Was It for Love or Money?

Alfred Bloomingdale's girlfriend brings a steamy lawsuit

In the posh salons of Bel Air and Beverly Hills, the hors d'oeuvres are being passed around with tidbits of the spiciest scandal to hit Tinseltown in a long time. The titillating topic: the double life of the late multimillionaire Alfred Bloomingdale. His paramour of twelve years, Vicki Morgan, 30, is suing his estate for lifetime support of at least $5 million. His socialite wife Betsy claims that Morgan was paid for sexual services and is entitled to nothing more. Says Los Angeles Times Society Editor Jody Jacobs: "It's caused a real stir."

Small wonder. Alfred Bloomingdale, who died of cancer in August at the age of 66, was one of Beverly Hills' more beautiful people. The longtime head of Diners Club and grandson of the founder of Bloomingdale's department store, he was best known in recent years for his friendship with Ronald Reagan. He was one of a small group of intimates who met the day after the 1980 election to advise the President-elect on forming a new Administration. Later he served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Betsy, his wife of 35 years, is the daughter of a socially prominent Los Angeles family and one of Nancy Reagan's closest friends. An inveterate giver of parties, many for charity, she has been crowned "Good Queen Betts"; her consort was dubbed "King Alfred."

But Alfred Bloomingdale apparently also liked to walk on the wild side. He met Morgan in 1970, when the tall, svelte blond was an usher at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. She was married at the time, with a son born out of wedlock, but her circumstances did not discourage Bloomingdale. He promised to make her a movie star. In a 234-page deposition, parts of which have been made public in other court papers, Morgan says that she and Bloomingdale became intimate at their third meeting, supposedly in an encounter that also involved two other women. After that, according to her lawsuit, she was his constant companion, confidante and business partner, though somehow she found time to divorce her husband and wed and shed two more. She also served as his "therapist," she alleges, trying to help him "overcome his Marquis de Sade complex." The therapy Morgan administered remains vague, but it was alluded to in court papers filed by Hillel Chodos, Betsy Bloomingdale's attorney. He wrote, "[Morgan] was going to help him by watching him so if he became more seriously ... involved in his alleged sadomasochistic pursuits than she felt proper, she would give him 'the look,' and he would calm down."

Bloomingdale's other life came to light as he lay dying. In June he entered the hospital and his support payments to Morgan, then totaling $18,000 a month, suddenly stopped. Morgan charges that the money was cut off by Betsy Bloomingdale, who had known of the affair since at least 1974, when Morgan filed suit against Bloomingdale during a temporary falling out. Morgan promptly sued for fulfillment of financial commitments that Bloomingdale had made in three letters and of his oral promises of lifetime support. Bloomingdale thought of her, she contends, as his "other wife." Betsy's lawyers concede there was an intimate relationship, but charge that any agreements between the two amount simply to sex for pay and are thus illegal, unenforceable contracts.

The tawdry tale has proved a minor embarrassment for the White House. In her court papers, Morgan alleged that Bloomingdale's satin pillow talk included details of how he got campaign contributions for Reagan. She also told a newspaper interviewer that Betsy first learned of her husband's infidelity from Nancy Reagan, which was emphatically denied by a Reagan aide. The White House's discomfiture rose even higher when it was disclosed that Marvin Mitchelson, the well-known palimony lawyer who briefly represented Morgan, had discussed the case with Morgan Mason, special assistant to the President. Mitchelson says the two talked about the suit for two hours at the White House; Mason said it came up in the course of a social dinner at a Washington restaurant.

Whatever the outcome of her lawsuit, Vicki Morgan will probably come out ahead, at least in monetary terms. Agents reportedly have approached her about a book, a TV docudrama and a film. Says Attorney Paul Caruso, who handled Morgan's 1974 suit: "Vicki's a smart, tough cookie."

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