According to the show’s creator, Diane Passage, the fourth wife of an imprisoned money manager, Kenneth Starr, has agreed to be on the show, so hooray or whatever!
Ms. Passage, a former exotic dancer, met Mr. Starr, whose Hollywood clients included Martin Scorsese and Uma Thurman, when he visited her workplace, the Scores nightclub in Manhattan. They married in 2007. Three years later, Mr. Starr was indicted and charged with siphoning more than $30 million from clients. He pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering, and is currently serving seven and a half years in federal prison.
Recently, Ms. Passage was the subject of a buzzy New York magazine profile, in which she was described as “one of those people that it feels like New York invented, though they thrive wherever male egos and dumb money coexist.” Many of her assets have been frozen as a result of Mr. Starr’s fraud case with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in which she was named a co-defendant, and she lives in a “tiny apartment” in Times Square, according to the profile.
Apparently, Ms. Passage —who should license her name to soap operas stat— filed for divorce from Starr in August and is currently working on a memoir, in addition to joining the show because “it just seemed like fun.”
Ms. Passage said that she was slightly nervous about the possibility of being criticized if “Wall Street Wives,” which she described as “a more intellectual ‘Real Housewives,’ ” makes it onto TV. She said she visits Mr. Starr in prison periodically, and described their relationship as “totally amicable,” although she had not given him a chance to veto her participation in the show.
“I mentioned it to him,” she said. “But he doesn’t get a say.”
‘Wall Street Wives’ Says It Has Landed Kenneth Starr’s Wife [NYTimes]
