Chelsea Handler, Pattie Sellers, and Gloria Steinem in the Green Room at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. Photo: Asa Mathat.
It's strange to fathom Chelsea Handler, Gloria Steinem, and Warren Buffett collaborating to reform America's tax code. But at the recent Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the edgy late-night talk-show host, the feminist icon, and the famed investor united around the "Buffett Rule," his proposal to lift taxes on the super-rich and equalize tax rates across classes. "I couldn't be more pleased," says Buffett, clearly pumped about his new supporters. "If I can get Chelsea and Gloria to command an army, I don't need more commanders."
The trio is strange enough--and certain to prompt serious eye-rolling over another celeb-backed cause--but stranger still and very amusing is the play-by-play of how they came together. The love story began, actually, with a wardrobe malfunction in the "green room" of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Laguna Niguel, California. Handler was relaxing back stage, after interviewing Arianna Huffington before a crowd of 400 women leaders and Buffett (the event's only male speaker), when Steinem walked in to introduce herself. Handler noticed, at that moment, that her ripped camisole left one cup of her bra entirely exposed to her lifelong role model. "The perfect intro to Gloria Steinem," says Handler, recalling the wardrobe malfunction that turned out to be an ice-breaker. The two women hit it off instantly and quickly agreed that Buffett, of all the day's speakers, had been the most interesting and provocative.
It was Steinem, typically, who prodded Handler to start a movement in support of the Buffett tax plan. "There are so many great ideas here, but we need action to come out of it," said Steinem about the Summit. As she went on to riff passionately about the widening gap between rich and poor, Handler started emailing her Hollywood friends, including Reese Witherspoon, to ask if they would be willing to pay more taxes a la the Buffett Rule, in order to equalize the system. "I can get the celebrity crowd," she vowed to Steinem.
An hour later, at the Summit's cocktail reception, Buffett heard about the movement and was particularly pleased to learn that his heroine was an instigator. "I remember seeing Gloria 40 years ago, giving a lecture at Creighton University. She blew me away," Buffett said, noting that Steinem "expresses ideas forcefully without being obnoxious." Over in a corner, Steinem was deep in conversation with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. "Can we put a petition out in the hall tomorrow, for women to sign in support of the Buffett Rule?" Gloria asked as I walked up to them. "You could put it online," quipped Sandberg, meaning it seriously.
Not much would have come of all this if Handler and Steinem had not made their way to Buffett's dinner table that evening. "Oh, hello girls, I'm excited to see you," the billionaire said to the power duo. Handler, a standup comic, steered the talk in a sexual direction ("I'm an older man," said Buffett, playing along. "I'm 77," replied Steinem flirtatiously). Before they left his table, Buffett directed his new advocates: "I'd love for you to get on board and spread the word."
Since the Summit in early October, Steinem has been collecting supporters of the Buffett Rule on, "pardon the expression, my Facebook fan page," she says. Steinem is asking for zip codes so she can send names of supporters to the appropriate people in Congress. She also talked up the Buffett Rule on Chelsea Lately, Handler's late-night talk show on E! (CMCSA).
Handler, meanwhile, is Tweeting and urging her pals who have millions of Twitter followers (as she does) to Tweet about Buffett and his tax reform idea. Rosie O'Donnell is signed on. When Handler emailed her asking for help, Rosie replied: "yes I am in. let me know how I can help. Don't u love knowing Gloria? She is better than Jesus."
Who knows how far this will go? A lot of celebs won't love the Buffett Rule, and many who sign on will look to dodge it with the aid of their accountants and lawyers. Nonetheless, Buffett is basking in this unexpected advocacy. "This is what I was hoping would happen," he says. Since he's not a TV watcher, he had never heard of Chelsea Handler before the Summit, but, he says, "I fell in love with her." He adds, "Anything I can do to help her, with facts or backup materials, tell her to call me. Tell her I have an 800-number for her, straight to my office."
Here's Handler, on stage with me at the MPW Summit, sounding off on Buffett and taxes:
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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 MORE
Patricia Sellers - Oct 14, 2011 1:05 PM ET
Warren Buffett and actor Ed Asner at Too Big to Fail
Hollywood, Wall Street and New York media converged last night at the premiere of Too Big to Fail, the movie.
Michael Douglas, Brian Williams, and Regis Philbin met Warren Buffett, uber-analyst Meredith Whitney, and CNBC's Becky Quick at the Museum of Modern Art, where HBO's screening took place, and at a swishy after-party at Manhattan's Four Seasons restaurant.
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Patricia Sellers - May 17, 2011 11:38 AM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Even though Warren Buffett (BRKA) has received plenty of rewards in his 80 years, there was something special about yesterday. He traveled to the White House to accept the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.
In the East Room ceremony, along with President Obama and Buffett's fellow honorees--including former President George H. W. Bush, poet Maya Angelou, baseball legend Stan Musial, and basketball icon Bill Russell--Buffett MORE
Patricia Sellers - Feb 16, 2011 3:48 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords touches us and rivets us with her amazing progress since the tragic Tucson shooting 10 days ago.
This Saturday, the New York Times ran a profile of the Congresswoman that captured a spirit and resilience that has shaped her entire life and career. The piece mentioned a speech that Giffords gave to the 2009 graduating class at Scripps College, her alma mater. I read the speech. MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 18, 2011 3:56 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
This past week brought the tragedy in Tucson, President Obama's soaring sermon about national unity on Wednesday night, and then the news that a visit from a clutch of her Congresswomen friends prompted Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to open her eyes for the first time.
This seems an appropriate time to share another demonstration of unity. Though this one is taking place half a world away.
After a suicide bomb outside MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 14, 2011 11:52 AM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Want to know what Meredith Whitney really thinks?
Today in the Wall Street Journal, the notoriously bearish bank analyst takes a whack at the government's proposed regulatory reforms. Well-intended reform will likely do more harm than good, she suggests, by driving consumer credit out of the market and putting many community banks out of business.
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Patricia Sellers - May 17, 2010 3:17 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Ever since she posed in a judge's robe, with gavel in hand, for her high school yearbook, Elena Kagan has been navigating her way to the top. Quite deftly -- and there are lessons here. Whether the venue is corporate America or the Supreme Court, savvy people management can propel a career.
President Obama's Supreme Court nominee is a brilliant legal scholar, obviously -- and this matters mightily in MORE
Patricia Sellers - May 11, 2010 12:18 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
This week in Detroit, where I interviewed Charlene Begley--General Electric's (GE) top-ranking female exec and No. 27 on the Fortune Most Powerful Women list--someone in the audience asked: "When will we see women holding half the CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies?"
Whoa! Begley is hardly a shrinking violet, but she lobbed this one to me. And I replied: "Never ever ever ever."
If you're a regular reader of Postcards, you know my view: MORE
Patricia Sellers - May 6, 2010 12:20 PM ET
I'm just back from a whirlwind week in Washington, D.C., where we held Fortune's Most Powerful Women Evening With... dinner on Wednesday.
The State Department's historic Benjamin Franklin room was done up in majestic purple for 155 guests including FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, SEC Chair Mary Schapiro, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Dianne Feinstein, and top women from Goldman Sachs (GS), Thomson Reuters (TRI), Exxon-Mobil (XOM), Fidelity Investments, Deutsche Bank (DB) MORE
Patricia Sellers - Apr 30, 2010 2:46 PM ET
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Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.
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