Vanity Fair's take on the Frank and Jamie McCourt saga is rife with details about the couple's ostentatious living, gross even by our standards: A five-home-buying spree in L.A. and Baja, a $10,000-a-month hairstylist.

But what really stopped us in our tracks were Jamie's apparent aspirations to become … L.A.'s next mayor — and possibly more.

Well, maybe they weren't all her own aspirations. The yes men and women around her were coaching (her ego), according to the piece by Vanessa Grigoriadis (not online, but teased here):

Sports marketer Charles Steinberg, described as Jamie's chief ally inside the Dodgers, is alleged to have stoked the fire of her desire to be something more than an alleged MLB team owner.

Grigoriadis quotes from a memo attributed to Steinberg, titled, in part, “Project Jamie,” in which he encourages her to reach high, ” … fix the world … fix America … be president.”

He said she could get political endorsements from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and First Lady Michelle Obama and pull in the Latino, African American and Hollywood vote in L.A.

More from her advisor: “I think you can leverage your eventual star power to become Mayor of Los Angeles.” Jamie was encouraged to reach for governor and president of the U.S.A.

Of course, that was then, before the divorce, before the bankruptcy, before the fans would just as soon run the McCourts out with their heads on the tips of spears.

What's the lesson?

It's amazing what kind of delusions money can buy (right, Charlie Sheen?).

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]

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