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    Vanity Fair
    October 2007
THE VANITY FAIR 100
The 2007 New Establishment

Our annual power ranking.
October 2007

It's been a subprime year for everyone, not least the Vanity Fair 100. When last we checked in,
Sumner Redstone, 84 years young, was hogging the spotlight like a cranky, Go-Gurt-deprived toddler,
jettisoning Tom Cruise from his Paramount playpen and readying his Fisher-Price chopping block for
Viacom C.E.O. Tom Freston's head. This year, private-equity titans and hedge-fund wizards got caught
in the headlights when it became public that they were paying just 15 percent in federal tax on their
gargantuan payouts. The sinking stock market hasn't slowed down Rupert Murdoch, who showed the
world some old-media love, picking up The Wall Street Journal. Redstone, meanwhile, carried on with
assorted squabbles, settling a lawsuit brought by his son, Brent, and filing suit against Google.
As breathlessly awaited as Harry Potter, the deliciously beautiful iPhone dropped calls but still drove up
Steve Jobs's net worth by $200 million. Oh, and here's Sumner again, now picking a fight with
daughter Shari, modestly reminding her in a public letter that it was he, "with little or no contribution
on [his children's] part, who built these great media companies."
And so it goes on the Gilded Stage.
(Here on VF.com, we present abbreviated bios of the top 20, plus the list of the other 80 entries. For full
bios of all 100, as well as lots of other New Establishment coverage, see the October 2007 issue.)
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1.
Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. (last year: 1)
Murdoch fulfilled a long-held ambition to own The Wall Street Journal after making a stunning, cunning,
$5 billion offer for Dow Jones & Co. In typical fashion, he offered more money than anyone in his right
mind would have done, ensuring that the Bancroft-family members who controlled the company had little
choice but to turn it over. (The wily deal-maker even wrapped up negotiations in time to make his
scheduled departure on his new yacht, Rosehearty, which investor Vivi Nevo had returned the day
before.) The famously hands-on media mogul inspires fear and loathing among Journal employees and
readers, but Murdoch, who grew up in the newspaper business, insists his intentions are benign: he
says he wants to pour money into the paper to fuel expansion outside of the U.S. and on the Web.
And he'll likely do just that.

2.
Steve Jobs, Apple, Disney, Pixar (last year: 3)
It's been some year for Jobs: the iPhone at Apple and Ratatouille at Pixar. And if you look closely, you
can make out the emerging outlines of technology's Master Plan: Google will handle the processing;
Apple will make the devices. This year Jobs orchestrated the most-hyped launch ever for a consumer
electronics device as rabid iFans waited in line for days to buy 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours
after they went on sale. Meanwhile, Apple's assorted iPods continue to fly off the shelves, with more
than 100 million units sold around the world. Since Jobs unveiled the iPhone, in January, Apple stock
has jumped 40 percent.

3.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google (last year: 2)
There's just no stopping "the twins," as they're known. Google's profit topped $3 billion last year. This
summer, its stock price hit $550 a share, while rival Yahoo's tanked. Things are so good that Google
keeps nearly doubling the size of its workforce every year (occasionally to the detriment of its earnings).
And the hires are so well paid that rents have shot up in San Francisco neighborhoods near the morning-
pickup locations of Google's fleet of black buses. In July, Google positioned itself to control a new
wireless network, when C.E.O. Eric Schmidt announced its intent to spend at least $4.6 billion for
wireless spectrum when the F.C.C. brings it up for auction.

4.
Stephen Schwarzman and Pete Peterson, The Blackstone Group (last year: 34)
The private-equity behemoth The Blackstone Group made its name by taking companies private, but
made its partners billions by going public in a high-profile offering. The company now has nearly
$98 billion in assets under management, and owns or jointly controls companies in just about every
sector of the economy: real estate (Equity Office Properties), media (The Hollywood Reporter), theme
parks (Six Flags, Universal Orlando), technology (SunGard), retail (Michaels hobby stores), food and
beverage (United Biscuits, Orangina), health care (Southern Cross), the Internet (Orbitz). Latest deal:
a pending $26 billion offer for Hilton Hotels. But after going public at $31 a share and quickly rising to
$35, Blackstone stock has been languishing at $25.

5.
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway (last year: 6)
After years of hand-wringing by his faithful shareholders, Buffett, 76, finally unveiled his plans to name a
successor. The investment guru says he'll narrow down thousands of candidates in an American Idol–like
runoff. Meanwhile, his financial juggernaut, Berkshire Hathaway, now generates nearly $100 billion in
annual revenue and sits atop a $40 billion war chest. Since betting against the U.S. dollar in 2002, Buffett
has earned more than $2 billion in foreign-currency trades. He also bought $82 million in Enron bonds
shortly after the company filed for bankruptcy. The investment is now worth $352 million.
6.
Bill Clinton, Clinton Foundation (last year: 7)
His annual Clinton Global Initiative summit, which last year drew Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, is like
"Davos with a conscience," in the words of Sierra Club head Carl Pope. Highlight: Sir Richard Branson
pledging about $3 billion to fight global warming. Clinton, 61, is getting cut-rate aids drugs to hundreds
of thousands of patients, and he's organizing banks to lend billions to major world cities to retrofit old
buildings for energy efficiency. While he tried to stay low-key in wife Hillary's campaign, fears of
Obama-mania finally sent him back into the spotlight.

7.
Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks (last year: 10)
Already a billionaire three times over, Spielberg, 60, is on track to gross a billion more in the coming
years: this summer he began directing Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett in the so-called Indiana Jones 4,
nearly two decades after the last installment. Now he's teaming with Peter Jackson for a series of three
3-D animated films based on the beloved Tintin comic books. Spielberg's personal bond with Jackson
helped DreamWorks clinch the deal for a film version of the best-selling novel The Lovely Bones, which
Jackson will direct. Up next: The Pacific, the 10-hour companion piece to the World War II mini-series
Band of Brothers. He's also casting Liam Neeson as Lincoln for the big screen.

8.
Bernard Arnault, LVMH (last year: 19)
Arnault's empire (more than 64,000 employees, 1,925 retail stores) controls more luxury brands—
Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Moët Hennessy, Dom Pérignon, and TAG Heuer, among others—than any rival.
LVMH's earnings rose 30 percent last year, to $2.6 billion. Meanwhile, his Christian Dior brand, which
Arnault, 58, calls "probably the best-known French name in the world," is expanding into Saudi Arabia,
with stores in Riyadh and Jidda.

9.
Michael Bloomberg, mayor, New York CIty; Bloomberg L.P. (last year: 36)
With a little more than two years left in his final term, Bloomberg, 65, has harnessed his 70 percent
approval numbers to stump for an ambitious plan that would make the city cleaner, greener, and less
congested by 2030. His vocal stands on global warming, gun control, and partisan politics have fueled
speculation that he is presidential material. He says he has no plans to run, but his June announcement
that he was withdrawing from the Republican Party and registering as an independent didn't exactly
quell the presidential chatter.

10.
Bill and Melinda Gates, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (last year: 5, for Bill Gates; Melinda Gates
appears for the first time)
Although it's unclear whether Bill Gates remains the planet's richest person—Fortune reports that he's
been eclipsed by Mexican telecom baron Carlos Slim Helú—there's no doubt that Bill, 51, and wife
Melinda, 43, are the biggest philanthropists ever. The Gateses now operate on the level of world leaders.
The dinner they held at their Lake Washington home for China's president, Hu Jintao, was grander than
the lunch that President Bush threw for him in Washington. And they teamed with Canadian prime
minister Stephen Harper to announce a $139 million Canadian research effort for H.I.V. vaccines.

11.
Carlos Slim Helú, Teléfonos de México, América Móvil (new entry)
One academic refers to Mexico as "Slimlandia," because Slim's empire of more than 200 companies
represents a stunning 7 percent of the nation's G.D.P. and around one-third of the value of its stock
exchange. In the past two years his wealth has surged from about $40 billion to $59 billion. Slim (who's
portly, actually) dominates Mexico's telephone industry—his companies control 92 percent of the
landlines and 73 percent of the cell phones. His many other businesses include cigarettes, department
stores, restaurants, and a bank. Critics say that he's too powerful and that his near monopoly increases
telephone fees in an impoverished country; others hope that he'll redeem his enormous profits through
philanthropy as the Rockefeller of Latin America. He recently pledged to increase the size of his
foundations from $4 billion to $10 billion over the next four years.

12.
H. Lee Scott, Wal-Mart (last year: 4)
With Wal-Mart's sales growth sputtering, Scott, 58, acquiesced to Wall Street pressure and scaled back:
only 200 new Supercenters will open in the U.S. this year, instead of a planned 270. He also backed
away from his plans to lure upscale consumers and, instead, slashed prices on 13,000 items. Overseas
forays have been equally disappointing, since Wal-Mart loses a lot in translation to foreign cultures.
In an effort to boost its sagging shares, Wal-Mart plans to buy back $15 billion of its own stock.

13.
Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren (last year: 21)
Since founding Polo Ralph Lauren four decades ago, preppydom's reigning taste-maker has skillfully
maneuvered its many brands over varying price points and retail venues without shaking the company's
luxury image. The strategy is paying off: Polo stock has jumped 35 percent in the last year, and sales
increased 15 percent, to $4.3 billion. In July the company extended his contract to 2013.

14.
Oprah Winfrey, Harpo Productions (last year: 9)
Philanthropy has been an especially resonant theme in Oprah's life and work this year. She was the
sole living entertainer to make the Slate 60, compiled by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Slate magazine's
annual list of the largest charitable donations in the United States. Most of the $58.3 million Oprah gave
went to her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation. She also opened her second new school for
poor South African youth, the $1.6 million Seven Fountains Primary School, in KwaZulu-Natal Province.
And Harpo's first prime-time TV series, Oprah's Big Give, in which contestants compete by devising
creative ways to do good for others, will debut early next year.

15.
Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, IAC, Expedia; Diane von Furstenberg (last year: 12)
Diller, 65, tried to tighten his grip on his Web properties by buying back a huge chunk of stock in Expedia,
but had to shelve the plan when he couldn't secure adequate financing. The result: Expedia's shares sank
10 percent. Meanwhile, he's been selling off small parts of his lagging TV-shopping holdings and may
unload HSN (formerly Home Shopping Network) altogether. No worries. His sprawling Internet
conglomerate was just named America's most admired company in Web services by Fortune, ranking
ahead of stalwarts Google, eBay, and Amazon. Von Furstenberg, his designer wife, is expanding her
fashion company overseas, where it generates nearly half its sales. This fall she will open shops in
Moscow, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, and Brussels, her hometown.

16.
David Geffen, DreamWorks (last year: 22)
The Cardinal Richelieu of Hollywood insists "there is no drama in my life," but he provided plenty of it
in February when he trashed the Clintons, telling New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd that
"everybody in politics lies, but [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it's troubling." The remark, one of a
handful of zingers the mogul handed to Dowd, triggered a flurry of finger-pointing between the Hillary
and Obama camps and became one of the most widely cited Times stories of the year.

17.
Howard Stringer, Sony (last year: 14)
Last year the gregarious Sony chief had to put out a few fires—literally. The company had more than
seven million of its laptop batteries recalled after some had burst into flames. But other Sony products
are faring better. The company maintains a dominant position in camcorders, and its Sony-Ericsson
music-enabled phones, though not popular in the U.S., have outsold the ubiquitous iPod overseas.

18.
Richard Parsons, Time Warner (last year: 11)
After several years of rough sailing—the AOL merger, its subsequent fallout, Carl Icahn—Parsons, 59,
may finally have his ship righted. Wall Street keeps pestering him to make a bold move—perhaps sell
off AOL, or, more daringly, the company's flagship Time Inc. publishing unit—but Parsons seems content
to stay the course. If he can keep it up, he'll be able to leave after his contract expires, in 2008, with
a well-burnished reputation for calm, understated leadership.

19.
Al Gore, eco-warrior (last year: 33)
Gore's passionate crusading is surely a big reason why 78 percent of Americans now say that global
warming requires action "right away." His book An Inconvenient Truth has sold 850,000 copies
worldwide, and he's trained a large corps of volunteers (including Cameron Diaz) in the U.S., India, and
China to give his consciousness-raising slide show to their friends. This year Gore, 59, scored a best-
documentary Oscar, a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, and another best-seller with The Assault on
Reason—a sharply worded attack on the Bush administration—and he attracted even more global
publicity for the cause through his Live Earth concerts, held on 07/07/07 on seven continents.

20.
Larry Ellison, Oracle (last year: 8)
Ellison, 63, has been on a shopping spree. Over the last three years, Oracle has snapped up rivals
PeopleSoft and Siebel Systems, and a host of smaller outfits. Oracle stock is up 35 percent since last
summer, adding $6 billion to Ellison's net worth. All the more reason he's been feeling a bit generous
of late. On a recent trip to Israel, Ellison donated $500,000 on the spot to a community center in Sderot
to help reinforce the building against rocket attacks.

21. Herb Allen (last year: 48)
22. Jeff Bewkes (last year: 16)
23. Jeff Bezos (last year: 42)
24. Peter Chernin (last year: 15)
25. Leslie Moonves (last year: 18)
26. Jerry Bruckheimer (last year: 28)
27. George Clooney (last year: 23)
28. Bono (last year: 24)
29. François Pinault (last year: 26)
30. Roman Abramovich (last year: 50)
31. Ronald Perelman (last year: 31)
32. Tom Hanks (last year: 25)
33. Jacob Rothschild (last year: 80)
34. Robert De Niro (last year: 27)
35. Howard Schultz (new entry)
36. Robert Iger (last year: 13)
37. Giorgio Armani (last year: 32)
38. Jeffrey Katzenberg (last year: 45)
39. Ronald Lauder and Leonard Lauder (last year: 40)
40. George Lucas (last year: 41)
41. Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein (last year: 39)
42. Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols (last year: 47)
43. Bruce Wasserstein (last year: 38)
44. Miuccia Prada (last year: 58)
45. Steven Cohen (last year: 29)
46. Tom Cruise (last year: 35)
47. Jay-Z (last year: 46)
48. Ron Meyer (returning)
49. Frank Gehry (last year: 77)
50. Arnold Schwarzenegger (new entry)
51. Henry Kravis (new entry)
52. Karl Lagerfeld (last year: 60)
53. Oscar and Annette de la Renta (last year: 65)
54. Martha Stewart (returning)
55. Mickey Drexler (last year: 84)
56. Michael Moritz (new entry)
57. Brian Roberts (last year: 52)
58. Roger Ailes (last year: 44)
59. Vivi Nevo (last year: 61)
60. Mick Jagger (last year: 56)
61. Jeff Skoll (last year: 87)
62. Vinod Khosla (new entry)
63. Diego Della Valle (new entry)
64. Stacey Snider (returning)
65. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard (last year: 64)
66. John Lasseter (last year: 67)
67. George Soros (new entry)
68. Philippe Dauman (new entry)
69. John Malone (last year: 71)
70. Sumner Redstone (last year: 30)
71. Paul Allen (last year: 37)
72. Eddie Lampert (last year: 51)
73. Leon Black (new entry)
74. Jann Wenner (last year: 75)
75. Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan (new entry)
76. Jerry Weintraub (new entry)
77. Donatella Versace (last year: 81)
78. Thomas L. Friedman (last year: 68)
79. Tim Russert (last year: 49)
80. Charlie Rose (last year: 62)
81. Joel Silver (last year: 63)
82. Frank Rich (last year: 57)
83. Jonathan Ive (new entry)
84. Larry Gagosian (last year: 85)
85. Charles Saatchi (last year: 90)
86. Jean Pigozzi (last year: 96)
87. Stephen Colbert (new entry)
88. Bill O'Reilly (last year: 54)
89. Jon Stewart (new entry)
90. Steve Bing (last year: 92)
91. Eli Broad (last year: 78)
92. Michael Milken (last year: 79)
93. Arthur Sulzberger Jr. (new entry)
94. Ron Burkle (last year: 89)
95. Scott Rudin (new entry)
96. Jimmy Buffett (new entry)
97. Steven Rattner (last year: 99)
98. Arianna Huffington (last year: 76)
99. Doug Morris (last year: 69)
100. Jimmy Iovine (last year: 97)

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