The Golden Girl

"Please tell me that isn't a thong," Madison Taylor-Pruitt said, rolling her eyes and leaning in to talk to her friend, Ashley Thompson, over the din of Echo, Manhattan's hottest club of the moment.

"Okay, Maddie, I won't tell you." Ash laughed.

"But it is."

The two of them were in the VIP room of the club, along with a high-wattage assortment of hiphop stars, A-list actresses, a handful of supermodels and, unfortunately, the thong-wearing Charlotte "Kiki" Davis. Actually, Maddie thought, thinking of her own underwear choice, it wasn't the thong-wearing that was so pathetic, it was the thong-revealing that made her crazy. Kiki gave Maddie, and every other heiress in New York City, a bad name.

There was a time, she mused, sipping her Cristal champagne, when being an heiress meant discretion. Her mother, the French actress Chantal Taylor, raised her with that in mind. But thanks to a few too many reality shows, and a high-visibility lifestyle, the names that tantalized New York's gossip columns were now just as likely to be listed with a juicy scandal and a major dose of sex appeal as A-list balls and fund-raisers.