Author: muckety

  • Two Republican dynasties are married in Crawford, Texas

    The private wedding yesterday of First Daughter Jenna Bush and Henry Hager in Crawford, Texas, brought together two Republican families.

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    The Bush family – President Bush, his father President Bush, etc. – is extraordinarily well known, of course.

    The Hager name does not constitute a national brand, but in Virginia the family is well-connected and well-known.

    Henry Hager’s father, John H. Hager, 71, was an executive with the American Tobacco Company, as was his father, Virgil Hager.

    John Hager is also a former lieutenant governor of Virginia and a former director of homeland security in Virginia. He’s now the chair of the Virginia Republican Party.

    Beyond that, he has been an advocate and spokesman for people with disabilities since he contracted a near fatal case of polio in 1973 when he was 34.

    Hager, who uses a wheelchair and competes in wheelchair races, lost a promotion with American Tobacco when he went through months of treatment for his illness.

    “I had gone to the top and got knocked down to the bottom,” Hager told a Purdue University alumni publication.

    But after his rehabilitation, Hager returned to the company and worked his way back up the corporate ladder

    In 2004, he was appointed the assistant secretary, office of special education and rehabilitative services in the U.S. Department of Education. He served in that position until August 2007.

    Jenna Bush, 26, and Henry Hager, 30, met in 2004 when both were working to get her father re-elected. Hager proposed in August 2007 on Cadillac Mountain in Maine’s Acadia National Park.

    She recalled being awakened at 4 a.m. by Hager so they could catch the sunrise at the spot where the morning light first hits the United States.

    “I did not want to go hiking at 4 in the morning,” she told ABC News. “It was freezing. But we got up, and we hiked in the dark for an hour and a half, and then when we got towards the top, with the sunrise, he asked me.”

    A graduate of Wake Forest University, Hager will receive his MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business later this month.

    He’s a former aide to presidential advisor Karl Rove. He also was an economic policy aide to Carlos Guiterrez, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

    After the honeymoon – the destination hasn’t been disclosed – Hager will begin a job with Constellation Energy, a power supplier.

    The couple will live in Baltimore, where Jenna Bush plans on returning to teaching.

    A graduate of the University of Texas, she has taught in a charter school in Washington. She also served an internship in Latin America for the United Nations Children’s Fund.

    She’s the author of Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope. It chronicles the life of a teen single mother with AIDS in Panama. Jenna Bush and her mother, Laura, are the authors of the recently published children’s book, Read All About It!

    Jenna Bush selected her twin sister, Barbara Bush, to be maid of honor at her wedding.

  • Mark Rachesky moves up in the world after leaving Icahn

    Mark Rachesky, who spent six years advising Carl Icahn on investment opportunities, has done well for himself since going solo.

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    Rachesky, 49, left Icahn to run his own investment firm, MHR Fund Management, which specializes in inefficient markets and distressed companies.

    While MHR is a private company that doesn’t have to report its finances, the man with the same initials is apparently quite comfortable. In November, he paid $33 million for a duplex at 834 Fifth Avenue, across from New York’s Central Park Zoo.

    The ninth-floor residence has four fireplaces and seven and a half bathrooms. Neighbors in the building include Rupert Murdoch and John Gutfreund, former CEO of Salomon Brothers.

    Just a year earlier, he and his wife Jill spent $20 million on an apartment at nearby 998 Fifth Avenue.

    Rachesky has invested, and sits on the boards of, a range of businesses. MHR owns 22.5% of Leap Wireless International (NASDAQ: LEAP), which Rachesky chairs.

    Leap Wireless stock rose yesterday after the company reported first-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations. The company provides low-cost phone service, targeting young people and minorities. It has been able to increase its subscriber base even during the economic downturn.

    Another major investment is Lions Gate Entertainment, the studio that has produced such movies as Crash and Monster’s Ball. The company’s special niches are teen comedies, action movies and horror, including the series of gory Saw films.

    MHR is a majority owner of Loral Space & Communications, a satellite communications company chaired by Rachesky. Other investments include Neose Technologies and Emisphere Technologies, both biopharmaceutical companies.

    Rachesky and his wife have a charitable foundation that has provided grants to the University of Pennsylvania, UJA Federation of New York, Trinity School, the Museum of Jewish Heritage and other nonprofits. Its assets, however, are relatively low – $393,000 in 2006, given the family’s personal wealth.

    Rachesky has both an MBA and a medical degree from Stanford and generally lists M.D. after his name. He’s not currently a licensed physician in New York State, but then medicine is a low-paying profession compared to his current gig.

  • Project Runway ramping up for big changes (Muckety.com)

    Facing a possible change in producers and network, will Project Runway still be able to follow the show’s catch phrase and “make it work?”

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    By outbidding NBC Universal’s Bravo, Lifetime has gained the rights to the flagship reality TV show. After the fifth season, which will air on Bravo this summer, the series will move to Lifetime.

    However, longtime Project Runway producers, Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, of Magical Elves production company, will not be following the show they helped to create. The duo has signed an exclusive agreement with NBC Universal, the network that hosts other shows they produce, including Top Chef and Step It Up and Dance on Bravo and Last Comic Standing on NBC.

    However, Lipsitz doesn’t specifically cite the move to Lifetime as the reason for their departure. She tells Entertainment Weekly, “We didn’t have an issue with Project Runway going to Lifetime per se, and we’d both be surprised if it didn’t work for that network.” Instead, she says the decision was necessary for the growth of her company.

    In the face of the impending network shift, NBC Universal has filed suit to reclaim Project Runway for Bravo. The network claims the Weinstein Company, which owns the rights to the show, did not give Bravo the right to first-refusal before striking a deal with Lifetime. The suit also attempts to block Lifetime’s ability to market future seasons of Project Runway.

    In other Project Runway news, New York Magazine reported rumors Thursday that Elle magazine will not renew its contract with the show after the fifth season airs. Elle currently partners with the show as the media outlet to showcase the collection of the show’s winning designer.

    Reports say Marie Claire may be interested in replacing Elle. Both Marie Claire and Lifetime are owned by Hearst Corporation.

    Nina Garcia, a Project Runway judge, was reported to have lost her position as fashion director at Elle. While Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn have signed contracts with NBC Universal, it is unknown if remaining judges Michael Kors and Nina Garcia will also move to Lifetime.

  • Murphy Kress Accountants to the Stars

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