In the news today, a rich guy bought himself a whole island. Now everything on the island belongs to the rich man. Fifty miles of beaches? Five hundred homes? The hotels, the stores, and the farms? They all belong to the rich man now.

Filthy rich Hollywood power players, they're just like us: totally embarrassing dancers at weddings.

Larry Ellison doesn't much care if you know he sleeps with employees, fabricates advertisements, or taunts people with his wealth. But what the Oracle CEO doesn't want you to hear is a presentation from a guy he invests in and who worked for him for 13 years. Especially if Ellison has the power to cancel that guy's speaking gig, humiliating him in the process.

Even on a street known as "Billionaire's Row" in a wealthy San Francisco neighborhood, Larry Ellison manages to stand out. The Oracle CEO just ended a fight with his neighbors by dropping $40 million to buy the house next door. (UPDATED)

Technology seemed especially relevant in 2010, what with The Social Network's blockbuster receipts and mass mania for Apple's iPad and iPhone 4. The newfound attention helped turned some techies into genuine stars — while lending others real worldwide infamy.

Credit where it's due: Barry Diller knows how to vacation. The IAC boss is tightfisted at headquarters, but his holidays are plenty decadent. There's the corporate jet; the giant boat; tropical beaches; and a set of young blonde twins.

James Gosling couldn't stand working for Larry Ellison, the notorious founder of Oracle. Ellison is casting an increasingly fearsome shadow over Silicon Vally these days, but Java inventor Gosling is freely proclaiming that the CEO screwed over his employees.

Mark Hurd is paying dearly to roll with Oracle. The misbehaving former Hewlett Packard CEO will give up millions of dollars to settle an HP lawsuit and continue working with fellow bad boys at Oracle. He's an eternal bro.

Think of it as Delta Tau Chi vs. Dean Vernon Worner in Animal House: Buttoned-down tech giant Hewlett Packard has filed suit against its scandal-tainted former CEO for joining Oracle, home to the most infamous skirt chasers in Silicon Valley.

Oracle co-president Charles Phillips—the subject of an ex-mistress's embarrassing billboard campaign—has left the computing giant. But Oracle will maintain its "scandalous co-presidents" quota: It's hired former HP CEO Mark Hurd, who was just fired—thanks to a Playboy model.

This is David Ellison. He'd like to be in the movie business. Unfortunately, he's not very good at picking projects. But his dad is the sixth-richest person in the world. So now David Ellison is co-funding movies with Paramount Pictures.

Larry Ellison has had it: The Oracle CEO is flame-mailing journalists left and right this week in what looks increasingly like an online rampage. He might be worth $28 billion, but that doesn't mean Ellison has to take your crap.

Best paid CEOs of the decade: Larry Ellison and Barry Diller. Best performing: Not them.

A feud between Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and fellow billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli over the rules for their America's Cup yacht race has apparently cost the contest hundreds of millions in sponsorship. Weep for the wealthy; they have problems too. [BusinessWeek]

Those "Charles & YaVaughnie" billboards around New York belong to the co-president of software company Oracle, Charles Phillips. Did living in the shadow of Oracle's high-profile CEO Larry Ellison leave Phillips hungry for attention?

There's a rumor circulating in the San Francisco press and real estate community: Tom Cruise just bought an $18 million mansion in town. An overgrown pied-à-terre wouldn't be too terrifying — except for that local Scientology expansion drive.

Oracle laid off hundreds of employees this year, and is expected to lay off thousands more. But that won't keep the business software company's CEO from taunting workers about his yacht. Don't you wish you had one, you broke-ass poor?

Larry Ellison threw a fantastic tantrum against the mindless cult of "Cloud Computing," a fascination of "nitwit" Silicon Valley investors, as Ellison calls them. But the Oracle CEO was himself once a "nitwit." Just look:

We took flak earlier this month for saying Oracle appeared to be, yet again, making wild advertising claims without any evidence. The business software company was just fined over those claims, since —go figure — it had no evidence.

There is a certain type of accident that really only happens to rich guys, and the founder of Siebel Systems just had one: Gored by an elephant while on photo safari in the Serengeti, he now needs reconstructive surgery.