Patricia Duff

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name = Patricia Duff


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birthdate =
birthplace = Woodland Hills, California

Patricia Duff is a political activist and a United States Democratic Party fundraiser.

Biography

Career

Duff studied international economics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and served on the House Select Committee on Assassinations as a researcher, Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel and Public Information Officer.

After producing a series of brief biographies on great American women for KTTV, she helped former Presidential speech writer, John McLaughlin, launch a live political talk radio show. She left to work for the re-election campaign of President Jimmy Carter at the Democratic National Committee and, because of her research on the Ronald Reagan and John B. Anderson backgrounds, was eventually hired to work with presidential pollster Pat Caddell. Following her work on that campaign, she was made Vice President of Caddell's firm and worked on many political statewide campaigns and corporate marketing campaigns until she was hired to join the Squier-Eskew consulting firm.

After working on numerous senate and gubernatorial campaigns, Duff moved in 1984 to Los Angeles to work with the Gary Hart Presidential campaign. While married to Medavoy, Duff was an activist in Democratic Party politics and other environmental and political issues. She was regularly cited in the "Los Angeles Times" and the New York Social Diary called her "the most high profile entertainment industry-related female political figure in Los Angeles" after Jane Fonda.

In the late 1980s, Duff started an entertainment industry-related non-partisan political organization called Show Coalition, which soon became an important element in the nexus between Washington politics and Hollywood. Duff was instrumental in introducing then-Governor Bill Clinton to entertainment industry and business leaders. Clinton was relatively unknown in national party politics and was only one of many potential candidates and party leaders whom Duff presented to Southern California Democrats.

While with Ronald Perelman, Duff became the Chair of the Women's Vote Campaign and co-chaired the New York finance efforts for the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign.

Duff has weathered the travails of divorce from a powerful and wealthy individual. She has had her own political and public affairs show, Duff Talk, on Plum TV for the last several years and also on occasion, co-hosted WABC's nationally syndicated John Batchelor Show. She has also organized The Common Good, a non-partisan public affairs group which meets regularly with opinion leaders and elected officials from both sides of the aisle in New York and Los Angeles.

Duff was recently rated on the list of "25 Sexiest New Yorkers" by New York Metro. [ [http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/articles/03/08/sexiest/50newyorkers/16.htm Sexiest New Yorkers - Paul Auster, Patricia Duff ] ]

She is currently a radio host on WABC, where she hosts a political discussion called "Duff Talk".

Personal life

In 1984 she met Orion Pictures' head of film production, Mike Medavoy. They were married from May 1986 to 1994.

Duff was wooed by billionaire businessman Ronald Perelman to New York City. The couple aggressively attempted in vitro fertilisation and they had a daughter, Caleigh, in late 1994. Duff converted to Judaism. [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22639993.html A PASSION FOR POWER; She Had Beauty, Wanted Influence, Married Money. And Now Patricia Duff Has Nothing but Trouble. | Article from The Washington Post | HighBeam Research ] ] The couple married, but filed for divorce after 18 months.

This marriage to Perelman turned into rancorous notoriety for the couple, whose divorce and custody proceedings drew extensive media attention in the late 1990s. During the high-profile, costly, and contentious divorce, Perelman allegedly told Duff, "I will destroy you, and I will enjoy it". [cite news| url = http://newyorkmetro.com/relationships/features/16463/index2.html | title = Tough Love| work = Geoffrey Gray|date = March 27, 2006 | publisher = New York Magazine ] Duff was ultimately awarded about $150,000 a year. Perelman claimed in court that a child could survive "on three dollars a day," and was branded by one tabloid as "the meanest dad in America” Fact|date=February 2007. The total settlement in their divorce was estimated at $30 million. Thirteen year old daughter Caleigh Perelman went to court June 23, 2008, to obtain an order of protection from Duff. It was denied. Duff claimed Perelman was behind this. [ [http://www.nypost.com/seven/06252008/news/columnists/ron_made_my_girl_a_pawn_117079.htm Patricia Duff Claims Ron Perelman Turned Daughter Against Her In Protection Suit - New York Post ] ]

References

External links

* [http://archive.salon.com/sex/feature/2000/11/16/courtesan_2/index.html Salon.com] , "The modern courtesan: Women who wield sex and power now do it in 3-inch heels" by Christina Valhouli, Nov. 16, 2000.
* [http://www.plumtv.com/shows/dufftalk Duff Talk radio show]
* [http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/list/100.php Patricia Duff on New York Social Diary's 100 List]
*imdb name|0240404
* [http://newyorkmetro.com/relationships/features/16463/index2.html "Tough Love: What happens when mogul and a movie star get married? Contracts get signed, and the drama begins"] by Geoffrey Gray, New York Metro