From billionaire to bankrupt

I never paid much attention to a woman named Jocelyn Wildenstein (nicknamed "Catwoman" due to her hideous plastic surgery) until Don forwarded me an article on how this socialite ran through a $2.5 billion divorce settlement she received in 1999. Let me repeat that: She squandered $2.6 billion. How is that possible?

"It is a shocking turn of events for Wildenstein," noted the article, "who first became a fixture in the New York press around the time of her split as she bragged about the high costs of her lavish lifestyle and penchant for plastic surgery. ... Two decades later, the woman ... finds herself with no checking or savings accounts, no retirement fund or pension plans and no investments according to her filing. The filing also lists the $900 check Wildestein gets from Social Security each month as her only source of income."

How -- and I mean that literally; how -- do you spend $2.5 billion? What can you do or buy that would squander that much money in less than 20 years? I don't care how many jewels or furs or luxury cars or high-end homes you buy -- that's still a lot of money. And are we supposed to feel sorry for Wildestein now that she's "reduced" to surviving on social security? (She's not, by the way.)

Wildenstein's sordid past appears to be catching up with her and sadly illustrates what happens when too much store is put into worldly possessions and too few riches in heaven. What a sad, pathetic woman.

So maybe I do feel sorry for her. She's really really poor in so many ways.