28 OCTOBER 2000, Page 77

High life

Foundation studies

Taki

hen Aristotle Onassis died in 1975, he left half his estate to his only living child, Christina, and the other half to a foundation named after his son, Alexander, who had been killed flying his private aero- plane two years earlier. Onassis had a bil- lion-dollar fortune, one that has since grown exponentially, or so I'm told. Which means the foundation is among the largest in Europe, generously endowing Greek studies at universities in America and else- where, supporting numerous projects, cre- ating scholarships and prize programmes, and building the Onassis Cardiac Centre in Athens, the last one coming in handy for his great enemy, Andreas (Ali Baba) Papandreou, who used the premises to keep himself alive and kicking long after the bell had tolled.

Not bad for someone who was dismissed after his death as 'just a rich capitalist who never did anything for his fellow man', by Melina Mercouri, the socialist minister of culture and darling of the Left, a lady who, had she been alive today, could easily chal- lenge Lady Gavron in silliness and publicity seeking. It is always like that. Anyone sym- pathetic to the most repressive and bloody regime the world has ever witnessed, a despotism statistically many hundreds of times more murderous than Hitler's, is given a pass by chic Marxists, whereas peo- ple like Ari Onassis, a capitalist par excel- lence, self-made and providing jobs and wealth for thousands, are demonised as greedy chaps and beneath contempt. So what else is new?

I'll tell you in a jiffy. Thierry Roussel is what's new, old rather, the father of Ari Onassis's only living descendant, 15-year- old Athina. Roussel is acknowledged by those among us in the know as the world's most successful gigolo. He has received more than $150 million big ones to date, gets $12 million per annum from the foun- dation, but wants the whole enchilada, For any of you who may not be familiar with the soap opera, Roussel was broke and in deep, deep s—t when he married Christina. She settled millions on him, despite the fact he fathered a couple of kids with another while married to her. After she divorced him, she kept up payments, and put him on the board of the foundation. The trouble is that there are five trustees, and the group is run by majority vote. After her untimely death in 1988, Roussel found himself powerless and sued, unsuccessfully, for control of his daughter's inheritance, one she inherits in three years' time. Hav- ing reached an agreement with the trustees — one that stipulates Roussel will receive $12 million greenbacks per year as long as he made sure his daughter learned Greek and resumed relations with her mother's family — the gigolo reneged. Athina doesn't speak a word of her mother's tongue, has obviously been brainwashed to hate anything that's Hellenic, and has been kept away from the land of feta and bouzouki.

Roussel resides in good old Helvetica and last year a Swiss court sided with him and ordered an independent accounting firm to take over management of Athina's assets. The trouble is that, although Athina claims she wants to run the foundation, the bylaws say the descendant of the Golden Greek must 'be able and willing to serve, and to speak Greek'. Athina is to inherit her mother's fortune in three years, and she becomes eligible to be president of the foundation in six. But not if the trustees have their way. It is obvious to anyone with common sense that Thierry Roussel is not only after his daughter's moolah, but also wants to run the foundation. Stelio Papadimitriou, a loyal and good friend of Ari Onassis, is the president of the founda- tion. Stelio is no fool. He is a lawyer by profession, which may be the only bad thing about him. Just before she died Christina send him a letter asking him to forgive her for putting Roussel on the board of the foundation. She wrote that she knew what a louse Thierry was, what a gigolo, but counted on Stelio to protect Athina from her grasping father. I have seen that letter and it's dynamite. As they say in poker, it will all come out in the wash.

The reason I am dredging all this up is because I recently reviewed a new book by Nicholas Gage on Onassis and Callas for the Wall Street Journal. It brought back memories, some extremely bittersweet. Memories of my youth and of the fabled land that once was the Riviera. Of seeing Onassis sitting alone in El Morocco read- ing the old Herald Tribune. Of Monte Carlo before it became Las Vegas sur mer, and of Callas being an all-round pain in the you- know-what.

Still, the greatest mistake Onassis ever made was not to marry the diva, but to go after Jackie. In Christina's case it's even worse. Everything her father worked for might — God forbid — go one day to Roussel, and she, Christina, God rest her soul, is responsible.