In “Ice Storm”, Portfolio writer Joshua Hammer has crafted an eyebrow-raising and extremely readable profile of Iceland’s first lady, Dorrit Moussaieff, and her husband as the socialite couple comes to terms with Iceland’s economic collapse and their own part in it all. Cue lots of painful-to-observe marital bickering and blame-games, sorta like my place when the dishes haven’t been done in a while. With much higher stakes. Enjoy the below sample from the article before reading the whole thing here. And, might we add, as a local publication that has been trying to score a meagre phone interview with that president feller for a long, long time, getting such access to the couple would be awesome. So if you’re reading this, Dorrit, give us a call.
[…}
“I have been warning about this [financial collapse] for a long time, and I said so every time a bank opened in the last years,” the first lady blurts out.
Grímsson shifts uncomfortably. After all, on many occasions he attended those bank openings, giving them his endorsement. “Yes, but Dorrit, you can’t be quoted on this,” he says.
“Who says so?” she says.
“I say so. Absolutely.”
Moussaieff shrugs and keeps talking. “At a lunch here in 2006, I said in front of Jeffrey Sachs,” she continues, referring to the ubiquitous director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, “ ‘Can’t you do something about this? Can’t you get the International Monetary Fund to come in here and see what’s going on?’ ” (Sachs doesn’t recall the conversation but acknowledges that he worked with Grímsson on sustainable-energy and climate-change issues.)
Grímsson’s expression congeals. “Dorrit,” he says, his voice sharper this time, “still, you can’t say this.”
“I just said it.”
“Yes, but still, you can’t. You just can’t.”
[…}
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