‘Shari’ amour
Viacom foe absent, Redstone is life of mogul party
AS the sun rose on the first full day of Allen & Co.’s annual mountain resort shindig for media moguls and tech tycoons, the daughter of billionaire Sumner Redstone seemed to be following a strategy that every good chess player uses — she’s controlling the center of the board. Shari Redstone was everywhere Wednesday at the annual gathering of movers and shakers while her nemesis, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, was nowhere to be seen.
Dauman and Redstone are locked in a sophisticated legal game that is playing out in three different courts.
The Viacom boss has accused his foe of manipulating her father in an effort to oust Dauman from his job and take control of her dad’s $40 billion media empire, which includes CBS.
Shari Redstone, wearing jeans and sandals, strolled around the resort — chatting with various friends before being escorted to breakfast through the resort’s tree-lined pathways by Nicole Seligman, who has been discussed as a potential Viacom board member.
“Nothing to say, just grabbing a coffee,” Redstone told The Post at the resort’s café and bakery after she
briefly stepped out of a morning seminar.
Les Moonves, who heads up CBS, has stayed far from the Redstone-Dauman scrum.
“Les is in the catbird seat,” one Sun Valley spy told The Post.
While Moonves doesn’t appear to want Dauman’s job, he’ll enjoy “greater autonomy and less interference if Dauman is ousted,” the spy added.
That’s not to say, of course, that Dauman isn’t expected to show this week. “Philippe is very tough and very smart,” one attendee noted. “I don’t think him being scared to show up is the narrative he wants out there.”
Hunky Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is trying to lure US tech and media companies north of the border.
Trudeau pitched Canada’s business climate to a crowd of moguls over breakfast, despite the country’s relatively small market.
“Everybody is welcome to come to Canada,” a smiling Trudeau told the roomful of heavyweights, according to one spy.
Trudeau, speaking during a Q&A with former US Senator Bill Bradley, thrilled the crowd, telling tales and lessons he learned from an unconventional upbringing by his famous, jet-setter parents, former PM Pierre and Margaret Trudeau.
The Canadian PM is “totally charismatic,” one attendee gushed. “And of course, the women all loved him.”
After the Q&A, Trudeau was locked in one-on-one meetings with moguls at the resort through the afternoon, sources said.
Last month, Trudeau lifted longtime visa restrictions on Mexican immigration to Canada — a surprise move that Mexico greeted by lifting its own restrictions on Canadian beef imports. Power couples walking the grounds Wednesday included designer Diane von Furstenberg and her billionaire husband Barry Diller, as well as shoe magnate Tamara Mellon and Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz. Add to their ranks top Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg and video-game tycoon Bobby Kotick, who recently started dating in Silicon Valley, according to press reports.