New Jersey Podiatrist Gets Wins Big

Having used up all her so-called "lifelines" and faced with the question "What Saturn moon resembles the infamous 'Death Star' from the movie 'Star Wars?'" Jersey City resident Denise Bonnin passed up the chance to win $250,000 on ABC-TV's "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?"

But Bonnin, a New Jersey, podiatrist, hardly left the show empty-handed.

She walked away -- happily -- having won $100,000. Her appearance, which was taped at ABC-TV studios in Manhattan on Oct. 25, aired Friday.

"It was surreal -- definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity," Bonnin said Friday. "When I got to the point that I had won $100,000, reality hit that I could actually lose this and I decided it would be best to walk away."

If Bonnin had failed to answer the $250,000 question correctly, she would have only won $25,000. (Mimas, by the way, is the moon of Saturn that resembles the fictional space station Death Star.)

On her way to winning $100,000, Bonnin used up her two lifelines to get help answering a question about Ernest Hemingway and another that asked "Which musical artist did the 85-year-old Tony Bennett beat out to become the oldest living performer to top the Billboard 200 in 2011?" The correct answer: Bob Dylan.

About half her winnings will go toward paying taxes, Bonnin said.

With the other half, Bonnin said she plans to pay off some of her $200,000 in student loans; and together with her fiancé, Ravi Lakheeram, she hopes to put a down payment on a home closer to her parents in Hamilton Township.

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