Feckless Whore Scores Prestigious Obituary

“a young romantic in quest of a fortune”. Bitch, please! Do you mean gimlet-eyed user, perhaps?

What old DL caftan queen with a pinkie ring holed up with eight year olds in Phuket penned this tripe?

Gurl, wut?

I’ve never seen so many adjectives in one room.

So he was a rarefied prostitute?

This guy had a decent run. There are many gays out there like this - I’ve known several too, most being crash and burn stories. At least this guy didn’t go full Cunanan.

These whores never seem to be able to hold on to the real estate given to them.

Knew someone like this. My mother immediately punched his ticket by saying "Oh Paul from Wantagh..the sponge".

That is one shady, shady obituary. He probably deserved it though, let's be honest. Only real jobs he took were teaching young boys, ended up an old codger in Thailand? You do the math.

[quote]Violet Trefusis, the writer and socialite, with whom he shared an amitié amoureuse during the last 12 years of her life. Thirty years her junior, he met her in Florence and there was instant chemistry between them. She was the daughter of Alice Keppel (mistress of Edward VII) and had enjoyed a celebrated love affair with Vita Sackville-West and later with Winnaretta Singer, Princesse de Polignac.

I'm reading a lot of words but gist is "gay ne'er do well who leeched off of lonely old lesbian". Violet Trefusis is an amazing rich old bitch name.

Well done, my hat's off to him.

But take heed you youngsters, it's not all days of wine and roses, so put away some of that cash and a few of those little gifts for when the day comes. You don't want to wind up dying in a two room flop in Thailand.

The obituary obviously needed to be written with a more sarcastic pen: the reverental tone is like something out of the Fifties. But Trefusis & he were clearly a match made in that special Hell reserved for grifters: she was a chancer too, although obviously a stinking rich one.

Interesting, her mother’s money principally came from corruption: the purchase of a peerage by Lord Northcliffe: a large wodge which was funnelled to her. Royal biographies like to make out it was all due to the investments of Edward VII’s jewish financier friend Sir Ernest Cassell. He was very clever, but he wasn’t a magician. The hard cash came from a more prosaic under-the-table payment.

Thailand is stuffed to the gills with elderly queens like him stringing out their money to make it go further. Every second or third one has a similar story.

Ryan Murphy is working on the script as we speak.

Great stuff.

That is a thing of nasty beauty

"She was the daughter of Alice Keppel (mistress of Edward VII)"

So was Violet T. actually the daughter of King Edward VII?

No. His only possibly illegitimate child was Olga de Meyer, who married the famous gay photographer Baron de Meyer.

[quote]Phillips took a close interest in the publication of Nigel Nicolson’s Portrait of a Marriage in 1972, and did not hesitate to complain when other authors failed to do justice to Violet. In the 1990s he was befriended by Camilla Parker Bowles, who, as Violet’s great-niece, was interested in the fate of the Villa dell’Ombrellino, sold by her mother and uncle.

Thanks, OP! What a fascinating trip!

[quote]Be wicked, be brave, be drunk, be reckless, be dissolute, be despotic, be an anarchist, be a religious fanatic, be a suffragette, be anything you like, but for pity’s sake be it to the top of your bent — Live — live fully, live passionately, live disastrously if necessary. Live the gamut of human experiences, build, destroy, build up again! Live, let’s live, you and I — let’s live as none ever lived before, let’s explore and investigate, let’s tread fearlessly where even the most intrepid have faltered and held back!

No. Violet's father might have been the Earl of Grimthorpe. Alice didn't meet Edward until after her children were born.

[quote]Live — live fully, live passionately, live disastrously if necessary.

Tape that to your cubical, DLers.

No wait: blue tak it. Because you may be replaced by a bot at any moment!

What a tiresome story for an old mooch.

"The Untalented Mr. Phillips"

I find the stories of these seemingly gay, and for lack of a better term, old school spongers fascinating! They are so vastly different from from today’s crop. Many came from some sort of respectable/genteel background, were well educated, and skilled in the social graces. Their adventures, the people they met, all of it, i find it all so interesting. But, as this obit demonstrates, I’ve yet to come across a story of one where it all ends well; whether it’s Phillips dying in a 2-room flop in Phuket, or an anonymous East Side Walker found dead weeks after passing in his SRO, it’s usually a sad, forgotten ending for them.

Thank you, OP

Don't be fooled. Being kept is one of the most difficult and eventually unrewarding of all jobs. Not speaking from personal experience but from personal observation.

[quote] But, as this obit demonstrates, I’ve yet to come across a story of one where it all ends well; whether it’s Phillips dying in a 2-room flop in Phuket, or an anonymous East Side Walker found dead weeks after passing in his SRO, it’s usually a sad, forgotten ending for them.

I think that lots of guys on Phillips level often snag a comfortable sinecure or relationship as they start to age. People like Phillips are all about being well-connected and have lots of opportunities when they are still pleasant looking and fun to be with. But if they wait too long - or stumble- life can be fickle -the offers usually dry up when a person starts losing their charm,

To think, HRH Prince Phillip could have been one of these penniless man-whores, RIP.

But R25, this guy achieved the whore, hanger-on, and sponger's ultimate goal - he got in the will!

He just didn't look after the money he inherited. I suppose he thought that it would happen again.

New York Social Diary profiled another one of these gay whore scumbags a while back. And yes, they ARE scumbags — I’ve known several. Very polished, very charming, but - beneath the veneer - totally focused on themselves and ensuring their nest stays feathered, and remaining A List. And for that they’re prepared to tolerate hours of listening to the banalities of any old bag. Meet Mr Galliher...

Galliher was a BFF with Evalyn McLean? Well I never.....

"When Mrs Ned McLean (God bless her) / Can get Russian reds to "yes" her, / Then I suppose / Anything goes."

Years ago (ten? Maybe fifteen?) I was in Chicago and a friend there took me to dinner with a friend if his - an elderly (but still working!) Australian doctor who had lived there since the late sixties. My friend thought that since we were both Australian we’d have plenty in common - and we did. He was a really lovely old queen - a great character - a bon vibrant who was truly charming. He lived in a large house in the Gold Coast (think that was it?) that clearly spoke of wealth - yet he claimed he had to keep working because he was so broke. I was gobsmacked and asked why - and he responded with a sigh - boys...

Seems he’d develop a passion for some gorgeous young thing - and it’d generally last around a decade. They were mostly smart cookies as well as easy on the eye - as he wanted stimulating companionship as well as sex. So apparently he gave them all whatever educations they desired - and when it eventually ran its course - he’d set them up with somewhere to live and move on. His former lovers became more like beloved sons as the years went by - and he looked after them as if they were just that.

Mind you - I briefly met his latest armpiece in passing - and that had disaster written all over it. He was South American and had the looks and body of a porn star - but came across as the most self-centred, nasty little queen you could imagine. The old guy had found him in his travels somehow, brought him to America - and tried to educate him - but it didn’t take. He’d dropped out, got bored with housework and got himself a job handling baggage at O’Hare - and when he wasn’t working he was out clubbing with his friends.

I’ve lost touch with my friend in Chicago who knew him - so don’t know the end of the story - but I wouldn’t be surprised if the little chiseler got everything - and that its since evaporated - funding the most epic meth binge of all time...

Similar story when I was in Denmark years ago. Stayed at some reasonably priced B&B - which was quite ok - but the owner was cold and unfriendly - late-forty something - and holding - tall and lean, with the remains of some earlier good looks still visible if the lighting was low. But if you were a young twink - you were welcomed enthusiastically, had the run of the place - and everything it had to offer...

I was in my late thirties and over-the-hill to him - and I was just in and out and using it as a base to explore - so whatever.

But as I met other gay guys in Copenhagen, every single one of them broke into an eyeroll when they found out where I was staying. The guy was notorious! The ‘apartment’ the b&b was in was the entire floor of a block down on the waterfront. Would have been very expensive. According to the guys there - the current owner was a supposedly clueless, low class country boy who came to town - met the old guy who owned the property - moved in on him - and would not let go. The old guy died of HIV/AIDS - and this guy got the lot and now acted as if he was landed gentry...

So it doesn’t always end badly - some kept boys end up with perfectly nice lives and do hang on to assets... (can think of a few others as well. Thing is - the guys they glommed onto weren’t exactly rich - just well-off and comfortable. And childless! - so these younger guys eventually ended up with perfectly nice suburban homes in gentrified, former gay ghetto areas. They weren’t gonna make headlines for their extreme, lavish lifestyles - but they did very well nonetheless - and from the outside it appeared they had pretty charmed lives!)

I met this handsome guy in his late twenties who said he had been kept by "the second richest man in Belgium". Whatever. What was amazing to me was that, even though he had only been in the city a very short while, he had quickly sussed out every A list circle and knew the name of every rich gay man within the city limits. The sheer focus and calculation! I haven't seen anything like it since a trio of Columbians turned up, and within a week had networked like 4ft high Road Runners. I've never experienced more human energy put to pushing oneself forward. Absolutely exhausting people: it was if they needed to climb from a Third World trash dump to Trump Tower by the end of the month, without a moment's reflection, or it would all be over. But it certainly made the rest of us feel as if we were sleepwalking through life.

I don't know what you're talking about, R31.

From Phillips' obituary:

[quote] an elderly American art historian paid him “many flowery compliments”, but Phillips insisted that he retained his innocence.

LOL. Sure, Jan.

I knew a guy years ago - who by this stage was himself middle-aged. He’d apparently had moves made on him by one of the Toblerone chocolate heirs. He toyed with the idea - he was a broke, working class guy in London back in the late sixties/early seventies at the time - but he felt it was a short term prospect with no security - and that he’d be better off studying hard and working to make a good life. Which he did. Though in his cups he would wistfully remember when he’d been young and ruggedly handsome - and the euro millionaire had offered him the world...

Another guy I knew had an amazing body - used to get used in body shots in modeling - but his face wasn’t anything special - so he didn’t have much of a career there. But he took up the offer from a visiting European millionaire - and had a ball! Ended up in Europe for a few years - and got passed around the circuit from one rich guy to another. There was quite a network apparently - and when they got bored they’d gift you to a friend - until everyone had had him. He ended up home eventually, depressed and living in a trailer park with his mother. So there’s that too...

These high-caliber hustlers need to write self-help books: an R-rated version of "How to Win Friends and Influence People". Because charming people to part with their money really is a talent and takes skill.

But it really is a tough, soul-killing job (or perhaps it’s easier if one doesn’t have a soul in the first place). I was wined & dined many times by rich old-timers (with Bentleys, multi-million pads in Chelsea, etc). I live in London now, and you can’t swing a d*ck without hitting a multi-millionaire here. Especially in the summer when all of the [italic]crème de la crème[/italic] from Dubai and Honk Kong relocates here (to escape the impossibly hot local summers). I would rendezvous with various wealthy types (not super-wealthy billionaires, but rich enough). Yet I could never go through with it. The stumbling block wasn't the theoretical sex - but the idea of having to fool & lie to these naïve old saps on a daily basis for months, even years (while being 'kept'). The 'problem' was the ones I met tended to be genuinely, disarmingly nice and surprisingly respectful. They were mostly looking for a real relationship, not just sex. So, quid pro quo, I felt obliged to treat them with respect too, and felt it would be rotten of me to manipulate and swindle these good-natured old fools just for money & gifts. I grew to like them enough to actually care a bit about their sanity & happiness – and I knew I couldn’t make them happy without lying through my teeth and pretending in bed (with Oscar-level acting).

The upside is I did get a lot of free dinners at most of the city’s top luxury restaurants and got to ‘test-drive’ their ritzy cars. I drew the line there, and mostly said no to a few fully-paid weekend-away invites. I guess I did sponge off them a bit – but, hey, they were offering and it’s hard to say no to good-tasting free food. And, given their wealth, a luxury dinner for 2 didn’t even make a dent in their budget. So I kept my freeloading within reasonable, respectful limits.

*Hong Kong, that is

Beats folding sweaters at Macy's.

like a lot of people who live into their 90's this guy just outlived his money. happens a lot to non-whores also.

knowing his attraction had an expiration date he should have used his charm on a financial planner.

Feckless. That word has been used well a lot lately. And a WW for you R12!

Being in the orbit of the rich but untalented is exhausting. They are pretty much only into status and money and unless you have the gift of the grift it can never come to any good.

Fascinating. He doesn't sound like a terrible person. He wrote, edited and archived considerably, contributing more than an average sponge. Fitful bouts of employment in schools is not uncommon among the unmoored educated but his championing of Violet after her death speaks to his values.

I could have written R35's post. When I was a young and pretty boy, I had the same opportunities and had the same thoughts. Just couldn't go through with it. Didn't have the "grifter mentality," I guess. I also knew better than to let myself become dependent on them or at their mercy. Nothing is free and being "kept" was not a price I was willing to pay.

Same here r41. I had some opportunities, but I couldn't go through with it for various reasons. One reason was being totally financially dependent on another person, which is a very precarious position to put yourself in.

Ok. So everyone here on DL has self respect and couldn't be a kept man. I want to hear from those of you who have been kept men.

There's an excellent roman à clef written by a man who was kept by Peter Watson, the margarine millionaire. He later married (not Watson), and his wife told him to write the novel as she thought no woman could be as calculating as Watson. It's an excellent read. Cyril Connelly is thinly disguised also.

I was visiting a rich friend a while back and sitting on the sofa was this breathtaking boy: imagine a male Marilyn Monroe, with natural thick blond hair, saucer blue eyes, pouty lips, and flawless ivory skin, all packaged up in a small body. Very very quiet, like an expensive poodle. Probably one brain cell preserving, but definitely trophy fuck material for the right person. He was being kept by an accountant. I later heard he had been taken to his Aspen apartment, where the boy then met a megawealthy banker, and has now disappeared into the stratospheric realms such types inhabit.

Everyone on this thread sounds ancient. Your prose is purple and antiquated. These things happen but not in the way that you describe. We're laughing at your use of Marilyn Monroe as a reference gramps.

"with whom he shared an amitié amoureuse"

love it.

Love this thread x

[quote] Everyone on this thread sounds ancient.

Do please share with us R46 your vast life experience amongst the global jeunesse dorée –– crafted of course in, as you might say, totally WOKE prose.

Or, are you perhaps not quite there yet?

PITY.

This thread is divoooon!

Nancy Mitford writing from Paris in the Fifties to a male friend:

"Someone we all know at a party the other night took off his collar and tie and revealed on his bronzed neck a collar of rubies, three rows, with a ruby and emerald tassel hanging down HIS back. His protector who was present remarked drily, — X is a very good chap but he can't expect to live on his charm for ever" (X having said, on showing the rubies, "not bad for a working girl"

Hubert Givenchy was once just a pretty young count curled up in the lap of Balenciaga.

I could survive for days merely breathing in the fumes of these anecdotes...

The pin up of all such arseholes has to be Alexis de Redé who scored a million bucks in 1940 for opening up his tight little arsehole -- when a million really meant something. A heart as cold as an Antarctic base refrigerator, but hey – a footman behind every chair at his Paris palace on the Ile St Louis.

They all seem to be functionally bisexual, or perhaps I should say amBItiousexual.

The prospect of an unlimited expense account can make many cocks hard, even if there’s a gillamonster on the other end.

“Violet Trefusis with Violet de Trafford and Violet Keppel, collecting outside the Albert Hall in March 1916.”

Surprisingly, the inspiration for the movie “Heathers.”

Blatant gay Gold digging is much more pronounced nowadays among the millenials and younger. Probably due to the weak economy, high cost of real estate, and the steady infantilization of their helicopterparents. None can match the panache of socialites born before WWII, when it took considerable looks, guts, and talent to break through. Kind of admire the old whores. NYC’s Townhouse, which is enjoying a renaissance, offers a ghoulish version of what it comes down to today. Same with the “daddy” parties out in FI.

I love reading about the jet set. And Sam Spiegel’s yacht was a place of depravity.

Most of these professional hustlers, grifters & hangers-on seem to be bisexual (Ye have been warned!).

I was always fascinated by the jet-set life of Helmut Berger (the Austrian ‘protégé’ of the great Italian director Luchino Visconti, [italic]il maestro[/italic]). Visconti was a Count, owned a Palazzo in Italy and lived a beautiful life of stylish luxury (he had impeccable taste). Though ironically he was also an avowed Marxist-communist (a ‘champagne socialist’, so to speak).

They say Berger was from a family of ‘hoteliers’ – but compared to Visconti he was basically ‘the help’. And he sure didn’t want to spend his beautiful youth toiling behind a hotel desk. So he hooked up with Visconti (who looked more like his grandfather) and the rest is history. I don’t mind Berger as an actor, but I doubt he’d have much of a film career without Visconti, who gifted him leading roles.

After Visconti died (and perhaps even before), Berger, being bisexual, was allegedly bedded by many from the rich and famous club, both male and female.

I assume he inherited or was gifted a significant amount by Visconti? But later in life Berger spiraled into some kind of state of mental disorder. Possibly also drugs & booze. A sad ending to a very high-flying life.

The higher they climb, the harder they fall.

Here he is in his heyday, rolling in money, with a fur coat (mink? sable?) casually thrown over one shoulder - as one does of course ([italic]comme il faut[/italic]).

Yes, Helmut Berger really lost his mind, for whatever reasons. I think he's a crazy recluse now.

Here is Visconti adjusting Berger's collar for a film shoot.

Whenever people say "age is just a number", I remember this photo (kept guy's smooth, firm complexion vs. patron's old, sagging skin). It's generally "only a number" if the aging person has "the right numbers" in his account. Reportedly, Visconti smoked 120 cigarettes a day? If so, Berger deserved all the money he got. He earned it fair and square. It must've been like kissing an exhaust pipe...

Though I do admire Visconti - he had sophisticated taste in nearly everything, even when it came to picking his young lovers and film stars (a.k.a. his hopeful lovers - Delon, the hunky Massimo Girotti, etc). It all seems almost respectable and exquisitely tasteful now, compared to the insipid G4P trash current directors and 'luminaries' dig up for kept status. New money often can't buy classic good taste.

Wasn't Helmut Berger on Dynasty for a hot minute?

I LOVE this thread.

We are talking about courtesans rather than simple whore. You need looks, charm, and smarts to make in in this world.

I don't know if William McCarty Cooper belongs in this thread, but he seems relevant. When he died he left money for AIDS charities. I first read about Douglas Cooper's life in John Richardson's "Sorcerer's Apprentice", which I highly recommend, very entertaining. After Richardson left Cooper, William McCarty was next in line, and he inherited everything when Douglas Cooper died. Here's a short synopsis of their lives. There is a much more detailed story that was published in Connoisseur magazine in Dec. 1991

He is the envy of a DL craved life.

Robert Tracy (Rudolph Nureyev’s ‘confidant’). Probably not a professional grifter, but nevertheless stumbled into that golden-opportunity situation, quickly understood the game and accepted the arrangement. Tracy seems to have been bisexual too (though more of a Kinsey 5 likely).

[quote] From the Guardian: “Nureyev's friends were relieved to see him with a young man [Tracy was 23 at the time] who was not a hustler or rough trade, someone who could converse over dinner … But superstar life came as a culture shock to the younger man, used to living on a $200 a month student grant.

[quote] Tracy got to like caviar, and the lifestyle: the apartment above Lauren Bacall's in the Dakota building opposite Central Park, the house beside a nudist beach at St Barts in the Caribbean, the Virginia ranch house where a whole room was devoted to an organ so that Nureyev could play Bach.

[quote] Some of their happiest times were at the ranch house. Jackie Onassis would come to ride, friends and dinner would be flown in from New York. "That was life - helicopters, private jets."

[quote] But Tracy is conscious that he caught Nureyev in his physically declining years … Tracy received $600,000, paid in instalments [around 1993, after Nureyev died].

R64 - go to the Townhouse in NYC some night, courtesans become whores pretty fast when the rent is due and the credit card is maxed out!

I did it for 15 years - the difference from some of the above being I almost always worked a day job - including a few institutions mentioned above, give or take a year or two taking 1 year post-grads at fancy schools. I also hit the jack pot with bona-fide billionaires. After being in the court of 2, I just grew bored, and too old, and concentrated on my day job. I had enjoyed every luxury and beauty known to human kind so I had had my fill and lost the needs I had when young, and no longer wanted to lick ass and get ass fucked literally and figuratively. Besides, everything gets creepier the older the courtesan and the older the benefactor, with madness, addictions, irreversible delusions, then violence and crime and murder. Many benefactors are killed by someone who needs their money and has had enough of their bullshit.

"Blatant gay Gold digging is much more pronounced nowadays among the millenials and younger. Probably due to the weak economy, high cost of real estate, and the steady infantilization of their helicopterparents."

God, leave it to the Trump-voting eldergays to turn every thread into an excuse to bash "millennials" even a thread about an elderly man.

R70, as a Millennial (older side of the range), I personally agree with the eldergay view. There was plenty of gold-digging in eras before, but with the onset of IG and online apps, it has skyrocketed. Because the gold-digging vocation became much more accessible (with fewer barriers to entry) - all one needs nowadays is an internet connection and an IG account.

"There was plenty of gold-digging in eras before, but with the onset of IG and online apps, it has skyrocketed."

There's no evidence that "gold-digging" has skyrocketed and it's not like just anyone can use an app to find a sugar daddy (for one, if you're ugly no one will WANT to be your sugar daddy)

Berger flashed a bit of dong for Visconti (Burt Lancaster and us), in "Conversation Piece"R62

Helmut Berger was a whore, darlin'

[quote]not like just anyone can use an app to find a sugar daddy

Wanna bet?

r75, just joining a site doesn't guarantee that you'll get any matches. Ask all the lonely straight dudes who joined Ashley Madison and found out they were talking to robots instead of real women

Denham Fouts...."the most expensive male prostitute in the world."

lover of Prince (later King) Paul of Greece, among many other rich and famous

[quote]Helmut Berger was a whore, darlin'

Hence his inclusion in a thread dedicated to whores, R74

but was he feckless?

I'm shocked by the number of young men who ask, on various dating apps, "Do you reward?" or "Are you generous?" They seem to have zero compunctions about monetising their good looks.

How much is considered generous?

[quote]. And Sam Spiegel’s yacht was a place of depravity

Oh honey, it’s every second fucking yacht. I was talking to a Swedish girl who crews the superyachts, and she said that what goes on onboard the yacht of one of the ‘respectable’ tech billionaires is depravity beyond the imagination of de Sade. Makes Weinstein seem like a teddy bear. She’d report it to Interpol but like everyone else she’s too shit scared like everyone else that she’d be disappeared.

I’ve told the story before here about the blond stud muffin who had been in town all of 30 minutes when he was stopped on the street and asked if he wished to work a weekend on one of the superyachts. The deal was he was to have sex with any person, male or female, who requested it. The occasion was a wedding. Yep: the super rich never miss an opportunity for degrading sex.

The Viscontis are dukes (di Mondrone) not counts. Zeffirelli was one of his earlier bumboys. A bit of private goss for you: he loved having sex on trains. Not shitty trains. Glamorous sleepers such as the long vanished Blue Train to the Riviera.

William McCarty Cooper deserved every penny given he had to put up with Douglas Cooper, who was a hell hag of the first water.

Cooper was Australian: another stinking rich Australian monster was Rory Cameron who died of AIDS. Ditto his last ‘find’. His sister was swindled out of her share of the fortune, but lives on in South Africa: has written a memoir A Lion In My Bedroom.

Stud Muffins!! Bumboys?!? Comme il faut. Fuck U bitches r having us on.

[quote]Here he is in his heyday, rolling in money, with a fur coat (mink? sable?) casually thrown over one shoulder - as one does of course.

[quote]I had enjoyed every luxury and beauty known to human kind so I had had my fill and lost the needs I had when young...

Oh man you ancient fags are hilarious. We had to read shit like this in highschool English. Who are y'all Daphne Du Maurier or that portrait in the closet? Hubert Humbert?

Honestly thanks for the laugh. Someone is having you on, this is troll level shit like that miss warwik creep puked out about the black ladies of music. Despicable lies. Matt Damon was emperor of France too you know. Garbage writing with drool all over it. Your squamous make me nauseous.

Course it costs rich old uglies money for my good dick and handsome company. The history of the universe remains - we just sexier and bigger and more expensive now. Check me out. No need to get all poetic before you pay. Then you can slobber. Hilarious.

2/10 r84. Nice try though, but you got the lingo wrong.

Huh? No old fag you got your mind wrong.

Simmer down, R84.

“and spent a year teaching boys at Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut”

Teaching them what?

[quote]I did it for 15 years

And not one anecdote worth sharing?....

[quote]The history of the universe remains -

Yeah, black & latino whores always say things like that! You've got us right bamboozled r84. Have you considered a screenwriting career? I've read worse.

What are irreversible delusions?

Even a bruised, used up and aged-out ho's like Lohan and FLOTUS know to keep their traps shut in their retirement. Certain billionaires can have someone disappeared, or, they are surveilled by agencies that are controlled by parties who can shut you up. My land line and cell phones were tapped for 4 years. I asked my host and he said "it's not us, it's likely Mossad". Did you ever wonder why none of these boats have been sunk. They are sitting ducks. A few have a few layers of protection but basically they are floating Switzerlands constituting a floating Shanghai settlement - all the dirties of the world need places to do the dirty.

R90 - progressively deeper delusions that can never be changed or dropped.

R72, you’re missing the point. Yes, you need to look nice to score a benefactor. But the point was it’s much easier for young pretty people to score these days. Remember how it was in the olden days: you’re a strikingly handsome lad, but stuck in bumfuck North Dakota, or some remote mountain town in Austria, or some god-forsaken village in a province of Montenegro. How on earth are you going to find a ‘sugar daddy’?

You’d have to abandon everything (your family, your friends, your job), move to a big city (spending your savings), endlessly go around hotel bars to find ‘high-society connections’, talk with each candidate IRL (to weed out simple johns – b/c you’re looking for a long-term benefactor, not a ONS trick). That’s A LOT of work. And it might not even pan out, and you’ll have to move back to bumfuck Nebraska, up to the neck in debt.

But nowadays? Open a laptop (even dirt-poor regions have them now), upload pics, sign up to a few ‘specialized’ sites or social media outlets. You don’t even have to move your ass off the couch. It’s the perfect vocation for very pretty, very lazy people. Someone (desperate enough) somewhere around the globe (Hong Kong, Berlin, Melbourne) might fall for it and start bankrolling your life. You only need to land 1 gullible person in a very interconnected world of almost 8 billion. The odds are in your favor.

Plus, the mentality has changed. Even straight males act like feckless female whores nowadays – pimping out images of their bodies left and right, showing ass. B/c many no longer want to lead simple, hard-working, blue-collar lives but to get ‘rich by 35’ and have a fun, easy, jet-set life, courtesy of someone else. And that goal is much more achievable now, thanks to digital SM.

[quote] The Viscontis are dukes (di Mondrone) not counts.

AFAIK, that's incorrect.

Visconti’s father was indeed a Duke (Don Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone, 1st Duke of Grazzano and Count of Lonate Pozzolo). But he had 7 children and Luchino wasn’t the eldest son (he was the 3rd son). So he didn’t inherit his father’s highest title of Duke and the connected Duchy property. However, as a noble “spare” he did inherit his father’s lesser title of Count.

The way the title of Duke was inherited is as follows: Visconti’s father was the 1st Duke of Grazzano. After he died the title went to his eldest son (Guido, 2nd Duke of Grazzano). He seems to have died childless, so the title passed to the next eldest brother (Luigi, 3rd Duke of Grazzano). Upon his death, the title went to his eldest son (Luchino’s nephew) - Barnabo, the 4th Duke of Grazzano (who died only recently, in 2015). So, as we see, the Dukedom title skipped Luchino Visconti.

[Quote] I was gobsmacked and asked why - and he responded with a sigh - boys...

Mary!

Everyone talks about the riches, and the fame...but no one tells you the dark side.

I think this "feckless whore" deserved that long and somewhat bitchy obit. This type has pretty much died out, and like any endangered or extinct species, why not a dignified eulogy.

Another rare species was that old lady killed by a car who had lived in the cheapest apartment in NYC for decades. Life-long urban bohemians - there aren't many left in our capitals.

Yes, that type has mostly died out. The new breed is far more trashy and less sophisticated.

I pity today's super-rich. Very slim pickings. Courtesans and 'companions' knew the arts, they were well-educated and worldly, like OP's Phillips. But today we just have total "feckless whores" and wannabes, even among the kept class.

[quote]Courtesans and 'companions' knew the arts, they were well-educated and worldly,

Take note R84 [quote]Your squamous make me nauseous.

although your incoherence and misuse of "nauseous" could be not just ignorance, but inadvertent truth-telling. I suspect you are such a toxic person that you do make people around you want to vomit.

"B/c many no longer want to lead simple, hard-working, blue-collar lives but to get ‘rich by 35’ and have a fun, easy, jet-set life, courtesy of someone else."

Please, there have always been people who wanted to lead the jet set life. But this is DL, where all the reactionaries have to chime in to tell us how much better everything was in the days of Jim Crow and sodomy laws and how evil millennials are

Dear R100, you were an unforgettable Peter Pan. You must play it again, soon.

r101 misses her glory days in the 19th century. That's nice that your retirement home lets you post on gay sites.

Another reason there's been an explosion in the field of gold-digging is that it's now much easier to exploit your looks without actually having to touch your clients. Get an instragram account and the eldergays will give you money for a glimpse of your dick or the pleasure of watching you whack off, and you don't have to lay a finger on them much less a mouth! Beats the hell out of posing for porn photos, doesn't it?

Plus the job market is shitty for the young, and real estate is so expensive that they're all looking for some way to move the hell out of their parents' houses that doesn't involve working for Wal-Mart.

R100, could a gold digger “in the days of Jim Crow” simultaneously Skype online with benefactors from Boston, Paris, Beijing and Seoul & receive instant money transfers from across the world within seconds?

Did coalminers’ sons and potato-farmers in old Ireland dream of “leading the jet-set life” in Mykonos, Santorini and Ibiza, after watching shows like KUWT Kardashians and MTV’s Cribs?

Yeah, right. Most blue-collar workers back then couldn’t even envision what a jet-set life was. You’d have to explain the phrase to them, b/c it wasn’t even part of their vocabulary.

Thanks for the post of that article on Nick Gruber: I’d forgotten about him, bless him. See: one doesn’t need a CV: the Daily Mail will print your wind-tossed courtesan snaps.

There was a profile in the New Yorker a while back of Valentino and his ex-partner on their yacht with their current numbers sitting at breakfast. It quoted Valentino criticising his hair as not quite right. It just conveyed the whole dynamic. Good looks aren’t the only thing required for the role. You need the patience of a geisha.

For any Visconti fans in NYC, the Film Society of Lincoln Center kicks off an 11 day retrospective of 15 Visconti films starting tomorrow, Friday.

No camera has ever lavished such attention to the sensual charms of Alain Delon, Helmut Berger, et. al., as did Luchino's

There was this decent looking guy who used to frequent my gay watering hole in search of hot black men. Which is fine, but his benefactor was a wealthy but elderly, pudgy old queen would come after him, sit next to him at the bar and try to scare potential tricks away...it was too funny. The guy would be very flirty towards men he liked until the old man showed up. . Then he'd get all quiet. Eventually they relocated to the West Coast. The gigolo decided that he didn't want to give up his meal ticket...

Everyone is a whore - for something, somebody, or some price.

"Most blue-collar workers back then couldn’t even envision what a jet-set life was."

Yeah, because blue collar people never watch movies or tv shows about rich people

R109 thinks most hot blue-collar workers & potato-farmers “back then” owned a personal TV and went to the cinema every week. Bless your heart, little Millennial.

Owning a TV was considered a middle-class and upper middle-class luxury. Half the world (e.g. China, the old Soviet bloc, etc) didn’t even have TVs in most households until the 80s. Most people didn’t fly around the world back then either - it was only certain professionals and the very rich.

Cinemas & magazines would show some bling-bling, but people weren’t inundated & teased with that lifestyle on a daily basis like we are now. Mass-scale class awareness and its direct result (class envy & gold-digging) became more widespread in the 90s (with the advent of reality TV, which heavily mass promoted that bling-bling lifestyle) and the 00s (with the advent of social media and amateur digital porn - which any hot farmer’s son in the boondocks could make in his rusty backyard and instantly cash in).

Thanks, R106. A Visconti retrospective sounds epic. Love his film "Ossessione" (Italian version of "The Postman Always Rings Twice"). You're absolutely right, no one filmed male actors like he did - very languidly sensual, but in a realistic way. He never hurried the camera's pace or over-edited - instead he focused on interesting cinematography and lighting / framing choices. He took his sweet time and let us calmly enjoy each beautiful shot and each actor. It was almost meditative.

Spot on R111, filmed his male stars beautifully, and was obviously a pit man

"r109 thinks most hot blue-collar workers & potato-farmers “back then” owned a personal TV and went to the cinema every week. Bless your heart, little Millennial."

Bless your heart, reactionary Trump-voting baby boomer! Blue collar doesn't mean living in absolute poverty - my dad's family was blue collar but they had a tv in the 50s. And movies were much cheaper to attend in the past, people (even people who weren't well-off) went to the movies MORE than they do now. Wow, you are clueless. Don't attack other people for being dumb when you are basically retarded. Only people who watch Faux news attack millennials, you need some more original talking points.

Anecdotal evidence doesn't cut it, R113. Your "dad's family" anecdote is irrelevant. It's like saying "my great-granddaddy was a free black man, therefore slavery didn't exist!". What matters instead is global population statistics. "In the 50s" far fewer blue-collar households had TVs than they do now. Reportedly, in 1951 only ca. 20% of all US households owned a TV. And Europe was even more behind.

And back then there were far fewer bling-bling shows depicting REAL jet-set life, like Paris Hilton's former show and KUWT Kardashians. There were some fictional portrayals of a high-flying life (like James Bond), but most viewers understood that was just fiction, it wasn't real. Whereas shows like KUWTK are a real-life handbook for "feckless whores" - they've been teaching Millennial viewers since 2007 (when Millennials were coming of age) that if you put out a talentless porn tape showing a big ass, that alone can offer you a lucrative lifestyle.

Btw, you're [italic]such[/italic] a stereotypically Millennial-acting person, R113. And by that I mean: an easily triggered snowflake, who gets uppity for no good reason. Where did I "attack" Millennials? Show me, please. I don't actually blame Millennials for having such a high incidence of IG fame-whorism and gold-digging. I blame their [italic]parents[/italic] - i.e. the earlier generation that produced all those crap, envy-inducing reality TV shows and raised Millennials to be like that. So it's not your (our) fault - P.S. I'm a Millennial too.

[quote]Yeah, right. Most blue-collar workers back then couldn’t even envision what a jet-set life was. You’d have to explain the phrase to them, b/c it wasn’t even part of their vocabulary.

obviously a statement by someone completely ignorant of basic history of American movies

In the statement you quoted, R115, no one says "American movies". You're projecting.

And you don't seem to know what "jet-set" means. It means 'flying by (usually private) jet plane to various hot-spots around the globe'. And, no, that doesn't mean just going from Tulsa to NYC, or a short spring break in Mexico. It's international luxe travel to various prestigious locations, for a continuous string of exclusive parties - e.g. Miami to Ibiza to Barcelona to Bali to St. Barts to Hong Kong, and so on, many times each year.

Now please show me old "American movies" which show wealthy young people flying to Tokyo then to St. Tropez then to Rio de Janeiro then to Shanghai, just for a week of clubbing or yachting. You won't find many. Why? Because such an exclusive 'jet-set lifestyle' mostly wasn't in the public eye back then. And as it wasn't seen or promoted much on TV, a 'jet-set life' wasn't a widespread aspiration among US blue-collar workers. If it was, more Americans would have at least obtained a foreign passport.

"Yeah, right. Most blue-collar workers back then couldn’t even envision what a jet-set life was. You’d have to explain the phrase to them, b/c it wasn’t even part of their vocabulary."

Bullshit, human beings have always dreamed of living a life of luxury and high status, in every time and place since humans have been humans! Medieval peasants dreamt of their own lands and titles, ancient Roman plebians dreamt of joining the Patrician class and wearing a toga with a purple stripe, and I'm sure that pre-historic mammoth hunters dreamt of palaces made of mammoth bones and the finest flint-tipped spears.

Human beings are social animals, and IMHO the drive to rise within the herd and to impress others with status indicators is built into our very genes. Only the outward forms of status change with time, it used to be the yellow silk robes of an Emperor and sedan chairs carried by a dozen slaves, but now it's Armani suits and supercars.

*or rather, just a US passport (with a foreign travel visa).

[italic] Jealous, bitches ?

R117, you're missing the point again.

It’s not about whether people throughout history wanted to better their lives or not (of course they did). But it’s about what INFORMATION was accessible at all and promoted to them, which would inform their decision about what to even aspire to, where to set the bar, and how to get there.

The error in your sweeping assumption about ancient lower-class communities (plebeians, etc) - is that you assume they actually SAW how Patricians lived. Sure, some of them working as servants did. But the majority were peasants (living in villages, working on farmlands, etc) and never even had the luxury of visiting a city or a Roman villa, never mind seeing a Patrician in person or his lifestyle. Many Plebs never even left their farms or communes. Some were legally forbidden from leaving (indentured farm-hands).

People only saw what was around them - usually in their village. For example, you’d have 1 cow and the richest Pleb in your village would have 5 cows. THAT would be your lifetime top aspiration. Meanwhile, another Pleb living in the same country, but hundreds of miles away from your village (who in his youth fucked a Patrician and got money from him) had 10 million cows, plus a luxurious spa villa on some island. But you had no idea about that – you didn’t have easy access to that INFORMATION. So your biggest fantasy goal would continue to be just 5 cows, maybe 100 at most. But you wouldn’t even dream of having 10 million cows, or a spa villa on some island, thanks to some old Patrician trick – because you didn’t know anyone had that or could (realistically) achieve that.

But (as of very recent, especially since the 90s) we now live in an instantly interconnected world. Real lifestyle information is easily accessible and even heavily promoted – via internet and social media. Every farmer boy in Nebraska can now find out what kind of car Channing Tatum drives, what his house is worth, where he holidays, and most importantly what he did to make bank (stripping and dancing got him noticed). And since that info is blasted at us from every media outlet, that’s what many guys like him around the world now aspire to and try to mimic.

You said it perfectly: “the drive to rise [italic]within[/italic] the herd”. But now "within the herd" is not your little isolated commune or village, or your province, or your state, or even your country – it’s the entire globe. Future gigolos in Kuala Lumpur or Prague can now follow daily IG feeds on how young kept guys live in Monaco or Miami – and say to themselves: “We don’t want to aspire to live like the richest hard-working guy in our modest village. The global internet has opened our eyes and we’ve seen the light! We now want to live like those real-life kept guys live in Monaco.”

This is the result of absolute globalism and instant digital inter-connectivity. It’s a new phenomenon – it didn’t exist before.

R120, it's too bad you used the example of Roman plebians.

Because in the cities, the rich and poor lived side by side! Really, many many people lived in multi-story apartment buildings, and the wealthy would live on the ground floor, the semi-prosperous would live up a flight of stairs or two, and the poor would live up several flights of stairs in the hottest part of a building with no air conditioning and probably no ventilation. Plus anyone in Rome could go to the Forum and see the senators and high priests, and all social classes went to the same public baths. So the rich and the poor saw much more of each other in person than people do in a modern city, and the poor would know exactly what they envied.

And I disagree that people only aspire to what they see in person. Don't you remember all those fairy tales about Cinderella or Aladdin marrying royalty and living happily ever after in palaces? Do you think that the people who told those tales had ever actually been inside a palace and had seen how the other half lived? Not bloody likely, yet they still thought of marrying into that lifestyle as something wonderful and enviable, a guarantee of happiness, which shows how much they knew. So while yes, people today have far more information about how the rich actually live, that doesn't mean the people of the past didn't also have a strong desire to live like the rich themselves.

Girls! The topic is kept fancy boys!

[quote]No camera has ever lavished such attention to the sensual charms of Alain Delon, Helmut Berger, et. al., as did Luchino's

Pfft.

R84: Your sic-worthy butchering of "highschool" instantly rendered your howling spiel moot. It's too bad that the internet exposes illiteracy without pity.

Now back to the subject of interesting sociopathic mooches.

[quote] Roman plebians. Because in the cities, the rich and poor lived side by side! Really, many many people lived in multi-story apartment buildings … with no air conditioning

Oh my, no A/C in Ancient Rome? Well, you don’t say!

And nope, R121:

[quote] “When we think of Ancient Rome, we often think of the cities of Rome filled with people, large buildings, and senators walking around in togas. However, [bold]most of the population of the Roman Empire lived in the countryside.[/bold] Life in the countryside was very different from that in the city.”

[quote] Don't you remember all those fairy tales about Cinderella or Aladdin marrying royalty and living happily ever after in palaces?

Fairytales were abstract unachievable ideas, they weren’t actual specific goals. They were a form of total escapism and entertainment, not life strategy. Like modern people daydreaming they’d become a Jedi in the Star Wars Universe.

How much money exactly did Aladdin have? How many acres of land did Cinderella own? If some InstaSlut married and got a share of $1 million – has he achieved an ‘Aladdin lifestyle’? Or should it be $10 million? Or $50 million? Or $100 million? $100m sounds nice – but there are plenty of people in this world who have a $1 billion fortune or more, which dwarfs that. So what does the fairytale say – how much money exactly do you have to score to think ‘you’ve made it’ like Aladdin?

And people generally didn’t see fairytales as blueprints for life or even realistic back in the day. Peasants didn’t grow up with a strategy of “I’m gonna find a rich Prince and marry him, like in that fairytale”. Because for the most part marriages were pre-arranged, on both sides. What do you think were the historic chances of a GUY from the lower working / servant class actually being ALLOWED to marry a Royal Princess (heiress to the throne), like your Aladdin example? Zero.

Fairytales were largely completely unrealistic escapism, like daydreaming: “If only I were 1 ft taller or my cock was 3 inches bigger”.

He was a whore, darlin'.

Meanwhile, compare this with what’s happening today: Billionaire Sir Philip Green’s daughter, Chloe Green, just publicly had a kid with that feckless whore, Jeremy Meeks (the “hot felon”, whose only claim to fame is his police mugshot that was PRed across all international Social Media). Rumors are they plan to marry, he divorced his other babymama as soon as he met Green. A century ago, if a lower-class, social-climbing ex-con (especially a black one) knocked up an heiress – he’d be thrown into the river to feed the fish and she'd be disowned.

But nowadays? He’s set for life.

^ who says we haven’t made progress in the world! We’re entering a platinum age of gold-digging and feckless whoredom with opportunities for all.

Jeremy Rubiroso Meeks?

he plays polo with his BBC

Though, to be fair to Meeks, Green's dad (Sir Phillip) should have gone to jail too, on even bigger charges - so it's a very suitable match.

I almost applaud Meeks' talented gold-digging and unwavering focus. Dropped his other babymama and small kid like a hot potato, as soon as he got a sniff of Green's money. Wasted no time and immediately put a kid in Green's oven to ensure annual support (as a safety net in case his marriage plan burns & crashes, or if Green's dad cuts her funds). Philip Green apparently was aghast at first, but then softened up a bit because Meeks made him a granddaddy. Very, very talented gigolo.

R132 - agreed, his social ascendency is unparalleled and all using the only possessions he had: face, cock, body, and sperm. American biracials seem to be doing well these days with the British upper classes (old or new money).

Ex feckless social climbing whore here. In the bronze age it was more about finding a companion that fit with your social group; someone who was well spoken, social, charming, and was of interest for something besides their physical form. Most chippies focused on what they could get rather than HOW TO FIT>> into a world with an entirely different set of rules. I think too in the 60's-70's that class boundaries were less rigid but that middle and lower class folks has less information and more discomfort (fear )in any social situation they did not grow up in. Instant panic at the dinner party! You needed confidence and a good social eye to maneuver and this was just not taught to the average jane or joe in the last century. Now everyone BELIEVES it's their birthright. I'm sure it's easier to catch someones eye these days but the skill to make it more than a long weekend is still rare. There is a difference too between old money, which would see you as an valued adjunct to their life, versus now when EVERYTHING has been reduced to a product/commodity. Not saying that world was less cutthroat, just less blatant.

Lessons on feckless whorism, courtesy of the Daily Fail, Oct. 2017:

“Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when that meeting took place. Chloe Green, daughter of Topshop tycoon Sir Philip and his wife, Tina, has formally introduced her folks to her new boyfriend.

He’s Jeremy Meeks, a former convict and gangster turned model, with a rap sheep as colourful and extensive as his tattoo collection, an abandoned wife and a 7-year-old son at home in the U.S.

Known as the ‘hot felon’, he has captured the heart of heiress Chloe, who is the apple of Daddy’s eye. He has enjoyed a passionate summer frolicking on a yacht on the Mediterranean, and hanging out with her in Los Angeles. Now, he’s taken the next step and met the family.

Last week he was seen with Chloe’s mum on the gargantuan £100 million Lionheart yacht owned by Daddy Green. Since then he’s popped up in Monaco with Lady Green and Chloe.

The word is that the Greens are doing up an apartment in their 29-storey block — the most prestigious address in Monte Carlo — with a view to Chloe moving in with Jeremy.

Born and raised in Stockton, California — his mother was a heroin addict, his father in prison — he maintains his tough childhood drove him to crime. Stockton Police say Meeks, 33, was ‘one of the most violent criminals in the area’.

He was convicted of possessing an unlicensed semi-automatic pistol and jailed for 2 years in 2014. Before that, he had been in court over offences including resisting arrest, negligent driving and identity theft. In 2002 he served 2 years for grand theft — stealing £230 worth of goods.

There was also a conviction for ‘robbery and corporal injury to a child’, a shocking incident in which he beat a 16-year-old ‘to a pulp’.

His police mugshot taken in 2014 launched a modelling career after his release in 2016. That brought him, this spring, to a party at the Cannes film festival. There he met Chloe, 26.”

We will see whether Meeks manages to maintain his career in whoredom, but I suspect not, I suspect that after his heiress gets tired of him her family will give him a lot of money to go away and he'll vanish. But if he can make it from the Stockton jails to a long-term place in the upper crust, he'll beat Meghan Markle for the title of the greatest social climber of the 21st century!

But I doubt he'll stick. Because the main thing that makes the successful whore isn't the looks or the dick, it's the ability to please on many levels and not just the sexual, and to fit in to the rich bastard's world.

Good point, R133. Markle’s very talented, but she’s got nothing on Meeks, in terms of raw hustler talent that defies the odds. He has a criminal record that would scare most billionaires away, and was born into a family that’s more jaw-droppingly criminal than Markle’s. His dad is a convicted murderer-rapist who spent 33 years in prison for fatally stabbing a woman 36 times, over the course of 5 hours of torturing her. His mom’s a heroin addict, and spent time in prison too. His half-siblings are ex-convicts as well, just like Meeks. It runs in the family.

Yet, in spite of all this damning history, he still managed to nab a person far richer than Harry. Harry’s got some nice inheritance from Diana, plus annual income from his new Sussex Duchy land. But he can’t live too lavishly or ostentatiously - b/c he’ll be publicly crucified by angry British taxpayers, who are begrudgingly bankrolling his lifestyle (especially since he’s not even the heir). Charles likes Harry as his son (probably...), but he’s not going to give him all his money either. Harry went on that wild Vegas party stag, and Charles blasted him in the press for it.

Whereas Chloe is Daddy Green’s little princess. She outscores Harry in terms of available funds and absolute freedom. Philip dotes on her and seems to grant her every expensive wish, unlike Charles with Harry.

So Meeks’ new lifestyle is much more free and liberating than Royal Family life, where every step, every dress, every word has to be pre-approved and vetted. He won’t be forced to attend boring, stuffy RF ribbon-cuttings in the rain or wear mandated pantyhose like Markle. He won’t have to act & dress faux-modestly and speak conservatively to appease angry British taxpayers like Markle, who will always have to walk on eggshells, afraid of placing a foot wrong.

Instead, Meeks and Chloe are free to go yachting literally all-year round, never even having to ‘pretend to work’ like the Royals. The Green family has given the middle finger to British taxpayers a long time ago, and got away with it. So their immense fortune comes with almost no strings attached and they’re not accountable to anyone.

Meeks definitely scored better than Markle. Bravo.

Though I agree with R136 that it’ll be harder for him to hang in there. Markle will likely have a longer streak, as the RF doesn’t like divorce. But Harry can still easily divorce & ditch Markle too along the road, just like Charles did with Diana and his brother, Prince Andrew, did with Fergie.

Job security (based on rising divorce stats) is a big problem now in the married feckless whore community.

The one thing that Meeks and his future father-in-law, Philip Green, have in common is that they’re both crooks. So perhaps that will create a lasting shared family bond between them, who knows.

Was / is model RJ King Valentino’s kept boy? Italian blogs are convinced that yes. But I’m doubtful - Valentino’s 86, he probably can’t even be bothered anymore...

Was at the Townhouse last night - lots of feckless whores out lookin. Good variety of body types, ethnicities, etc. something for every taste. Feckless whoredom is alive and well with most going pretty cheap!

And is Bel Ami’s pretty-boy “Marc Vidal” still kept by Valentino’s ex? Or has he been circuit-fucked on some yacht near St. Tropez and then thrown out with the empty Bollinger bottles?

"His friends sighed at the deluge of attachments which arrived by email, along with desperate pleas for financial assistance."

Sighs and some very discreet eye rolling. Loved it, OP!

Gotta hand it to Valentino & his longtime ex, Giammetti - they have admirable taste & pick nice kept ones. All of ‘em professional whores of course, but wholesome-looking and classically handsome.

Not the weird-looking (wonky-toothed, big-eared, cross-eyed) stray dogs that Klein, Geffen and Lagerfeld respectively dig up somewhere and take in, probably out of pity & charity.

It’s honestly so disappointing. You’d think all those Velvet Mafia types could afford to scout out the best of the best, like Visconti did. But, no, those lazy super-rich bastards settle for such mediocre, bland, sometimes even fugly! feckless whores. I want to envy them but I can’t even.

Thank you to V & G for keeping up good aesthetic standards. You guys are a rare beacon of hope in the dark tunnel of insipid, uninspired, bad taste, exhibited by today’s super-rich.

(Tried to embed a photo of Vidal, but not working. Link below is the best I can do. NSFW)

I was a confused gayling at 17 in a small dusty town in flyover state when a Christian right Senator visited to give some speeches. He spotted me at the back of a crowd and later one of his aides told me the Senator wanted to see me in his room. After ushering me into the room the aide quietly departed. The Senator pretended to care about youth and our ideals but his real intent was to seduce me and the charade quickly ended. The guy was an insatiable top and my previously untouched bottom was sore for weeks. He gave me $500 and my taste for easy money was born. Now, 30 years later I'm worn out but had a good run as one closeted queen after another paid for my company while I enjoyed fine restaurants, sunny resorts, and boring sex. I put away enough that now I can afford to relax on the shores of Florida while looking for just the right partner with whom I will spend my golden years. I'm in no rush and I'm no longer bored.

Wow, R143. It’s always those sexually repressed senators... I was approached at a bar in Nashville’s party district a few years ago by a young dorky guy who said a “Senator” wanted to talk to me. I turned around and saw a big old bald guy sitting at a far bar table. I told the ‘assistant’ that the “Senator” can come up & talk to me himself, instead of sending young minions to bring me over to him, like a horse on a lead.

That apparently wasn’t the right answer b/c the minion looked at me nervously and quickly disappeared.

Was the Senator named Lindsay?

My heavens! darling r145. The person described by r143 is an insatiable top.

Whatever happened to Harris Wofford, 90 year old ex senator who married his 40 year old boyfriend “child bride” Matthew Charleton? Now that is a feckless whore!

R134, would love to hear more from both you and the one languishing on Floridian shores.

"And by that I mean: an easily triggered snowflake, who gets uppity for no good reason"

Look who's talking, you're the one who started it with the nastiness. And the "triggered" stuff is SO Fox News, you need to find some more original talking points.

And r143 should totally name the senator, if he was a Christian right homophobe.

[Quote]I met this handsome guy in his late twenties who said he had been kept by "the second richest man in Belgium". Whatever. What was amazing to me was that, even though he had only been in the city a very short while, he had quickly sussed out every A list circle and knew the name of every rich gay man within the city limits. The sheer focus and calculation! I haven't seen anything like it since a trio of Columbians turned up, and within a week had networked like 4ft high Road Runners. I've never experienced more human energy put to pushing oneself forward. Absolutely exhausting people: it was if they needed to climb from a Third World trash dump to Trump Tower by the end of the month, without a moment's reflection, or it would all be over. But it certainly made the rest of us feel as if we were sleepwalking through life.

Oh my. Did you have to check into a treatment center for exhaustion after that traumatizing experience. And are you still running in goldigger circles and whoring it up or have you exited that life?

[quote] you're the one who started it with the nastiness.

Oh dear, R149. Where was I “nasty” to you in my early posts? Come on, show me. The reason I say you act triggered is because you seem to have some kind of unprovoked victim complex, saying people are “attacking” you.

Nope - any “attacks” are a figment of your imagination. Everything I noted about my own generation (Gen Y) is justified - but you instantly mistakenly assumed I was an “eldergay” and that I was “attacking” you. Ah, the irony.

r151, the snideness in your posts is pretty apparent. And I doubt you are "Gen Y" - you sound like some old guy who watches Fox News, how else to explain the tired "snowflake" talking points?

This kind of snotty back and forth is what will prevent both you feckless whores from ever catching any kind of meal ticket. First of all no one cares what you think and your job is to take it and swallow any shade that comes your way. Literally and figuratively.

Some time back there was an article floating around about one of David Geffin's paid companions. I wonder what ever happened to him and how Geffin treats his whores once they've reached their expiration date.

[quote]plus annual income from his new Sussex Duchy land.

There’s no “Sussex of Duchy land”. His only money is his split of the money Diana got from Charles, the Queen Mum’s legacy, and any cut from the Sovereign Grant that the Queen deems to give. It amounts to millions but still needs careful husbanding: he’s poor in super rich terms, and Markle’s taste for couture would be highly eroding.

The only royal duchies with lands & assets are those of Lancaster & Cornwall established by Edward III: funds go to the monarch & Prince of Wales respectively.

It remains to be seen whether Jeremy Meeks is a stellar feckless whore, or if he's dumb lucky. Or met a rich girl who's just plain dumb.

It can be easier when your mark is intellectually challenged. However long term it's tougher as who can resist an eye roll or a quip when given such good material. Eventually these pile up and you are shown the door.

R156 - all of the above

R152, I asked you to prove your claim that I was being "nasty" to you in my early posts. But you failed to back up your exaggerated claim. It seems to me that you're the type of person who says "he looked at me the wrong way!" = imagining offence where there is none.

r159, if you don't detect the snide tone then you are a moron. You are probably a Trump voter who is offended by football players kneeling. Get a life, why do you keep going on and on about this?

[quote] You are probably a Trump voter who is offended by football players kneeling.

[quote] reactionary Trump-voting baby boomer

R160, you sure have a wild imagination. Maybe put it to better use by writing a sci-fi novel, rather than trying to guess and imagine what other DLers' life and voting habits are like. As I said, I am Gen Y (born in mid-80s), not Gen X or Gen BB. I couldn't care less about your "football players", who are all exposing themselves to a high risk of Chronic encephalopathy brain disease by constantly bashing their heads together (for your silly entertainment). I am not a "Trump voter" - since I don't vote or live in your silly country, nor do I want to. But since you're trying so hard to guess my voting habits, I consistently vote for the relatively socially progressive Labour party (who put your Dems to shame and make them look like Ayn Rand conservatives by comparison).

Anyway, let's wrap this up. (2 Millennials arguing is actually quite funny, it's almost meta. Though I suspect I'm some years older than you). I didn't mean to offend you personally. I just voiced a reasonable opinion about my Generation. The way new easy access to largely narcissistic, self-promotional social media (like IG), the rise of amateur digital p0rn shot in one's own bedroom, and very candid (almost daily) TV shows explaining steb-by-step how to whore yourself out (e.g. Millionaire Matchmaker, KUWTK), exacerbated the problem of gold-digging and fame-whoring in society. I'm not even condemning it, I'm just noticing an increasing general trend and telling it like it is.

Girls, girls, you're both petty!

God can we get back to stories of feckless whoring? Im fascinated by guys who think they can pull it off...

if you're hot and the mark is desperate enough, it's easy

[quote]God can we get back to stories of feckless whoring?

Exactly!

I note that the contents of Pierre Bergé's many homes are to be auctioned later this year, as well as his library, which will no doubt bring in another $100 million or so for his charities. Where are the gay Maecenas today for young men who aspire to visionary patrons? As well as his boyfriends and husbands, he was unafraid to support gay projects, including the Journal Of Homosexuality, and Têtu, which he owned.

Really enjoying this thread, especially the detailed accounts of social whores of yesteryear.

This is the DL that I love and have been following for 15-16 years.

R166, me too.

When Ives died and the apartment went on the block, for the photos about half the gay stuff had to be put away. Too gay for France!

WEHT Dotson Rader? Lived on Ruth Ford, they said.

R8 or he was a pedo.

R169 he is still alive apparently. I have never read his biography about Tennessee Williams as I read reviews that said it is not well researched or written.

The Town House in NYC is enjoying a renaissance, feckless whoring is alive and well.

R143 so who was the creepy chicken hawk senator, if what you posted actually happened?

True R28 look at the twink Calvin Klein got with, and the ones after Nick.

After coming out as bi, he dated 21-year-old porn actor and model Nick Gruber, beginning in 2011. Gruber proved to be something of a wild child, though, getting arrested on cocaine charges and being thrown out of Fire Island’s Ascension party.

Baker seems a lot more level-headed, though x-rated videos he appeared in did resurface.

R139 wasn't there a gay serial killer that used to pick up victims in NYC'S Townhouse bar?

[quote] I think too in the 60's-70's that class boundaries were less rigid but that middle and lower class folks has less information and more discomfort (fear )in any social situation they did not grow up in. Instant panic at the dinner party! You needed confidence and a good social eye to maneuver and this was just not taught to the average jane or joe in the last century

Is this why some DLers are still so obsessed with what is considered "high class" (spacing before the zip code on a hand typed letter?). It's always been baffling to me.

I’m sure there are serial killers lurking there now. Some of those old queens are so awful most wouldn’t mind it!

Great read OP

TBH, if someone showed us that as the outline for a script, we'd probably say it was way too over the top, too much name dropping and all that.

He really sounds like a character from a Victorian era novel who is intent on keeping up his social status and standard of living at all costs, and thus he rapidly blew through the "Canadian railway stocks" (wasn't that a Downton Abbey plot twist too--Robert investing too much money in Canadian railway stocks?)

But great read OP-- I had to go back and make sure it was real. Thank you.

R176 - I think a lot of gays are pretty well informed about and interested in art, interior design, etc., the same things that the upper classes pursue. A lot of gays are in professions and lines of work that service these classes and over time the “help” gets more uppity than their employers. Finally, I think snobbery is just a passive aggressive weapon that gay men use to compensate for lack of power in other realms.

Many of today's whores seem much more transactional--there's no attempt at any social interaction, just "you give me $500, I'll let you look at my dick" or purely sexual transactions playing out on Grindr. Phillips and his ilk managed to fit it socially as well.

That's why it always strikes me (and others my age) as odd when you see things like Calvin Klein bringing some young ho to a charity dinner or Wendy Deng on vacation with a 23 year old male model.

Banging them on DL seems far classier and honest than taking them out and pretending you're in an actual relationship with them.

That all sounds accurate R179, a lot of them have clearly spent time around a generation of wealthy employers who are likely now in their 70s and 80s--lots of references to things my grandparents were all about but that my parents could not be bothered with.

And all that you've noted is probably why a number of those people will also pretend to come from similarly high born families.

All so alien to me, but I'm sure it mattered a lot back in the day.

So glad this thread is back!

Apparently Berger was absolutely furious all during the filming of "Death in Venice"--at 26, he was too old to be cast as Tadzio, and the 16-year-old Swedish actor, Bjorn Andresen (R), Visconti found to play the part was so memorably beautiful that he remains even to this day most people's idea of Tadzio.

Even more threatening sexually to Berger was the hunky Italian young actor, Sergio Garfagnoli (L), whom Visconti found to play Tadzio's best friend Jasiu (note: jasiu is supposed to be as young as Tadzio--14 in the original novella--, and so is certainly not supposed to have hairy muscular legs!) . Apparently Berger stormed and fumed during the entire shoot and exhausted everyone because he was terrified he would be replaced as Visconti's prime kept boy.

I think he sounds absolutely charming, (no snark at all) and was worth every penny his benefactors spent on him. He seemed to genuinely care about his friends and lovers and have a true interest in them beyond the lifestyle they could provide.

He really was a relic of a bygone era, and more courtesan than whore. I would have happily read any book he would have written

May he RIP.

Many years ago, in the late 80’s as a young college jock cracking the closet door, I met some older gay guys. By older, I mean they were probably early 30’s at the most - to me at the time, that was older. Anyway, they weren’t kept or keepers but thru them, I did meet one kept fellow. Very good looking man in his 50’s I’d guess - he had that distinguished look. Obviously gay - not that was femme (he was actually a fairly muscular gym guy for his age and the time), just his vibe, his looks, his comments. Anyway, he was married to an older woman (she was very wealthy heiress) who knew of his activities, and who had her own but wanted the husband, the arm candy.

I came to find out, while everyone knew about him, everyone pretended not too. He’d always play the faithful husband role when together, but when wifey was away doing her thing, he would have these amazing all male parties either at her townhouse in NYC or her house in the Hamptons. Their relationship and the parties were quite the eye opener to younger me. I was told by my older friends, this fellow had a generous allowance from the wife, and earned a decent amount as an appraiser- nothing full time, more like on retainer for one of the big auction houses for when they needed him.

What made him so interesting to me was that while he was kept by the wife, he also had his own fellows he would keep. He had a taste for younger muscled jock types, so his parties would be like 40% his friends, 60% muscled jock boys. There were some amazing eye candy - especially in the Hamptons where for the jock boys, less was more in terms of clothing.

Once he had a boy (generic term - these were all by and large college boys, or just out of college) he’d give them an allowance, treated them well, took them on 5 star vacations, gave them gifts, the whole nine yards. For their part, the boys weren’t to go out with other guys, and were expected to be on call as he needed. Usually they didn’t last long - about a year or so - he’d find a new one and rotate him in, and the other out. And yes, I was inquired after lol but young me, while fascinated by all of it, was too scared I guess to follow thru. What might have been, eh?

Funny enough, I did wind up meeting someone who was one of the fellows who did follow thru almost 20 years later. His stories made me question my decision but as he said to me, while he wouldn’t trade the memories or experiences he was relieved when he was rotated out. Still a very hot guy, wound up as in house counsel at one of the big banks so he was fairly well heeled. We actually became FWBs for about 6 months when we were both single, and I can understand why the keeper picked him - he was both blessed and skilled with his blessing. We’re still in touch but he’s living overseas now so right now just F without the WB.

As for the kept man, he’s a widower now. He gets an yearly stipend from her estate and lifetime use of the townhouse and the house out East. He’s actually been with the same boy for a number of years now. According to my former FWB above, the kept man is 100% besotted with this boy. So rather than rotate him out, the kept guy has the boy bring in young big muscle boys to play with now for once offs or short term fun. He’s easily 70-75 by now, so good for him I say, but I do wonder about the current boy how he’ll wind up, what he is or thinks he will get out of this relationship.

Ah well - not my life so not my concern either.

Thanks OP and others for this thread and my walk down memory lane! Hope my walk wasn’t too boring for you gents!

With the advent of gay marriage, gold digging has taken on a whole new dimension and truly separates the “ladies” from the common “hos”. It’s also interesting to see who the older gentlemen actually prefer at the end of the day - the ladies or the hos. Bottom line ladies, if the old guy doesn’t ask you to marry him within two years, move on. Don’t waste precious youth.

I think that the main thing in life is to decide what you want (or don't want) the most and be ready to pay for it.

That could be a lavish or prestigious lifestyle if you're less privileged, or maybe dating someone outside your looks or intellectual league if you have means. Straight women have done this forever (and fuck why not?) so there's no shame in it.

There may be a price to pay at the end of the day in terms of lack of family or whatever, but that could happen in anyone's life, gay or straight. Life is too short to not do what the fuck you want.