Because being married to her is enough material

Over the weekend the WSJ managed to dig up one of megaselling bestseller Danielle Steel’s ex-husbands for an interview. Why? Because even though she and Tom Perkins aren’t married anymore, she’s still the “inspiration” for the venture capitalist’s newest project — a novel:

Silicon Valley financier Tom Perkins says a British television studio proposed in 2003 that he star in a reality TV show: he would date a string of young women, then marry one of them. He turned the offer down, but thought the idea might make a good novel. He jotted down a 12-page outline and gave it to his ex-wife — Danielle Steel.

Ms. Steel, a queen of romance writing, turned the tables. “I said, ‘You have to write this. This would be much better from a man’s perspective,’ ” Ms. Steel recalls.

The result is Mr. Perkins’s soon-to-be published book, “Sex and the Single Zillionaire,” which features a handsome investment banker who agrees to participate in a TV dating show. Sex scenes are sprinkled throughout, as readers glide from a Manhattan penthouse to exotic islands to a lavish yacht.

And in a bit of irony that’s not exactly unique to publishing, the book will be published within weeks of Steel’s new one. And who by? ReganBooks, of course…

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