There's been a big falling out between gay gajillionaire David Geffen and lady-loving former president Bill Clinton (and his partner-by-marriage Hillary). Political analyst Mickey Kaus (who proves that you don't have to believe in any single plank of the Democratic platform to still call yourself a Democrat) believes the enmity stems from Bill Clinton's "lying about whether he was going to pardon [jailed Native American activist] Leonard Peltier". Makes sense to us—Hollywood executives are so rarely lied to that when it actually does happen, they're outraged. The Times, on the other hand, has a different theory which, as with seemingly everything else in our world, features Ron Burkle.

Mr. Clinton had long paid homage to Mr. Geffen, and was a frequent guest at his home in Los Angeles. But after his 1996 re-election, Mr. Clinton began staying more frequently with Ron Burkle, a longtime Clinton supporter and onetime rival of Mr. Geffen for ownership of The Los Angeles Times. Mr. Burkle, a supermarket tycoon, lives in a 40-room Beverly Hills home that once belonged to the silent-movie star Harold Lloyd.

By late 1999, the president felt so divided between his two billionaire friends that he once wound up leaving Mr. Burkle's home late one evening to turn in for the night at Mr. Geffen's nearby Beverly Hills home, all to avoid offending Mr. Geffen, one member of the president's entourage said, even though Mr. Geffen was out of town.

Burkle and Geffen are actually neighbors, so this is sort of playing out as the world's most bizarre billionaire version of those bitches in your freshman dorm who would sneak by your room on their way to hang out with someone more popular down the hall. This is why we drink so much: liquor keeps us from having to think too hard about the people who are actually running the world.

Geffen's real beef with Clinton [Slate, second item]
Et Tu, David? A Lucrative Friendship Sours [NYT]