Anything Levin Can Spa, Case Can Spa Better
Something odd must have been coursing through the AOL Time Warner watercoolers around the time of the disastrous merger that created the company. As Seth Stevenson reports in this week’s New York, former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin — who disappeared shortly after the merger — has reinvented himself as the director of Moonview Sanctuary, a “holistic healing institute” complete with drum circles and equine therapy. Meantime, a New Yorker “Talk of the Town” item this week notes that former AOL chief Steve Case — you know, the one who conned Levin into the merger — owns Miraval, an Arizona spa that peddles scalp rejuvenators and “seven kinds of Oriental bodywork.” The New Yorker quotes Case describing his ultimate goal: the creation of “the Nike of Wellness.” (Not the AOL of wellness, we can’t help noticing.) And the company’s post-merger COO, Bob Pittman? He bought DailyCandy. Doesn’t that leave his chakras out of alignment or something?
The Believer [NYM]
Spa Man [NYer]