Say what you will about Ken Starr, the 66-year-old money manager who was dragged out of his closet yesterday morning by the feds (who have accused him of ensnaring numerous boldface names in a Bernie Madoff–like Ponzi scheme), his wife apparently had a strong work ethic. Diane Passage, 34, grew up in Detroit. She got knocked up shortly after graduating high school, then worked herself through college and moved to New York City, where she supported her son by working in an advertising agency and, at night, dancing at Scores. Even after she met Starr, in 2006, and he plied her with jewels, including a $70,000 diamond bracelet and a $32,000 wedding band from his client Jacob the Jeweler, according to the federal complaint filed against him, Passage did not sit back and allow herself to become the kind of trophy wife who sits on her ass eating bonbons.
According to various Internet resources, she did lots!
Below, her vitae.
• She created a foundation called S.P.I.N.(Single Parents In Need), an organization founded to “assist with the education, health, and general welfare of single parents’ one or more children.”
• She produced an Off Broadway play, Artfuckers.
• She ran Pole Superstar, a pole-dancing competition whose mission is to “recognize the increasing interest in pole dancing as a sport, fitness activity and art form, worldwide.”
• She was a guest blogger at Pumps magazine, “the voice of the exotic dancing industry,” and also for the Huffington Post. (We enjoyed “Male Pole Dancers Are on the Rise.”)
• Starr got her a job as a vice-president at Glassnote Records, a division of Sony, where she introduced two bands to the company, among them a Texas rock band called Blowing Trees. Sure, prosecutors note that “Glassnote lost money on both” bands, but hey, it’s a tough time in the industry!
• She was adapting a screenplay based on Larry McMurtry’s novel The Desert Rose, about an aging Las Vegas showgirl whose daughter is being groomed to take her place. “The story merges female competitiveness with mother/daughter tension,” Passage wrote on Pumps, something that women can relate to, in the enticing Vegas setting that men can relate to.” However, she wrote, “‘This movie has been a slow process since I manage multiple projects.”
