Pass the salt and cast the aspersions! Oliver Stone, the director who specialises in movies that explore man’s darker instincts, doesn’t seem to be able to brighten up, even when you serve him a nice meal. As chronicled in last month’s New York Times, the lunch he shared with reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin at the fabled Four Seasons Grill Room in Manhattan was paired with acerbic observations that his fellow diners were both greedy and not good.
“You know, half the people in this place could be prosecuted,” he said.
Other observations: Citigroup is the “mother of all evil”. Goldman Sachs “is evil, maybe”. Wall Street has “gone crazy. It’s banking on steroids”. On Stephen Schwarzman, at a nearby table: “It was just wealth, wealth, wealth. Guys like that, having birthday parties, it’s not my deal”.
An awkward moment ensued when Schwarzman approached Sorkin to say hello, and realised that Stone was at the table. The conversation reportedly “fizzled out” and after the Blackstone chief left, Stone “looked down” and said: “What are you going to do? Not shake his hand? . . . That’s the problem with New York society, it’s all an interlocking network.”
Stone is promoting his sequel “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”. Since he failed to scold his fellow diners in the Grill Room, we’re sure he’ll sock it to ‘em in the film.
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