“Howard Katz” is the male “Devil Wore Prada”

In this play by Patrick Marber, London talent agent Howard Katz (Alfred Molina) is clever and nasty, a combination as familiar in the entertainment world as on Seventh Avenue. “Du té, du café?” is the pretentious invitation to a visitor. The command that dismisses his assistant is “Exit!”

It’s a fascinating tale, and Doug Hughes’ direction engrosses us even if we might predict the ending. Flashbacks show the path of anger and despair to self-destruction.

Western critics: Khodorkovsky stole Yukos fair and square

March 28, 2007

Russia, through its energy company Rosneft, has started to recover the multibillion-dollar oil company Yukos that was stolen from it in the mid-90s. It is buying the assets in auctions. Indignant protests are heard from westerners.

Funny there was no indignation from western officials when Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other “oligarchs,” with the help of crooked President Boris Yeltsin, were appropriating Russian national oil and mineral wealth for kopeks on the ruble.

A Khodorkovsky company ran an auction at which a Khodorkovsky shell company “won” Yukos, paying $309 million for a controlling 78 percent. Months later, Yukos traded on the Russian stock exchange at a market capitalization of $6 billion.

Visit to the KGB: Spy agency opens door to world of secrets

I was having dinner at the Moscow apartment of Tatiana Kudryavtseva, the Russian translator for books by Graham Greene, Joyce Carol Oates, Norman Mailer, John Updike and William Styron, among others. But it wasn’t a literary evening. The other guest was Rufina Philby, widow of the British spy. Tatiana knew her through Greene, who had written a preface to Philby’s memoir.

Rufina, or Rutchka, as Tatiana called her, was disarming, referring to Kim as “the spy” and recounting how they’d met in Moscow when a friend couldn’t use a ticket to the U.S. Ice Capades. The couple going with her invited Kim. She recalled how depressed he’d been in his Russian exile until the KGB finally gave him a job–training spies to behave as proper Brits so they’d pass easily in England.

I asked if she’d been to the KGB Museum I’d heard about.

“I’ve never been there,” she said. “I don’t know anything about it. I didn’t know there was one.”

That turned out to be far from the truth.

Where to Stay in London

Planning a visit to our cousins, the Brits? In London, there are several main areas best to stay in. Most convenient is the West End — known as “Theatreland.” You can move further west and live near one of the big parks or squares — Green Park or Grosvenor.

Here is the majestic Millennium Britannia in Grosvenor Square.

Or you can choose to be in Knightsbridge, Chelsea or Kensington, the trendy areas that are minutes from downtown by tube and have the flavor of an upscale Greenwich Village and Upper West Side. I checked out hotels in each of those neighborhoods.

Billionaires for Bush, targets of NYC spying, are dangerous critics of Bush greed and war

March 25, 2007

In view of the news that Billionaires for Bush were among those targeted by spies run by NYC Mayor Bloomberg and his Police in the months up to the 2004 Republican Convention, here’s a reminder of the Billionaires’ dangerous tactics.

What would you choose for the opening music of a play about Dick Cheney and George Bush? “Money makes the world go around…” from “Cabaret,” of course. In the tradition of good satire, this tongue-in-cheek play-length musical skit by The Billionaire Follies, the performing wing of Billionaires for Bush, is witty political commentary and enormously entertaining. This is “Dick Cheney’s Holiday Spectacular 2006!”

Offshore Scorecard: NY Times gets the headline wrong

March 25, 2007

Swiss travel the world to help mega-rich evade taxes

The NY Times headline yesterday said, “Discreet Swiss Banks Now Offering Sophisticated Investment Vehicles.” Further down, the story noted that Geneva has becomes an “aggressive haven for the global elite.” And, “Now the Swiss can be found throughout the world, selling more sophisticated investment vehicles to attract high-net-worth individuals, mostly multimillionaires.”

So what is the real story about? The headline should have been, “Discreet Swiss travel the world to help the mega-rich evade taxes.”
How else has bank-secrecy Switzerland, with only 7.5 million people, become the third-largest asset manager in the world, after the United States and Britain, with global banking assets under management of $5.5 trillion?

Offshore Scorecard: US Safra Bank moves Brazilian politician’s kickbacks to Jersey account

March 11, 2007

A few days ago, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced the indictment of Paulo Maluf, the former governor and mayor of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and four co-conspirators, for stealing more than $11.6 million from a Brazilian public works project. The money moved through the Safra Bank in New York. It was only part of the $130 million that Maluf passed through Safra in 18 months alone.

The case offers another example of how the offshore banking system, controlled by the global banks, helps the world’s crooks.

Exclusive: Sealed evidence in the IDT Haiti bribery case is revealed

March 8, 2007

Until now, IDT, the giant U.S. telecom accused of bribing former Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to get a lucrative phone contract, has managed to keep details of the case under wraps. That is because IDT lawyers succeeded in getting the U.S. District Court Judge, Mark Falk, to gag whistleblower D. Michael Jewett and seal his testimony.

But somehow, three weeks ago — unaccountably in the face of Jewett’s lawyer’s unsuccessful attempts to unblock the court record — the statements of Jewett and of the top IDT officials were posted on Pacer, the US government court website.

What interesting reading those documents make, especially Jewett’s detailed account of what may happen in a major corporation when a lone employee stands up against corruption.

“Shady money” photography prize

March 2, 2007

A UK photographer just sent The Scoop this email about The Photographers Gallery in London. He says:

“The Deutsche Borse photography prize, formerly the Citibank photography prize, is perhaps the most prestigious and important photography prize and one of the most important art prizes. Those who win become “name” photographers/artists, and their work becomes literally over night very valuable, exchanging hands for many thousands of dollars.