This Is What $52K a Year Looks Like

Do you think we'd be hearing about the $43 million Douglas-David divorce contest in the national media if it weren't for the AIG bonus conflagration? Probably not, but it's still pretty outrageous.

My favorite part of the coverage is the detail provided about Ms. Douglas-David's weekly needs:

Douglas-David has filed court papers showing she has more than $53,800 in weekly expenses, including for maintaining a Park Avenue apartment and three residences in Sweden. Her weekly expenses also include $700 for limousine service, $4,500 for clothes, $1,000 for hair and skin treatments, $1,500 for restaurants and entertainment, and $8,000 for travel.

At that rate, Douglas-David would burn through $43 million in less than 16 years. The Census Bureau estimates that the median U.S. household income in 2007 was just over $50,000.

That's $52,000 a year for hair and skin treatments, which coincidentally is pretty close to that magic median U.S. household income number.

All of this made me wonder about the weekly costs of Mr. David. (Sauce for the goose and all that.) A quick search, and voila, this from New York Magazine: He spends over $200,000 a week.

According the New York Post, which appears to be the original source of the story, Mr. David's major expense is his yacht, which absorbs $96,000 a week. He also needs $24,000 a week to maintain homes in Manhattan, Long Island and Connecticut. $18K of the remainder goes to charitable giving (basically $1 million a year) and -- get this -- $863 a week is spent on books, magazines and newspapers. You couldn't read that much if you stayed awake for 168 hours straight!

These numbers about Mr. David's lifestyle were part of the original New York coverage, but have somehow fallen out of the national media story. I guess it's not surprising that the gold digger gets all the guff. But we'd all be wise to keep an eye on both sides in this tarnished trophy marriage.