Pae -Ms.PerysFre rssApil410 21


Dionne Warwick: The Golden Voice of


 by Jaqui Goddard
 The Telegraph
 Her name is among the
 brightest in recording indus-
try history, her songs provid-
ing the soundtrack for a gen-
eration and earning her a
place as one of the most suc-
cessful hit-makers of all time.
 After more than five
decades of music-making that
won her five Grammy
awards, more than 60 charted
singles and global album
sales totalling more than 100

 As Dionne Warwick, one o
most successful singers of th
century, declares bankruptcy
Goddard investigates how a
earning $100,000 a month c
down to her last $1,000 in ca

million copies, Dionne
Warwick might have been
assumed to have earned her-
self a comfortable retirement.
 Yet her recent bankruptcy
filing reveals financial tan-
gles that belie her musical
success. At the age of 72, the
music legend who once
reaped seven-figure pay
checks is down to her last
$1,000 in cash and in $10
million of tax debt, it claims.
 The 50-page document,
lodged in a New Jersey bank-
ruptcy court, provides in
humiliating detail the particu-
lars of Warwick's personal
finances, even down to her
monthly $90 bill for garbage
disposal and the fact that, on
March 17, she underwent a
debt counselling session over
the internet.
 Her income exceeds her
outgoings by just $10 a
month, she owes $20,000 on
her credit card, and debts
totaling $505,737 to a former
lawyer and a former business
manager. Personal assets total
just over $25,000.
 "We had no other resort
other than to file bankruptcy
so that we could get this off


her back finally," her bank-
ruptcy attorney, Daniel Stolz,
told Rolling Stone, declaring
his client an "innocent victim
of terrible mismanagement"
during the 1980s and 1990s.
 Though Warwick is up to
 date with her taxes, her debt
 to the Internal Revenue
 Service is the result of dues
 accumulated on tax bills dat-
 ing back to 1991.
 "Before she knew it, she
 owed a gazillion dollars in
 taxes. She's actually paid
 more than the face
f the amount of the
re 20th
 e 20th taxes, but with all
V, Jacqui of the crazy inter-
star once est and penalties
would be that they add, the
ash. number kept
 mushrooming,"
 said Mr Stolz.
 A cousin of singer Whitney
 Houston, who died of a
 cocaine-related drowning last
 year, Warwick first performed
 professionally in 1961 after
 she was discovered by the
 songwriting duo of Burt
 Bacharach and Hal David.
 She had her first hit within a
 year with Don't Make Me
 Over and, over the ensuing
 decade, released 18 consecu-
 tive Top 100 singles, includ-
 ing Walk on By, Anyone Who
 Had a Heart, Alfie, Say a
 Little Prayer I'll Never Fall
 in Love Again, and Do You
 Know the Way to San Jose?
 Later hits included Then
 Came You and Heartbreaker.
 She has had more hits in the
 charts than any other female
 vocalist except Aretha
 Franklin.
 In the 1990s, she became
 the public face of the Psychic
 Friends Network, a 1-900
 service that connected callers
 with clairvoyants for $3.99 a
 minute. It earned her $3 mil-
 lion a year before the parent
 company went bankrupt.
 With two children's books,
 a best-selling autobiography,


a fragrance line, a new album
and a current world tour to
supplement her 50 years of
showbusiness cheques, the
question of Warwick's disap-
pearing fortune is indeed baf-
fling.
 It is not the first time that
money woes have surfaced;
in 1993, she filed for so-
called "Chapter 11" protec-
tion from tax debts a case
that was resolved after she
surrendered three cars includ-
ing her BMW.
 In Warwick's case, the
unnamed manager blamed for
her financial troubles was
fired years ago. Attempts
have been made over the
years to strike a deal with the
IRS, to which she owes $7
million, and the California
Franchise Tax Board, to
which she owes $3 million,
that would bring her debts
under control, but without
success.
 IQuite what she offered is
unclear. In her bankruptcy fil-
ing, Warwick who lives in a
rented detached home in the
village of South Orange, New
Jersey details monthly
expenses of $20,940 and
monthly income of $20,950,
leaving her just $10 in float.
 The monthly outgoings
include $5,000 in rent, $5,000
for "housekeeping/sitting",


$4,000 for a personal assis-
tant, $1,000 for electricity,
$500 for the telephone, $500
for food and $750 for laundry
and dry cleaning.
 Most of her income comes
from a $14,000 monthly pen-
sion, which is supplemented
by $2,200 a month in Social
Security benefits.
 She also receives an aver-
age $6,250 a month in wages
from Star Girl Productions,
the company she lists as her
employer. Successful artists
commonly set up such enti-
ties known as "loan out cor-
porations" through which to
provide their services and
reap legal tax benefits.
 Intriguingly for a woman
who only last October told an
interviewer, "My mainstay is
shopping. I love going down
to Givenchy and the bou-
tiques. I don't shop for what I
need, just what I want,"
Warwick lists her monthly
clothing expenses as zero.
 She is down to her last two
fur coats and two pairs of dia-
mond earrings, collectively
worth $13,000, plus a
wardrobe of "gowns and


evc
$5
rev
 F


a Bankrupt Diva

 ,. 5. beds, dining room set and lap-
 : top computer are together
 S valued at just $1,500.
 "Assorted artwork and paint-
 ;. ings" make up the $5,000
 i remainder of her total
 S$25,500 assets.
 ; In a poorly typed note post-
 ed to her official website, she
 tells fans: "i'm sure you have
 been made aware via the
. enternet that i have filed
 bankruptcy i am okay and
 don't want any of you to
 worry about this as with so
 many things in our lifetime
 objects that are sometimes
 unavoidable will crop up just
eryday clothing" valued at keep a positive thought going
,000, her court filing around me and as i have been
veals. told on many occasions 'THIS
ler living room furniture, TOO SHALL PASS.'"


 Former Miss USA Stirs



Pot on "Real Housewives"


 Kenya Moore's dramatic, yet ly contradicts her Miss USA legacy
hilarious, antics on the "Real as a role model, but Moore doesn't
Housewives of Atlanta" have made think so.
her a household name. "I have to disagree with that.
 The former Miss USA has criti- Miss USA is about owning who you
cized for practically begging her are, being independent, being a
then boyfriend, Walter Jackson, to leader, and I think that's exactly
marry her. It was who I've been on
later report- the show."
ed that s ,i Jd


boyfriend on the show. She also
verbally assaulted and then almost
got into a physical altercation with
fellow new castmate Porsha
Stewart and she stole Phaedra
Parks' donkey booty exercise video
idea.
 Moore has single-handedly
hijacked this TV show with her per-
sonal storylines, and fans tune in to
see what this diva will do next.
 Some believe her behavior clear-


 But when things don't go her way
her horns pop out. She had her
Moore Vision Media company pro-
duce a vengeful, yet comical, video
spoof about her nemeses, Posrsha
and Phaedra. She hired a drag
queen as Porsha and an obese
woman wearing Phaedra's infa-
mous fishnet bathing suit to portray
Phaedra. She also had a Walter
look-alike.
 She justifies her behavior and


middle-aged women fighting on
national TV as merely a part of
everyone's everyday life.
 "This is a reality show, and
you're capturing people's lives. In
anyone's life, if you follow them
around, there's going to be conflict,
there's going to be disagreements
- I don't think anyone is exempt
t'i Im those things happening in real
1ile "
 Nonetheless, Moore has become
 the breakout star of this season's
 S"Real Housewives of Atlanta"
 with her funny one-liners she
 calls Porsha "dumb-dumb"
 and said "she's so dumb, she
 can't even make coffee,"
 and twirled away from a
 near-fistfight with Porsha
 by saying the now popular
 catch-phrase: "Gone-with-
 the-Wind fabulous."
 Beauty queen winners tend
 to disappear once they finish
 lleii reigns. Not Moore. After the
bcauity pageant and before reality
TV'. -.lie had roles in movies such as
"Tiois" and "I Know Who Killed
Me."
 Perhaps Moore's gauche shenani-
gans are part of a calculated move
to become the next NeNe Leakes,
who has successfully transcended
into a sought-after Hollywood
actress with a role on the hit come-
dy "The New Normal," or get her
own spinoff show like Kim Zolciak.
 "For me, being a part of main-
stream again, that is one of the
obvious benefits of being on any
television show, let alone a top-
rated reality show," said Moore.


 Shown above (L-R) are FRONT: Lavern Surrency, Jasmine
Smith, Wilbert Gardner and Nancy Gardner. BACK: Willie
Patterson, Delores Fitzgerald, Russell Surrency, Elijah Smith and
Eunice Smith.
 70th Birthday Party

 Celebration for Wilbert Gardner
 Mr. Wilbert Gardner recently held his 70th birthday celebration at
Longhorn Steakhouse with his family and friends. The proud Matthew
Gilbert Class of '62 graduate has been married for 48 years to his wife
Nancy.He is the proud father of three: Myra, Vaness and Marcus. Mr.
Gardner is a member of Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church and
enjoys playing bid-whist, bar-b-qing. sports and is well traveled
throughout the U.S.


I


April 4-10, 2013


Page 9 Mrs. Perry's Free Press