Over the weekend, I went to Sumner Redstone’s Holiday Party at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank. It was a pretty sad event with only a few of the invited guests bothering to show up.
Sumner kept staring at the front door and mumbled over and over: “Well, it IS raining…” and “After the rain stops, I’m sure more will show up”, etc.
The few of us that did venture out on that cold, rainy Saturday really wish we didn’t.
It was me, Phillipe Dauman, Ben Silverman (with some girl who talked non-stop about how she slept with Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant), Melinda (the first lady of magic) and Fred Willard.
We had a table in the center of the restaurant. There were no booths available.
This was a new low for Sumner (and, frankly, a new low for me for daring to be seen there).
As many of you know, Sumner has been living on-and-off at my house ever since announcing his divorce last year and I felt bad for the old guy.
He was babbling about rumors out there (from years ago) that News Corp. and his old media enemy Rupert Mudoch want to buy Viacom for the cable channels. While I don’t really think that’s a possibility, Sumner believes everything he reads on the Internet and reacts accordingly.
He told me if Rupert tries to buy him out, he will kill everyone involved and book the first Virgin Galactic flight into outer space where he will live out his days in peace.
The Bob’s Big Boy waitress assigned to our table was getting angry that Sumner wanted to wait for more people to arrive before ordering. She finally said there would be no more free ice tea until food was ordered. “There are people waiting for this table,” she said.
With that, we ordered.
I got the Super Big Boy with onion rings and a strawberry shake. Phillipe Dauman was going to get the lemon cod but changed his mind once he heard what I was getting. He decided on the Super Big Boy with onion rings and a chocolate shake.
Everyone else got a variation on the same theme.
The rest of the evening was too pathetic to mention in much detail:
- Melinda (the first lady of magic) balanced a spoon on her nose about twenty times;
- Fred Willard went on and on about a sewer problem he was having at his house;
- Ben Silverman talked about how he was going to Les Moonves‘ CBS party (which was being held later that night at the Nokia Theater with special musical performances by Common and Taylor Swift);
- I was also headed to the CBS party. (Sumner was not invited.)
Our food arrived quickly and the burgers were undercooked. None of us really cared because we wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
When the checked arrived, Sumner patted his pockets as though he forgot his wallet. Melinda (the first lady of magic) picked up the check for the table. The party was over by 7:30.
Worst Holiday party ever – though the strawberry shake was excellent.
Khan Manka, Jr. – Chairman & CEO – Manka Bros. Studios – The World’s Largest Media Company
P.S. – I’ll write about the unbelievable time I had at the CBS party at a later date.
