Hey, sexy guys and dolls!
Good girls go to heaven, and bad girls go everywhere… Well, at least that’s the thinking behind some of the best, (meaning “baddest”), femme fatales of the last decade! (For the YouTube/video version of this article click here.)
We’re called “Femme Fatales,” which is French for “Fatal Woman,” when we use our feminine wiles to bring about the destruction of the men around us. And if the femme fatales featured below have taught us anything, it’s that dangerous women don’t just exist on the big screen. Fortunately, even a “bad girl” can give us a good lesson; so in this “Dear Megan” we look at the important message the persistent existence of this REAL bad girls club serves to remind us.
So, without further ado, here are the top five real-life femme fatales of the last decade, and at the end you’ll find the important message they serve to remind us.
Coming in at number 5 is V. Stiviano. You guys might remember her as the mistress, or “personal assistant,” to former Clippers owner Donald Sterling. After a 2.5 year relationship that netted her a $1.8 million dollar home, $240,000 Ferrari, Bentley, Range Rovers, etc, shopping sprees, and world travel, V. Stiviano released, excuse me, her “friend” as she keeps calling her, leaked a tape that showcased the secret recording Stiviano had made of Donald Sterling making racist comments. The recording cost Sterling the team, got him banned from the NBA for life, fined $2.5 million, and basically a horrible reputation that will follow him around for the rest of his life.
As far as Stiviano’s intentions go, it’s pretty obvious that she was, indeed, purposefully spinning a web of destruction as she supposedly has over 100 hours of recordings, and consistently calls the person who leaked the tapes her friend, which you probably wouldn’t do if they betrayed your trust. When asked in an interview how Sterling was doing post his demise (as she claimed she had just come from seeing him), Stiviano said, “Confused. I think he feels very alone. Not truly supported by those around him. Tormented. Emotionally traumatized,” but that she was urging him to “come to his own rescue,” so I guess there’s that.
Number 4 might come as a surprise to some of you, but it is Shelly Sterling. Yes, the wife of Donald Sterling. Usually the wife who stands by and lets you hang yourself is just as dangerous as an ill-intentioned mistress. In other words, she may have the ring, but not your back.
This woman sat by year after year and watched Donald and Stiviano cozy up at games, and go on trips together, until she finally decided to make her chess move and sue Stiviano for all the gifts Donald Sterling had gotten her, which was what initiated the chain reaction of Stiviano releasing those tapes, which ultimately led to Donald Sterling’s downfall. Shelly Sterling then gained control of the team by claiming Donald was showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease and sold it out from under him, netting $2 billion. Mr. Sterling, himself, tried to sue his wife, but was unsuccessful.
Now, Shelly Sterling has been married to Donald since 1955, and in that time she has sued other mistresses from time to time, so she knows what her husband’s about. In an interview with Barbara Walters she admitted that she doesn’t love him, but only pities him and feels sorry for him. Meanwhile, the two remain married, and Donald Sterling can still be seen around town splurging on new girlfriends, who are undoubtedly femme fatales in their own right.
Coming in at number 3 is Peggy Fulford, aka Peggy King. Yes, not all girls hanging around athletes are looking to become WAGS, which, for those of you who don’t know is the acronym for Wives and Girlfriends of Sports Stars, some just want their money and are willing to do whatever it takes to gain their trust to get it.
Peggy Fulford was what some called a “sweet-talking beauty” who posed as a Harvard Law School grad and certified financial planner that stole millions of dollars from professional athletes – which included guys like Dennis Rodman, Ricky Williams, and Travis Best. Fulford used both her sex appeal AND motherly nature by claiming that she wanted to help athletes create generational wealth and not be taken advantage of by a bunch of outsiders, (as many athletes are often victims of fraud since they aren’t well-equipped to manage their own finances given how much time they have to focus on their talent). And she was going to do it by handling their money for free!
Once she gained the trust of a few athletes by becoming a total-support system for their lives by throwing baby showers for them, dealing with any baby-mama drama, helping them buy engagement rings, and showing up at the hospital when they were sick, they would then refer her to others. It didn’t take long for Fulford to have a roster of over 31 athletes calling her “mama.” That was her nickname: “mama.”
When it came to the money, Peggy would put them on an allowance and “manage” the rest, which apparently to her meant buying herself things like a 5 bedroom waterfront mansion with an elevator in Ft. Lauderdale, a fleet of cars which included a Maserati, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Porsche, etc., “Coming to America” sized diamonds (as one detective put it), etc. She even nabbed herself a doctor husband in the process, which one might think would be enough for her to exit the game, but, no, she began to move on to targeting non-athletes, as well. For femme fatales, everything is really more “sport” than necessity, you see.
Well, eventually athletes were getting notifications that things like their electricity and life insurance bills weren’t getting paid, which got the attention of their lawyers, and then everything started crashing down. Fulford left many of these men completely broke; and, remember, for most of them that money that can’t be easily replaced as for many the money they make during their playing years is the most they’ll ever make. She pled guilty to her crimes in 2018, claiming that things just got out of hand, and received a maximum sentence of 10 years. She’ll be about 70 when she gets out and says she might open a flower shop.
Coming in at number 2, is a quick one before we get to the number 1 spot as it’s simply an honorable mention for the figment of my imagination that goes by the name Celeste Leigh. (Remember, since this is my list I can do whatever I want, lol.) An essential character in my book “Serial Killer,” Celeste is one bad mama-jama. She gets mixed up with the main character, Detective Andrew Crane, and, well, you can read about how well that works out for him via this link. I’ll link to the book below, and you can go check it out on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or whatever online retailer you like to buy your books from.
And, finally, coming in at our number 1 spot is Samantha Barbash, aka Samantha Foxx, the Scores hostess and former stripper who was so bad that had immortalize her in the 2019 movie, “Hustlers,” in which she is portrayed by Jennifer Lopez. Now, for her version of how things went down you may want to check out her book “Underscore,” which I feel obliged to mention because this chick so bad she’s even suing J-Lo for not getting all the facts straight.
But basically, her “misdeeds” involve her being the ringleader of a couple girls, (namely Roselyn Keo, [who describes herself as the CFO to Barbash’s CEO], Karina Pascucci, and Marsi Rosen), in a scheme that involved drugging mostly Wall Street men, as well as other club regulars, who frequented their famous New York strip club, Scores. From their “out of it” patrons, they’d use their (mostly) black American Express cards to rack up about $100k a night on their bills.
These men were usually wealthy, high-powered, and married men as they were more inclined to just let it go; and any formal complaints any men did try and file with the police department were usually just chalked up to buyer’s remorse the next day.
Drug-wise, they didn’t use a date-rape drug, but instead a mixture of ketamine and MDMA, (which apparently is a form of ecstasy or molly), to get them “drunk enough to use their credit card but sober enough to sign the check,” (as the movie put it), earning them scores of money at Scores. (See what I did there 😉.) And sometimes, they’d just flat out take the card and have a store like Christian Louboutin open up just for them at 6 in the morning and blow about $80k. CFO, Keo, says she spent a lot of time on the phone with American Express verifying things like the customer’s social security number, Mother’s maiden names, etc.
Eventually it all came tumbling down when Karina Pascucci, a massage girl for the club turned “fisher” – (meaning one of the girls who went out to lure a guy into the club for them to extort) – for Barbash; when one of her infatuated doctor clients that she entertained four times refused to pay his $100k bill claiming that he was drugged. With both sides – the club and him – suing over the bill, the law finally took more of an interest, set up a sting operation, and Roselyn folded. Two of the fisher girls got a few weekends in jail, and both Keo and Barbash got probation.
Pasucci maintains that she didn’t see anything wrong with what they were doing, saying that “Strip clubs prey on the weak anyway, and it’s your job to run up their bill,” while Barbash would rather discuss what she claims are an abundance of men who come in and drug the girls working there. At the end of the day, Barbash got off with what many consider a slap on the wrist, and claims that her, and her new book, are doing just fine now. According to Oprah Mag she now owns a spa.
Alright, so what is it that these women serve to remind us??? That there is no such thing as the weaker sex. We, as women, don’t need to victimize ourselves every time a man behaves in an undesirable way, because we’re just as dangerous, if not more so in some ways because we often have the law on our side, as they are. So, rise up. And, remember, the world is not harder for you because you’re a woman, but on the contrary, it’s scare of you because you are a woman.
-Megan 🙂
You can find Celeste Leigh and my book “Serial Killer” here (and at other online retailers): https://www.amazon.com/Serial-Killer-T-M-Caufield/dp/1981916768/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
For the Five Star Reader’s Favorite review of Serial Killer: https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/serial-killer
For my story check out “The Care and Feeding of Sex Symbols” here
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Note: As this column is designed to be a judgement-free zone, only those who have been, (or know someone who has been), in a similar situation are invited to comment; especially if the question is unorthodox or hard for one to relate to. And for even more relevant insight, those seeking answers are always encouraged to go within.
The Care and Feeding of Sex Symbols 