Is McCain Just Too Tired to Do the Debate?Someone at the debate rehearsal overheard him saying he’s ‘exhausted.’ Well, yeah, but you’re running for the Big Job, John — you have to rally! And other gossip…
ByTim Murphy
white men with money
Warren Buffett’s Dirty Words of WisdomDealBreaker’s Bess Levin remembers some of the best things that have come out of the filthy mouth of Warren Buffett.
Warren Buffett’s Brain Food‘The Wall Street Journal’ takes a close look at the snacks the Oracle of Omaha consumes when he’s making deals.
ByJessica Pressler
the greatest depression
What Does Warren Buffett’s Investment in Goldman Really Mean?“What we think he’s saying is that the $700 billion bailout plan being pushed down the country’s throat by Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke — two men who both had seats at the bar while the lethal subprime mortgage cocktail was being concocted by Wall Street — is for the birds.”
‘People’ Gets the Last Giggle Over Brangelina Baby PicsTurns out the issue whose cover displayed little Vivienne and Knox sold 2.6 million copies, the fourth-largest selling issue of all time for the mag. Plus, the rest of our industry news roundup.
They Waterboarded Christopher HitchensFinally, right? Plus, David Brooks thinks Goldman Sachs may be on the cusp of a coup, and the “summer of legal vindication” kicks off in our hump-day roundup of media, finance, law, and real-estate news.
The Summer Is Getting REALLY Sticky and Unpleasant for Dick FuldThe Lehmann Brothers CEO says he’s “disappointed” by losses as rumors of the firm’s demise intensify, ‘Bazaar’ editor Glenda Bailey becomes a dame, and Britney’s NYC apartment goes on the market in today’s roundup of news from the realms of finance, media, real estate, and law.
Murdoch Won’t Go Any Higher on ‘Newsday’ BidAlso, Microsoft gives up on Yahoo, Berkshire Hathaway’s profits tank briefly, and Buzz Bissinger apologizes to Will Leitch, all in our daily industry roundup.
Katie Couric and Sean McManus: Chipper at CBS in Spite of It AllMore troubles for Sam Zell, Heather Mills is coming to town, and half of Bear Stearns employees are facing the ax. Click through to read the rest of our news roundup from the fields of media, law, finance and real estate.
company town
Buyout Exodus at ‘Newsweek’A dating blogger seeks a book deal, trading desks think recession, and Jean Nouvel wins the Pritzker in our daily roundup of media, finance, law, and real-estate news.
company town
New York Newspapers Tanking More Slowly Than Papers ElsewhereMEDIA
• Of the top twenty American newspapers, the circulation of New York ones suffered less than others over the past few years. [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• We hear … that gossip Website Jossip.com is up for sale. [NYP]
• And that ESPN The Magazine is beefing up its fashion coverage. [WWD]
gossipmonger
Courtney Love Is Merely EccentricThe Wire’s Dominic West celebrated the finale of the show at a party with a bunch of strippers. Warren Buffett dined at Michael’s. Courtney Love claims she’s “eccentric,” not “bipolar,” on her MySpace blog. A “Page Six” “insider” claims that Lindsay Lohan’s new crop of friends are “leeches … trying to drag Lindsay down and use her for her fame.” Meanwhile, Dina Lohan is excited about her new reality show on E!, which will probably debut around Memorial Day.
early and often
John McCain Brings All the Billionaires to the YardJohn McCain is coming to New York next Tuesday for a giant fund-raiser to power his national campaign, reports Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily News. It sounds like it’s going to be a doozy — the host committee includes Henry Kissinger, Alfonse D’Amato, Woody Johnson, Georgette Mosbacher, and Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain. Tickets are either $1,000 or $2,300 per person (get it? The most you can donate to one candidate?), and it will take place at the Plaza. So glamorous. But let’s get down to business (literally). How many billionaires will be in attendance? And how many billions do they represent? From Forbes.com’s most recent list, we count five: Henry Kravis (the world’s 178th-richest man, worth $5.5 billion), Ray Dalio (worth $4 billion), Louis Bacon (worth $1.7 billion), Marc Rowan (worth $1.5 billion), and Robert Fisher ($1.4 billion). That’s a total of over $14 billion in the room with the Republican presidential nominee. There are several dozen other multimillionaires on the list, plus Lord knows how many buying tickets — so we’ll conservatively push that number over the $15 billion barrier. At first, we wondered how on earth any of the Democrats could get that much money into one room. And then we remembered that all Hillary needs to do is have Warren Buffet hold another fund-raiser, and she’d be in the company of quadruple that amount. Nobody else would even need to show up.
