My daughter is 20 - if three years from now some 55 year-old, car-crashing, perpetual-rehabbing, sclerotic lech looks at her this way, I'll blind the fucker.
The grim tidings:
- Billy Joel and his new bride, Katie Lee, got into a married state of mind over the weekend.
The Piano Man, 55, swapped vows with Lee, 23, at his Long Island estate Saturday with throngs of friends and family—including Joel's ex-wife, Christie Brinkley—looking on.
It's the third time down the aisle for Joel and the first for Lee, a recent college grad and restaurant correspondent for the PBS show, George Hirsch: Living it Up!
The duo got engaged this past winter while on vacation on the Caribbean island of St. Bart's, where Joel gifted his fiancé with a five-carat sparkler. They first began dating in spring 2003. [E! online]
Ick, ick, ick - perhaps I am overly sensitive, being father of said daughter and all, but it's crap in both directions. I don't care who you are, what you have, what astral plane you connect on - 15 years perhaps, even 20 years under the right circumstances, but 32 years difference is absurd. And the Piano Man is not a particularly well preserved 55, either, dude is no Jack LaLanne.
More on the nightmare here.
I'll bet there's quite an interesting pre-nup - she won't get the house.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Matt Wardlaw
C'mon man - Billy is just living the American dream!
Er.....
Maybe since she grew up with his music, she might be able to kick his ass and get him back to recording some rock and roll!
2 - Dana Huff
Man. I bet they have LOTS to talk about, what with all they have in common. What happened? This is the guy who recorded "Captain Jack," for crying out loud. He used to be cutting edge. Then he got this jones for uptown girls, and he hasn't been the same since.
3 - Distorted Angel
Eric, that is quite possibly one of the best opening paragraphs I've ever read. I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read it, or I would have spurtzed it out my nose.
His own daughter is 18, adding immeasurably to the ick factor, I think.
4 - Steve
Dude, as the father of THREE daughters, I am so down with what you say I can't get any...um, downer. You know what I mean.
5 - Lono
No, Eric... maybe she won't get the house. However, her family's business savvy attorney has secured "portions of stock on a legendary car collection that will secure the family for generations".
When we met with the attorney shortly after this statement was released, he said:
6 - Al Barger
This wedding scene sounds like the classic Elvis Costello song "When I Was Cruel."
Moreover, hearing of Christie Brinkley's attendance only made it more Elvis-y, "there's number three just by the door."
I wonder if by any chance this Lee chick happened to be selling boats at a trade show when Billy Joel met her.
7 - redkez
There's definately something of the Zeta Jones about her. Not sure who's being taken for a ride here...
8 - Eric Olsen
Thanks, great replys! glad I'm not alone in my disgust - I thought I might have been a bit over the top. And I don't minimize her complicity in this - the ick goes both ways.
9 - Mac Diva
Well. . . as long as she just doesn't have to have sex with him.
10 - Mark Saleski
wasn't there some comedy where somebody's yelling about a woman being with an older man...something about "old man balls"?
11 - Mac Diva
I've heard they droop.
12 - Dude
She's an adult, right?
Here's hoping your daughter's ugly, you tiny man.
13 - Eric Olsen
not even sure how to respond to that, Aqualung
14 - Vic
Well. . . as long as she just doesn't have to have sex with him.
I'm pretty sure that a 55 yr old guy doesn't marry a 23 yr old hottie to *not* have sex with her.
I'm not agreeing with it (I have a daughter, too), but isn't this story as old as the hills (pardon the pun)? Haven't old, wealthy, powerful guys always attracted hot young things because of their wealth/power?
Vic
15 - Eric Olsen
And it has always been despicable, in both directions; I'm not saying he is the only scum-sucking shitbird here. But he should know better.
16 - Michael Croft
I dunno, I mean while Billy Joel isn't my type and while we can all decide that the future former Mrs. Joel is not doing herself any favors here, at some point it crosses the line for you to commit violence if some gnarly old dude leers at your daughter. Blinding's a pretty harsh punishment for thoughtcrime. I've pretty much got to come down squarely against it. "A cat may look at a king", presumably safe from having you gouge his eyes out.
The piano man doesn't hold a candle to Tony Randall, though. Now that was an age gap. He was 70 and she was 20.
17 - Mac Diva
Eric Clapton (could there be something telling in the first name?) did it, too. The current wife could almost be his granddaughter.
I am less critical if the couple actually has a nexus. For example, I don't think Paul Simon's marriage to Edie Brickell is all about lechery. And, Mary Tyler Moore's baby boy physician seems to have been the marriage that worked for her. The giveaway may be when youth is being traded for economic advantage.
18 - bhw
The really icky thing here is that not only is she probably having sex with him *a lot*, but that he's sloshed during it, too. Mmmmmm.
I guess the new wife doesn't mind being nothing more than an ego booster and sperm sponge for the Piano Man.
Women generally have a thing for older men, and some women are attracted to money and/or power. But the 30-year differential is pretty big.
Look at it this way: in five years, she'll have popped out another bulgy-eyed piano progeny or two, and then she'll be financially set for life when she files for divorce.
19 - Mark Edward Manning
Eric O.: "And the Piano Man is not a particularly well preserved 55 ..."
Billy Joel was really a looker throughout the '70s and '80s:
here
But I think drink and smoking took its toll on him.
20 - Eric Olsen
yes, long ago and far away, although they always airbrushed the unsuccessful-boxer's nose
21 - Rodney Welch
Eric writes:
I don't care who you are, what you have, what astral plane you connect on - 15 years perhaps, even 20 years under the right circumstances, but 32 years difference is absurd.
Not at all. At the ripe old age of 80, Fred Astaire married the fetching jockey Robyn Smith, then 36. The marriage lasted until his death in 1987, and was by all acounts a happy one.
I have an 18-year-old daughter and Billy Joel's wedding doesn't offend me even a teensy-tiny bit. I say: you go, Billy.
22 - Rodney Welch
And furthermore --
"In 1993, he married Joan Child, 30 years his junior. He credited her with improving his outlook." -- from today's Washington Post obit of Rodney Dangerfield
23 - Vic
How many women marry guys 30+ years older than them that aren't rich?
True love... Right.
Vic
24 - Eric Olsen
there will always be exceptions - makes no general difference; in addition, the older the couple the less exploitative the age difference, ie, 50-20=sick, 75-45=less so
25 - Mark Edward Manning
Joel actually credited the fact that his nose was broken during a bout for his voice - which is either a good or bad thing, depending on what you think of his singing. I love Joel's stuff, although he was too much of a tenor.
And as for your daughter, Eric? If she's under 6 feet, you can rest easy from the likes of Billy Joel. It's obvious the man's got a dominatrix fetish. His first wife was the same height as him and his wives just kept getting taller.