Dick Parsons For Mayor-Vintner

parsons wine.jpg

Portfolio’s Jeff Bercovici speculates on a possible Dick Parsons mayoralty of New York City — contrasting him with Bloomberg — in the wake of his denial to Joe Nocera in the New York Times:

”Both men, obviously, have run large media companies. Both are Republicans who could easily be Democrats. Both started their current jobs in the aftermath of disasters (9/11 for Bloomberg; the AOL-Time Warner merger for Parsons) and soothed jittery constituencies with a calm, wry personal manner.”

Nocera’s article (registration required) mentions that Parsons, who owns a vineyard called Tenuta Il Palazzone, regales his dinner companions — among them Carl Icahn — with his own ”high quality” Brunello di Montalcino Riserva.


Fellow media mogul Sumner Redstone, chose not to invest in his own less-than-swishy beverage of choice, MonaVie. From CNNMoney:

”He even considered investing in Utah-based MonaVie after its CEO, Dallin Larsen, came to visit him at his Beverly Hills mansion. Redstone decided against it – because it would present a conflict of interest to recommend it to friends – but Larsen, a veteran nutritional-products salesman who founded the company in 2005, has no better ambassador.”

Charmed, I’m sure.

(image via clipart)

MEDIABISTRO EVENTS

Get Social Media Marketing Secrets from Experts

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.