cover image What Has She Got

What Has She Got

Cynthia S. Smith. Dutton Books, $19.95 (225pp) ISBN 978-1-55611-261-4

What qualities do outwardly unremarkable women share that explain their fascination for powerful and otherwise desirable men? asks Smith ( Why Women Shouldn't Marry ). In this behind-the-scenes, pop-psychology investigation, she reveals the background and measures employed by femmes fatales and fortune hunters. Their ranks, headed by Wallis Simpson, include Mia Farrow (married to Frank Sinatra and Andre Previn, and longtime companion of Woody Allen), artist Francoise Gilot (who lived with Picasso and is now married to Jonas Salk) and Alma Mahler, wife to three geniuses, along with three ``Trophy Wives'' who married for millions--even billions. No beauties, these seemingly ordinary but self-confident women, Smith contends, all were able and willing to sublimate themselves to the demands of an egotistical man--a first conquest leading to others. First serial to the Star. (Aug.)