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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Find the girl, Mr. Gittes

Find the girl, Mr. Gittes

by DougJ|  July 21, 20109:59 pm| 14 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Our Failed Media Experiment

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I find this story fascinating in a Chinatown/Citizen Kane kind of way: a senile Sumner Redstone (head of Viacom and CBS) called reporter Peter Lauria and left a rambling voice message about trying to figure out who was bad-mouthing Redstone’s girl-band project the “Electric Barbarellas”. The reporter goes public with the call — along with a subsequent interview of Redstone — and is trashed by CNBC “journalist” Dennis Kneale for doing so. (It goes without saying that Kneale is a toady and an embarrassment to his so-called profession.)

What I really like is the content of Redstone’s voicemail message:

“You may be reluctant, but we have to have [for the lawsuit] the name of the person who gave you that story,” Redstone says in the voicemail, the “we” being himself and Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman. “We’re not going to kill him. We just want to talk to him. We’re not going to fire him. We just want to talk to him.” (As Frank Biondi, Mel Karmazin, Tom Freston, and even Tom Cruise can attest, Redstone is famous for such tolerance about opposing viewpoints, and would surely never fire someone just on a whim.)

Redstone went on to say: “You will be thoroughly protected. We’re not going to hurt this guy. We just want to sit him down and find out why he did what he did. You will not in any way be revealed. You will be well-rewarded and well-protected.”

There’s something about the story that is perfect: crazy old billionaire falls in love with an all-girl band, launches scorched-earth campaign to find the person who has been bad-mouthing said band, then has his minions in the media trash the reporter who writes about the campaign. It’s a timeless American story of greed, cowardice, lust, and lunacy.

And the good guy in the story is named Peter Lauria! You can’t make this stuff up.

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Reader Interactions

14Comments

  1. 1.

    beltane

    July 21, 2010 at 10:04 pm

    Did Redstone marry all the members of the band and take them away to live in his castle?

    The emphasis on “not hurting” and especially “not killing” is highly creepy. With this kind of intimidation, it is no wonder our media sucks as much as it does.

  2. 2.

    eldorado

    July 21, 2010 at 10:04 pm

    to be fair, that’s how i felt about sleater-kenney.

  3. 3.

    DougJ

    July 21, 2010 at 10:05 pm

    @beltane:

    Did Redstone marry all the members of the band and take them away to live in his castle?

    I wondered the same thing.

  4. 4.

    Ash Can

    July 21, 2010 at 10:14 pm

    Rosebud…

  5. 5.

    Gus

    July 21, 2010 at 10:15 pm

    Electric Barbarellas? What is this, 1969?

  6. 6.

    MTmofo

    July 21, 2010 at 10:26 pm

    It’s a New Day in America.

    /ancient political reference snark

  7. 7.

    Uloborus

    July 21, 2010 at 10:28 pm

    Rich corporate exec is an asshole. Film at eleven!

  8. 8.

    freelancer

    July 21, 2010 at 10:33 pm

    Forget it, Doug. It’s Viacom.

  9. 9.

    shortstop

    July 21, 2010 at 10:44 pm

    No fool like an old fool.

    No asshole like an old asshole.

  10. 10.

    DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective

    July 21, 2010 at 10:46 pm

    John Huston in Chinatown is just one of the greatest treasures in all of cinema.

    Thank you for making me think of it.

  11. 11.

    fucen tarmal

    July 21, 2010 at 11:08 pm

    redstone is just competing with jack welsh’s girl group, 30box

  12. 12.

    feebog

    July 21, 2010 at 11:09 pm

    Peter O’Toole, your role is ready…

  13. 13.

    Mr. Wonderful

    July 21, 2010 at 11:26 pm

    EXCELLENT TITLE. Do you want to hear my impression of John Huston? Oh shut up, you do so. Listen:

    “Just…find the girl.”

    Not bad, eh?

  14. 14.

    inthewoods

    July 22, 2010 at 8:06 am

    Wouldn’t surprise me if Redstone had him/her killed. But check this out:

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-20/jeffrey-epstein-billionaire-pedophile-goes-free/?om_rid=NHLFD8&om_mid=_BMRuBbB8PVyTOB&

    Unbelievable – I’m so glad we have a new aristocracy.

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