FINANCE
• Al Gore, venture capitalist? The Nobel laureate and Apple board member is taking a hands-on role at Kleiner Perkins, the leading Silicon Valley venture firm. His goal: Save the world. And annoy GE’s Jeff Immelt as much as possible. [Fortune]
• Harvard picked Robert S. Kaplan, a former Goldman Sachs vice-chairman, as the new steward for the $35 billion endowment. Something tells us his kids won’t have any trouble getting in. [Reuters via NYT]
• A few management consultants with nothing better to do gave the Times its newest buzzword: CEO version 3.0. With the departures of Stan O’Neal, Chuck Prince, and Richard Parsons, it’s now time for leaders “who can assemble a team that functions as smoothly as a jazz sextet.” Because, as James Cayne showed, the old CEOs were way too bebop. [NYT]
MEDIA
• Chris Matthews proved he’s a team player and slammed NBC Nightly News once again, using the same lame joke he did back in 2004: “It seems like pain relief is the No. 1 theme of the nightly news … They’re beyond Cialis and Viagra. They don’t even bother.” [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• Have Tom Cruise and Will Smith already stolen all the money from the writers and producers? A new study shows that, thanks to lucrative star contracts, movies don’t make money anyway. Meanwhile, News Corp. COO Peter Chernin claims the strike is a net positive for Fox, and the CBS news writers are contemplating their own walk out. Better get striking while the striking’s good! [NYT, HuffPo, Broadcasting & Cable]
• Mary Berner poached Peggy Northrop from More to become editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest. Northrop was at first reluctant, but doubling her salary helped persuade her to take on the flagging franchise. [WWD]
LAW
• Aaron Charney, spotted in the wilds of upstate New York! And he even looked happy! So maybe the former Sullivan & Cromwell associate actually did take home a big chunk of change in his sexual-harassment suit against S&C. [Above the Law]
• Bill Lerach, the class-action lawyer who pleaded guilty in the massive Milberg Weiss investigation, lashed out at Wall Street CEOs and compared Chuck Prince and Stan O’Neal to Jeff Skilling at Enron. Sore loser, anyone? That’s what happens when you have to pay the government $8 million and serve a year in prison instead of winning a $161.5 million going-away present, like Stan O’Neal. [Law Blog/WSJ]
• Attorney at Blah: the horrific life of the temp with a J.D.[City Paper via Above the Law]
FASHION
• David Beckham has signed on to be the new face of Giorgio Armani underwear. Guess that W spread paid off. [British Vogue]
• Erin Fetherston’s Target collection has started to hit the Website — far ahead of the November 18 launch date. [Fashionista]
• Marc Jacobs + Reality TV = Either our heads exploding, or our hearts. We can’t decide. [NYM]
