WaPo reported how billionaire Stephen Schwarzman saved the Twain Award ceremony:
Former Kennedy Center chairman Stephen Schwarzman — chairman and co-founder of private equity giant The Blackstone Group — has donated millions to the performing arts center. And now he has donated the use of his personal helicopter.
Movie stars Ben Stiller and Matthew Broderick needed last-minute transportation between New York and Washington to help fete friend Will Ferrell, who won this year’s Mark Twain Award for comedy at the Oct. 23 Kennedy Center celebration.
With top performers in a squeeze, Schwarzman swung into action, offering his helicopter so the show could go on. “There are far too few laughs in Washington these days, so I was happy to help out the Kennedy Center when they asked,” Schwarzman said.
Recall Twain wrote:
What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must. Who is God, the one only and true? Money is God. God and Greenbacks and Stock--father, son, and the ghost of same--three persons in one; these are the true and only God, mighty and supreme... - "The Revised Catechism" 9/27/1871
Twain nailed private equity underwriters (PEUs) a century before their birth as leveraged buyout firms.
At another recent benefit headliner Schwarzman had a string of jokes on how PEU machinations could save "the church."
He didn't go so far to say "Money is God," but the crowd applauded Schwarzman as if he were one. The world has become a black comedy.
