‘CSI will beat the hell out of Leno’

Curmudgeonly Viacom boss Sumner Redstone seemed to enjoy having a go at all his traditional enemies on Thursday. He reignited fires under Rupert Murdoch (“he overpaid for the WSJ”), NBC (“stupid decision” to put Leno at 10pm against CSI), Ted Turner (“oversold” himself to Time Warner) and ABC-Disney (which “screwed up” firing Michael Eisner). Moreover, Mr Redstone said he was going to live forever!

Redstone is about to turn 86, and while there may be plenty of octogenarians out there running public companies, we know of few others (Murdoch is a sprightly 78, while Ted Turner is a child at 70, although admits to having gone twice around the dial in terms of his lifestyle).

Redstone told a Beverly Hills conference panel hosted by Larry King (75) that “The people who fear dying are people who are going to die. I'm not going to die. I'm going to live forever."