« Vanderbilt Avenue: Prospect Heights' destination for foodies and booze hounds | Main | It came from the Blogosphere... »
March 25, 2010
Jay-Z, Markowitz, the cult of celebrity, and the oligarch behind the curtain
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder continues his coverage of the March 11th Atlantic Yards groundbreaking ceremony.
It was a brilliant move, Jay-Z front and center, relying on the unsurprising shallowness of a star-struck press.
Consider that the New Jersey Nets, the team destined for the Atlantic Yards arena, is contending for the NBA record for losses.
And that the majority owner of the team--and owner of nearly half of the arena--should soon be Russia's richest oligarch, Mikhail Prokhorov, a most peculiar beneficiary of significant government subsidies, tax breaks, and the extraordinary power of eminent domain.
Solution: heap attention on the celebrity who owns a tiny piece of the team.
Was Jay-Z used? Well, maybe, but you can't hustle a hustler who became a world-class celebrity.
Posted by eric at March 25, 2010 10:21 AM