MovieChat Forums > The Queen of Versailles (2014) Discussion > Jackie: 'The money of the bailout should...

Jackie: 'The money of the bailout should be for us'


Jackie: "I thought the money of the bailout was going to us, normal people, not to the banks."

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My mouth fell open when she said that.
And when he spoke of the banks being vampires or vultures.

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Actually, I thought it was a salient and sympathetic point.

It was made naively and indelicately by Mrs. Siegel, but I didn't receive that statement with the same kind of off-putting hubris I observed in other parts of the film.

Many players in the finical system, directly or indirectly responsible for the Great Recession, received government bail-outs. That doesn't sit well with a lot of people (liberals and conservatives alike).

I took Mrs. Siegel's comments to mean: why have we helped Wall street whilst ignoring Main Street? (Whether you agree with this politically or ideologically is beside the point.)

It's a salient point.

I think she was lumping herself in with Main Street America when she said this - which is itself a tortured thought - but I don't think she was implying that her family in particular should have been "bailed out." Rather, that "families" in general might have been better beneficiaries of a government stimulus, rather than banks and investment firms.

I found this to be an important part of the film in that I sensed her conservative ideologies beginning to fade a bit in light of her troubles.

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Why help her? She's too stupid to understand even one word of what you just wrote.

What she said was exactly what she meant and nothing else. She's just as intelligent as a fetus and she'd never care about anyone else but herself.

Also David Siegel is a crook and no better than the banks or Wall Street. He was selling sub-prime mortgages to people who couldn't afford them.

Siegel is actually suing the director Lauren Greenfield for defamation. The Siegels probably expected her to portray them as heroes.

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Obviously she has some enormous personality flaws. She's oblivious about a lot of stuff and she's brutally narcissistic. But I found her to be authentic and humorous at points.

People are not either "all good" or "all bad." She has chosen a really horrible path for herself (in an emotionally abusive relationship, beholden to material things, and deeply self-loathing, etc.), but she's not entirely stupid nor is she entirely devoid of emotion.

I honestly do think that the comment she made about the bailout was innocent enough. I don't think she would have said, on camera, that her family should have been singled out for government welfare. I believe she was principally being critical of the money lenders without necessarily framing that position very well.

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Remember this is a woman with a Engineering degree from a good college. I think she thought she was starring in a movie and not a documentary. And her part was a role and not reality. She knew how decadent her life looked but tried to act like she was a simpleton so we would like her and not count her along with people like her hubby. I am not falling for it. She wasn't that innocent or nice hearing the way she pushed her husbands first set of kids out of their fathers life. That was very sly and cunning.

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That was his second wife, not her. Her niece is living with them; she has to care a bit about other people's children.

"Cross my heart and kiss my elbow."

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So how many wives has he had? And how many kids were there all together? I thought she was hilarious and it was all a act to her. She reminded me of Victoria Gottie.

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I counted 3 wives and 10 kids.

THE RAP CRITIC
http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/rap-critic

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I counted 3 wives, 13 kids, 7 with Jackie, and 6 from previous wives.

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She had 7 kids? Wow. I thought they were talking about all of his kids. Gee look like he is looking for a baby maker.

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"Engineering degree from a good college"

It's one thing to get a degree and another thing to be able to do something with it. Any monkey can get a degree by getting others to do the work for them.

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IMO, your observations are spot on.

I found it interestingly ironic that (perhaps) the shallowest contributor in this reality show would be the most complex.

Flawed as she was, she was NOT the (second) wife who kicked out his first wife's kids. She is his third, and possessed of a most welcoming generosity for children. The Extra Feature on the DVD I saw, which should have been included in the main cut, explained the presence of the girl she brought into her home, and included a visit to that girl's deaf aunt and uncle, after her parents' deaths. One seldom sees such a stark contrast of narcissism and charity. (This was the girl (Jasmine?) who said, "I've lived dirt poor and filthy rich," and appeared to have some real insight in the insanity going on around her.

The "Queen" was also loyal and resilient, when another trophy wife would have jumped this sinking ship. But then, that brings up another trait, her incredible naivete. Yet, through all of that, she never fell into depression, or angry outbursts, both of which I thought inevitable.

Like all good docs, this showed the characters, and their development, but made no comments,, and left conclusions to the audience.

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The is his third, and possessed of a most welcoming generosity for children.

As long as she doesn't have to do much to actually care for them.

Fair is fair, and I appreciate your remarks, but I wonder how generous she'd have been if it had entailed any real sacrifice on her part.

Incidentally, her description of the joys of motherhood sounded exactly like what we'd expect to here from the proverbial welfare mom.

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[deleted]

She's not stupid. She graduated with a degree IN Engineering.

All you need is love!

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And when he spoke of the banks being vampires or vultures.


Since the recession began, many Americans have thought that way, not just the Siegels.

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I think she is smart but her lifestyle and husband require her to assume certain kind of dumb blond beauty queen personality. Its her role and then she blurbs out stuff like this to seem cute.

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What gave you the impression she has school smarts, or are you referring to a more primal intelligence such as the ability to manipulate rich, shallow men?

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Well, she got herself married to this guy, didn´t she? Also she was an engineer.

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Well, she invested "wisely" in hooters, but I'd hardly call that proof of intelligence.

There are "engineers" and there are "engineers". She came out with a computer-related degree, but it was back in the day when someone of average IQ could put nose to the grindstone on hardware issues and graduate without evincing any special talent or ability. How long did she actually last at IBM before she took up modeling? A few weeks? Months?

Nothing she has said or done suggests to me anything more than an average IQ combined with higher-than-average determination to marry rich.

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I think the things she has achieved in her life are far more proof of intelligence than some IQ quiz. Marrying a billionaire is difficult like becoming one and you don´t even get the money, you get to look at it.

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Not to mention all the intellectual effort that goes into the decision to buy $10,000 ostrich feather pants from Gucci. (Meanwhile, the Siegels' maid cries over the son she is too poor to visit back home in the Philippines.)

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This was heartbreaking, and the only thing I remember offhand that made me dislike these people. That they did not take care of these women who were taking care of their children was unforgivable.

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[deleted]

Actually, I believe that she is quite smart and is in fact a qualified engineer. It seems you're trying to diminish her qualifications just to prove that she's an idiot.

Back in the day, computer-related courses were a lot tougher than they are now because you did not have WYSIWIG editors and the like.

Let's pick something as simple as web designers - even though I don't put web designers at the top. 10 years ago, people had to know HTML, these days they just use an editor.

I think Jackie is smart and down to earth and sometimes 'playing dumb' gets you a lot farther than you think.

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[deleted]

That's hyperbole. I never claimed she was an idiot (although I may have opined somewhere that she sounded like one at times). My view is that nothing she says in the film pegs her as a person of appreciable intelligence, and given that she achieved nothing whatsoever of note during her apparently very brief stint at IBM, I stand by that remark. And computer-related courses back then were not ipso facto tougher. It all depends on what she took and how well she did.

What convinces you that she's smart? Identify a line of dialogue that led you to that conclusion.

sometimes 'playing dumb' gets you a lot farther than you think.


Correction. "Playing dumb" procures empty affluence for some WOMEN (rarely men) who lack self-respect or sense of self, ability, an appetite for hard work, motivation, and/or an appreciation for the value of non-materialistic pursuits.

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Correction. "Playing dumb" procures empty affluence for some WOMEN (rarely men) who lack self-respect or sense of self, ability, an appetite for hard work, motivation, and/or an appreciation for the value of non-materialistic pursuits.


Correction: You're wrong.

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NO, YOUUU!

But seriously, why bother to reply if you're not going to take the trouble to mount an argument? Most of what I wrote isn't even debatable. The movie DOES depict empty affluence and it clearly shows that "playing dumb" does work on a certain type of (emotionally insecure, shallow, immature) man. Now which of the qualities I ascribed to her AREN'T depicted in this movie?

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I couldn't help but laugh at that. She was so clueless and delusional about who the victims really were.

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not delusional, just acting silly. also pretending not to know what hertz is

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Talk about calling the kettle black. lol!! The money should have gone to the homeless, poor and unemployed. Why would the banks need the money. If was their fault the market crashed by them giving out all those loans to people who couldn't pay them back. Because of that, those banks should have foreclosed and gone belly-up. Let the other banks who were able to survive, take them over. Screw the banks. The tax-payers should have never had to bailout any banks. Even after the banks got bailed out, they didn't want to help the people they screwed over. With mortgage interests rates dropping to all time lows, many people wanted to refinance so they could keep their homes, but banks were refusing everyone who wasn't Donald Trump or Steve Forbes. Banks can suck it.

Why wouold taxpayers money go to dumb blond Jackie? lol!! I'm sure they already own millions in back taxes. I hate people who just squander money with no control or boundaries. They should have been donating 1/2 that money to important charities that help our veterans, the poor, homeless and children in need. Do something good with it besides buying materialist crap.

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And bad materialist crap at that.

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hopefully this isn't a metaphor for Americas future

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Meanwhile she's on her way to Walmart and spend the kind of money people didn't have and expects bailout money for herself? these people were living 1000 times better than the average American during the recession.

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It's totally appropriate that greedy, materialistic Americans like these lose big when they lose.. like hundreds of millions of dollars big.. what idiots, I'm not sorry or sad for them in the least.. they have a "trailer trash" persona so they should've just bought 70 trailers about 1,000 sq ft each for their 70,000 sq foot home - then they would have been able to configure them in all sorts of ways, and felt right at home in whichever one they were sleeping in..

My only regret in life is that I'm not someone else - Woody Allen

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I think Jackie would have stuck it out even if Dave lost all his money. What was she going to do? But she'd lived differently before, with less money. She played up the consumerism, but he had the same schlocky taste - look at all the ludicrous portraits of him around the house. I thought what she said to her best friend - this house is lovely and I'm so proud of you - was the perfect thing to say.

I felt a bit sad for her because I don't think her husband loves her. I get why - she's a hoarder and compulsive, and can play dumb. She's also hit that stage where she's lost sight of what she looks like. Her face is perpetually red and swollen from whatever she does has done in the doctor's office. OTOH, the more difficult things became for him financially, the jerkier he became. He enjoys the excess when he does well, but when he's not doing well, he loses interest in everything else and starts hating. He's still like that. About the movie, he said "Say what you want about me or my family, but don't make my business look bad." Say what you want about MY FAMILY?

Not to mention his business is a massive legal Ponzi scheme. That's what time shares is. He went in huge on time shares. If you're willing to make your money that way, you'll get rich. I guess he was.

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