Stormy Daniels takes Manhattan.
The adult-film star, director and author of the 2018 memoir, “Full Disclosure,” kicked off the first leg of her nationwide storytelling tour, “An Intimate Evening With Stormy Daniels,” on Tuesday evening at Stand Up NY, a small comedy club on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. She talked about her life and answered audience questions about topics ranging from Donald Trump, his former personal attorney Michael Cohen and her former lawyer Michael Avenatti.
Daniels has simple requirements for the next man in her life. “Now that I’m 40,” she said, “I only want three things from a man: good Wi-Fi, a good credit score and good parking.” Daniels, a single mother who reportedly charges $10,000 per appearance, is not alone in wanting a partner who is financially secure and can also demonstrate that he can successfully manage his own finances.
Approximately 42% of adults say knowing someone’s credit score would affect their willingness to date that person. Women were nearly three times as likely to consider credit score a major influence on a potential partner compared to men (20% versus 7%). Credit scores reveal an individual’s relationship skill, trustworthiness and level of commitment, a 2015 paper by researchers at UCLA, the Brookings Institution and Federal Reserve Board, Washington, D.C.
The audience wrote questions on cards for Daniels to answer. One person asked if there was any chemistry between her and her former lawyer, Michael Avenetti, who has been charged in a 36-count federal indictment alleging he stole millions of dollars from clients, did not pay his taxes, committed bank fraud and lied in bankruptcy proceedings. (Avenatti, 48, pleaded not guilty.) She said no. “I was never in a room with him alone,” Daniels said, adding, “He thought he was prettier.”
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Her life has changed since The Wall Street Journal revealed in January 2018 that Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016, a month before the U.S. presidential election, to stop her from talking about her alleged affair with Trump. Cohen started a three-year sentence on Monday for tax evasion, making false statements to a bank and campaign-finance violations related to those hush-money payments. Audience members at her show on Tuesday were scanned by a metal detector.
Daniels said the scandal that propelled her into the spotlight has no relationship to #MeToo. She has always made clear that her alleged affair was consensual, but said the movement has made dating more fraught for men. “I have to buy my own drinks now. People approach me less, probably because I have a very large man standing next to me,” she said, citing her security detail. But she has no beef with men, in general. “I don’t think men are monsters,” she said.
Daniels allegedly hooked up with Trump in a hotel room in 2006 after a celebrity golf tournament. She made it clear that she is not a fan of the president, or of his administration’s policies, and said she hopes he’s not re-elected. Daniels read a question from an audience member that asked if she would apologize to First Lady Melania Trump for her alleged fling with the married Trump 13 years ago. Daniels replied, “I’ll apologize to her when she apologizes to the country.”
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