Remember Gordon Gekko, Hollywood’s incarnation of greed the last time Wall Street was roundly despised? Twenty-three years ago, Fortune cut a deal with 20th Century Fox to have a mock magazine, with Gekko on the cover, appear in the Oliver Stone firm, Wall Street.
To this day, I gaze at this cover daily because it’s tacked to my office wall–as I told Gekko himself when he sat behind me during lunch today at Michael’s restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Well, the guy dining behind me was actually Michael Douglas, who won a Best Actor Oscar for playing that dastardly investor. As he and his stunning wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, and another couple rose from their table to leave, I leaned in and introduced myself. “I have to tell you,” I told Douglas, “I stare at you everyday because I have the Gordon Gekko Fortune cover on my wall right beside my computer.”
He laughed and said, “It’s on my wall too”–explaining that in the sequel to Wall Street, currently in production at 20th Century Fox , he’s reprising his role and the vintage Fortune cover hangs in Gekko’s apartment.
We can hardly wait. Andy Serwer, Fortune‘s managing editor, makes a star turn–well, actually a cameo–too.
