David Geffen Donates $100M To Lincoln Center For Remodel Of Avery Fischer Hall

Via the New York Times:

The world of New York high culture was given a surprise dose of glitz on Wednesday, when Lincoln Center announced that David Geffen, the entertainment mogul who has shaped cultural tastes in pop music, art and movies, will donate $100 million to renovate — and rename — Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic, at Lincoln Center. Mr. Geffen’s gift will help pay for the hall’s gut renovation, which is expected to cost more than $500 million. Although construction is not scheduled to begin until 2019, the building will become David Geffen Hall this September, with the start of the Philharmonic’s 2015-16 season. The hall, built in 1962, has long been viewed as outdated and acoustically problematic. But raising money promised to be a challenge; the family of Avery Fisher had threatened legal action 13 years ago if the concert hall were to be rebuilt or renovated under a new name. That obstacle was overcome in November, when the Fisher family agreed to give up the naming rights with inducements including a $15 million check.

In 2008 David Koch also donated $100M to Lincoln Center and the New York State Theater there now bears his name.

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David Geffen Might Buy The Clippers

Gay billionaire and Hollywood mogul David Geffen is reportedly interested in buying the Los Angeles Clippers. Earlier today the commissioner of the NBA ordered Clippers owner Donald Sterling to sell the team. Via the Wall Street Journal:

With a potential sale on the horizon, attention turned to possible buyers, such as Ron Burkle, founder of private-equity firm Yucaipa Cos. and the owner of the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins, and Patrick Soon-Shiong, a doctor and biotech entrepreneur. Both were in talks with potential investors during the bidding for Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers in 2011. Neither could be reached for comment. Entertainment mogul David Geffen —who made a bid for the Clippers several years ago—remains interested in buying the franchise, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Geffen, the multi-billionaire music- and film-industry magnate, offered Mr. Sterling $600 million for the team about four years ago, according to people familiar with the matter, but hasn't been in contact with the league for many months, these people said.

Shortly before today's edict from the NBA, Sterling told Fox News that he will refuse to sell the team. However if three-quarters of his fellow NBA owners vote against him, Sterling will have no choice.

RELATED: Should Geffen purchase the Clippers, he will join Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts as the only openly gay owners of an American major league sports franchise. Ricketts is the daughter of the founder of TD Ameritrade and is a board member of Lambda Legal. She owns the Cubs with her three brothers.

Forbes: 7 Billionaires Are Openly LGBT

Forbes reports that seven of the world's billionaires are openly LGBT.

With a combined net worth of nearly $16 billion, the select group of LGBT ten-figure fortunes includes media mogul David Geffen, PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and Hyatt hotel beneficiary Jennifer Pritzker, one of the Pritzker family’s 11 billionaires. In August 2013, Jennifer became the first and only transgender billionaire in the world when she announced she would be identifying herself as a woman for all business and personal undertakings. A retired army lieutenant colonel, she is CEO of private wealth management firm Tawani Enterprises in Chicago and has a personal net worth of $1.8 billion. “This change will reflect the beliefs of her true identity that she has held privately and will now share publicly,” a statement in Crain’s Chicago Business explained. Among the openly-gay hyper-wealthy are Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the duo behind fashion power house Dolce & Gabbana. The retail-rich pair are joined by Michael Kors, who became a billionaire this year. Some of these businessmen and women have used their fortunes to advocate for gay rights. Jon Stryker, heir to the Stryker Corp. medical equipment family fortune, is one of the world’s most prolific donors to LGBT charities.

The seven listed above represent 0.4% of Forbes' list of 1645 billionaires worldwide.

TRAILER: Inventing David Geffen

It airs tonight on PBS at 8PM. The New York Times has a review.  An excerpt:

Mr. Geffen’s story starts on a classic Hollywood arc: Brooklyn Jewish boyhood, apprenticeship in the William Morris mailroom, quick success as an artist’s manager and record company executive. But then it refuses to follow the usual rise-and-fall trajectory — it just keeps rising, to movie mogul, billionaire and most powerful man in show business. Ms. Lacy’s two-hour film acknowledges the well-documented ruthlessness and volatility — accompanied by shrewdness, drive and, for the lucky, intense loyalty — that fueled Mr. Geffen’s achievements. They’re framed as positive qualities, though some people shake their heads as they say it, and some of his more famous antagonists, like the agent Michael Ovitz, don’t appear. Less flattering examples of hubris, like his long battle against public beach access next to his house in Malibu, or his taste for gargantuan yachts, are not mentioned.

MANHATTAN: Gay Music Mogul David Geffen Pays Record $54M For UES Co-Op

Billionaire gay music mogul David Geffen has agreed to pay a record-setting $54 million for an Upper East Side penthouse.

The co-founder of Asylum Records and DreamWorks just closed on a $54 million duplex penthouse on the upper East Side owned by songwriter and socialite Denise Rich, real estate insiders say. The Brooklyn-born Geffen already owns an apartment in the same building, 785 Fifth Ave. at 60th St., right below the duplex. His new 12,000-square-foot unit has 20 rooms and outdoor space galore, with a roof deck and wraparound terraces amounting to another 5,000 square feet. The interior amenities include fine marble flooring, mahogany doors and multiple fireplaces. The upper level features a chef's kitchen near a dining room that can seat 22. But if Geffen wants a snack, there are two more kitchens on the lower level. He can work it off in the full gym that overlooks Central Park.

While Geffen's buy is the record for a co-op apartment, two condos (which do not require board approval to purchase) recently sold for much more.

UNRELATED TRIVIA: Joni Mitchell's Free Man In Paris was written about David Geffen.

Gays In The House

A handful of gays were sprinkled among the guests at the Obama administration's first state dinner last night.

Several prominent gay men and lesbians were among those at the White House Tuesday night for President and Mrs. Obama’s first state dinner, held in honor of India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife, Gursharan Kaur. Among those on the 338-person guest list were movie producer David Geffen and his partner, Jeremy Lingvall; longtime activist Urvashi Vaid and her partner, comedian Kate Clinton; Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and his partner, Sean Eldridge; and chair of the U.S. Export-Import Bank Fred Hochberg and his partner, Thomas Healy.

David Geffen Wants To Buy The NYT

Openly gay movie mogul David Geffen is angling to buy the New York Times, which is sure to inspire even more wingnut cries about the gay mafia running the nation's MSM.

David Geffen, the former record executive who made an offer for the Los Angeles Times two years ago, now wants to buy the New York Times, according to people close to the situation. Mr Geffen, a co-founder of DreamWorks SKG, made an offer in the past two months for the 19.8 per cent stake in the New York Times Company held by Harbinger Capital Partners, the activist US hedge fund controlled by Philip Falcone. His offer was rebuffed, two people familiar with its details said. One of these said the offer was made at the prevailing market price but Harbinger wanted a premium, adding that Mr Geffen remained interested in owning the company and would be "a patient buyer". Harbinger, Mr Geffen and the Times declined to comment, but Mr Geffen's interest, first reported by Fortune.com, could complicate the future control of America's most prestigious newspaper company.

Google has also been in talks to acquire a controlling interest in the paper.

HomoQuotable - David Geffen

“It’s not a very big thing to say, ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t." -David Geffen, one of the most wealthy homosexuals in the world and a former major Clinton fundraiser, speaking about his passionate support for Sen. Barack Obama. Geffen spoke to the New York Times' Maureen Dowd, an interview only available to Times Select subscribers, but heavily quoted on Editor & Publisher.

Geffen broke with the Clintons in 2000 after he pleaded in vain for Bill Clinton to pardon possibly wrongly convicted murderer Leonard Peltier, only to see Clinton grant a pardon to Marc Rich, a millionaire fugitive tax evader who illegally traded oil to Iran during the hostage crisis. Geffen yesterday: “Marc Rich getting pardoned? An oil-profiteer expatriate who left the country rather than pay taxes or face justice? Yet another time when the Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling.”