Cashier Du Cinema
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PROFILES CASHIER DU CINEMA After supermarkets, private equity, and politics, Ron Burkle makes a move on Hollywood. BY CONNIE BRUCK nside the towering iron gates of Green don’t want to think you’re in L.A., you’re Around that time, Burkle was seen at an Acres, a Beverly Hills estate built in not really in L.A.” L.A. night club, with “two drop-dead- theI nineteen-twenties by the silent-film Burkle turned Green Acres into the gorgeous girls, maybe twenty years old, actor Harold Lloyd, a narrow road climbs city’s premier political showcase. Shortly one on either arm,” a person who was at through eight acres of lawns and gardens after buying the estate, he hosted a fund- the club said. “It was such a statement: to a mansion modelled on the Villa Pal- raiser for Senator Dianne Feinstein, I can do whatever I want.” The New mieri, the Florentine palazzo where Boc- whose campaign he served as a finance York Post ran items about Burkle carous- caccio set the “Decameron.” One after- chair. The next year, he met Bill Clinton, ing with young models on his plane, noon in mid-June, the courtyard held a who was running for President, and the which had customized sleeping quarters. dozen gleaming sports cars—Lambor- two found a ready kinship. Although (Burkle, working with an F.B.I. sting, se- ghinis, Teslas, Ferraris, McLarens—ar- Burkle was a registered Republican until cretly videotaped the Post columnist ranged in a circular design, like giant steel 2004, by the mid-nineties he had be- Jared Paul Stern asking him for money petals. In the nineties, when the estate’s come one of the Democratic Party’s to finance a clothing line, and claimed owner, Ron Burkle, was making a fortune major financiers. His fund-raising galas that Stern had tried to make him pay to in the supermarket business, he raised for Clinton brought in millions—at one, have the unflattering items discontin- money from venders to pay for Indy race in 1996, Barbra Streisand, the Eagles, ued. Stern was fired.) All this publicity cars emblazoned with “Food4Less” or and Tom Hanks performed—and Clin- affected his image, personally and profes- “Ralphs.” The cars were an excellent deal ton stayed at Green Acres often enough sionally. The investor Sam Zell, who for Burkle: they helped his image, and so that a bedroom was designated for his dealt with Burkle in the supermarket they cost him almost nothing. Now, use. Ricardo Icaza, the president of Local business, said that he found him “very standing at the door, Burkle looked at the 770 of the United Food and Commercial smart, very focussed. We did a compli- display in the courtyard and said, “I like Workers Union, remembered a dinner cated transaction, and it was seamless.” cars. And they’re no trouble to have.” at Green Acres at which Clinton said, But, he said, “I think his social life affects Seated in his living room—a cavern- “How is it that when I come out to this people’s perception of him—it’s, like, ous space, dominated by a large stone house, and all this splendor, when I get some people say, ‘If you’re out chasing fireplace—Burkle said that he first came back on the plane I feel like I’m going women all night, how could you be a to Green Acres in 1991, to attend a fund- back to public housing?” good businessman?’ ” Zell paused. “I raiser hosted by its owner, Ted Field, the After Clinton left the Presidency, in never knew the two were connected!” head of Interscope Records. Field wanted 2001, he and Burkle spent hours dis- After Hillary Clinton started to cam- to sell the estate, and Burkle decided on cussing what he should do, Burkle said. paign for President, her husband cut his the spot to buy it. The price was $17.5 By then, Burkle had sold his supermar- professional ties to Burkle, and the two million. Burkle was living on a five- kets and was creating private-equity men no longer see each other. These hundred-acre property in Yucaipa, about funds. The two men decided that Clin- days, Burkle rarely visits Green Acres, the an hour’s drive east of Los Angeles, and ton would become a partner in several of setting for much of their friendship. “I had his office in nearby Claremont, these funds, helping to find investors don’t really live anywhere much anymore, where he grew up. “The people who and projects. “I spent all my time with but to the extent I do it’s probably in Eu- worked for me were less and less excited him,” Burkle said. They travelled the rope,” he said. His legal residence is Lon- about driving to Claremont from West world on Burkle’s 757, clocking hun- don, and, though Green Acres is still the L.A.,” he said. “But I loved Claremont. dreds of flight hours. Burkle hired Frank site of events for various charities that It was just—very chill.” Burkle is a stocky Renzi, a member of Clinton’s Secret Burkle supports, he is usually absent. Like fifty-nine-year-old with a diffident, dis- Service team at the White House, to be someone divorced from a charismatic arming manner—one friend compares his chief of security. spouse, Burkle seemed eager to empha- him to Peter Falk in “Columbo”—that Burkle insists that he prefers a low size that life after Clinton was no less ex- coincides with a relentless instinct for un- profile—he initially told me that he citing. He pointed to his relationship dervalued assets. Of the estate, he said, “I would “rather have a root canal” than be with Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis bought it not for the house. It could have interviewed—but his social life has made star. “I give business advice to Novak and had a two-hundred-square-foot house— him conspicuous. In April, 2002, his partner with him,” he said. “I’m his only it wouldn’t have mattered. It was the wife, Janet, moved out of Green Acres manager—not like one out of a hundred, lawn and the grounds. It was, like, if you and, the next year, filed for divorce. but his only manager.” (Djokovic’s agent, 76 THE NEW YORKER, OCTOBER 8, 2012 TNY—2012_10_08—PAGE 76—133SC. Burkle knows the pitfalls: “The more fun something is, the sexier something is, the more idiots there are chasing it.” ILLUSTRATION BY STANLEY CHOW THE NEW YORKER, OCTOBER 8, 2012 77 TNY—2012_10_08—PAGE 77—133SC.77—133SC.—LIVE ART R22650 the film festival with Harvey. .” he trailed off. “I used to not go to the film festival, because I didn’t think I belonged there. You live in L.A., and you just look like a goof if you’re there, hanging around when you’re not in that business.” Now, though, Burkle is in that busi- ness. His portfolio is broad, including interests in Barneys, Soho House, the A. & P. grocery company, Morgans Hotel Group, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the retailer Scoop, the warehouse opera- tor Americold, Vibe, the designer Zac Posen, an investment partnership with Ashton Kutcher, and, until a few months ago, Barnes & Noble. But in the past couple of years Burkle has been increas- ingly focussed on entertainment. He has financed movies with Harvey and Bob Weinstein and flirted with bidding for the EMI music label and the Warner Music Group. On a smaller scale, he ac- “Now, Mrs. Stevens, go to work, relax, and quired the concert-booking company leave the social engineering to us.” Artist Group International, and a sizable share of the Independent Talent Group. In July, he made a bid for Variety. •• But what has caused the most agita- tion in Hollywood is his investment in Edoardo Artaldi, described Burkle’s rela- my life.” Burkle became so expansive on Relativity Media, the movie company tionship with his client by saying, “They the subject that our conversation often created by the controversial young entre- are friends, and when Novak needs some felt like an extended star tour. preneur Ryan Kavanaugh. In the past free advice he calls Ron.”) Burkle went Leonardo DiCaprio: “Leonardo seven years, Kavanaugh has proved adept on, “He just signed a deal with UNIQLO, found a place he liked down in Mexico, at structuring deals where investors have and I would say by all measures it will be and we bought it together, and now done poorly while he and Relativity pros- the most successful and highly compen- we’ve done our second house there. He pered. And last winter, when Kava- sated and all-encompassing deal any- always picks out all the furnishings, and naugh’s luck finally seemed to have run body has had as a clothing ambassador.” he’ll call up and go, ‘It feels so weird, out, Burkle rescued his company. Burkle He says he has helped negotiate compa- picking out the china without you!’ ” emphasizes that he understands the risks rable deals for his friend Sean Combs— Michael Jackson: In the late nineties, of investing in the movies, particularly for also known as Diddy, or, recently, Ciroc Jackson hosted a charity event. “I got a outsiders. “By and large, it’s an ego thing Obama—who has enterprises in clothes couple of helicopters, and we took some to do,” he told me. “The more fun some- (Sean John), vodka (Ciroc), and fragrance terminally ill kids there. The next day, he thing is, the sexier something is, the (I Am King).