By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
January 4, 2000
The February issue of More contains a hilarious account of one woman’s revenge against a younger man who dumped her. “Romantic rejection is a staggering blow,” writes Benita Gold. “It rattles the self-esteem and can drive one to do strange and otherwise unthinkable things. Perhaps this explains why I pretended to my ex-boyfriend that I was dating Peter Jennings.”
Delusional? Yes. Immature? Sure. Still, Gold had her ex going, until People wrote a cover story about Jennings’ happy marriage. At this point, Gold didn’t ‘fess up. Rather, she exaggerated even more and managed to get a photographer friend to snap a shot of her walking next to Jennings_which she then displayed in her home so that her ex-boyfriend would see it when he came to visit.
“I have now been dating for three decades and have not yet outgrown the pleasure of sweet revenge,” she continues in the article. “At 45, my charms are still intact and irresistible as ever, in a dimpled-butt kind of way. (My ex) Larry was six younger men ago. He called me just last week. I let him know how well I was doing.
” `Larry, I’ve been storytelling in comedy clubs. I told the story about the time I pretended that I was dating Peter Jennings. I was invited to perform in a comedy festival and I got great reviews.’
“There was a pause.
” `You were pretending?’ ”
The issue also includes a nice interview with “The View” star Meredith Viera, who speaks of the pressure she experienced when she quit “60 Minutes” in an effort to spend more time with her family. “It was a really horrible time,” she says in the feature. “It tore me apart. People thought I was insane. Women kept telling me I was betraying feminism. It was the most terrifying, nerve-racking situation imaginable.”
If you’re looking for another reason to envy Julia Roberts, check out the January issue of In Style. The toothy actress makes $20 million a movie, and lives in an 82-acre Southwestern ranch with six horses, seven dogs and actor Benjamin Bratt. Of her hunky boyfriend of the past two years, Roberts says, “He’s a force. The first time I was actually standing right in front of him, on a street corner where we were meeting, I felt like Thumbelina. …Think about the chances that you actually meet somebody who is, superficially anyway, appealing enough to want to eat food with. And then think of the small miracle of having interesting repartee while eating that food. And then imagine you have a similar sense of humor, and a similar enough concept of the world but different enough to keep things lively and interesting. Then add to that that you like the way they dress and the way they kiss, and then God forbid that you finally get down to it and oh, my God, you make love to this person – and it’s fabulous! What are the chances? They are minuscule! It’s amazing.”
Yeah, I hate her, too.
