Jeff Bezos is a rich man. The second richest, that is. It’s an insane thing to be second for when you think about it, but someone has got to do it. Now he’s been attending a charitable gala here and there—‘tis the season—and he keeps making headlines at these functions. One for a fun interaction between himself; his girlfriend, Lauren Sánchez; and fellow known quantity Leonardo DiCaprio. And now, at the Baby2Baby gala, for donating pennies on his dollar.
“Everyone was waiting for him to donate something, but he didn’t,” said a Page Six anonymous source. “And then a little later, [Bezos] donated $500,000. There was an audible groan from the room.”
One seated guest refuted the tale to Vanity Fair. “I wouldn’t say there were groans from the crowd after Bezos’s donation was announced,” this person said, but there was a fair share of joking. “Lots of people were saying, ‘That’s it? Only $500,000?’ [Co-auctioneer Nicole] Richie early on said, ‘Does anyone want to give $1 million?’ And someone from the crowd loudly cheered, ‘Jeff Bezos!’”
This is the problem with being a billionaire. Everybody wants a piece. Men, women, and babies all gotta get theirs. But riddle me this: If he paid everyone at his company, Amazon, a living wage, and paid a wealth tax, and donated one whole million to Baby2Baby, then wouldn’t he only be one of the richest guys on the planet instead of number two? And where’s the fun in that?
Still, credit where credit is due: Bezos was the largest public donor that night, which raised $8.5 million for Baby2Baby, an organization that aids children living in poverty. Don’t want to dissuade the man from becoming a little less of a textbook billionaire by giving some of his wealth away. It’s just that, you know, the plight of the billionaire is that he could always do a little more. According to a Time article published in July, Bezos has given a total of about $1.5 billion in actual funds, which at the time was 0.7% of his wealth.
In the end, he paid in his pound of flesh too, by being the subject of James Corden joke. To call Baby2Baby star-studded is an understatement, as Vanity Fair gala connoisseur Paul Chi can attest, and those beautiful people like to kid each other. Corden gave a speech that referenced Bezos’s little DiCaprio bit from the last gala they attended: “Now listen, don’t worry, Jeff. I want you to know, I have personally taken it upon myself to make sure that Leonardo DiCaprio is not here this evening, okay,” said Corden from the stage. “Don’t ask me how, but I did it, alright. I was there with you, brother. We’ve all been there. There’s a lot of men in this room here with partners who are way more attractive than they are. If Leonardo DiCaprio arrives later, and all the men that are here whose wives are more attractive than them—me and Scott Stuber [head of original films at Netflix]—we’re going to form sort of a cone of protection around you. Don’t worry.”
This article has been updated.
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