The new issue of Vanity Fair arrived in my mailbox earlier today and I could help but read the entirety of this issue’s story on the Huffington Post, with particular focus on how the site came to be. It’s quite an interesting anthropological dig, in fact, one inspired by a lawsuit political consultants Peter Daou and James Boyce have filed against Arianna Huffington claiming that they were instrumental in the success of the site. I highly suggest you go read it when you have the time. It’s filled with juicy anecdotes and laughably hyperbolic quotes like the following one about a meeting of liberal friends Arriana had at her home to discuss what was then known as 1460.com (1460 is the number of days between presidential elections): “Arianna put together this room…it was a very powerful room. There’s never been a room like that before.”
Anyway, aside from Arianna’s Superfriends meeting, the thing that amused me most about the whole story was Larry David’s pessimism about the site in the early days. Sort of buried in the story’s third page I found this…
Of the idea for 1460, Larry David, who is an investor in the Huffington Post, says, “All I remember is Arianna telling me about this on a number of occasions and feeling sorry for her because I thought it was such a terrible idea.”
I suppose you could say that his enthusiasm was curbed? (Sorry…sorry…I couldn’t help myself.)