Re:

This is not =ad

On 3/8/11 3:47 PM, "Jeffrey Epstein" jeevacation@gmail.com wrote:

Jeffrey and Ghisla=ne: Notes on New York's Oddest Alliance

<http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/03/notes-on-new-yorks-oddest-couple-jeffrey-epstein-and-ghislaine-maxwell.html http://www.vanityfair.com/online=daily/2011/03/notes-on-new-yorks-oddest-couple-jeffrey-epstein-and-ghislain=-maxwell.html>

by Vicky =ard <http://=www.vanityfair.com/contributors/vicky-ward http://www.vanityfair.com/contributors/vicky-ward >

March 8, 2011, 2:30 PM

"I've got a story idea=for you. The rebuilding of Indonesia. Or New Orleans. Or both. Go there. I&=8217;ve just been. You will never think the same way about anything again.&=8221;

So spoke not Bill or Melinda Gates, but Ghislaine Maxwell, the 48-year-old =oman being written up everywhere at the moment as the alleged "procur=r" of young women for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein, 57, is the financier who spent a year in jail on charges of solici=ing prostitutes—and now there is talk of another investigation becaus= various women, now in their twenties and thirties, have come forward with =llegations that he molested them when they were under-age. The allegations =irst surfaced in British newspapers, which have zeroed in on Epstein'= friendship with Prince Andrew, who has recently tried to publicly disassoc=ate himself from his old pal.

I wrote a piece for Vanity Fair in 2003 called "The Talented M=. Epstein." It was largely a business piece that focused on his myste=ious exit from Bear Stearns in 1981, his close relationships with Jimmy Cay=e, Les Wexner, the chairman of Limited Brands, and above all, the man who c=aimed to be his mentor, Steven Jude Hoffenberg, who is currently serving a =0-year-jail sentence for bilking investors in Towers Financial out of $450 =illion.

The piece alluded to Epstein's great friendship with Maxwell, and how=she introduced him to young women with whom he had sexual relationships. Bu=, in the end, the story didn't really go there, focusing instead on t=e issue that remains a mystery—how Jeffrey made his money, and how Gh=slaine made hers.

This is not to say I didn't hear stories about the girls. I did. But,=not knowing quite who to believe, I concentrated on the intriguing financia= mystery instead. But now the women have come back. Not the same ones, diff=rent ones. And their stories are bone-chilling. Journalists from England ha=e phoned—and, in one case, flown—to ask me about Epstein and Ma=well. Who is he? And the British, especially, want to know: Who is she? At =his point, I am so bored of repeating myself to others—it was, after =11, my 2003 Vanity Fairstory that really brought him into the limeli=ht—that I have decided to write about this myself.

Bizarrely, perhaps, I have gotten to know Jeffrey and Ghislaine far better rl>after my piece than before it. I kept running into both of them, separately, at parties. Jeffrey is not a social animal so he usually has a coupl= of young women with him who stand two feet behind him, as if serving a mon=rch. "Do they speak?" I remember asking him once, nodding at hi= lookalike blondes. He laughed. "Not like you,Vicky," wa= his riposte.

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I remembered that when we'd once discussed math—in particular, =n isosceles triangle—and I revealed I hadn't studied math since=l was 14 (such is, or was, the way of the British educational system), I re=eived a package at home via messenger. It was a book: "Math for idiot=."

So he is not without humor, even though he doesn't drink or smoke, an= hates restaurants.

"Jeffrey knows a good deal about most subjects," newspaper publ=sher Mort Zuckerman told me last week. He was certainly preaching to the co=verted. The truth is, Epstein does know a lot about a lot of things.=Just a few moments in his company and you know this to be true.

When I saw pictures of Prince Andrew walking in Central Park with Jeffrey, =y immediate thought was that "Andy"—as Jeffrey calls him&=8212;is probably asking for help with his role as British trade envoy, or w=atever his strange title is. Because if one thing's for sure: When it=comes to international business, Jeffrey knows what he's talking abou= far more than "Andy" does. Which is why Leon Black, Mort Zucke=man and a few other financiers hang out with him.

And Ghislaine?

Full disclosure: I like her. Most people in New York do. It's almost =mpossible not to.

She is always the most interesting, the most vivacious, the most unusual pe=son in any room. I've spent hours talking to her about the third worl= at a bar until 2am. She is as passionate as she is knowledgeable. She is c=rious. She has spent weeks at the bottom of the ocean, literally going deep=r than anyone else. She has sent me a DVD of the fish there. Her rolodex wo=ld blow away almost anyone else's I can think of—probably even =upert Murdochs'. She is very well-read and can talk about most things=for hours. She is passionate about Bill Clinton with whom she is close frie=ds.

Calvo-Platero, Yet, (known touchingly, fondly to when her close she had friends=as to give a "the speech Tennis at the Goddess") 40th birthday Ghislaine party shook o= her a little best with friend, nerves. Ariadne =hen it comes down to things she really cares about—and Ariadne is one=of them—Ghislaine shows her vulnerability.

And that vulnerability is key to understanding her friendship with Jeffrey.=BR>

"He saved her," I remember a close friend of mine telling me. &=8220;When her father died, she was a wreck; inconsolable. And then Jeffrey =ook her in. She's never forgotten that—and never will."

In many ways, the socially awkward Epstein with his big house, plane, islan= and ranch was the perfect replacement for her father, the late Robert Maxw=ll, newspaper tycoon and criminal. Sure, Jeffrey had his sexual pecadillos,=but then Ghislaine's father was not without his oddities. After all, =t was he who died leaving a massive "black hole" he'd fra=dulently created. To Ghislaine, Jeffrey's habits may not have seemed =hat strange.

In fact, she probably figured, rather like I have, after years of writing a=out he very rich, that most successful people in the end either have some w=ird habit (the late Bruce Wasserstein had the weight issues, the girl issue=, and moved countries to avoid paying tax), or they break the law (Sam Waks=l, Martha Stewart.) You don't tend to get to the top by being the wor=d's most balanced human being. Even the folksy Warren Buffett didnrs=17;t quite manage a normal life—whatever that is. He had a second :=20;wife" for many years whose existence he has been open about.

So what to make of the current fuss over Ghislaine? I haven't spoken =o her or to Jeffrey, but I suspect that her loyalty to friends like Bill Cl=nton will keep her in good stead, in the end, she'll be out and about=as always. Look at Waksal and Stewart. No one sees them and thinks: crimina=. Au contraire. In this city, money makes up for all sorts of blemishes.

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