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A prominent Carolinas bachelor is ready to start a family.
He is a professional, is successful, and in his 30s. He is reportedly very attractive.
He also is very picky, very busy, and rich enough to hire renowned Manhattan matchmaker Janis Spindel, who is flying to Charlotte next month to interview women who might have the necessary qualifications for the position of soulmate.
"I am looking," she says, "for someone fabulous."
Meeting people might be as easy as ever in this Internet age, but meeting the right person remains a difficult chore, prompting busy professionals to find new ways to outsource love's pursuit.
Efficient, yes. But what does it mean for romance?
Matchmaking, certainly, is an institution as old as marriage itself. In cultures from the Mediterranean to the Far East, families once hired intermediaries to find mates for sons and daughters, who often had little say in the matter.
In modern times, the matchmaking role fell to friends, co-workers and meddling moms. But today, time-strained singles have opted for the approach of their ancestors but with a twist, paying for Internet relationship profiling and services that arrange down-to-business lunch dates.
"The need for relationship and love is part of who we are," says Kristin Kelly, spokeswoman for Match.com, the largest Internet dating service.
"But the marketplace for delivering that need has always been one of the most inefficient. It's really shifted now. You're able to pre-screen a bit," Kelly said.
All of which means good business for Spindel, one of the most recognizable figures in the billion-dollar matchmaking industry. She's been kindling relationships for 14 years for CEOs, lawyers and other men who are successful in everything but love. She is all business and loves happy endings, and she is quick to boast about both: 760 marriages for clients with not one divorced, she says - plus 1,103 significant relationships.
She declined to reveal the name of the Carolinas bachelor, who like most of her clients, wants anonymity. Spindel will say only that he is from a prominent family, and that he is playful, very good looking, an amazing dresser and "awesome."
Also: "He is ready."
If you're not willing to take her word for that, consider that Mr. Bachelor ponied up $50,000 worth of commitment in an upfront fee to Spindel. He also paid expenses for her three-day interview with him in the Carolinas earlier this year, and will cover her trip to Charlotte next month.
The fee is good for one year of Spindel's efforts, which includes her accumulated database of thousands of eligible women whom she could introduce to clients. Most of those women are in New York, however, and Spindel's Carolinas bachelor wants to raise a family here. Hence the trip to Charlotte.
"A casting call," Spindel says.
Who should apply to meet him? Someone 27 to 37 years old, well-educated, sophisticated yet understated, a traveler who wants to settle down and raise children." Men are very visual," Spindel says, so she has to be attractive.
Also important, Spindel says, is someone who is mature and emotionally ready to get married. "No whackadoodles," she says.
Those who qualify can call Spindel's New York office, where assistants will hold pre-screenings over the phone. If you are sufficiently impressive, you'll be asked to send a photo. Finalists will be invited to a private interview with Spindel in Charlotte from Dec. 1 to Dec. 3. She expects to see 500 to 700 women.
There is no cost to apply.
And if all that seems more conveyor beltish than romantic, Spindel invites you to remember your own dating days.
The screened calls. The snap judgments.
The is-this-the-one-for-me arithmetic.
In every relationship, perhaps, there's at least a little calculation.
"There's no romance lost at all," Spindel says.
"I'm no different than a friend fixing him up. "I've just done a little editing."
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