Kim Kardashian has said it was “intuition” that led to her divorce from Kris Humphries, after a marriage that lasted just 72 days. Speaking at a launch of a new handbag line in Australia, Kardashian wheeled out her best klichés for reporters:
“I think when you know so deep in your heart that you just have to listen to your intuition, and follow your heart. There’s no right or wrong thing to do.”
Kardashian’s explanation follows a statement she recently made to her fans, in which she insisted, “First and foremost, I married for love. I can’t believe I even have to defend this. I would not have spent so much time on something just for a TV show!”
What Kardashian fails to mention is that she charged $17.9m for the rights to televise and cover her wedding (sold to E! Entertainment and magazines). That works out at just under $10,000 for every hour she was hitched to Humphries, which may explain the generally high levels of cynicism.
Since the Kardashian divorce, E! has released a statement denying rumors it orchestrated the TV wedding. E! Entertainment president Suzanne Kolb also stated that the divorce is unlikely to affect Kardashian professionally:
“I don’t even know if Kim has had a chance to emotionally process this the way that she needs to. I don’t have any indication that this is going to change her career path.”
Still, E! can’t really complain. The wedding scored massive ratings , and the channel is going ahead with its plans to re-run the wedding in prime time Wednesday and Thursday slots this week. Isn’t that grotesquely insensitive? Er, YES. Not according to Kolb, who sounds impressively free of shame:
“We are a topical network and this is a topic at the moment.
Suggestions that Kardashian’s marriage was a hoax are still flying thick and fast from all corners. Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, opines:
“With a television family such as the Kardashians, I don’t know if the distinction between reality and contrivance means anything anymore. […] Chevy manufactures cars out of their assembly line. The Kardashians manufacture stories like these. This is what they do. This is their product.”
In a separate interview with an Australian TV channel, Kardashian said she’s yet to decide on what will happen to her 20.5-carat engagement ring, or with the gifts she received from her wedding. Whatever she chooses, I feel this post has to end with some numbers related to the big day itself, courtesy of Hadley Freeman at The Guardian :
Kim & Kris’s wedding cost: $10m Donald Trump’s last wedding: $1m Price tag on one vase on K & K’s wedding list: $7,500 How much the wedding cake cost: $6,000 How many Vera Wang wedding dresses Kim had for the wedding: 3 How much each wedding dress cost: $20,000 How much her mother Kris spent on a face lift for the wedding: $50,000 The current minimum wage in California: $8 an hour