Westfield Group Chief Executive Peter Lowy was hoping to get a little one-on-one meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the American Diabetes Association’s annual Los Angeles Political Roast fundraiser. After all, Lowy’s company was the biggest contributor.
He spoke with one of the roast’s organizers, lobbyist and political consultant Harvey Englander, about his desire to meet with Villaraigosa.
“Harvey told me, ‘Just come next Thursday night and don’t worry. It will just be the two of you,’ ” Lowy said.
Well, not exactly.
At the March 22 roast, which skewered Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson, Lowy was feted with an award for being the event’s only “heavy hitter.” His shopping mall company donated $25,000 to the effort to fight diabetes. (The event raised more than $500,000 total.)
Villaraigosa, who was on stage at the time, put his arm around Lowy and cajoled him into saying a few words to the hundreds of politicos, business leaders and consultants in attendance.
Lowy, who was clearly not expecting to speak, was a little taken aback.
“I thought it would just be the two of us,” he said. “I didn’t realize there would be 900 people watching.”
Coming Back a Star?
Jo Muse’s brush with TV stardom quickly dampened his enthusiasm for the celebrity lifestyle.
Muse, chief executive at ad agency Muse Communications in Culver City, recently filmed an episode of “The Pitch,” a reality show on AMC about ad agencies competing to win business from a large corporation. The agencies met with the client to get some overall directions and then had 10 days to prepare pitches. Both the name of the client and the winning agency remain confidential until the episode airs May 28.
“It was an adrenaline rush, but it incurred a cost in sleep deprivation,” Muse said. “You’re pushing hard to finish the pitch in an unreasonable time frame. We were challenged to produce amazing work on time.”
During the filming, Muse tooled around in a limo. But this wasn’t a status symbol – it was energy conservation.
“Driving in Los Angeles is arduous, and working as hard as we did for those days, I opted to stay at home in Long Beach every night and have a driver take me to the office in the morning,” he said.
In addition to the daily commute, Muse twice flew to see the client in a distant city, adding jet lag to the fatigue.
“It reminded me of the old days when I could work all night and still get on a plane in the morning,” said Muse. “As for stardom, we’ll see if it’s all that it’s cracked up to be.”
Staff reporters Howard Fine and Joel Russell contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
