What's Good for the Goose....Is Great for the Gander

Last night I read a story in the WSJ by Anita Raghavan about men who receive alimony--and don't feel a bit bad about it. The story profiled a group of men whose high-earning wives paid them thousands of dollars a month, and resented the hell out of it. One producer who had to fork over $9 grand a month to her struggling actor ex used to actually spit on the check just before she put it in the mail. The actor, John David Castellanos, said that when he was a star of "The Young and the Restless" and his wife was a lowly production coordinator, he made a lot of dough and they lived high on the hog. He goes as far as to assert that it was his 'invaluable advice' that helped his resentful wife become a producer at a $500,000 per year salary.

Another man got $50,000 a year for four years: Enough to go back to school and earn a math degree. Despite his new credentials, Joe Garnick returned to his original job as a toilet salesman, but now only makes half the money he made before his four-year hiatus when he also took care of the couple's two girls, and did the shopping and cleaning. His former wife's relatives call him a deadbeat, while the ex-wife of the former soap star says she feels 'financially raped.'

But it's not only the men in this story who get sweet financial deals. Brenda Barnes, Sara Lee's chief executive, didn't have to pay alimony to her ex husband, but was receiving child support payments herself until just recently even though she makes $8.7 million a year.