I think this is interesting, as a psychological and societal study. Rather than judging the individuals as evil or whatever, I kinda feel sorry for people who have not yet discovered they will never fill that emptiness inside by looking outside themselves. I especially liked the comment about how excessive lifestyles really do show an actual contempt for money, and that says a lot, although I'm sure its subconscious.

Alex Kuczynski New York Times Published Oct 13, 2002 MOGVAR

NEW YORK -- For years, magazines have been glorifying the homes and lives of the rich and famous by defining them as movie stars, fashion designers and rap music impresarios.

But it turns out that the trend they missed was Mogul Style: excessive spending on the chief executive's imperial lifestyle.

Mogul Style is less about conspicuous consumption than contemptuous consumption. It's the giddy spending of money -- sometimes shareholders' money -- and it results not in the pleasure of ownership, but in the gratification of making other moguls quake in their Gucci loafers.

For example: Imagine a birthday party on the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia, at a hillside loggia nestled between sea views and a golf course. The waiters wear togas. Fig trees rented for one night wave their fruited limbs over the tables. From beyond the pool, lighted with floating candles, emerges a waiter. When guests ask him for a drink, he pours Stolichnaya vodka into a giant ice sculpture of Michelangelo's "David" that sluices the liquid magically around the icy torso, eventually spouting into a crystal glass. Then an Elvis impersonator sings 'Happy Birthday" and fireworks boom over the golf course.

It's no fantasy. The birthday party, as outlined in a planning memo sent by a Tyco International staff member, Beth Pacitti, in April 2001, is just another item to add to the growing list of L. Dennis Kozlowski's apparent excesses while chief executive of the company. The total cost for the party on June 14, 2001, which celebrated the 40th birthday of his wife, Karen: $2.1 million. Tyco picked up half the tab.

America has been peeping into the wrong windows. Who cares where Charlize Theron buys scented candles when Kozlowski, at the tail end of the economic boom, spent $6,000 of his company's money on a shower curtain for his 5th Avenue apartment, according to a 242-page report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Tyco. The report also said he spent $17,100 on an antique toilet kit, $15,000 on a poodle-shaped umbrella stand and $5,960 on two sets of sheets, sticking his hand as deep into the Tyco cookie jar as if it were dispensing goodies in his own kitchen.

(Kozlowski was indicted on Sept. 12 on charges that he and the company's former chief financial officer reaped $600 million through a racketeering scheme involving stock fraud, unauthorized bonuses and falsified expense accounts.)

Mogul Style is more flamboyant and expensive than Hollywood Style, than anyone on "MTV Cribs" or in the pages of In Style magazine, no matter how many bottles of Cristal Champagne P. Diddy's posse can drink in one night. Whereas celebs are trying to impress their fans, moguls are trying to impress one another. From the interior decoration and tchotchkes to the extravagant dining and parties, it is about the sheer amusement of just throwing money away, said Joseph Epstein, a former editor of the American Scholar and the author of "Snobbery: The American Version."

'Secret thrill'

"How many people are going to see the $6,000 shower curtain?" Epstein asked. "Not many. And how many people are going to know the umbrella stand cost that much, unless you leave the price tag on? Nobody. It's more of a secret thrill, of knowing you can say, 'I spent six grand on that shower curtain.' How much more contempt for money can you show than that?"

The question of having the company foot the bill notwithstanding, the party was a celebration like many given by rich people ambitious to impress, said Polly Onet, an events planner in New York whose clients have included many corporate moguls.

When the economy is good, weddings and birthdays run $150,000 to $3 million, she said, with most around $1 million.

"You spend $200,000 on fireworks, $200,000 on renting a castle in Ireland, and then you take the guys out for a three-day golf trip," she said.

"It adds up. Just the floor in a tent can run you anywhere from $30,000 to $150,000. If the floor is 1 foot off the ground at one end and 6 at the other end, well, it's like building a house."

Onet planned a millennium party on New Year's Eve 2000 for a corporate couple who wanted a water theme. She hired actresses to lounge in the pool in mermaid costumes, with shells and string as tops. Each table had a waterfall.

"The worst part was that it was outside, so it was tented, and you had to make sure everyone was warm enough and comfortable enough so that no one really knew they were outside," Onet said.

Now, nearly two years later, the more somber national mood and economic climate dictate that interior decoration is the preferred medium for displaying wealth.

"People don't want to be seen out of their homes throwing huge parties, so they take them inside," Onet said. "They will still spend a lot of money, but they're at home and not out there showing it all off."

Showing it off at home is crucial in the pursuit of Mogul Style. Bernard Ebbers, WorldCom's former chief executive, who has been indicted on charges of accounting fraud, began building a house and guest cottages on more than 4 acres in Boca Raton, Fla., at a projected cost of $15 million.

Ebbers, now at the heart of the largest accounting scandal in United States history, is not expected to take up residence soon.

Visitors to Kozlowski's duplex apartment, which cost $16.8 million, according to the Tyco report, would enter a veritable petting zoo of costly objets, such as the umbrella stand that cost as much as some colleges charge for a year's tuition.

"Frankly, if you're rich, it's actually quite feasible to spend that kind of money in your apartment," Onet said.

A $6,000 shower curtain isn't much of a stretch. Scott Salvator, a New York interior decorator, said that shower curtains for his clients typically cost $1,000 to $3,000, and an enclosure could run to $20,000 if etched or frosted glass was requested. If a client wanted fabric that cost $200 a yard, a shower curtain could easily cost $6,000, said Noel Jeffrey, another New York designer.

Todd Klein, another New York decorator, said he had a wealthy client who once authorized him to spend 10 hours looking for the perfect trash bin. "It didn't matter if I eventually found one at Gracious Home for $13 -the client would still pay me for 10 hours," he said.

Contemptuous consumption is rampant in New York, Klein said. He said he has many decorator friends whose clients "don't enjoy the purchase unless they know they have spent a lot of money for it."

Rose Tarlow, a Los Angeles decorator, who has worked for David Geffen, said she would never spend $6,000 on a shower curtain for a client. "But I would not hesitate to buy a $60,000 Greek or Roman urn if it was worth it," she said.

Celebrities look for comfort and want to be pampered, said Dolly Lenz, executive vice president of Insignia Douglas Elliman. Chief executives want something different. "They tend to want a power building," she said. "They can't be embarrassed by the building."

Mogul Style is atavistic, a way of showing off the peacock feathers to inspire awe in other moguls, said Richard Conniff, a nature writer and author of a forthcoming book, "The Natural History of the Rich: A Field Guide."

"It's display behavior," he said. "You're supposed to walk in and be impressed and think: 'Good grief! What a way to spend your money.' But in the end, it is supposed to make you feel a little cowed."

Mogul Style also requires that personal taste not be a consideration heavy on the minds of all corporate chieftains. Kozlowski, for example, may not even have known what he liked. To help him choose his art, he hired Fine Collections Management, a company that counsels wealthy people on purchases of art and wine.

His collection included a Monet and a Renoir. But for $1.98 million, he also bought works by artists long considered irrelevant by scholars and critics, such as Adolphe-William Bouguereau, John Atkinson Grimshaw and Sir Alfred Munnings, who painted hunting scenes and was best known for his presidency of the Royal Academy of Arts. In that position, in 1949, Munnings proclaimed Picasso and Matisse worthless and irrelevant.

In light of recent embarrassing disclosures about the lifestyles enjoyed by some chief executives at corporate expense, Mogul Style seems likely to become more understated, for fear of drawing attention. Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, bought an apartment at 1 Central Park West, the building where John Welch, GE's former chief executive, has a GE-owned apartment. But now Immelt's apartment is on the market, Lenz said.

"He bought and gut-renovated, and it certainly didn't need it," she said. "We've got a bunch of CEOs putting apartments on the market right now."

She said moguls "want to be a bit more low key, given the climate."

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2002

Answers

"When guests ask him for a drink, he pours Stolichnaya vodka into a giant ice sculpture of Michelangelo's "David" that sluices the liquid magically around the icy torso, eventually spouting into a crystal glass. Then an Elvis impersonator sings 'Happy Birthday" and fireworks boom over the golf course."

Elvis and David together? How tacky! And I don't think I want to KNOW about the "spout" from that ice sculpture . . . .

All with tongue-in-cheek and excessive eye rolling, of course!

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2002

The ice sculpture was a true masterPEEice.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2002

Haha!! Joy, I'll have to admit that's what immediately occurred to me as well! How classy is that? :)

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2002

DisGUSTing...!!! Of course, I mean, we do Stoli enemas here at our place!! How utterly boring....I mean, how ELSE can we SQUANDER our money???!!!

I'm seething!!!!! Thinking about how that money could buy so many meals for tiny mouths...

btw, I was an interior designer (my degree, etc.). Sheesh. Give me a hint why I bailed, please!!!...I'm too full of myself to figure it out without help (yeah, right)....ARGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Psycho clientele!!!

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2002

My Dad has a saying that some people have more dollars than sense. :)

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2002