhouse on the Upper East Side (screening room and pool, natch), receiving all the trinkets you could ever desire (“She got whatever she wanted: diamonds—at least a quarter-million dollars’ worth, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office—designer clothes, even a new pair of boobs”) living, blissfully, prenuptial agreement free, and thinking you’d never have to go back to working the late shift at Scores… Continue reading »
Diane Passage is the wife of accused Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr, who last fall announced that while she’s not technically (or at all) single, she’s out there and ready to mingle with men who are not currently in jail awaiting sentencing for white collar crimes (she also noted that while husband number one is a millionaire, she’s looking for a billionaire when it comes to the new guy). In addition, she’s looking to keep herself busy by becoming a reality TV star, on a show that follows women who work as pole dancers. Continue reading »
Confidential To All You Billionaires Out There: Kenneth Starr’s Wife, While Not Exactly Single, Is Looking To Mingle
By Bess Levin
Diane Passage is the wife of Kenneth Starr, the money manager who may go away for 45 years as a result of running a Ponzi scheme. She’s also a woman and you know what? Girlfriend’s got needs. So although she and Starr aren’t technically (or at all) divorced, the former professional pole dancer has decided that while he sits in jail awaiting sentencing, she’s gonna get hers. For anyone interested but feeling skittish about getting involved with a married woman, it’s cool– Starr already knows Passage is making the rounds and they have an understanding. Continue reading »
Meanwhile, Carly Simon, one of his victims in the Ponzi Scheme, tells the Observer, I want him to pay us back, but I don’t want him to suffer beyond that” and his wife, former Scores dancer Diane Passage is seeking backers for her pay per view TV pole dancing competition. [NYO]
Help Me To Understand: How Stalking Kenneth Starr’s Pole Dancing Wife Is Going To Clear Wesley Snipes’ Name On Tax Evasion
By Bess Levin
As is widely known, Wesley Snipes was found guilty of tax evasion a little while back, a charge which the actor believes to be bull shit. Because he would prefer not to go to prison for three years, Wes is attempting to appeal the verdict. Separately, Snipes was once a client of accused Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr, who it came out several months ago had screwed a bunch of investors out of a bunch of money. These are two seemingly unrelated matters. And yet, today there is this:
The pole-dancer wife of accused Ponzi schemer Ken Starr claims private eyes for Wesley Snipes have been stalking her in a bid to find evidence to clear the actor of tax charges.
In Retrospect, There Were A Bunch Of Things Accused Ponzi Schemer Kenneth Starr Didn’t See Coming
By Bess Levin
Say what you will about alleged Ponzi schemer Ken Starr, but the guy wasn’t stupid. He knew how to leverage his “friendship” with Blackstone co-founder Pete Peterson into big name clients for his scam operation and he kept them going for quite some time. Still, he apparently wasn’t the most perceptive guy in the bunch. As previously mentioned, he didn’t realize that obscenely flashy purchases and a high-profile, rather than laying low and not sticking out, might make people go, “hey wait a second…” and he apparently also didn’t realize that when you marry a stripper, known for her “pole-dancing prowess,” she might be proud of/want to publicly pat herself on the back over said skills.
Two days before his arrest for allegedly cheating clients out of $59 million, financial adviser Kenneth Starr presided at one of Harry Cipriani’s coveted front-room tables, with a view of the Plaza and Central Park, and grinned when his wife, Diane, protested, not very seriously, that she’d thought their third-anniversary dinner would be a private affair. Diane Passage, 34, was wearing a black Gucci dress with a scoop neck that kept slipping to expose more of her Brobdingnagian breasts than the designer had intended—only when she got home would she realize she had it on backward—but Starr, 66, was proud of his fourth wife’s provocative figure. He liked to brag about her pole-dancing prowess. Only when she brought up her past employment as a dancer at Scores strip club did he wince. Why, though? she would ask him. She had nothing to hide.
Yeah, and she’s probably pretty damn pleased with the fact that those moves were what landed her her big shot husband in the first place. Think, Starr, think! Continue reading »
And by problems, we of course mean being caught running a Ponzi scheme, which is just rich. It’s always the stripper’s fault, isnt’ it?
Starr’s behavior outside the office also turned erratic after taking up with Passage in 2005. He began to forsake his own counsel about modest appearances, spending more than $400,000 on jewelry from Jacob & Co., aka Jacob the Jeweler, during the span of several months in 2006, according to the criminal complaint.
In related news, Passage is still said to be looking for a new gig to support herself and son due to Starr’s assets being put on ice.
If she has to, she has to.
When you marry a rich man whose income affords you the opportunity to quit your job, it’s important to have a skill-set to fall back on in the event it turns out he’s running a Ponzi scheme. Luckily, Diane Passage, who was told by an SEC lawyer today that regulators will “oppose any attempt to unfreeze [her husband Kenneth] Starr’s crooked assets to cover living expenses for her and her 12-year-old son Jordan” has got some extremely monetizable skills as a former stripper. Continue reading »
