Talk:Ronald Perelman
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AskMen sez he was born in '44.
- They're wrong. Forbes, When Money Is King(An unauthorized biography he reviewed before publishing), and Testosterone, Inc(A hack job directed at him and several other prominent CEO's from the 80's and 90's) all agree he was born in '43. I've seen birth years or ages given that would place his year of birth everywhere from 1935 to 1945. The error probably stems from his unusual birthday of January 1st, typos, and lazy journalists that crib from one another. Chris Croy 08:31, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Rewrite
I've decided to make this page my own little project. My broad work order:
1. Get his business career down and fleshed out. This is the major reason why he's important and worth noting.
2. Flesh out his extensive legal troubles. Initially, all of this will be in the main body of the documen, but I may move it to its own heading if it threatens to obliterate the overall flow of the prose. Major cases: Morgan-Stanley, Technicolor, the S&L debacle(dear god), and Tepperman(maybe).
3. Detail his personal life. This is, unfortunately, the main reason people actually know about him. I could fill an entire article with meaningless minutae from his personal life, so the goal here is focus the article on the aspects of his life that are important or notable in their own right, such as his marriages, relationships with celebrities, children, etc.
4. Criticism. This may become a heading in its own right or I may be able to weave it into the overall prose, I don't know yet. It depends on how much detail the criticisms need in order to be properly represented. Possible criticisms: His various well-publicized expressions of anger, his incredible pickiness with regard to house design, general criticism of conspicuous consumption, and general commentary on his core business model of buying companies and restructuring them.
4. Find a picture of him that's unencumbered by copyrights. Fair use, etc etc, but that doesn't change the fact that the current picture is copyrighted.
Possible additions that may not be worth the space:
a. Detail his charitable givings. He's given away a lot of money.
b. Detail his assets. This would be an extremely difficult undertaking because of his (deliberately?) complicated organizational approach. He's very found of nesting companies within other companies, so you may need to follow down four or five different corporations to actually find out what he owns.Chris Croy 08:31, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Smoking
This is a fun one: Just why did Ron quit smoking? I've read three different theories.
Theory #1: Ellen made him do it. I don't have a cite handy, but I can probably find one if we want to put this in there.
Problems: Ellen smokes too. In addition, I remember reading an interview where she confessed to being a bit of a junk-food junkie and went on to say said (paraphrased) "Ron treats his body like a temple".
Theory #2: He quit after he sold Consolidated Cigar. We have a cite from Forbes that implies casualty between him selling Consolidated and quitting smoking.
Problems: Ron's a die-hard capitalist. He'd do a deal with the devil if the money was good. The idea of him giving up smoking just because he sold a company that made cigars strikes me as being incredibly implausible and out of character.
Theory #3: His youngest daughter, Caleigh, made him a deal: She'd quit sucking her pacifiers if he quit smoking. Source: An anonymous wikipedia user. "He quit because his youngest daughter made a deal with him that she would stop using her pacifier if he gave up smoking cigars, of course, he obliged because he could not resist her cute deal."
Problems: We don't have a cite from a reliable source. Other than that, I actually think it's the most plausible of the three theories. If anything in this world could make him quit smoking, it would be one of his children not only asking him to, but cutting a deal with him.
I realize Forbes is a reliable source on matters of finance, but I don't think they rigorously fact-check random gossip. I've removed all reference to why he quit from the article until such time as another reliable source(Or, hell, any source) can be produced. Chris Croy 10:42, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
Update: Check out this interview. He says, "[A cigar is] like a pacifier for a grown-up." It's not proof either way, but it is interesting. I continue to think Theory #3 is the most plausible explanation. Chris Croy 19:19, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Religion
I believe this is the second time someone's removed the bit about him being Jewish from the introduction. He is an ethnic Jew of Russian descent(Not a notable fact), but he's also religiously Jewish. The introduction to an article is supposed to give a brief overview of the rest of the article and in my opinion, his Jewishness is a notable facet of his public persona. He's given a great deal of money to Jewish causes including creating a professorship of Judaic Studies at Princeton and millions in charity to the Jewish sect he belongs to (I forget it's name off-hand). His observance of Jewish tradition makes a notable impact on his personal life, e.g. He strictly keeps the Jewish Sabbath and a kosher household. I could throw out more examples: He's made two lists of 'Jewish people that control the media', both of which are still forwarded to this day, both of which cite his ownership of New World Communications as the source of his media power. That's hilarious because it stopped being true years ago.
In other words, once I write a section on 'Religion', I'm putting it back in the introduction. Chris Croy 10:42, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
