The leading couples story on the cover of The NY Times Weddings & Celebrations section today, "Christine Jones and Bert Goldfinger" follows the romance of two 50-somethings who found love later in life, but nonetheless, enjoyed an especially rich and extensive courtship. I use the term rich loosely here, so interpret as you will. This is The NY Times simchas section, after all.
Per usual, The Times does a great job of building up the romance and relaying the wedding story in their signature schmaltzy way.
When was the moment of no return? When Ms. Jones and Mr. Goldfinger inexplicably knew there was no turning back on this crazy little thing called love?
They had drinks, then dinner. Dr. Goldfinger was quickly taken with Ms. Jones’s sense of humor. As they skidded from quip to quip, Dr. Goldfinger said she would have to meet one of his close friends, “the funniest guy I know,” he said.
She immediately countered with, “No, I’m the funniest guy you know,” he remembered.
There's nothing hotter than a big-boned chick uttering the refrain, "I'm the funniest guy you know," and for Goldfinger, a dentist, this line pretty much sealed the deal. For Jones, however, a single mother, the fact that Bert Goldfinger was a dentist who lived with his mother (I'm extrapolating here, based on the comment that he spent his downtime, "caring for his ailing mother."), wasn't ideal. She experienced some buyers' remorse.
Ms. Jones wasn’t fond of dentists. “They have bad ties and weird shoes,” she said.
Before her divorce from husband #1 was final, Mr. Goldfinger had proposed. There was however the crucial issue of last name change. (and here you thought it was whether or not her daughter might take to her new stepfather)
Then there was the matter of what name she would use. Years earlier, when it had been suggested that the two should meet, Ms. Jones recalled having been put off by the associations that the surname, Goldfinger, brought to mind. “Think of him as a man with a theme song,” Ms. Jones recalled her friend, Ms. Specht, saying.
“I decided it was time to be the real Mrs. Goldfinger and not the make-believe one,” she said. “I’ll use it when I need it, like, ‘This is Mrs. Goldfinger. Where’s the car?’
And now we can all rest a bit better knowing that one more NYC yuppie couple has been forever joined in matrimony thru Pottery Barn catalog subscriptions.
The bosses themselves were convincingly awful, especially the always-reliable Kevin Spacey as this sadistic, manipulative, and extremely cruel president of a company.