The rich are different from us
Taki
ATHINA - THE LAST ONASSIS by Chris Hutchins and Peter Thompson Smith Gryphon, £16.99, pp. 249 This is a terrible book. It is supposed to be about the battle over the richest little girl in the world, but in fact it's a sleazy regurgitation of the Aristotle Onassis- Jackie Kennedy saga, with every known cliche thrown in for good measure. Just for openers, `Jackie used sex to placate her husband whenever she felt he might be losing interest in her. She would spray herself with perfume and vamp around in front of him in harem pants or a slinky negligee irrespective of whether guests were present or not.'
And for good measure, and in the time- honoured tradition of good, reliable tabloid journalism d l'anglaise, the authors describe, quotes and all, how Ari, and Jackie were seen by the Christina's second mate having sex in a fishing-boat just off Corfu. Well, I never! Thank God my crew has not gone around telling such stories about this reviewer, but then I'm not Onassis.
In the public interest, the authors even hint that if the Warren Commission hadn't found Oswald to be the sole assassin of JFK, 'Onassis would have emerged as a prime suspect'. According to them, Onassis had the motive, the passion and the capaci- ty to have plotted the removal of his rival.
And it gets better.
`In the morning, the ship's victuallers filled the yacht's vast refrigerated holds with buck- ets of red mullet, canned hams, crates of grapes, black figs, pears, peaches and pomegranates and eight varieties of caviar.'
Ari, I can attest, loved grapes, so the boys are onto something for sure. 'On the last leg of the cruise, Ari knew it was time to test his instincts. When he went to Jack- Mum! I wanna watch Peter Pan le in the Chios suite late at night, she over- looked his lack of decorum and invited him to stay.'
Oh dear. This supposedly happened while JFK was having it off with his various bimbos back in Washington, in the presence of Franklin Roosevelt Junior, her chaperon, and was confirmed by Greece's greatest actor, Alexis Minotis, and Ari's sis- ter, Artemis. Surely the authors have it right, despite the fact that they spell Artemis as Artemus throughout, and Minotis as Miotis. Never mind, Holmes and Watson are bad spellers, c'est tout.
Even the title is a fraud. Athina hardly figures in the book, thank God. After all, how much could Shakespeare write about a 12-year-old, and these boys, believe you me, are not bards. But they sure do travel: 20,000 miles to interview the major players. A sloppy paste job is now called travelling the world.
But let's take it from the top. Onassis makes a fortune in shipping, carries on an affair with Maria Callas and is subsequent- ly divorced from the mother of his two chil- dren, Tina Livanos. Five years after JFK's assassination, he marries Jackie, whose acquaintance he had made on the famous cruise in 1962 after Jackie had lost her son. In 1973 Alexander Onassis dies in an aero- plane accident, followed by his mother Tina, of natural causes in 1974, finally by Aristotle himself in 1975. The last Onassis, Christina, already three times married, is left with an enormous fortune.
Enter Thierry Roussel, described as the scion of a large French pharmaceutical fortune, in reality, a sleazy type of Parisian playboy whose greatest accomplishment until then was to own a money-losing model agency. They marry and Roussel gets $57 million from her in a space of three years. He fathers a little girl with his wife, but also a couple of others with his longtime Swedish mistress. He treats Christina cruelly and she finally divorces the bounder. Soon after, she dies in Argentina, leaving everything to Athina plus more than a million per annum for the fortune-hunter. End of story. But not quite. Roussel would like to have more money. His infant daughter will one day control billions, billions which are carefully and prudently nurtured by the Onassis Founda- tion, headed by Stelios Papadimitriou, the old boy's loyal and extremely capable lawyer.
As I write, Roussel and the Onassis Foundation are in court. Roussel wants to manage her assets, the Greeks say niet. The latters are no fools. They also allege that Roussel has used some of Athina's 'pocket money' to take holidays with his present wife and their three children. The Onassis Foundation is the best managed institution in Greece. Roussel is not only a low lifer, he is also a terrible businessman. If any court rules in his favour, it will be as unjust as if this book won the Nobel Prize for lit- erature.
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