GSI Media Kim Kardashian's upcoming wedding has me wondering: How do millionaires like Kim and Kris Humphries meet, anyway?
—StarFort, via the inbox
I was going to crack some joke about top secret parties where you need to know The Password and every guest must own a Fabergé egg hand-painted with a single strand of mermaid hair, but as it turns out that's pretty close to the truth...
For help with your question, I turned to two experts, Destin Pfaff and Rachel Federoff, both of the Bravo TV series Millionaire Matchmaker. The show will embark on its fifth season Aug. 15, and, given that the whole show is about pairing millionaires with their perfect love match, my choice in interview seemed all kinds of apt.
Anyway. Many millionaires, of course, turn to pairing services, such as the one featured on Millionaire Matchmaker. But not always; instead millionaires often rely on their own social network, which Federoff characterizes as fairly small.
"They're typically drawn to each other because they're in such a small circle," Federoff tells me. "Everyone knows everyone. ...Small worlds. They swim in their own pond."
And what kinds of meet-up opportunities exist in this very fancy pond? Think skyboxes at sporting events; film and TV premieres or junkets; after-parties; after-after-parties; secret poker shenanigans; set visits; gifting suites...
"We were at a premiere function, and we brought a friend with us," Pfaff recalls to me. "He's not a celebrity, but a very successful guy in the industry, and we introduced him to a young lady who is in the movie, and they're still dating."
Also, do not underestimate the popularity of clandestine dinner parties. Yes, really. Those don't just exist on Gossip Girl.
"There are these parties that a lot of A- and B-list celebrities have, where they invite all their friends to these little private functions," Pfaff says. "They'll each bring a few friends. Rachel and I host an intimate little secret affair, like, once a month, and we've actually had a couple of celebrities who've been single. And we make sure they sit next to each other, and sparks fly."
If you're wondering exactly how Kim and Kris met, Kim has discussed it. In March, she told Jay Leno, "We met at a basketball game in New Jersey, and I saw him and thought he was cute, and I told my friend, who was sitting next to me.
"I feel so pathetic! I saw him and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this guy running in front of me is so cute,' and my friend was like, ‘Oh, I know his friend,' and so they kind of set us up on this group dinner … and I thought, ‘Why not?'"
What? No Fabergé egg?