"Ms Duff hopes Ms Barkin never experiences the pain and suffering she has suffered, " read the message. One the bride may have mused over several times in the last few weeks.

On the night of 19 January, Ellen Barkin's husband of five years, Ronald O Perelman, served her with divorce papers, blindsiding the Sea of Love actress by all accounts.

Though the couple was reported to be having problems as far back as late 2004, Barkin was said to not want a divorce.

Speculators say Ron Perelman's timing, like his boardroom dealings, was pointed for the ultimate gain. The pre-nuptial agreement Barkin signed in 2000 guaranteed her $20m if the marriage lasted until a certain date.

When that date, which is said to be fast approaching, expires, she may have been entitled to far more of her husband's vast fortune.

The cynical among New York's gossipy elite even reason that Perelman's purchase of an apartment for his wife last year near her favoured downtown haunts at Union Square, may have been a tactic to get her quickly out of their 63rd Street mansion should a divorce prove inevitable. The apartment had supposedly been a gift marking the couple's new beginning after their 2004 troubles.

Ron Perelman 62, is famous in financial circles for being a hard-nosed board room dealer and ultra tough businessman. His takeover of make-up giant Revlon in 1986 was one of the most bitterly fought. In public circles, he's famous for being a serial divorcer and the man who helped Monica Lewinsky get her famous internship in the White House.

As conjecture of a dramatic divorce mounts, the once media shy Perelman seems to be revelling in the attention, pointing and smiling in paparazzi shots.

"I'm a free man again, " he allegedly boasted to friends days after serving the papers.

Barkin, 51, on the other hand, has been snapped looking haggard and scowling at photographers while standing barefoot on the footpath outside their Upper East Side townhouse directing movers.

If she was shocked, as alleged, at the speed at which her soon-to-be ex husband moved, then his decision to employ security guards in their home, much to the delight of scandal hungry well-heeled neighbours, had to have been even more staggering.

The cigar-chomping mogul is said to have hired the beefy 24-hour-a-day guards so as to avoid any unnecessary contact with Barkin. Prior to now, Perelman, bald and short of stature, had always had a substantial security detail with him wherever he went, but never inside the couple's living quarters. The move is said to be to avoid a repeat of the messiness of his divorce from his last wife, political fundraiser Patricia Duff. The idea, observers say, is to insulate himself from potential claims by Barkin of physical violence in the time leading up to the proceedings.

Head of his detail is a former NYPD toughie, interrogating everyone on the Perelman staff who passes through the door in an attempt to stop any stories leaking out to the press. Still, rumours of Barkin running screaming and slamming doors through the home have been circulating.

While its end may get messy, the Perelmans had always had something of a surprising relationship. Theirs was never a conventional meeting of personalities and minds.

"Are you single or married or what?" is the way Ron Perelman purportedly began his romance with the actress back in 1999, the proposition coming at Vanity Fair magazine's exclusive post-Oscar party. Both, as it happened, were single. The Revlon make-up mogul had just become infamous for the bitter custody battle fought out through the courts and the media with third wife Duff, and Barkin had been separated from Irish actor Gabriel Byrne for close to six years.

She'd had an amicable separation from Byrne whom she'd met on the set of Siesta back in 1987 and with whom she has two children Jack, now 16, and a daughter Romy, 13.

Barkin and Perelman, both Jewish, married in June 2000 at a Fifth Avenue synagogue, in a simple traditional ceremony. The bride wore a floral suit and said her vows in front of the 45 invited guests, who included Sting's wife Trudie Styler, film director Penny Marshall and her ex-husband Gabriel Byrne. It was a modest affair by the standards of one of America's wealthiest men and a Hollywood actress.

Many were surprised by the union, as Barkin and Perelman came from such different backgrounds.

She tended towards the trendy bohemian downtown scene. He was strictly gold-edged Upper East Side. She was a liberal Democrat. His politics were vastly conservative.

Barkin's Hollywood liberalism had manifested itself of late by her refusing to ride in one of Perelman's aides Hummer SUV's, the popularised army cars that have become trendy. She'd also allegedly had her husband take down an American flag because she viewed it as a symbol of war.

He enjoyed the glitzy Palm Beach, Florida, social scene. She preferred to spend time at their Bahamas home.

But over time friends said Barkin had had a calming effect on the famously short tempered Perelman and many thought the marriage would endure.

In the end, however, it seems the differences that had initially proved so attractive would be their breaking ground.

Barkin had offered the pudgy businessman an 'in' with the artsy New York acting crowd; he offered her private jet travel and funding.

Both entertained at his 57-acre Hampton's estate, The Creeks, the second largest in Long Island's exclusive summer playground. Frequent guests were Michael Douglas and Julianne Moore, who boated on Georgica Pond, which also backs up to the summer home of Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw.

The estate came in for a mini scandal late last summer when Robert Downey Jr's wedding to producer Susan Levin due to be held there was cancelled at the last minute.

Many had suggested the move had occurred because Perelman didn't want photos of his estate released to the media. However, Downey went on the record to say that the switch had occurred because Perelman and Barkin had given him "somewhat less" than their best wishes. He told a US TV show that "as for my disinvitation of Ron and Ellenf they wished us somewhat less than all the happiness in the world".

Despite the fact that Gabriel Byrne was supposedly invited to spend lavish Passover dinners with the family, things may be less cordial towards Barkin's friends in the future if Perelman's past divorce record is anything to go on.

Described as a terrier in the boardroom, he is no less aggressive when approaching his divorces. And he has some experience.

His separation from Barkin will be his fourth, all of which have cost him substantially.

Ranked 34th in Forbes magazine's rich list, Perelman can well afford it. His worth is valued at around $6bn with an $800m stake in Revlon. Excluding the minimum $20m he will have to fork out to Barkin and her possible battle for some of their exclusive properties . . . she's said to be particularly attached to their Bahamas home . . . he has paid out almost $120m to his three ex- wives, with whom he has six children.

There seems to be nothing Perelman likes better than a good fight, perhaps a reason he chooses such seemingly feisty wives.

The first was Faith Golding, whom he was married to from 1965 until 1984 and who walked away with $8m in the divorce settlement.

His second wife, Claudia Cohen, to whom he was married for nine years from 1985 to 1994, fared substantially better with a whopping $80m, but it was the demise of his marriage to fundraiser and socialite Patricia Duff that garnered the most headlines for the previously media shy Perelman.

In what was dubbed "a divorce of the vanities", the businessman and prominent Democratic Party political fundraiser rallied back and forth, their lawyers hurling abuse in each direction, both appalling and entrancing the public in equal amounts with tales of how the uber rich live their lives. Duff, already wealthy, allegedly went through 20 lawyers and some $3m-plus fees before the case concluded.

The pair had married in 1994 after meeting two years earlier at a charity ball. At that point, both had five failed marriages between them. Just 20 months later, they separated and proceeded to divorce in what still reigns as one of the most protracted and nastiest divorces in America.

Though married less than two years, the divorce dragged out for three. Duff eventually walked away with $30m. The particularly bitter battle for custody of their then four-year-old daughter Caleigh went to Perelman with Duff getting heavy visitation rights.

Even the trial judge concluded that the pair had "been too focused on attacking, torturing and slandering each other".

Duff portrayed Perelman as an absentee father. He accused her of sacrilege for letting their daughter take part in an Easter egg hunt during the Jewish season of Passover.

To the delight of Manhattan's chattering classes, a court psychiatrist said Duff was "paranoid" and "narcissistic". The psychiatrist added that Perelman needed longterm therapy to control his volcanic temper.

Duff demanded $100,000 a month in child support on top of a pre-nup that gave her $125,000 a month in alimony, so Caleigh could live in the same style with her mother as she did with her father, Duff 's lawyers argued. Perelman said that when with him the child only ate about "$3 a day" in food.

There were lengthy heated debates played out in court and then in the media about whether Caleigh's afternoon nap should be cut short for private school, if she could attend summer camp, and whether or not she would be allowed riding lessons.

The matchmakers of Manhattan are in overdrive pondering who will be Mrs Perelman number five? A fat cheque-book, it seems, being more worthy or a wedding than the potential of a long marriage.

THE EX-WIVES CLUB

>> When entrepreneur Donald Trump divorced Ivana (pictured) back in 1991, theirs was one of the most high-profile divorces New York had ever seen. To get out of his vows, Trump had to give the woman infamous for the "don't get mad, get everything" line $50m.

>> For Michael Douglas, it was $45m, a third of his estimated wealth at the time, to his first wife Diandra in order to be able to marry Catherine Zeta Jones.

>> Kevin Costner was at the height of his career in 1994 when his 16year marriage disintegrated. His wife Cindy Silva, with whom he'd had three children, walked away with $80m.

>> When Lionel Richie divorced his wife of 20 years, Diane Richie, the tabloids had a field day. There were reports she'd demanded $300,000 a month for an astonishing array of services including $1,000 for laser hair removal and $20,000 for plastic surgery. There was also $5,000 a month for jewellery, $3,000 a month for dermatology and $15,000 for clothes. The divorce was settled in 2004 for about half the amount demanded.

>> James Cameron was probably not feeling on top of the world when gave in excess of $50m to the star of his Terminator movies, ex wife, actress Linda Hamilton. At the time, she described him as an "absolutely miserable, miserable, unhappy man". And that was before the settlement.

>> Kenny Rogers gave his fourth wife Marianne Rogers $60m, an estimated quarter of his then fortune in 1993 when he said she deserved every penny.

>> Likewise, Steven Spielberg willingly gave actress Amy Irving, the mother of his son Max, a reported $100m back in 1989, just four years after their marriage.

>> Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's divorce from his wife Anna in 1999 was estimated to be at $1.7bn.

The pair had been together for 32 years, had three children and split amicably in 1998 until Murdoch (right) forced Anna off the board of News Corp.

>> Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi business man with a CV that included arms dealing and a global portfolio of banks, hotels and real estate married Soraya in 1961 and divorced her 21 years later when she netted an alleged $874m in the settlement.