The name of
Robert Rosenkranz, the businessman and
philanthropist, is not universally
recognized, even on Park Avenue. “I know
a variety of Rosenkranzes—which one is
he?” asked Robert Albertson, a principal
at Sandler O’Neill, as he mingled at a
reception at the Asia Society and Museum
the other evening.
This
Rosenkranz was picking up the tab for
the reception, and also for the formal
debate that followed it in the society’s
theatre, on the proposition “Hollywood
has fuelled anti-Americanism abroad.”
Rosenkranz, who is reminiscent, in his
build, wardrobe, and winter tan, of
Michael Bloomberg in his pre-populist
incarnation, is the chairman of Delphi
Financial Group. He is also the sponsor
of Intelligence Squared U.S., a spinoff
of a debate series that originated in
London in 2002. The British version has
presented debates on such topics as
“Enough money has been spent saving
Venice” and “Foreign aid to poor
countries has done more harm than good.”
Rosenkranz hopes that his debates—modelled
on those conducted at the Oxford Union,
with three speakers for the motion and
three against, holding forth for eight
minutes apiece—will provide an Athenian
tonic to a public discourse coarsened by
Bill O’Reilly-style incivility.
Before the
recent debate (admission forty dollars)
at the Asia Society, Deirdre Byrne, a
former litigator who now sells real
estate in the Hamptons for Sotheby’s,
explained the series’ appeal. “There is
no intellectual component in my work, so
I have to seek it out somewhere,” she
said. Richard Huber, the former C.E.O.
of Aetna, who now has business interests
ranging from wine and ice-breaking in
Chile to supermarkets and emerald mines
in Brazil, said that the format promised
to be much more enlivening than the
snoozy events offered by the Council on
Foreign Relations, of which he is also a
member. “They tend to be
pronouncements,” he said.
The debate
was not entirely devoid of
pronouncements, the debaters largely
lacking the oratorical light-footedness
that is the hallmark of an Oxford Union
speaker. (The platonic ideal of such a
debater, Christopher Hitchens, had been
conscripted earlier in the season, to
advocate that “Freedom of expression
must include the license to offend.”)
Roger Kimball, speaking in favor of the
proposition, leaned toward quasi-British
bombast, characterizing anti-Americanism
as “a rank garden” for which Hollywood
“merely supplies a layer of what you
might call fructified manure.” Richard
Walter, who is the chairman of
U.C.L.A.’s screenwriting program, spoke
against the motion, in the vernacular of
the benighted community in question.
“Most art sucks—excuse me,” he said. He
pointed out that sex and violence are
not new to entertainment, noting the
bloodbaths in “Hamlet” and “Macbeth.”
“This was not invented by eleven Jews at
Paramount Studios a couple of weeks
ago,” he said. Victory went to Walter’s
team, which escaped penalty when a team
member’s cell phone went off during the
proceedings. (“I have Spielberg on the
line,” she said.)
After the
debate, S.U.V. limos ferried
participants to Daniel, where the
conversation continued over seared tuna
and roast duck. Alexandra Munroe,
Rosenkranz’s wife and a curator at the
Guggenheim, discussed whether movies
could be categorized as art with Thomas
Struth, the photographer (whose work she
and Rosenkranz recently added to their
collection), while Pamela Wallin, the
former Canadian consul general, and Ted
Kotcheff, who directs “Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit,” speculated about
whether Angelina Jolie has a Middle East
adviser. (If she doesn’t, Barbra
Streisand certainly does, they decided.)
Byron Wien, who was the chief investment
strategist at Morgan Stanley for
twenty-one years and is now the chief
investment strategist for a hedge fund,
said that he had been persuaded by the
motion’s opponents, despite believing
that their position was fundamentally
flawed. “If you took the whole product
of Hollywood, good and bad, and netted
it out, it would be a negative for
America,” he said. But he was relieved
that the debate provided a respite from
the conversations he usually experiences
at social events. “I was at a dinner
last week,” he said, “and all you hear
about is Palm Beach and having the right
caterer.”
Back |