The Queen of Versailles and her King

This blog is turning into a movie review site, I'm afraid, but I just can't help myself.  I just saw The Queen of Versailles, a film about David Siegel, a billionaire and his wife Jackie, who in 2006 were building the country's largest home - 90,000 square feet--in Orlando, Florida.  David Siegel is the owner of Westgate Resorts, the country's largest timeshare company....he made his money selling people who could not afford the "dream" one week a year of the "dream" in one of his resorts   

The film was to have showcased the building of the home they call Versailles, but ended up showing how the 2008 financial free fall in this country affected the Siegels and the Versailles they were building.  It was like a train wreck, you couldn't take you eyes from the screen.

I came home very curious about him, about his company and about why in the world he and his wife would let some one make this film.  [See the film and you will know why I can't believe they let someone film it.]  I learned more than why the film was made:  

What I learned is that Siegel is the very same CEO who wrote his employees during the 2012 election that he would need to layoff many of them if the President won re-election.....poor guy, I guess any additional taxes would force him to stay in his 26,000 square foot home and not the 90,000 one.  This is not his first foray into politics, either.  He admitted that during the Gore Bush presidential campaign, he "surveyed" his employees and forced those who favored Bush to register to vote, but not those who favored Gore.  In the film, he says he is the reason that Bush won, but can not say why because "I'm not sure it was legal."

At the start of the film, the Siegels are living high.  He brags about his latest timeshare - a $600 million high rise in Las Vegas.  She shows a friend the house under construction including their 6,000 square foot bedroom suite.  She shows us her closet and discusses spending $1M a year shopping for things like an $11,000 Gucci bag.  

Excuse me if I don't feel sorry for him and whether he may have to pay more taxes.

As the film ends, the family is struggling financially (in the 26,000 square foot house).  They have had to layoff most of the 19 maids, gardeners and nannies.  He is bemoaning those big bad banks who lured him into an addiction for cheap money, then pulled the rug out from under him.  Believe it or not, she comes off sort of sympathetic, he not so much.

I think it was poetic justice that he was lured into cheap money, but luring people in is the cornerstone of his timeshare business.  His staff nicknamed the middle class folks who are lured into a sales pitch with a free show in Las Vegas --- The Moochers.  One company Vice-president explains that they are selling the "dream" to the "moochers."  The "moochers" are greedy!  Build upon their "greed" to convince them that the time share is what they need. You hear and see part of the sales pitch and folks who don't appear to have the money being talked into immediately putting a $2,000 down payment on a credit card!  I understand very well how this guy made his money and it was on the backs of the middle class.  

Now Siegel is suing the filmmaker for making him appear less than sympathetic in the film.  Good luck.

By the way, Siegel claims that his empire is back and that this was his best year ever.  Go figure.