Postcards

How the power players do it - by Fortune senior editor at large Patricia Sellers

Chelsea Handler and Gloria Steinem: Bring on the Buffett Rule

October 14, 2011: 1:05 PM ET

Chelsea Handler Credit: Asa Mathat

It was a riot having Chelsea Handler at last week's Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. Handler, whose business is media (two talk/reality programs on E!, a primetime sitcom coming soon to NBC (CMCSA), a growing stack of best-selling books), conducted a sharp and funny interview with another well-known media entrepreneur: Arianna Huffington, the queen of content at AOL (AOL). Handler also met Gloria Steinem at the Summit and invited the legendary leader of the women's movement to be a guest on Chelsea Lately, her late-night show. The program aired last night, and who would have imagined that Handler and Steinem would talk about the Fortune Summit and Warren Buffett? Click here to see the Chelsea Lately clip.

As it turns out, Buffett--the only powerful guy to be interviewed at the three-day Summit--so captivated these two women pioneers that Handler and Steinem are now rallying support for the Buffett Rule. That, as you probably know, is President Obama's proposal to increase taxes on the "ultra-rich," as the Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) CEO calls those who earn at least $1 million a year, in order to equalize tax rates of the upper and middle classes. It seems a little bit crazy that a tax code would unify this trio of power players, Handler and Steinem and Buffett. But this is the sort of stuff that happens at the MPW Summit. I'll share more about this unlikely trio next week, as well as a video clip of my on-stage interview with the ever-provocative Handler. Stay tuned!

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About This Author
Pattie Sellers
Patricia Sellers
Senior Editor at Large, Fortune
Executive Director of MPW/Live Content, Time Inc.

Fortune senior editor at large Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Marissa Mayer: Ready to Rumble at Yahoo," "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), and "Remodeling Martha" (Martha Stewart). She has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" package every year since its launch in 1998. Pattie is Executive Director of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business and beyond. She oversees MPW programs that enable women leaders to extend their influence and empower the next generation—such as Fortune MPW Entrepreneurs and the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. Beyond her Fortune duties, she is also developing Live Content across Time Inc. Pattie grew up in Allentown, PA, graduated from the University of Virginia, and started at Fortune in 1984. Her blog, Postcards, is about how power players lead, manage others, and navigate their careers.

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The Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership brings rising-star women from countries around the world to the U.S. for three-week mentorships with participants of the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit - among them Ursula Burns of Xerox, Laura Lang of Time Inc., Marissa Mayer of Yahoo, and Tory Burch.

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