Today's Blind Items - The Black Widow

I guess she could be considered a permanent A list celebrity in some circles. Back in the day, she was notable mostly for her relationships with some very famous men of the era and not for any particular talent of her own. She appeared on the scene as a teenager and her charming personality and unique looks were successful in getting a lot of doors opened. She was hungry for notoriety and worked the scene hard. She finally succeeded in pushing her way into the inner circle of the A+ group of young people at that time. She wasted no time getting involved with the most famous guy in the group and introduced him to drugs and lifestyle choices that were really bad. (And eventually contributed to his demise years later.) In spite of her cute appearance and beguiling personality, she was a ruthless control freak and schemer who wanted fame and fortune for herself.

She eventually got tired of this first man when he got too strung out on drugs and started having legal and financial problems. She coldly dumped him and decided to zero in on another man in the circle who also became very famous in his niche as a musician. Her pursuit of this man was not an easy task. He hated to be tied down and had many relationships with other women. He would disappear on her for weeks or months at a time and was never faithful to her, ever. In spite of that, she would not give up and after a couple of years, manipulated him into marrying her. She claimed to be pregnant and talked him into marrying her so that their child would be "legitimate" on paper. Of course, there was no baby. Although this guy was extremely talented, he was not very savvy and the quickie marriage was a bad idea, for many reasons, but mainly because there was no prenup.

After marrying her and realizing he had been duped, he of course reverted back to his old habits. This went on for a few years until the musician had a terrible accident that almost killed him. The wife ran to his side immediately and took over caring for him while he was recovering. During this time, the musician became addicted to medications for pain and was often in a drugged stupor. When his friends and colleagues expressed concern to the wife that he was over medicating, they were told to mind their own business. During that time, the wife was also able to get the musician to sign legal documents guaranteeing her a bigger piece of his financial pie. Several of his close friends knew what had happened, but could not intervene, just because this wife was ruthless and isolated the musician while he was recovering from his injuries.

The friends had also long since come to realize that underneath the charming exterior lived a very ruthless and dark individual and they just did not want to tangle with her. The musician did recover finally, but his health was never the same again. He also resumed his old ways with other women and really did not live with his "wife" on a regular basis ever again. The musician later died fairly young from complications relating to the previous accident. What makes this story interesting is that there was also another woman who this musician was involved with for years. Because of where they lived, this woman was legally recognized as the musician's common law wife. (We'll call her Wife #2.) The situation with Wife #2 was well known to those close to the musician. Unlike Wife #1, Wife #2 was very well liked by everyone in the musician's family and inner circle of friends and colleagues. Unbeknownst to Wife #1, the musician also had a child with Wife #2.

Wife #2 knew about the Wife #1 situation, but was not concerned about it because the musician had not lived with her for years and she was not interested in fame. She knew her relationship with the musician was very solid, which towards the end of the musician's life, it really was. Wife #1, of course, went ballistic when she found out about this other family after the musician's death. This is because she realized that she was not going to inherit the bulk of the musician's estate as she had expected to. Wife #1 was also enraged that their mutual friends had helped hide the other family from her for years. As you can imagine, a huge probate fight erupted over the estate of the musician and it dragged on for quite a while. Wife #1 demanded a DNA test on the child and also tried to have the common law marriage between Wife #2 and the musician declared invalid. It was ugly but amazingly the public really didn't know much about it because a savvy Judge closed the proceedings and sealed all the documents

Friends and colleagues of the deceased musician gave testimony and affidavits expressing concern about the legal paperwork that the musician signed for Wife #1 while recovering from his accident years earlier, and also testified that the musician considered Wife #2 his true wife. Wife #1 was enraged and made several extremely ugly scenes in and out of court. The Judge finally ruled that the estate would have to be split up between Wife #1 and Wife #2 and the child of the musician. So in the end, Wife #1 only got 1/3 of the estate, and the Judge threw out the legal documents the musician signed for Wife #1 because he determined that they had been signed while the musician had been incapacitated medically. Wife #1 threatened to appeal but ultimately took the money and ran. She has since gone on to publicly present herself as the grieving widow of this musician, much to the disgust of the people who know the real story. She constantly inserts herself into situations and events involving his friends and former colleagues, almost like an unwanted and annoying stalker. For a while, these friends and colleagues tried to be civil to her, but as time has gone on, have become intolerant to her charade.

The last straw came recently when she forced herself into a project one of the dead musician's friends was working on. In some film footage of the project, the friends of the musician can barely hide their contempt for this woman. Wife #1 has also been lobbying for a documentary film to be made about her life and relationship with the musician, and is trying to sell herself and the project as culturally important. The real problem is that she is almost out of money, so there are also rumors of a tell all book in the works as well. In contrast, wife #2 and her child have chosen to live away from the spotlight. But that may not be the case for long-- Wife #1 is about to get a big surprise from Wife #2. It turns out that Wife #2 is getting married again soon and Wife #1 is going to lose her mind when she finds out about it. Turns out that Wife #2 is engaged to marry one of the dead musician's best friends, who is now even richer and more famous than he was. Wife #1 has attempted to ensnare this man on and off for years. She is so delusional that she does not realize how much he detests her. She is going to go crazy when she finds out about this marriage.