"Mercedes Took the Express Elevator up to Sid’s Rarefied World"
The New York Post account of the Sid and Mercedes Bass divorce is PHENOMENAL. So well done! It's the greatest thing ever, ever, EVER. Don't miss the part where the young Mercedes Tavacoli Diba Kellogg Bass is described by rich person chronicler Charlotte Hays this way: "When she met the ambassador, she was heavier than she is now, and, of course, she’s no great beauty. But she was the ultimate geisha." AND: "And so nine weeks after Mercedes, then 41, lobbed that fateful piece of bread, she called her husband, Ambassador Francis Kellogg, from her five-star Parisian hotel suite. 'Goodbye, darling,' she said. 'I’m marrying Sid.'" OH YES. "On Dec. 10, 1988 — after Sid divorced his first wife, society queen Anne, settling with her for somewhere between $200 million and $500 million — the couple married in a $500,000 gala at New York’s Plaza hotel." WAIT, AND THIS, from her married life with Sid: "There were originally four houses on the Texas property; the couple combined two of them, and Mercedes had a third, which she deemed unsightly, picked up and sent across town to serve as a home for single mothers." Here, for your informed reference, is New York magazine's Oct 20, 1986 piece: "Sid Bass and Mercedes Kellogg Stun Society." Society! Stunned! The Dinner Roll Shot Heard Around the World (of the Upper East Side)! Still delicious!





Gay marriage ruins EVERYTHING.
Sid seems eager to jettison all the New York frippery. According to one account, he’s said he never wants to put on tuxedo pants again.
*SHOVES FIST IN MOUTH TO STOP THE SCREAMING*
@jolie No tuxedo? What does he wear after 6 o'clock?
@Ham_Snadwich In the words of Jack Donaghy, what is he, a farmer?
@jolie Maybe it's that he can't put his tuxedo pants on? I know this happened to a fattening friend of mine.
She was once described by People magazine as "a hearty, vodka-drinking extrovert" …
The words, they fail me.
@Gef the Talking Mongoose Is it wrong that I now want nothing more than to have this as my epitaph?
@Antennapedia
And as that of your children, and your children's children, unto the third and fourth generation.
I also loved this from the Times article:
"An anecdote published in W in 2000 described the Italian socialite Marella Agnelli, after touring the Basses’ dazzling apartment filled with important French period furniture, as saying, 'It will take her another lifetime to understand wicker.'"
SUCH truth.
Absolutely best of genre.
And there's this quote:
“I remember going to their apartment, and it was unmemorable,” says one acquaintance. “It was a classic Park Avenue apartment in the $3 million range.”
@hockeymom That one got me, too.
@hockeymom : Yeah, you've seen one classic Park Avenue apartment in the $3 million range, you've seen 'em all. TOTAL YAWNSVILLE, AMIRITE.
The 1%. They're just like us.
Hey, shut up everybody, Thurston and Kim are splitting up.
I am staring at the upper teeth in that picture and they are just a bit wider than the mouth. How?
@Tulletilsynet : No matter where you are in the room, THE TEETH SEEM TO FOLLOW YOU.
Well, you know, 'she's no great beauty.'
…but hey, she's alright
rich person chronicler
Yeah, that one's going to leave some nasty bruises around here.