There can be few things more satisfying than seeing hugely wealthy people scuppered by the day-to-day annoyances that beset the rest of us. I read with glee at the weekend that stupidly rich US comedian Jerry Seinfeld has landed himself in hot water over parking spaces, of all things. Despite the fact that Seinfeld's eponymous sitcom ended more than a decade ago, reruns of the show earned him around $50m last year, adding to overall annual earnings of $85m and a total fortune of more than $500m.
Even so, he still can't get a parking space in New York. Seinfeld has complained about New York's lack of parking spaces numerous times in his stand-up routines. "Everybody in New York knows there's way more cars than parking spaces. It's like musical chairs, except everybody sat down around 1964," he once said. Seinfeld even based a whole episode of his sitcom around the problem of finding a parking space. In The Parking Space, the character of George Costanza sets out on a mission to find a free parking space, explaining: "It's like going to a prostitute. Why should I pay when, if I apply myself, maybe I can get it for free?"
Now it seems that Seinfeld's driver has come up with a novel, if not entirely legitimate, way to get around the parking problem. When Seinfeld arrived to film his new show, The Marriage Ref, his driver used an expired police parking permit. An "alert television reporter spotted the prized police placard on the dashboard", reports James Bone in The Times. The reporter contacted Mayor Bloomberg to ask why Seinfeld had it. "I have absolutely no idea," responded Bloomberg.
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It's not the first time a celebrity or public official has been caught abusing police parking permits. But Seinfeld certainly chose the wrong time to be caught up in a parking scandal. New Yorkers are still grumbling about a New Year's Eve bomb scare in Times Square. This was caused by a van that had been abandoned there for two days, having gone unnoticed due to a police association sign on the windscreen.
Seinfeld said the permit belonged to his driver, a retired policeman, but a quick investigation by the New York Police Department revealed that the permit actually belonged to a female detective, and had expired in 2007. To add to the mystery, the permit doesn't even help you park in Manhattan all it entitles the bearer to is a parking space at the Bronx Narcotics unit. Somewhere I'm assuming Seinfeld doesn't go very often.
But my favourite part of the story was learning that Seinfeld once spent $2m converting a building in the very expensive Upper West Side of Manhattan into a climate-controlled garage for his 20 Porsches.
May I suggest travelling by helicopter in future, Seinfeld? You'll have far less trouble finding a parking space and helipads don't need air-conditioning.
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