Diane Passage is an American woman from New York City who has been described as a "socialite".[1][2] Her former husband met her when she worked as an exotic dancer at Scores, one of the New York City strip clubs profiled in the movie Hustlers.[3][4][5]

Diane Passage
Born1976 (age 47–48)
Nationality United States
Other namesChase
Occupationexotic dancer
Known formarried a wealthy Wall Street funds manager

Passage was born in Detroit, and moved to New York when she was 17 years old. Exotic dancing was just one of her jobs.[6] At the time she met her second husband Kenneth I. Starr, a Wall Street hedge fund manager, her day job was at an ad agency. Passage quit dancing after marrying Starr, in 2007, and three years later Starr's investors learned he had been running a ponzi scheme.[1]

When her judge pronounced her husband's guilty verdict she proclaimed that “He seemed to have lost his moral compass, partly as a result of infatuation with his young fourth wife.”[1]

After she separated from Starr, Passage was cast in a reality TV show that would have been called Wall Street Wives.[3][7] The series did not end up being produced.

After her husband's arrest she says she befriended her neighbor, Catherine Hopper, the fiancée of the son of another ponzi schemer, Bernie Madoff.[8]

In 2011 Passage started writing a dating advice column that Gawker mocked for its cynicism.[9]

Passage is a proponent of pole dancing.[10] She has organized charity events focussed around pole dancing and worked to get it recognized as a sport, even suggesting it had a place at the Olympic Games.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Jessica Pressler (2011-09-16). "A Holly Golightly for the Stripper-Embezzlement Age". New York magazine. New York City. Archived from the original on 2018-04-22. Retrieved 2018-04-01. This March, Passage, now 35, sat in a courtroom and listened as a judge with glasses and Janet Reno hair pronounced her husband guilty. "He seemed to have lost his moral compass," the judge said, "partly as a result of infatuation with his young fourth wife." Passage, sitting in the front row, was startled. Starr had said she was his third wife. Maybe she had misheard?
  2. ^ Jessica Pressler (2011-09-16). "A Holly Golightly for the Stripper-Embezzlement Age". New York magazine. Archived from the original on 2020-08-04. Retrieved 2020-10-16. She's the kind of woman who is able, through physical charms, nifty tricks of persuasion, and sheer gall, to inspire men to pay for … well, everything.
  3. ^ a b Kevin Rose (2011-11-11). "'Wall Street Wives' Says It Has Landed Kenneth Starr's Wife". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2011-11-16. Retrieved 2019-09-22. Ms. Passage, a former exotic dancer, met Mr. Starr, whose Hollywood clients included Martin Scorsese and Uma Thurman, when he visited her workplace, the Scores nightclub in Manhattan. They married in 2007. Three years later, Mr. Starr was indicted and charged with siphoning more than $30 million from clients. He pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering, and is currently serving seven and a half years in federal prison.
  4. ^ Maureen O'Connor (2010-08-03). "How a Ponzi Schemer's Pole-Dancing Wife Sold Him Out to the Feds". Gawker. Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2019-09-22. He and ex-wife Marisa hired her several times for "dates," until Ken divorced Marisa and put a $32,000 wedding band on Diane's finger, instead. As the criminal case against Ken took shape, Diane became a symbol of Ken Starr's greed.
  5. ^ a b Michael Shnayerson (August 2010). "All The Best Victims". Vanity Fair magazine. Archived from the original on 2010-08-05. Retrieved 2019-09-22. Diane Passage, 34, was wearing a black Gucci dress with a scoop neck that kept slipping to expose more of her Brobdingnagian breasts than the designer had intended—only when she got home would she realize she had it on backward—but Starr, 66, was proud of his fourth wife's provocative figure.
  6. ^ Alison Gendar (2010-05-28). "Diane Passage, wife of alleged Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr, was Scores stripper named 'Chase'". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on 2018-03-15. Retrieved 2019-09-22. Just a few years ago, Diane Passage was working at an advertising agency by day and dancing for dollars by night - trying to support her son as a single mom.
  7. ^ Brian Moylan (2011-11-11). "Disgraced Money Manager's Stripper Wife Lands Reality TV Show". Gawker. Archived from the original on 2016-08-23. Retrieved 2019-09-22. Apparently the cast now includes Diane Passage, the former Scores dancer, pole dancing champion, and insanely awesome crazy lady, who is currently divorcing Kenneth Starr. No, not the Clinton lawyer, the money manager who is in jail for stealing money from his famous clients.
  8. ^ Jennifer Glickel (2010-10-15). "Kenneth Starr's Wife Diane Passage Not Waiting Around for Imprisoned Hubby". Dnainfo. Manhattan. Archived from the original on 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2020-10-16. Passage said she isn't planning on returning to her former profession as a stripper at Scores, but instead spends her time hanging out with Andrew Madoff's fiancee, Catherine Hopper, who lives in her building, she told Page Six.
  9. ^ Maureen O'Connor (2011-10-18). "Golddigging Pole-Dancer Writes Depressing Dating Advice Column". Gawker. Archived from the original on 2013-11-16. Retrieved 2019-09-22. Excerpts from Diane Passage's "basic rules" on how to "get the most from men," i.e., maximize the monetary value of your vagina...
  10. ^ Rachelle Hruska (2009-10-02). ""Best $2k I Ever Spent!" NYC's Ultimate Pole Dance Competition". Guest of a Guest. Retrieved 2020-10-16. Diane Passage kick starts the 'Pole Superstar' Pole Dance Competition at the Highline last night.