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Tag: Education

  • Herb Sandler and son-in-law back Democrats

    Two California groups, Vote Hope and PowerPac.org, are drawing national attention, and boisterous complaints from opponents, for their support of Barack Obama’s run for the presidency.

    Both are operating outside the Obama campaign as 527 organizations, taking advantage of tax-code provisions that exempt them from federal spending limits. And both were founded by Steve Phillips, former president of the San Francisco School Board and son-in-law of billionaire banker Herb Sandler. (Story continues below interactive map.)

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    Sandler is one of the lucky ones who cashed out before the mortgage crisis. Wachovia bought Sandler’s company, Golden West Financial, for $25.5 billion in October 2006. Forbes estimated his personal worth that year at $1.2 billion.

    Like his son-in-law, Sandler is an active contributor to Democratic causes. He gave $2.5 million to Moveon.org in 2004, and has contributed more than $100,000 to the Democratic Senate and congressional committees in recent years.

    He is also a backer of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank headed by John Podesta, Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff.

    The Sandler Family Supporting Foundation has supported medical research, with an emphasis on asthma. It also pledged $15 million to Human Rights Watch in 2005.

    Sandler also founded a nonprofit journalism organization called ProPublica, which promises to produce “truly important stories with moral force.” ProPublica, based in Manhattan, is run by former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger.

    Slate’s media writer, Jack Shafer, has cast a cynical eye on the venture, suggesting that most self-made billionaires don’t give away pots of money without expecting some control over the results.

    “If I were an editorial writer,” Shafer wrote in October, “I’d call upon Herbert Sandler to provide ProPublica with 10 years of funding ($100 million), and then resign from his post as the organization’s chairman so he’ll never be tempted to bollix up what might turn out to be a good thing.”

    Vote Hope and PowerPac.org, meanwhile, are definitely partisan. PowerPac is running TV spots in California, where it is hiring organizers to get out the vote for the Feb. 5 primary. Phillips has said that he hopes to raise $2 million for Vote Hope.

    The Obama campaign on Friday released a letter sent to Phillips on Dec. 28, urging that Vote Hope be disbanded. Phillips declined.

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  • Jerry Springer: The Opera comes to New York

    Jerry Springer: The Opera had its New York debut last night, as part of a two-night only stint at Carnegie Hall.

    The scaled-down production, billed as a concert, was a test to see if American audiences would embrace the controversial show. Although it had a successful run in London’s West End, when the BBC decided to air a TV version of the musical, Christian groups protested loudly. (Story continues below interactive map.)

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    Hundreds of demonstrators assembled outside BBC headquarters the day Jerry Springer: The Opera aired on television. After threats were made to BBC executives, requests for police protection were made. The High Court ended up denying the request of Christian Voice, a Christian evangelical group, to prosecute the director general of the BBC for blasphemy.

    The New York version had a smaller ensemble than the original production and lacked a full set. However, it’s likely that the response from these two shows will dictate whether or not Jerry Springer: The Opera will make the transition to Broadway.

    The Carnegie Hall production was directed by Jason Moore, famous for his work the on Tony-award-winning musical Wicked. Musical direction was done by Stephen Oremus, who has also done Avenue Q. Harvey Keitel stars in the title role, and is joined by Broadway greats Linda Balgord, Lawrence Clayton, Katrina Rose Dideriksen, Max Von Essen, Patricia Phillips, and Emily Skinner. David Bedella is the only original member of the London cast to join the New York ensemble.

    The first act is a colorful, musical portrayal of the Jerry Springer show. Guests include a transvestite, a pole dancer, and two diaper fetishists. The first half of the show ends with a tap-dance number performed by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

    However, the most controversial aspects come in Act II. Jerry is shot, and arrives in the after-life to present a new version of his show, Jerry Springer: In Hell, where he has to try to mediate the long-standing conflict between Satan, Jesus, Mary, Adam, Eve and God. Jesus is wearing a diaper, and says he’s “a bit gay.” Mary is introduced as “the teenage mother of Jesus” and the chorus chants that she was “raped by God.”

    Considering the lyrics, it’s not surprising that Catholic League president Bill Donohue has spoken out about the show, saying: “Never before in its illustrious history has Carnegie Hall been home to Christian bashing, but that is all about to change on January 29 and 30. Incredibly, it is allowing a patently obscene and viciously anti-Christian musical to be performed on its stage. Thus has it got into bed with the bigots, making a mockery of art in the process.”

    An hour and a half before the show’s start time last night, picketers had already arrived with signs that read: “Stop blaspheming our God.”

    The crowd outside didn’t hinder the star-studded audience, which included Keitel’s Taxi Driver co-star Robert DeNiro. Other audience members included Joy Behar, Mario Cantone, Norah Jones, John Leguizamo, and Carson Kressley.

    For unexplained reasons, the finale was dropped from last night’s performance. Nevertheless, the show closed with a standing ovation. Even DeNiro got to his feet.

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  • Bert Fields, celeb lawyer, terrorizes opponents

    You’re in trouble. You want a lawyer. And not just any lawyer. You want a scary lawyer.

    Pick up the phone and call Bertram “Bert” Fields, who is known as “L.A.’s scariest lawyer.”

    Fields, 78, has been representing entertainment celebs for more than 50 years. (Story continues below interactive map.)

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    Just the short list of his clients includes Edward G. Robinson, Jack Webb, The Beatles, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Jackson, Elaine May, Michael Ovitz, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and Paramount Pictures.

    Fields’s luster has been tarnished lately by his connection to Anthony Pellicano, the private investigator who goes on trial in federal court next month. However, the scary lawyer is still getting lots of work.

    Recently, he’s been in the news as attorney for Tamara Mellon, the co-founder of the Jimmy Choo luxury shoe empire who is suing her mother, Ann Yeardye.

    Fields also represented publisher Judith Regan, who recently reached and out-of-court settlement of her wrongful termination suit against HarperCollins and its parent company, News Corp.

    The Regan suit pitted Fields against a former client, News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch. Typically, that association did not lead Fields to soften his rhetoric.

    “They’ve chosen war and they will get exactly that,” he said in December after the suit was announced. “She (Regan) won’t take this lying down.”

    This wasn’t the first time Fields compared litigation to war.

    “If I were a general, I would attack, and keep pressing the attack — to throw the opponent off balance to change the odds and make a settlement your way much more favorable,” he told The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta in 2006. “…It forces the other side to think. ‘Hey, I may lose this case. Let’s settle it.’”

    Fields grew up in Los Angeles, the son of a surgeon who included Mae West and Groucho Marx among his clients. Fields graduated from Harvard Law School in 1952. He taught briefly at Stanford Law School and then served in the Air Force as a lawyer. In 1955, he began practicing law in Los Angeles.

    From the beginning, he fashioned a take-no-prisoners style.

    “If he’s on the other side, he’s a nightmare,” one Fields client told Auletta. “He’s going to make your life miserable.”

    At the same time, Fields told Auletta that he was careful to keep the volume down in the courtroom.

    “A jury doesn’t want some guy shouting at them,” he said. “Even when you think the other side is a scumbag – it doesn’t win you points.”

    A partner in the Los Angeles firm of Greenberg, Glusker was charging $900 an hour in 2006, according to Auletta.

    In addition to his practice of law, Fields is the author of two non-fiction works on history and of two mysteries. Written under the pseudonym of “D. Kincaid,” the novels feature Harry Cain, a lawyer.

    Fields and his firm had a long association with Pellicano, the private investigator who was charged in 2006 with wiretapping, racketeering, bribery and other charges.

    Fields has said that he had no knowledge of Pellicano using illegal methods to obtain information during the course of his work for the firm.

    Pellicano’s trial, in which he will represent himself, begins on Feb. 27.

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  • SEC is Democrat-free

    Annette Nazareth, the only Democratic commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission, leaves office today.

    She had announced her departure several months ago.

    By law, the commission can have only three members of one party. The other Democratic commissioner, Roel Campos, departed in September to head Cooley Godward’s Washington office. (Story continues below interactive map.)

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    The commission is headed by Christopher Cox, former Republican congressman from California. The other two commissioners, both Republicans, are Paul Atkins and Kathleen Casey.

    Nazareth has been outspoken about the ability of shareholders to elect directors, an issue on which she was outgunned last year. In November, the SEC decided 3-1, with Nazareth casting the dissenting vote, to allow companies to block shareholder election resolutions from their corporate ballots.

    “Responsible management need not fear its shareholders,” Nazareth said then. “I am obviously disappointed.”

    Nazareth has long-standing connections in the financial and political spheres, having previously served as director of market regulation at the SEC.

    Her husband, Roger W. Ferguson Jr., is former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. He left the board in 2006 and now chairs Swiss Re America Holding Corporation.

    Nazareth has said she plans to take a few months off before deciding on a new position.

    The White House has yet to nominate anyone to fill the Democratic vacancies. Nominees would have to be confirmed by the Senate.

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    ← Jerry Springer: The Opera comes to New York 
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  • Boeing and Lockheed Join Forces on Bomber Project

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  • Henry Louis Gates Heads New Washington Post Site

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  • Tamara Mellon Sues Mother Over Jimmy Choo Stock

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  • Rezko Ties Haunt Obama

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  • Makah Tribe Hopes to Renew Whale Hunts

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  • Wexner’s prize, Victoria’s Secret

    While visiting his West Coast Limited stores in the late 1970s, Leslie Wexner was intrigued by a shop that sold women’s underwear. It was called Victoria’s Secret.

    It was brothel Victorian, he once said in an interview. Not erotic, but very sexy.

    Wexner, who left his family’s general clothing store to specialize in women’s casual wear, saw the possibilities. He bought the store and catalog in 1982 for $1 million. (Story continues below interactive map.)

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    He studied European attitudes toward lingerie and, yes, even got some advice from girlfriends. In the process, he made underwear fun. Once, Brazilian supermodel and Leonardo DiCaprio ex, Gisele Bundchen even wore a bra and briefs studded with 300 carats worth of Thai rubies, valued at $15 million.

    In 2007, Victoria’s Secret accounted for more than half of Limited Brands nearly $9.5 billion in revenue. Wexner is a multi-billionaire with strong ties to the arts (Wexner Center for the Arts and the Wexner Prize), philanthropy (Wexner Foundation) and Ohio State University.

    Wexner is a trustee of the University and Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee is a director of Limited Brands. The Wexner Center is located at the University. Wexner’s wife, Abigail Wexner, a Barnard-educated lawyer and community activist, is also on the Limited Brands board.

    Limited Brands’s other stores include Bath & Body Works, La Senza, C.O. Bigelow, Henri Bendel and the White Barn Candle Co.

    Loyal customers swear the Victoria’s Secret bras fit better (that troublesome strap never strays) and while many will still go to Costco to buy practical, everyday underwear, they go to Victoria’s Secret for special occasions.

    One such customer is Orange County, Calif., civil engineer Agnes Villanueva, 46. She introduced this writer to Victoria’s Secret several years ago and once picked up half a dozen cotton thongs as an unusual party favor. Her guests were middle-aged women she met at a private Catholic school in the 1970s.

    By email, Villanueva recently explained her motivation: “Wearing sexy, skimpy, almost non-existent underwear was such a taboo. We were raised to be modest and conservative, but I wanted to encourage that naughty beast in each of us to break free.”

    Sexy sophisticate is more what Wexner had in mind when he invented the story of Victoria as the fictional founder of the store and conceived of her as finely bred lady of French and English descent. Her lingerie reflected that refinement.

    And Wexner gambled on women paying a little more money for the cache of a “brand” name, one equated with quality, beauty and comfort. That gamble paid off for the company and for him. Forbes lists Wexner’s net worth at $2.8 billion.

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