Kelleher & Associates Suit Dismissed In Case Of Matchmaking Fail [UPDATE]

Total Matchmaking Fail

UPDATE: Oct. 5: The lawsuit filed against Kelleher & Associates has been dismissed with prejudice by the Superior Court of California, according to court documents.

Previously: A Florida woman is suing a pair of mother-daughter millionaire matchmakers after she paid their firm $45,000 for dating services and was set up with suitors who didn’t match her tastes, including a “sexually promiscuous Internet sex toy purveyor,” a convicted criminal and a Republican, according to court documents.

In 2008, Joan E. Cooke hired the firm Kelleher & Associates, a premier matchmaking service run by Amber Kelleher and her mother Jill, both former Hollywood actresses.

“I literally have grammy award-winning singers, I have producers that won academy awards, I have actresses that are known and working,” said the younger Kelleher of her clients in a 2010 interview.

But those kinds of matches are not what the 59-year-old Cooke got, she says, after submitting a personal profile to the firm that included specific traits she was seeking in a potential mate. The complaint lists suitors whom Cooke’s “personalized search” yielded, but whose backgrounds she found less than desirable.

“There is absolutely nothing in Cooke’s profile to suggest that she would be compatible with a sexually promiscuous internet sex toy purveyor and aficionado,” reads the complaint, filed in California Supreme Court last week. Another alleged match, a man who re-entered the workforce after retiring to make ends meet, was “not even a semblance of the successful entrepreneur who could travel the world" that Cooke, an executive at two healthcare firms, was seeking in her profile, according to the complaint.

A Google search by Cooke revealed that one match had a history of mail fraud convictions going back to the 1970s. Another was a “Republican whip in the Florida legislature.” (Cooke had stated in her profile that she was a “Democrat” and “fairly liberal in all areas,” according to the complaint.)

Cooke's lawyer alleges that when Cooke expressed skepticism about the conservative suitor, a Kelleher & Associates employee told her that “opposites attract.” Cooke, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, is demanding restitution from the firm along with at least $25,000 in damages.

A Kelleher & Associates spokesman told HuffPost in an email that the lawsuit was baseless, adding that the 25-year-old company had never before been sued.

Amber and Jill Kelleher, who were also unreachable, told "Entertainment Tonight" in 2010 that they were responsible for more than 400 marriages.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include Cooke's age and occupation.

Correction: A previous version of this post reversed the relationship of the Kelleher women in saying that Amber was the mother of Jill. Amber is the daughter of Jill. We regret the error.

WATCH: A 2010 video where Kelleher talks about her business.

ALSO ON HUFFPOST:

Before You Go

Cupidtino

Strangest Dating Sites

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot