Tag Archives: scandal

Enron, McMansions, and unlikeable villains

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The Enron scandal broke in late 2001. And it involved McMansions?

Photo by Bob Price on Pexels.com

The characters in this drama were larger than life in the Texas vein, but they lacked the roguish charm of the wildcatters of old, that quality that could make you forgive all. Yes, there were motorcycle races in the desert and Porsche Carreras and River Oaks McMansions, along with ill-advised love affairs and stiletto-in-the-back corporate intrigue. But in the end the Enron villains weren’t that much fun. They were just rich. And arrogant.

According to another story, Enron executives upgraded their residences in the years prior to the scandal:

Only a few years ago, Skilling, Fastow, and Michael Kopper — Fastow’s lieutenant in the Enron scandal, according to conclusions drawn in the Powers report — all lived within walking distance of one another in the quiet upper-class neighborhood called Southampton Place, which borders Rice University. It is a nice neighborhood, with houses that go for around a half-million dollars, but all on small lots, with alley parking in the back. Skilling lived in a simple, square brick house with his wife and three children. Kopper lived a few blocks away in a cottage he eventually remodeled to have an almost Japanese-style look, the house taupe in color, with a gray roof…

And before all three men — Skilling, Fastow and Kopper — bought new properties, tore down the existing structures, and started building their dream houses. Once again, all in the same neighborhood. The neighborhood where the rich live in Houston. The neighborhood where Lay lives. River Oaks.

So now Skilling resides in a mammoth Mediterranean-style home with a tile roof, and he’s engaged to Rebecca Carter (the one known as Va Voom), who under Skilling was promoted to executive secretary to Enron’s board of directors at a salary of $600,000. Fastow is building something that looks like a country manor, almost Tudor-ish. And Kopper and his partner William Dodson opted for a postmodern abode — boxy, all white and beige and glass and hard angles. A house so close to the Lays’ luxe apartment building that the shadow practically falls across Kopper’s lawn…

Skilling’s house is decorated in a sleek, black-and-white theme, in homage to Enron’s corporate colors. But he hired the Houston-based design team of Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing — who are known as the “Art Guys” — to do his guest quarters.

Several thoughts upon reflecting on this story from the past:

  1. Texas does like its houses bigger and I found in a 2012 published article that McMansions were not treated the same way in the Dallas Morning News compared to the New York Times.
  2. Did Skilling live in a McMansion or a mansion, a home with more square feet and not a mass-produced home within a subdivision?
  3. Does calling his home a McMansion fit better with an image of a corporate villain? The term McMansion is not usually used positively and could hint at the ill-gotten rise of Skilling. Does a more garish McMansion make it easier to dislike a figure?
  4. On a “Lives of the Rich and Infamous Tour B” in the Houston area, you may see “Homes of the leaders of Enron:  Kenneth Lay (1942 – 2006) and Jeffrey Skilling.”

London School of Economics distances themselves from sociologist who wrote about “erotic capital”

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The press has paid a lot of attention to Catherine Hakim’s concept of “erotic capital,” perhaps partly because the stories have claimed that she works at the respected London School of Economics. (See earlier posts here and here.) But the LSE now wants to distance themselves from her work:

Catherine Hakim’s Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital garnered some hostile reviews after it was published by Allen Lane last month, with many commentators aghast that an LSE sociologist should advocate that women use their sexual assets to get ahead.

The book’s title is inspired by the catchphrase used by prostitutes in Jakarta who ask for cash upfront for sex – with women advised to exploit their own “erotic capital” to gain professional success.

It has now emerged that Ms Hakim’s links to the LSE are perhaps looser than had been suggested. Although she is described as a “senior research Fellow of sociology” at the LSE on the book’s dust jacket and in subsequent book reviews, Times Higher Education has learned that Ms Hakim has not been employed there since 2003.

She had, with the agreement of the school, continued to work from an LSE office and use email, telephone and other clerical-support facilities – despite not being part of the sociology faculty.

The institution has now written to Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin, asking it to correct further publications, while Ms Hakim has been asked by the LSE not to refer to herself as an LSE sociologist, THE understands.

One might wonder what would have happened had the book been good or not invoked a scandalous argument.

Additionally, if the reviews of this book have been scathing, why has it gotten so much press? Just because it is a “sexy” topic?

How the John Edwards affair became news

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How exactly certain scandals come to light when they do is often an interesting tale. The former editor of the National Enquirer explains how his investigative team put together the story of John Edwards’ affair. The tale involves the use of technology and a profiler who provided insights into how to trap Edwards in his lies:

I knew there was no viable scenario for Edwards to confess to the Enquirer. I faced the bitter realization that another news organization would reap the benefits of our team’s hard work and get the confession, but I also knew that ultimately that confession would validate the Enquirer‘s earlier story as well as the new one.

Behind the scenes we exerted pressure on Edwards, sending word though mutual contacts that we had photographed him throughout the night. We provided a few details about his movements to prove this was no bluff.

For 18 days we played this game, and as the standoff continued the Enquirer published a photograph of Edwards with the baby inside a room at the Beverly Hilton hotel.

Journalists asked if we had a hidden camera in the room. We never said yes or no. (We still haven’t). We sent word to Edwards privately that there were more photos.

He cracked. Not knowing what else the Enquirer possessed and faced with his world crumbling, Edwards, as the profiler predicted, came forward to partially confess. He knew no one could prove paternity so he admitted the affair but denied being the father of Hunter’s baby, once again taking control of the situation.

Perhaps this story isn’t anything unusual – technology makes information gathering a lot easier. Yet it is somewhat shocking to me that plenty of powerful people, like John Edwards or Tiger Woods, think that they can get away with things in the long run. Sure, the National Enquirer had to spend months tracking down this story but in the end, it was doable and effectively changed the public perception of John Edwards forever. Is there something that happens when people are put in powerful positions that changes their perceptions of what they can and can’t get away with?

Is it even possible for the powerful to get away with things like this any more? How many “scandals” are lurking out there somewhere? It is certainly a far cry from the days of the 1950s and before when sportwriters routinely shied away from reporting on what athletes did away from home and political reporters didn’t talk about everything.