The $257k Per Day Kardashian Wedding: Was it a Big, Fat Scam?

A recent, widely-circulated article about the Kim Kardashian divorce drama makes a claim that plenty of people across the country (including a ton of Yidio readers on Facebook) already believe - that the mega-expensive, coverage-intensive Kim Kardashian/Kris Humphries wedding was nothing but a big fat scam designed to make money, spread the Kardashian brand and spill a bloodbath's worth of ink.

And boy has it ever worked.

According to RadarOnline, a "source close to the production" of "Keeping Up with The Kardashians" claimed “it was pretty much an arranged marriage right from the start. Kim was looking for a husband and Kris was selected for her, amongst others. She wasn’t really into him but she hoped she would be able to develop some feelings, but it never happened. She was never particularly attracted to him, and by all accounts absolutely hated sleeping with him or even having to make out with him."

In a different article, the same source put it more bluntly:

“The whole wedding was a total hoax and a publicity stunt. It was great for ratings and it was an amazing money maker. That’s it though, period. Kris turned out to not be as malleable as everyone hoped he would be, he was pictured out partying with other girls, Kim really couldn’t care less for him, she decided to end it.”

Of course, RadarOnline is a notoriously unreliable source of information on a lot of fronts, and in particular involving details of Amy Winehouse's recent death.

$18.5 Million Made on the Wedding

Whether or not it was an intended hoax, though, we know this much to be true:

While some of the math requires figures that aren't publicly available, there was a sh^&-ton of money at stake, between photo fees, the money E! paid to cover the wedding, interview/story fees and more. As we've already mentioned, it would have been basically impossible, even with such an over-the-top extravagant ceremony, for them to have made anything less than several million dollars on the event. Yesterday, Fox News put the figure at an outlandish $18 million.

And the bucks don't stop there. As In Touch Weekly Senior Editor Dorothy Cascerceri told Fox411, Kim Kardashian "could easily sell her first post-divorce interview for a half a million dollars or more.”

So let's say we believe Fox and Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries made $18.5 million in 72 days from their possibly-fake wedding. For those who are counting, that's $256,944.44 per day. Not bad work if you can find it.

And what about Kris? What did he stand to get out of the deal (besides a chunk, presumably, of that $257k per day)? Tony Hicks of the Contra Costa Times puts that into uncomfortably sharp focus.

"Last spring everyone knew there would be an NBA lockout this year and Humphries had to get on someone's payroll. Far be it from me to insult a guy who's 6-foot-9 and could crush me like an empty eggshell. But we're talking about Kris Humphries, not Kobe Bryant. Besides, she's hot, and it's not like Humphries had anything better to do."

Sorry, Humphries. The dude has a point. Maybe your 72 days of fame are officially over. Or maybe not.

While every inch of this quickie marriage smells fishier than a lobsterman's armpit, it's certainly also plausible that the divorce drama is all part of an even more nefarious round of fishiness - manufactured fake divorce drama! Lucrative hoax round two. Ding ding ding!

As E! pointed out in a recent release on the divorce, it's not like they plan on ceasing up-close-and-personal coverage of the supposedly irreconcilably different ex-lovebirds.

"The Kardashians have always been uniquely open with all aspects of their lives from joyous events to intimate moments to heartbreaking transitions. E! will continue to share the fascinating real lives and larger-than-life existence of this close-knit family."

What do you think? Will the couple get back together? If so, will it make you want to watch Kim's crappy music video again? Not so much?

Kardashian may need more than $18.5 million to make that happen.