By Juliette Tang
In what is surely a sign of the decline of capitalism, Babes and Billionaires is now open for your consumption. This previously invitation-only site — one described by its creators as “where the honeys meet the money” — purportedly connects “billionaires” with “babes” (skepticism and scare quotes mandatory) and promises to be a cut above similar sites like Millionaire Match, Sugar Daddy for Me, Seeking Millionaire, and Seeking Arrangement, though how remains unclear, particularly in the area of general douche-baggery.
During a brief a phone conversation, Lawrence Miller (CFO) and Arnold Zelonka (VP of Marketing/Creative Director) used terms like “A-List” and “garbage” to differentiate between people, called their taste in female beauty “incredibly discerning,” and admitted to believing Babes and Billionaires to be “a very clever name”.
According to Miller, who is the only person I’ve ever spoken to who used the term “A-List” three times in the span of less than a minute: “The original genesis was contacts throughout the United States, mostly A-List people. We invited them to join what was then a private club and a place for them to meet. Professionally, I was in the entertainment business for many years and I’ve had a huge database of A-List people. And my Director of Marketing was in the advertising business and also had a large database of A-List people.” When I asked him who he considered A-List, he responded, “People in the entertainment industry, and the rich and beautiful. We are gearing our marketing to those that qualify.”
Though he said, “I wouldn’t be so presumptuous to say I’m the ultimate judge of beauty,” he did admit to having “incredibly discerning taste” in female beauty. As for the men? How rich are they? “Most of the men are worth in excess of 10 million dollars.” The pairing between beautiful women and rich men works well for an online medium, Zelonka argued, because “People with money don’t want to mingle with the garbage to meet people to date. A lot of them are shy and busy.” And, if members of the site are anything to go by, some of them (actually, all of them) are creepy and talk like Smoove B from The Onion.