Valleywag: Kate Bohner

Elliot Schrage, Google's top flack, interviewing at Facebook

Owen Thomas — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:40:00 PDT

Are Elliot Schrage and Sheryl Sandberg about to stage a policy-wonk reunion in Palo Alto? When she worked at Google, Sandberg, now Facebook's COO, helped recruit Schrage from the Council on Foreign Relations. Having taken charge of Facebook PR, Sandberg is looking to hire a VP of communications with experience in public policy. Since most Valley flacks are weak in knowing the ways of D.C., that job description is tailor-made for Schrage. Sources tell us he has already interviewed at Facebook. And we hear he's more than ready to leave Google, chiefly because of its philanderrific CEO, Eric Schmidt.

It's not the fact that the married Schmidt sleeps around that bothers Schrage (and most of his underlings in Google PR); it's how Schmidt mixes business and pleasure. His recent mistress, Marcy Simon, was temporarily installed in Google's New York office to head up PR for Google's still-nonexistent Googlephone. Simon's replacement, TV journalist Kate Bohner, has squired Schmidt, very publicly, to at least one political debate cosponsored by Google's YouTube and CNN. If Schrage wanted to deal with bimbo eruptions, he could have stayed in politics.

It's not clear Schrage is the best choice for the Facebook job, objectively speaking. One person who's worked with him says he's a disaster as a manager, and not particularly strong in the PR part of his duties, preferring the more high-falutin' policy work.

But that could make him the perfect yes-man to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plans for world amelioration. At the South by Southwest conference, Zuckerberg talked, tongue not at all in cheek, about how Facebook could bring peace to the Middle East by preventing Arab teenages from turning into terrorists. He seems to believe sincerely in this stuff. And if it gets him a job at Facebook, Schrage is just slick enough to put on the illustion that he does, too.

Google CEO's bikini-clad gal pal dislikes philanderers

Owen Thomas — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:03:56 PST

It's not that we're appalled by married Eric Schmidt's role as Google's adulterer supervision. Rather, we're amazed. Impressed, even. Where does the man find the time? Though he's broken up with Marcy Simon, the girlfriend he gave a PR job in Google's New York office, we hear he's now squiring Kate Bohner around. Including, publicly, to one of the presidential debates Google's YouTube site has been running with CNN. We don't think this relationship will last very long, either. Just watch this video to see why.

In her little-watched "Watercooler Diaries" series on YouTube, Bohner films herself in a bikini, swimming with dolphins and interviewing Florida locals. In an on-camera commentary, Bohner makes the following observation about the dolphins:

The boys stay together in their bachelor pads to go hunter-gathering and also ... to go sniffing out for more pods of girls. Rrnnnggh! Just like human boys!

Just like human boys, indeed, Kate. Just ask Marcy.

Eric Schmidt, PR side bit have split

Owen Thomas — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:15:43 PST

Marcy Simon, the publicist romantically linked with Eric Schmidt, has broken up with the Google CEO. We wouldn't take such interest in Schmidt's affairs, if they didn't make him obsessed with privacy and prone to making foolish hires — such as the time he installed Simon as a PR consultant in Google's New York office. A messy breakup with his wife, Wendy, would also put his considerable stake in Google in play, which would seem to make keeping an eye on Schmidt's wandering one well worth investors' while.

Well, Google shareholders can rest easy. Simon figured out that despite the massive diamond ring he gave her, Schmidt wasn't serious about promises he made Simon about splitting with Wendy. (According to a Simon confidante, Schmidt claimed he was "legally separated" from his wife. Can anyone confirm that?) "When he's with Wendy, he's completely with her," says an insider. And when he's not with her, he's with someone like Kate Bohner. Impressive that he manages to have so much free time while ostensibly running Google.

Does Eric Schmidt have a new girlfriend?

Owen Thomas — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:17:19 PDT

Marcy Simon, left, the girlfriend of married Google CEO Eric Schmidt, is no longer a PR consultant at Google. So much for her reign as the Duchess of West Chelsea. The terms of separation are unclear: Simon has maintained to friends that she quit, while other insiders say Google executives Elliot Schrage and David Lawee fired her, with Schmidt stepping out of the matter. Schmidt's recusal may not be the only way in which he's staying out of Simon's affairs. Rumor is that Schmidt is now seeing Kate Bohner, right, a journalist and ex-wife of author Michael Lewis. No word on whether a Google gig is forthcoming for Bohner, though she does have a channel on the Google-owned YouTube.