Phillies Owner's Wife Called Anal at Project Home Tribute

Last night was the 25th anniversary gala of Project Home, the charity founded by indomitable Sister Mary Scullion and Joan Dawson-McConnon that endeavors to end all homelessness in Philadelphia. The charity has helped more than 8000 people get off the streets and built more than 600 housing units. Phillies part owner John and Leigh Middleton were honored for their transformative gift of over $15 million to the charity.

Leigh and John Middleton accepting their honor

The Philadelphia society types came out for the dinner, which was attended by 1250 and raised $2.1 million. Rock star Jon Bon Jovi, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, Bill Giles of the Phillies as well as the formerly homeless residents of Project Home attended the event. Pennsylvania's First Lady, Susan Corbett, Senator Bob Casey, and Mayor Michael Nutter also attended the event.

Eagles owner Jeffrey and Tina Lurie,  Comcast CEO Brian and Aline Roberts, and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim

NBC's Meet the Press moderator David Gregory, whose show is currently in third place, was the evening's host. I asked him if there was any truth to the Washington Post report that a psychological consultant have been hired to help him. He dismissed the story with "It's just noise." Still I would have liked to be a fly on the wall during Gregory's conversation with his boss, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. No one was smiling.

Meet the Press moderator talking with his boss Comcast CEO Brian Roberts

Bon Jovi in his short but sweet speech made it clear who was the top dog in his relationship with Project Home co-founder Sister Mary Scullion. The nun is the boss of the rock star. He decided to become involved with the homeless after looking out his Philadelphia hotel room and seeing the homeless freezing on the street. He thought, This is not what our forefathers intended."

Bon Jovi teased Sister Mary Scullion during his speech. 

Binswanger Corp CEO David Binswanger and his wife Dorothy revealed some interesting details about the Middletons in their introduction of the couple. The couple works hard to deflect attention from themselves. They chose a seat at Phillies home game, to the left of the catcher, which is just out of camera range. The Middletons bought John's mother's 107 year old house and are refurbishing it. David Binwanger teased John Middleton about constantly looking at his phone and always being serious. Dorothy described Leigh Middleton as super organized or, in her words, "anal".

The World Bank President Jim Yong Kim gave a moving tribute to the Middletons in which he called them the new face of philanthropy. Kim announced that the World Bank is committed to ending extreme poverty in 15 years. He credited John Middleton with helping him developing a more scientific system for distributing aid.

He said, "I am so excited to be here. I have known John and Leigh Middleton for five years. There are no two people in the world that I admire more. John and Leigh ask simple questions of the people they work with 1. Do you have heart? 2. Do you grit? 3. Are you committed? 4. Do you use scientific evidence to improve the work that you do?"

I left the dinner with a queasy feeling in my stomach. I am not sure how I feel about going to a fancy gala dinner to raise money for the homeless. It was interesting to note two of the biggest supporters of the night made their fortunes from tobacco and sugary drinks, which have decimated poor communities.

Helping the homeless is hard work complicated by obstacles such as mental health and addiction. Yet, I was surprised how few people (8000 people) they had brought in from the streets or homes they had built (600) in a quarter century since the richest people in the city and Bon Jovi fund them. Mega developer Bart Blatstein does that in a year. When you break it down,  Project Home helped 320 people a year and built 24 homes a year.

The North Philly Stompers and the Phillie Phanatic led the crowd to dinner

David Binswanger and Marjorie Honickman are two major donors to Project Home

Rebeck Talks Candidly about "Smash" Firing

“Seminar,” written by the creator of the television show “Smash” Teresa Rebeck, is running at the Philadelphia Theatre Company (PTC) until April 14. This is a return trip to PTC for Pulitzer Prize nominated Rebeck. Twenty years ago, she wrote her play “Spike Heels” as one of the first young playwrights in the PTC Mentorship Program.

“Seminar” is a comedy about 4 aspiring writers that paid $5000 each to take a writing seminar given by a famous author. Each of the writers has different and surprising reactions to the true, but cruel criticism from their tortured teacher. Many of them, in rotating combinations, found comfort in each other’s arms. Several are forced to deal with the truth and find their true writing destiny.

Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright Rebeck considers “Seminar” one of her most “precious” plays because it is about the “desperate courage and hope of all writers.” She denies that the play is autobiographical, but admits to adding bits of her experiences and personality to several of the characters. Leonard, the writing teacher, is partially based on a sadistic Manhattan writing teacher. 

“Everyone thinks that I am Kate, the young feminist writer. I was a feminist, but not that militant. I have been a writing teacher. I was impatient but I just hope that I was not as cruel as Leonard. Like Matt, I was reluctant to show my work,” she said.

Rebeck, who won both a Peabody Award and Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award for her work on NYPD Blue, believes this the golden age of storytelling because advancements in technology have lowered the cost of telling a story.

She said, “You can now edit on your laptop. My friend made a movie for $15000 that was distributed nationwide,”

Rebeck encourages all aspiring writers to “create their own opportunity” by self –producing instead of submitting grant applications and facing possible rejection.

“I am not sure that art and corporate logic fit together,” she said.

Rebeck’s distaste for the studio system may stem from her very public firing as executive producer from “Smash.”  Steven Spielberg recruited her to the show when he fell in love with her play, “The Understudy”.

“The show is good. Angelica Huston (who plays the tenacious producer) told me last week the show is not broken. It was going to hit its stride in the second season like “West Wing.”

She attributed her firing to “panicking by NBC executives” and “gender issues.”

“There were 10 guys and me,” she said.

Rebeck, who is one of the most successful women writers in the country, feels that she has hit the glass ceiling in the television industry . She points out that playwrights get to keep their own copyright while television and film writers get paid  a lot of money but sell their copyright to the corporations. 

"Play writing is a collaborative horizontal process while television writing is a vertical process. Corporations stomp on you and your work and then steal it. Male writers have said to me that they do it to us also. But it is not the same thing. They have had one play on off Broadway while I have long of writing credits."

Her creative differences with NBC resulted from their requests to have the characters on "Smash" do things that they or the actors would not do. 

"They wanted to make "Karen" the main character, mean. I said that she could get drunk or angry but would never be mean. They wanted Angelica Huston's character to do icky things which Angelica would never do. She is a lady."

Senator Casey Serious About Gun Control

Senator Casey is holding Sarah Brady's book.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has already noted that Senator Bob Casey, who was previously a vocal supporter of the NRA, has had a change of heart about gun control. A group of concerned citizens, including Lower Merion Democratic Committeeman David  Broida and activist Betsy Sheerr, recently met with him to discuss the issue. This is Broida's account of the meeting, which was confirmed with other participants. 

Casey started out the meeting by saying that he had never had an experience like this, The television news reports from Newtown, Connecticut after the massacre of 20 children, 6 teachers, and the shooter's mother had a major impact on him. 

Casey said, " Don't think that TV news can't influence you.  I watched NBC's Pete Williams walk in the halls of the school, with arrows on the floor, showing the path of the  gunman.  Moving down the hallway.  That is when I realized that he didn't intend to kill just students in 2 rooms - he intended to kill every child in that school."

It seems that gun control advocates owe a debt of gratitude to one of Casey's daughter. Casey indicated that his it was daughter's prodding that caused him to change his mind. 

Casey said, "I was haunted by the reality of 20 kids dead and the possibility of an entire school dying. My daughter asked me, Dad, you have a vote. What are you going to do about it?"

For the first time, he questioned the existence of militias and the unlimited rights of gun owners. 

"I do not know how many of my constituents are in the militia category, but as someone who loves his country and sees the government as a force of good for its citizens, I am clearly alarmed by this segment of our society," said Casey. 

Some of Casey shift on gun control can be attributed to the changing demographics of Pennsylvania. The state is becoming less rural and more suburban. But he does seem sincere about the need for gun control. 

In a lighter moment during the meeting, Casey joked about the red hot celebrity of the new senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren.

"When I was a party for Elizabeth Warren's swearing in party, someone handed him the camera and asked him to take the picture. The first time that has happened. I am usually the one in the picture," laughed Casey. 

CNBC's Bartiromo: Banks Are Not Lending Because They Can't Lie

CNBC's star anchor Maria Bartiromo, the "Money Honey" was the featured speaker this morning at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Economic Outlook 2012 breakfast. Her delivery of a canned speech made it clear that the Money Honey did not want to be in Philadelphia this morning, but only came due to pressure from NBC's new owners, specifically Comcast's Executive Vice President David Cohen. (So much for Comcast's promise not to interfere with the news division.)

Being in Philadelphia, she warmed up the audience by mentioning that her family went to Penn. Interestingly, she stayed mum about having been appointed to the Wharton Business School Leadership Advisory Board by the former CEO of Citigroup's wealth management division, Todd Thomson, who was fired by Citigroup over their alleged affair.

Due to the tremendous amount of advertising dollars that the World Economic Forum drops on CNBC, she must have felt obligated to say the word Davos. However, she did not offer any fresh insights from the conference. As one breakfast attended said, "She did not have to go to Davos to give that speech."

According to Bartiromo, there is a reason that banks are not lending and it is not the bad economy. "One high level bank executive told me his bank is not lending money now because they can no longer lie on the loan documents," she said. "People have to have the financial wherewithal to buy."

She believes that the economy has started to turn around. "When I interviewed JP Morgan CEO Jamie Morgan, he said that housing has hit bottom, but will be bumping around the bottom for awhile."

Bartiromo is a big proponent of mobile technology. "There are 1 billion personal computers in the world today while there are 4 billion mobile devices. Only 400 million of those are smart phones," she said, "Many people do not yet know the potential of their phones. In Korea, they can pay for everything, board planes with their phones."

Internationally, she is concerned about the drop in China's growth rate from 11% to 8%. March 22 is the next potential default date for Greece. Although Greece is a small European country, a default would have a tremendous psychological impact on the market.

With the tremendous growth in the world's population, she is pushing commodities and mining stocks. "Demand for iron ore, gold, copper, and steel are very strong," she said.

She ended with her thoughts on education. "In America, children attend school five hours a day, five days a week when you exclude gym and lunch," said Bartiromo. "In the rest of the world, children go to school 10 hours a day, six days a week."

One of the panelists, the new president of Tasty Baking Company Paul Ridder, is also concerned about the small pool of educated workers. "With the unemployment rate over 8%, you would think that it would be easy for us to find skilled electricians and other workers. It is not," he said.

While many criticize the banks for not lending, Ridder defended the banks. "Banks are not venture capitalists. They must lend to solid businesses," he said.

Dan Calista, founder and CEO of health industry management consulting firm Vynamic, believes that for Philadelphia to grow as a business center "it can not be the murder capital of the world" and must improve conditions at Philadelphia International Airport.

Liz Lemon Comes to Kabletown

Tiny Fey, the creator, writer and star of "30 Rock," appeared at the Central Parkway branch of the Free Library to promote her new book, "BossyPants."
Fey, a graduate of Upper Darby High School, was thrilled to return to her hometown. Her proud parents were in the audience.
Steve Burke from Comcast, with his wife and four of his children in tow, introduced Fey by saying "Welcome to Kabletown." He acknowleged "30 Rock" is one of the few hits on NBC. Burke gave her a compliment by repeating Lorne Michael's comment that she is the most talented person at NBC.
By the way, Lorne Michael refused to meet his new boss for breakfast, but did meet Burke for a dinner after the Thursday night run through of "Saturday Night Live." Lorne said to Burke, "Breakfast is out of the question."
Tina Fey credited her sixth grade teacher in Upper Darby with encouraging to write. She got her start writing a humor column for the school newspaper. A community theater group in Upper Darby gave Fey her first taste of the theater.
When asked about Alec Baldwin's announcement that he was leaving "30 Rock" after next year, Tina Fey said, "Alec is famous for making pronouncements and then changing his mind."
After Al Franken won the Senate without Fey's financial support, she texted him, "I knew that you could do it without my help." The new Senator texted back, "F--k you!"
Fey admitted that he unusual cover, which is a picture of Fey juxtaposed with hairy arms, "creeps people out."
Fey had mixed feelings about her iconic role as Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live." It certainly raised my profile, but it also created a group of people that hated me, " explained Fey.
The book and lecture were a little disappointing because Fey revealed very little and did not dish on her colleagues.

Comcast Executive Lets Loose

Metro was able to catch up with an exultant David L. Cohen, the executive vice president of Comcast, by phone from his Philadelphia office hours before the Comcast-NBC deal closed. Comcast now owns 51% of NBCUniversal in a joint venture with General Electric. Comcast assumes management control of the network.
Cohen, along with a team of Comcast employees in Philadelphia and Washington, has spent over a year working on gaining regulatory approval for this deal. “I can not believe that we (Comcast executives) are going to wake up in the morning and be the proud owners of NBCUniversal. Brian Roberts, the CEO of Comcast, is both exhilarated and humbled,” said Cohen.
Comcast headquarters will stay in Philadelphia notwithstanding that NBC is New York City based. Although Brian Roberts recently bought an apartment in Manhattan in the same building as Sting and Denzel Washington, he is not decamping there. Cohen insisted, “Brian and Ralph Roberts and Comcast executives are proud to head a Philadelphia based company. We just opened the center city headquarters in June 2008.”
For the city of Philadelphia, the merger will not mean a gain or loss of any jobs. Cohen stressed, “Comcast employees will not be moving to New York. We do not intend to move NBC, Universal or Telemundo employees here. Maybe, a few additional administrative positions might be needed locally”
Cohen was clearly taking a victory lap. “During the week before the FCC vote, more than 110 Congressman and Senators signed a letter urging approval. Governors, mayors, and City Council members supported the deal. Only two people –Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Senator Al Franken-were against the deal at the end,” said Cohen.
Congresswoman Waters, reached over the weekend, said, “When no African American received an Oscar nomination this year, I am right to be worried about diversity.” Queen Latifah spoofed her outspoken criticism of the merger on “30 Rock.”
Critics charged that the FCC did not extract major concessions from Comcast when they approved the merger. Cohen also downplayed the significance of the conditions that FCC imposed on Comcast to approve the merger. “We voluntarily agreed to most of the conditions because we would have done them anyways. For example, we have agreed to supply an additional 1000 hours of local news and public affairs programming and partner with hyperlocal non- profit news organizations because we believe in local news,” he asserted.
Cohen argued that ceding management control of Hulu, the online video service that is a joint venture between NBC, News Corp, and Disney, was a “nonevent.” “Before the merger, NBC had a minority, non controlling stake that afforded limited governance,” he contended.
Comcast is now required by the FCC to offer stand alone hi speed Internet at the price of $49.95 for the next two years with a cost of living increase only allowed in the third year. Cohen contends, “Comcast was doing this anyways. We currently charge $49.95 -$54.95 for this service.”
Jeff Zucker, previously the CEO of the network; MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann; and Angela Bromsted, the programming executive responsible for “House” and “Heroes” have been recently terminated. One person that does not seem to have to worry about a job is Steve Capus, the head of NBC News.
Cohen said, “NBC News is the crown jewel of the network. We have enormous respect for the people that work there and have made it the leading news network. Steve Capus is staying and will now be reporting directly to Steve Burke, the incoming CEO of NBCUniversal.”
While the acquisition of NBC was Brian Robert’s vision, his 91- year- old father, Comcast founder Ralph Roberts, has reason to be proud. On a video conference for NBCUniversal employees today, the senior Roberts said, “Only in America could a cable company in Tupelo, Mississippi with 1200 customers turn into a company with $50 billion in revenues and 130,000 employees.
NBC and ATT Broadband will probably not be the last purchases of Comcast. Cohen, refusing to comment, said, “I joined Comcast because they are a growing company, not content to stand still.”
I reported part of this for Metro.
http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/local/article/758449--comcast-staying-put-in-philly-after-nbc-merger

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Comcast Speaks about the Olympics

NBC started airing the Olympics when Richard Nixon was President. The broadcasting tradition of a generation will mostly like end after the Comcast takeover of NBC is completed.
With NBC losing a reported $223 million on the 2010 Vancouver games and standing to lose even more on the 2012 London games, bidding for the broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games at the current prices that the Olympic Committee is asking may no longer make economic sense. While Comcast CEO Brian Roberts medaled in squash at the Maccabiah Games, that will probably not be a compelling enough reason for Comcast to take the financial losses. By all accounts, the Roberts family bought NBC to make money not for the prestige.
David L. Cohen, the Executive Vice President of Comcast, said, "We have to finish the acquisition and then look at the books." When pressed, he added, "I know that there is no way that we are going to pay $2.5 billion for the rights like the Olympic Committee currently wants." Cohen doubted that the NBC would prevail in the auction next spring of the broadcasting rights for the games in 2014 and 2016.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was one of twenty CEOs that recently met with Obama during the CEO summit in December at Blair House. Cohen discussed that visit, "Published reports are accurate."
Accounts of the meeting said that Roberts voiced his support directly to the President for the then pending net neutrality proposal at the FCC because of the importance of regulatory certainty for Comcast." John Doerr, the venture capitalist behind Google and Amazon, voiced similar sentiment at the summit.