ChictopiaStreet Peeper
Mr. Newton
Harper's Bazaar
I Want To Be A RoitfeldThe Trouble With Andrew
In the royal-wedding afterglow, Buckingham Palace still has a major P.R. problem: how to handle Prince Andrew, Britain’s trade ambassador and fourth in line to the throne. The prince’s dissolute lifestyle, links to unsavory foreign potentates, and friendship with the American registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are undercutting the Queen’s efforts to rehabilitate the monarchy.
The Prince Who Blew Through Billions
When two British lawyers, Faith Zaman and Thomas Derbyshire, signed on in 2004 to manage the affairs of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, notorious playboy brother of the Sultan of Brunei, they entered a world of orgiastic wealth: 250 companies, 2,000 cars, luxury hotels, planeloads of women and polo ponies, colossal diamonds. Caught in a feud between the prince and the sultan, they ended up in a court battle over $23 million. Following the couple’s legal victory, Mark Seal gets an exclusive on the story the jury didn’t hear. [...]
In court, the Manoukians described Jefri’s “sex parties” at home and abroad. (The manifest on his 747 usually comprised mostly young women.) Their attorney called him a man of “unlimited tastes,” a “one-man walking market,” who bought practically everything he saw, including a rug woven with jewels in threads of solid gold ($7 million), 10 jewel-encrusted wristwatches that depicted on the hour a couple copulating ($8 million), and similarly erotic fountain pens ($1.3 million). In London alone, the Manoukians charged, he kept 40 prostitutes at the Dorchester hotel and spent $34 million for the former Playboy Club at 45 Park Lane—more than four times the market price, according to the brothers—so that he could house more hookers and secretly indulge his passion for gambling. (Jefri denied employing prostitutes.) [...]
Some Girls
"This was an ok read, but not something I felt really gripped me or anything I felt uplifted by. By the end of the story I was rather glad to put it down, since I felt after reading it, that Lauren's life was neither glamorous nor intriguing, just so much wasted potential. The story left me with a sad feeling."
Inside Ralph's GarageMcGill Professor Warns About Spending Excesses Of Rich And Famous
While average Canadians continually hear from government about the fragility of the economy, young Canadian men have been cited in studies as among the most prolific spenders on high-end items such as expensive clothes and cars.
Crass Struggle: Greed, Glitz & Gluttony In A Wanna-Have World
REVIEW
"My parents survived the Great Depression and taught me my most important lesson: "Work hard to earn money for the necessities in life. Don't think having lots of money or stuff makes you a better or more important person than anyone else." This book documents the incredible lengths to which people will go to acquire obscene levels of wealth. Lies, theft, murder, social and ecological devastation become means to satisfy greed. Naylor's documentation is both fascinating and horrifying and helps us understand, for example, the ludicrous subprime bubble that burst in 2008." -David Suzuki
