You'd think Angelenos would be the only other people in the world that wouldn't notice the smog.

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

On the closing day of the Sun Valley Media Conference, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett held court with individual speeches about — what else — money.

Gates spoke about collecting it for his Gates Foundation, while Buffett discussed how it could be spent to help the country, according to people who listened.

"Bill said amazing things," said James Robinson III, former chairman of American Express. "He had all sorts of things to say about raising money for such things as medicine and diseases. He was very engaging and interesting, as he is every year."

About 200 of those left at the conference attended the speeches, which had a ridiculously inordinate amount of security, with every entrance and exit to the speakers' hall watched by four guards. Mediabistro, which was kept out by at least three different guards at entrances, thinks that's what billionaire-type money brings.

But a few who stuck around to listen to billionaire mentality included William Morris Agency's Jim Wiatt, Yahoo!'s Sue Decker, ICM's Chris Silbermann, Page1Media's Isaac Lee, Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Starr & Co.'s Ken Starr, News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, Time Warner's Richard Parsons, media chef Rachael Ray, Scripps Co.'s Ken Lowe, former Disney chair Michael Eisner, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Though almost half the invitees departed on Friday night, some stuck around to celebrate host Herb Allen with a special dinner last night. And, as every year, a special outdoors ice show (in the middle of summer!!!) took place behind the Sun Valley Lodge.

Friday night, Murdoch and Parsons were secluded at a table in the Sun Valley Lodge bar, discussing either some pending deal or the mixed drinks they wanted to order.

Parsons, who stepped down as Time Warner chair a few months ago, earlier told a reporter he was happy to be an observer at the conference this year rather than a corporate participant.

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch confirms to mediabistro that he has yet to find his wedding ring, which he lost Thursday, much to his wife Wendi's chagrin. He would only say it had "some sentimental value."

For all you treasure hunters out there, the ring is theoretically still in some crevice in the Sun Valley Lodge lobby.

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

As Herb Allen's Sun Valley retreat started to wind down Friday afternoon, some key executives were already boarding their Lear Jets and scooting home, missing out on speeches from the two RICHEST men in the world. They will all miss former Microsoft chair Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett tomorrow. Mediabistro will stick around in Sun Valley in beautiful weather (82 degrees and sunny) to gather up whatever crumbs can be taken from the rich men talks.

A presentation by Jordan's King Abdullah II was well received by a few hundred conference-goers, but nobody wanted to talk about what the Jordanian said. Maybe they were concerned about their oil stocks. Security wasn't especially heavy for the King, but the feeling on Herb Allen campus was that if any disruptions were started, the crack NYPD-filled security staff would take them down.

Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang showed up in Sun Valley just in time to get an earful of complaining in the media about the earthworm status of the Yahoo!/Microsoft merger talks. He did meet quietly with the Google boys, co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page as well as CEO Eric Schmidt, but that was presumably made to discuss the display advertising deal that the two companies cut a few weeks back.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! President Sue Decker practically threw her arms up and gave in to media queries about what's going to happen.

"Forget tomorrow, but in six months where will you be and where will Yahoo! be?" asked one intrepid journo.

"I have no idea," Decker moaned.

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

Rupert Murdoch has been seen all over Sun Valley with his wife Wendi, but he didn't want to see her last night because he was missing an important element — his wedding ring.

Murdoch was searching all the couches in the Sun Valley Lodge lobby where he said he had been sitting. He also worried that he might have lost it at dinner.

But we figure, he shouldn't worry too much. Our guess is he can afford another one.

Former Yahoo! CEO and Warner Bros. co-chair Terry Semel was irritated at reporters yesterday, avoiding troublesome questions about a potential takeover of Teddy Forstmann's management company IMG.

Semel admits he made a bid for the media giant, thought to be $3 billion.

"I wanted to take their management firm and turn it into a media company with a focus on digital distribution," Semel said. The former CEO was trying to do exactly the same thing with Yahoo! before they fired him.

But he never got an answer from Forstmann, which left Semel a bit perturbed at the media for writing a non-story and dressing it up like reality.

"You saw the stories; it looks like no," he said.

So he said he'll go back to the drawing board and find another company to hunt.

Another Sun Valley rumor that seems to have been shot down was the notion that President Clinton was to show up here today. We thought he might have wanted to take in Jordanian King Abdullah II's speech. But he has yet to be spotted.

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt stunned the hardened journalist crowd at the Sun Valley Media Conference with an unscheduled 75-minute press conference at which they discussed everything — Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! — and their brethren.

A news conference is unusual for the Sun Valley confab because they don't often cater to journalists and especially not through lengthy pressers.

So what started as a short sit-down with Schmidt turned into a fascinating ride into the minds of the Google executives. And it may be the only time this week, the journos will be faced with deadlines and a hefty pile of interview info to sift through.

The Google trio were relaxed and somewhat light-hearted about the discussion, but they're ultra-serious about how they handle business.

continued...

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

Paramount Chairman Brad Grey and Viacom CEO and President Philippe Dauman, after having an enjoyable Allen & Co.-sponsored lunch, refused to discuss the New York Times item this morning about Viacom founder Sumner Redstone settling with his daughter Shari to buyout her interest in the company. Redstone and Viacom reps were not available. But both Dauman and Grey, walking as quickly away from the pair of journos tracking them, said: "We aren't commenting on that."

Former Disney chairman Michael Eisner wouldn't admit as much, but he had to be pleased that he didn't have to worry about any potential SAG strike. SAG is sitting down today with the AMPTP to possibly avert such a strike, but Eisner flat out refused to discuss it. "I won't talk about the SAG strike," he said. "I won't go there."

But Eisner did talk about his buddy Jeff Katzenberg's presentation on 3-D. "It was incredible and Jeff did a great job with identifying the technology behind the 3-D presentations," he said.

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

One of the stranger elements to pop up today at Sun Valley Media Conference involved a mock presidential election that was supposedly circulating ballots to conference attendees. The twist was that it was also being given to kids of all these Sun Valley moguls. Allen & Co. wouldn't comment on the election or even the possibility of it. No results were ever issued, so we don't know whether Obama or McCain was the favorite among the mogul crowd — or their kids.

An education segment presented by New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein attempted to bring CEOs and billionaires into the fight for education.

Sony Corp.'s Katsumi Ihara called the presentation "fascinating" and said it broke down some of the causes and problems in the education battle in the United States and should yield interest from CEOs around the country. He added that Klein wasn't simply asking for money. He wanted their help in initiatives and projects to stimulate educational programs.

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

Universal Studios CEO Ron Meyer was standing with NBCU head Jeff Zucker, waiting for Zucker's kids coming out of the Chocolate Foundry. Both were upbeat about the Sun Valley conference.

Meyer gave kudos to colleague Jeff Katzenberg, the DreamWorks partner who had a presentation on 3-D this morning.

"It was good," Meyer said, "a great display of the technolgy." Katzenberg gave a presentation about the uses of 3-D in film and TV and reportedly showed an "incredible" visual display of the possibilities.

Nike chairman Philip Knight was also exuberant about the display. "It's where we're headed. It's the future," he said.

Zucker, meanwhile, denied a newspaper report of NBC possibly unloading assets at the Sun Valley conference.

"No, there's nothing like that," Zucker said. "I'm just here watching."

Former American Express chairman James Robinson III said he was only here out of a long-standing friendship with host Herb Allen.

But Robinson said that Katzenberg's speech, like other technology-driven segments, was fascinating and will be of great use to companies like Amex and others. Robinson now runs RRE Ventsures, which deals in applied technology and its utilization.

Former Microsoft chair and founder Bill Gates unexpectedly showed up last night was hovering around the morning presentations. Asked if he had any comment on the pending Microsoft/Yahoo! discussions, he said: "No thank you. No."