BILLY NORWICH: Carmen, I just read in one of the New York papers that after your 12-year marriage to the late real-estate magnate Norman Levy — the man who got you into Bernie Madoff’s fund, where you lost your entire life savings, the second time something like this has happened to you — you have gone back to work at age 77, and something called the Agency Sacks is helping give you a chance at a comeback. I see your modeling work all the time and didn’t think you had stopped working — unless all your salary was going to some charity?

CARMEN DELL’OREFICE: First of all, I was never Mrs. Levy. Somebody must have somehow not read this month’s Vanity Fair [in which Carmen tells all about Bernie Madoff, her investment man and, with his wife, Ruth, one of Carmen’s best friends]. I didn’t want to be Mrs. Levy. Mr. Levy was a close friend, a bosom buddy, and he was a lifesaver for me when my first life savings was lost and I finally won the arbitration and got about three quarters of my life savings back. I settled, I didn’t want to go to trial.

BILLY: How did you win?

CARMEN: I had some very good help. Randy Jones of Worth magazine did a ten-page story after David Susskind died. It was David’s broker, you see. Of course, I thought David was the smartest man around and he’d have the smartest broker … I did it twice in my lifetime! The same mistake!

BILLY: I guess you will never invest in the stock market again, will you?

CARMEN: Of course I would.

BILLY: Really? What qualities would you look for in your broker?

CARMEN: I would take whatever percentage per year that the “normal” person makes on his or her investments and never, ever expect to make more than my neighbor can because I would now know, I would know — not even suspect — that some injustice is going on (laughs wryly) when you are getting more than your neighbor!

BILLY: Very wise.

CARMEN: I’d know goldmines and oil wells are a no-no to invest in, and that the word “margin” is also a no-no. All kidding aside, stupid I am not. The worst that happens with me is I am uninformed and too trusting of the experts, but the next time around I will make it an occupation to be vigilant and watch when I put money back into the market because, yes, I believe in America and the basic integrity of this country as a leading nation in the world. So, therefore, I will invest again someday, or I hope to.

BILLY: You sound so upbeat. Since I met you — even the first time you lost your savings and now this second time around — you have this amazingly positive attitude. You sound so enthusiastic. No one I talk to these days is enthusiastic about anything except their next drink.

CARMEN: Well, I am enthusiastic.

BILLY: About what?

CARMEN: About living!

BILLY: How do you sustain that attitude? Are you really so forgiving?

CARMEN: I move right along; I live every day in that day. I try to look at the facts, and at my participation. I am not a victim, and I look at what I can change and do differently moving forward. I’m grateful. Gratitude is very important — gratitude to myself when I get it right and to other people.

BILLY: And this notion that you are going back to work — you never stopped working, did you?