Sporkman
January 7th, 2008, 04:09 PM
http://blogs.wsj.com/ces/2008/01/06/gates-rides-into-the-sunset-in-a-ford-focus/?mod=yahoo_hs
Gates Rides Into the Sunset in a Ford Focus
It was the final keynote for Bill Gates at the Consumer Electronics Show, where he has taken the stage 11 times. So of course there were videos — with quite a cast of extras.
The opening piece, which starts with an introduction by news anchor Brian Williams, imagines the Microsoft chairman’s last day on the job as an employee. It then runs through many of things the billionaire might do with his new free time.
He tries working out, for example, with hunky actor Matthew McConaughey acting as his personal trainer. At one point, Mr. Gates is struggling to lift a barbell that has no weights on it. Mr. Gates asks, “can I take my shirt off yet?” The actor replies, “not yet.”
He tries rapping, and the producer Jay-Z cringes. He tries acting, appearing in the costume of the character Wolverine, and Steven Spielberg is appalled. “What money can’t buy,” the director observes.
http://s.wsj.net/media/gates-blog_art_160_20080107093639.jpg
(Gates at CES)
The actor George Clooney, in a phone conversation in which he apparently is asked to play Bill Gates in a movie, quickly suggests Russell Crowe or Tom Hanks.
Mr. Gates calls up U2 frontman Bono, and suggests that he join the Irish rock band, after the software mogul has been messing around on the game “Guitar Hero.” “We’ve talked about this before Bill,” Bono says. “We are full up in the band.”
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama appear on camera to turn down Mr. Gates’s suggestion that he become a running mate during the presidential campaign.
The video, which starts with Mr. Gates absent-mindedly leaving his briefcase on the roof of a blue Ford Focus as he drives to work, ends in a similar vein. He walks out, puts his box full of mementos from his office on the car roof, which crashes to the ground as he drives away from Microsoft for the last time.
Gates Rides Into the Sunset in a Ford Focus
It was the final keynote for Bill Gates at the Consumer Electronics Show, where he has taken the stage 11 times. So of course there were videos — with quite a cast of extras.
The opening piece, which starts with an introduction by news anchor Brian Williams, imagines the Microsoft chairman’s last day on the job as an employee. It then runs through many of things the billionaire might do with his new free time.
He tries working out, for example, with hunky actor Matthew McConaughey acting as his personal trainer. At one point, Mr. Gates is struggling to lift a barbell that has no weights on it. Mr. Gates asks, “can I take my shirt off yet?” The actor replies, “not yet.”
He tries rapping, and the producer Jay-Z cringes. He tries acting, appearing in the costume of the character Wolverine, and Steven Spielberg is appalled. “What money can’t buy,” the director observes.
http://s.wsj.net/media/gates-blog_art_160_20080107093639.jpg
(Gates at CES)
The actor George Clooney, in a phone conversation in which he apparently is asked to play Bill Gates in a movie, quickly suggests Russell Crowe or Tom Hanks.
Mr. Gates calls up U2 frontman Bono, and suggests that he join the Irish rock band, after the software mogul has been messing around on the game “Guitar Hero.” “We’ve talked about this before Bill,” Bono says. “We are full up in the band.”
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama appear on camera to turn down Mr. Gates’s suggestion that he become a running mate during the presidential campaign.
The video, which starts with Mr. Gates absent-mindedly leaving his briefcase on the roof of a blue Ford Focus as he drives to work, ends in a similar vein. He walks out, puts his box full of mementos from his office on the car roof, which crashes to the ground as he drives away from Microsoft for the last time.