Ben Silverman Sells Production Company For $125 Million, Now Just Doing NBC Day Job For A Goof
NBC perfect storm/D-girl disdainer/nerd-hating prom king Ben Silverman has long been filthy rich in the kind of programming savvy that's resulted in translated foreign hits like The Office and Ugly Betty and resurrected, nostalgic sensations like Knight Rider and American Gladiators, but following the just-announced sale of his Reveille Productions to a British firm for $125 million, his net worth will finally approach the value of the intimidating treasure-pile of his primetime creativity.
Tortured metaphors aside, selling off the company should free Silverman from some of the annoying conflict-of-interest questions that lingered even after he officially ceded control of Reveille upon being anointed Peacock Emperor last year, allowing him to focus his energy fully on the wall of huge flat-screens in his office that display feeds of high-rated international series from which he can select his next wildly successful adaptation. (Our guess: a nighttime soap about a Panamanian schoolteacher who secretly moonlights as stripper to pay for a hymen-restoration procedure.) And once the check clears, expect the bitchingest celebration this town has ever seen, as the party-loving executive rents out the entire Chateau Marmont for a week-long bash, where Silverman and the army of genetically engineered Silverman clones he can now easily afford can throw down together while surrounded by a few thousand of their best Hollywood friends.