That Time Imelda Marcos Officiated Pee-Wee Herman's Marriage

Of all the crazy things about Imelda Marcos, and there are many crazy things about the Iron Butterfly, perhaps the craziest is that she officiated Pee-Wee Herman's mock marriage to Doris Duke's adopted daughter Chandi Heffner in 1989.

First some background.

In November 1988 Imelda Marcos was arrested on racketeering charges. Billionaire Duke Doris loaned Imelda $5 million for her bail.

The tobacco heiress Doris Duke has agreed to post $5 million bail for her friend Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines.

Lawyers for Mrs. Marcos yesterday presented the bond package to Judge John F. Keenan in Federal District Court in Manhattan, where she was arraigned Monday on racketeering charges.

By yesterday afternoon, a court officer was dispatched to Miss Duke's 2,700-acre estate in Somerville, N.J., to get her personal guarantee - backed by more than $5 million in municipal bonds held in a New York bank - that Mrs. Marcos will make all required appearances in court.

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/03/world/doris-duke-offers-mrs-marcos-s-bail.html

The loan was to be repaid with interest by March 6th, 1990. But at the time of Doris Duke's death in 1993 the loan had still not been repaid. Miss Duke left explicit instructions in her will to collect the money.

B. I direct that my Executors make reasonable arrangements with IMELDA MARCOS (or the legal representatives of her estate, if she shall not survive me) for the repayment of the Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000), plus accrued interest, that I loaned to her pursuant to a demand note dated March 6, 1990, such repayment to be made when Mrs. Marcos and the Philippines government settle their financial dispute or at such other time as my Executors shall deem appropriate in their absolute discretion.

https://www.will-laws.com/famous_will/doris-duke

Unsurprisingly Imelda has still not repaid this loan pleading "poverty."

This March, it will be 30 years since the Philippines’ erstwhile first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, 90, was presented with a Demand for Payment for one of the largest personal debts known in history—a $5 million loan advanced by the late American tobacco heiress Doris Duke to Mrs. Marcos in late 1988 as bail money to stave off Imelda’s going to jail.  Mrs. Marcos had just been charged with racketeering by New York’s Southern District court.  After all this time, the debt remains unpaid and, counting interest, has more than doubled. 

Will Imelda’s debt ever be paid? Not even when hell freezes over, and for several reasons:

One, Imelda has outlived Doris.  I am sure Imelda is thinking Doris had several million dollars at her disposal when she was alive; surely, she wasn’t wanting for a mere five million. What more now that to ashes she had returned? 

Two, Imelda still continues to plead “poverty.”  Due to exposure to liability, not too many liquid assets are attached to Imelda directly.  The Pacific Plaza penthouse, which she now calls home, was supposedly bought by her brothers and sisters; hence, the owner on record is probably a shell corporation with Limited Liability and cannot be seized easily.

Three, what recourse does Doris’ foundation have?  Practically none.   As far as is claimed, the surviving Marcoses no longer have any known tangible assets in the US that can be attached.  Furthermore, Imelda and offsprings Imee and Bongbong have outstanding warrants in the US as scofflaws and deadbeats to the judgments of the Hawaii courts. Thus, none of them will voluntarily be setting foot on American soil any time soon.  Hence, how can DDCF serve them a Collection Notice or lien if they no longer have any assets in the USA? 

https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/imeldas-debt-which-keeps-on-going

While out on bail Mrs. Marcos was free to roam around the USA which allowed her to return to Honolulu. It was in Honolulu in 1989 at Doris Duke's estate where Imelda Marcos met Pee-wee Herman, Paul Reubens, at a dinner party. That is where she officiated at Pee-Wee's mock marriage to Doris Duke's adopted daughter Chandi Heffner. 

https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1999/9/return-from-planet-pee-wee

Though never much of a premiere-goer or one to vacation in Aspen or the Hamptons, Reubens did enjoy the celebrity perk of meeting other famous and successful people. He got to know the late Heiress Doris Duke and her adopted adult daughter, Chandi Heffner, whom he had met in Hawaii though Jim Nabors (whom he had met through Charo). Though some in Duke's circle looked down their noses at Reubens--"He was singing for his supper," says one--she enjoyed his company. There was a semi-notorious dinner party in 1989 at Shangri-la, Duke's faux-Persian Diamond Head estate, during which Reubens and Heffner exchanged vows in an improptu mock wedding ceremony. Nabors serenaded the couple, and, Reubens says, "I still have the temporary marriage license signed by Imelda Marcos" (whom Duke had recently bailed out of prison). I wonder: what do you talk about at a dinner party with Doris Duke, Jim Nabors, and Imelda Marcos? "Oh, they were talking about everything. They were talking about the F.B.I., they were talking about, you know, gold and prices. It just ran the gamut."

Of course Imelda Marcos and friends were talking about the FBI and the price of gold. What else would they talk about?

There is really not much about this event anywhere online. There are no pictures of the marriage license, no pictures of Imelda Marcos with Pee-Wee Herman, and no more details than what is in the above article from Vanity Fair.