Hank Greenberg Trying to Get His Hands on AIGInvestors led by former AIG CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg are considering taking control of the struggling insurer through a proxy fight or buyout
Jimmy Cayne and Richard Fuld Disinvited From the Billionaire PartyHow humiliating is it to be dropped off Forbes’ annual list of the world’s billionaires? Just ask Jimmy Cayne and Lehman Brothers’ Richard Fuld. Cayne, who stepped down from Bear Stearns earlier this year, and Fuld, who it was just announced raked in a paltry $40 million in 2007, were notably absent from this year’s list, which was released yesterday. Does this mean they will be turned away from Steve Schwarzman’s next birthday party? Will it be like, I’m sorry, sirs. Only billionaires are allowed here? If that’s the case, it’s going to be a pretty small crowd, unless Schwarzie plans to hold his fiesta in Moscow. This year, the Russian capital eclipsed New York in the amount of billionaires per capita: We have only 71, with an average net worth of $3.3 billion each, whereas in Russia, 74 billionaires, with an average net worth of $5.9 billion each, are whooping it up with the caviar blini. So other than deadbeats Fuld and Cayne, who else is keeping us down?
company town
Hathaello Checks Out Miss Sixty
FASHION
•Lela Rose thinks she’s still in the running to design Jenna Bush’s wedding dress, despite a first family visit to Oscar de la Renta last week. [NYDN]
•Anne Hathaway totally lied when she said she wouldn’t be attending any fashion shows this week. She and Raffaello Follieri were at Miss Sixty. [The Cut]
• Sheryl Crow enters the fashion arena, with an affordable denim line by the same people who make Victoria Beckham’s dVb line. [WWD]
in other news
Taking Pleasure in a Self-Righteous Prick’s Misfortune
This Spitzer mess is making at least one group of people — well, another group of people, after State Senate Republicans — very happy. Financiers are predictably cackling, especially those who have gone through what a lawyer for tycoon Richard Strong calls “the Eliot process.” (As A.G., Spitzer made Strong fork over $60 million and accept a lifetime ban from Wall Street for improper trading.) It’s a testament to the lasting effects of the process, however, that the Times fails to get any of the big fish to slander the guv on or even off the record. Instead, we get “a senior banker” quipping that “it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy” and “an executive” intoning “what goes around comes around.” Bo-ring! We want more color: Hank Greenberg yelling “Who’s the fraud now?!” or Dick Grasso doing a little revenge dance. Of course, as a reader of The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog — which coins the term “Spitzerfreude” — sagely notes, “This relatively small scandal certainly doesn’t mean that Grasso and Greenberg are not thieves.” True, that.
Spitzer’s Woes Are Enjoyed on Wall Street [NYT]
Spitzer Schadenfreude [Law Blog/WSJ]
