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Tommy Hilfiger was supposed to marry Dee Ocleppo this past August on the island of Mustique. He'd purchased her a gigantic ring a few months earlier. A fabulous, star-studded party was thrown to celebrate the engagement. And the romance was in "full bloom," according to friends of the couple. But at the very last minute, just days before the wedding was scheduled to take place, it was abruptly called off amid rumors that Hilfiger and Ocleppo couldn't come to terms on a pre-nup agreement. The profile of Hillfiger in T over the weekend hardly dispels the idea that it wasn't exactly love that brought the couple together in St. Tropez in 2005:

In the summer of 2005, while chartering a boat off the South of France with some friends, Hilfiger met Ocleppo on the beach at St.-Tropez ... Ocleppo, who is 41, was sitting on the beach with her sons when Hilfiger approached with two other men; they introduced themselves by their first names and invited her to a party that evening on their boat. She declined. Revising his strategy, Hilfiger got Ocleppo's cellphone number and called her. This time he gave his full name and said she could bring along her children if she liked, adding, "I have a chef who can make chicken fingers."

Tommy's secret recipe for winning over the ladies? Chicken fingers! Just as we suspected.

Still Tommy After All These Years [T]