Rupert Murdoch's Special Charity...

Rupert Murdoch hosted a charity benefit last night in his North Hollywood apartment.  I was expecting a man of his wealth and power to have a nicer place but he said keeping his personal living expenses down was the main reason he could afford to stay in business during the worst economy since the Dutch Tulip Bubble Burst in 1637.  That's fair enough - but  the cement block and plywood bookshelves seemed a little ridiculous.

But I digress... on to the benefit.  For many years, Rupert has been involved in the charity Moguls Find Lost Kittens (or M.I.L.K.).  He started it after his son, Lachlan, lost his baby kitten, Joey, when he was 17 years old and wouldn't stop crying, screaming and sucking his thumb.  Rupert vowed to find Joey and launched a charity in the process called Murdoch Finds Lost Kittens (also M.I.L.K.).  (It was changed to "Moguls" after Dick Parsons and Sumner Redstone heard about it and also wanted to get involved.  Legend has it they both had traumatic childhoods that involved lost kittens.)

The party was okay.  The food not bad.  I didn't realize it was BYOB so I had to bum a couple of beers from Sheryl Crow, who was the evening's entertainment.  There wasn't room in the apartment for her band - so she just did a few songs on acoustic guitar.  

After we all had some Doritos and cubes of cheddar cheese, Rupert stood in front of the crammed gathering in his living room.  Most were sitting on the floor or the window sill.  I got the couch because I had to put my foot up due to a flare up of my injured ankle.   Rupert waited for silence.  (Bob Iger was getting pretty drunk on the two bottles of 1997 Opus One that he brought [he didn't share] and wouldn't stop yakking about the High School Musical 3 DVD release.  Okay, okay - it's going to be huge.  But your earnings were shit - down 64%.  So stop bragging!) 

When it was quiet, Sheryl Crow started to play softly on the guitar and Rupert held up a picture of a kitten:  "This is Joey.  In 1988, my son, Lachlan, lost this kitten and nearly committed suicide.  I vowed on that day to find all the lost kittens of the world.  It is a monumental task.  A far bigger task than building a media empire.  Everyone in this room knows how to do that.  But we don't know how to find all the lost kittens.  Will you join me in this effort?"

New Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz and Eric Schmidt of Google were crying.  In fact, we were all visibly moved.  And we all got out our checkbooks.

Rupert Murdoch is a great friend.  And a great man.

Khan Manka, Jr. - Chairman & CEO - Manka Bros. Studios