W magazine assistant digital editor Stephanie Eckardt was at this week’s big amfAR fundraising gala. She leads off her summary of the event as follows:
To explain his modus operandi when it comes to raising money for the AIDS research foundation amfAR, producer and Hollywood bigwig Harvey Weinstein turned to a quote from Kurt Vonnegut: “Good can triumph over evil if the angels are as organized as the Mafia.”
For those who don’t follow Weinstein lore as closely as we do, this literary riffing is nothing new. The quote from Vonnegut’s novel The Sirens of Titan is one the mogul has been living by for decades.
Last year around this time, he was sharing with attendees at a Simon Wiesenthal Center tribute dinner the same quote, framing it as a motto for both The Weinstein Company and Miramax. Maybe one day Weinstein can produce a movie version of the Vonnegut book. If he does, one of the A-list folks in attendance Wednesday night at Cipriani Wall Street, a guy by the name of Leonardo DiCaprio (who bid close to $100,000 in the charity auction for a 10-day trip to Mongolia), could be perfect for the lead role:
The Sirens of Titan is an outrageous romp through space, time, and morality. The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there’s a catch to the invitation – and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell.
[Jacket cover courtesy: Dial Press]
