WHAT HAPPENS ON THE BOAT STAYS ON THE BOAT
3/29/2007 10:18:23 AM by Compiled by Wave Editorial Staff
Wave’s editors and foreign correspondents often find themselves in some pretty sticky situations while out at sea in search of that next great story idea. Here are a few we thought might be worth a mention.
BIG BOAT, BIGGER SCANDAL
The $130 million, 287-foot superyacht Maltese Falcon proves the maxim “loose lips sink ships.” And that has never been more true than when Newsweek senior editor David Kaplan was doing research for his upcoming HarperCollins book, The Making of the Greatest Sailing Machine Ever Built, aboard the yacht’s maiden Mediterranean voyage, when he learned of the boardroom scandal brewing at Hewlett-Packard that was soon broken wide open by Newsweek.
The yacht is owned by Silicone Valley venture capitalist and HP director, Tom Perkins, whose resignation spawned the uproar. The fact that Perkins commissioned Falcon, the largest, fastest, most costly high-tech sailboat ever, is a prime example of the man, whose fast-paced, big-ego business persona will rate a chapter called “Mine’s Bigger” in Kaplan’s book, due out in June.
This past December, HP agreed to pay a $14.5 million settlement for the California civil lawsuit related to the company’s investigation. Additionally, $13.5 million will be used to form a “Privacy and Piracy Fund” for law enforcement activities related to privacy and intellectual property rights operated, with the balance going toward $650,000 in civil penalties and $350,000 to cover expenses of the investigation.
GOSSIP FLYER
This past fall, campaign literature was forwarded to mailboxes across Texas House District 118. The flyers linked Democratic candidate Joe Farias to a bribery scandal that occurred while he was a Harlandale School Board member. The front of the mailing, sent out by Farias’ opponent, former Harlandale project manager Louis Cruz, featured a full-color photo of a boat, referred to as SS Mordida — the Spanish word for “little bite,” slang for “bribe.”
The accompanying text contained excerpts from a San Antonio Express-News story: “When Cruz offered him the boat, Farias accepted the gift…” What the flyer conveniently didn’t include was the full sentence: “When Cruz offered him the boat, Farias accepted the gift initially, but turned down the offer after he thought about the implications.”
Cruz has pleaded guilty to having bribed board members, and made accusations against seven board members in the same breath. In an affidavit, he said Farias asked for his boat.
Farias rebuts that he not only didn’t ask for Cruz’s boat, but that he led the fight to fire Cruz. “He and I — I assure you — were mortal enemies,” say Farias. “Louis Cruz was upset at me because I called him out on the carpet in public.” Farias, who was never formally charged in the scandal, says that Cruz was selling his boat, and he asked about the price. “That was the end of the conversation,” says Farias.
WET PROPOSAL
When it comes to romantic proposals, Lance Armstrong’s popping of the question to Sheryl Crow ranks right up there, despite running out of gas. The couple were in the middle of a lake on a tiny fishing boat when the Tour de France champ requested Crow’s hand in marriage. Unfortunately, things began to go awry when the boat’s fuel tank ran dry and Armstrong was forced to row them back to shore, resulting in the initially quiet engagement making national news and transforming into a media circus for the duration of the couple’s brief, rocky engagement.
“We were on a mountain-biking holiday in Sun Valley, Idaho, and we just planned to spend the day together and drive up to a little town called Stanley,” says Crow. “The scenery there was gorgeous and this guy let us borrow his little fishing boat. Lance told me later that he knew he wanted to pop the question but he had no idea it would be in such a beautiful way…it was so funny because out on the lake the motor ran out of gas so he had to row me back in!”
Unfortunately, the engagement itself didn’t have as happy an ending. Just five months after announcing their nuptial plans, they called off the wedding.
SEABOUND ALIBI?
Yachting gossipmongers say that Anna Nicole Smith was in a South Florida hotel room with a 105-degree fever when Howard K. Stern, her attorney and birth certificate-named father of her little baby girl, went to see a man about a boat. Stern’s camp defends that he was completely unaware of the severity of Anna Nicole’s condition when he left her bedside to take delivery of the couple’s newly purchased 40-foot Carver Yacht, Cracker. Others speculate that Strern used the boat purchase as a way to distance himself from the scene.
Subsequently, Bahamian authorities have joined forces with South Florida to investigate potential links between the deaths of Daniel Smith and his mother. In a Nassau Court, the fate of Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern is in dispute between Stern and Larry Birkhead, the girl’s potential father. Both civil and criminal cases loom.
GUEST OR EMPLOYEE?
An up-and-coming mover-and-shaker who is trying to make a name for himself amongst the social set recently had a lavish party aboard his newly acquired yacht with “buddy” Kevin Federline, say confidential sources. These in-the-know folks also reported that the man who is best known for being Britney Spears’ husband was not a friend/guest on the yacht, as the yacht owner tried to pretend, but a paid employee. In fact, it’s reported that Federline will give a cameo performance at a fete for $20,000. “The yacht’s owner is trying to buy his ‘cool’ as fast as he can,” says one source. “He’s saying: ‘Hey, look at me, I’ve got celebrity friends!’ He’s not fooling anybody, but his open bar is well stocked, so we’ll keep coming to his parties.”