Zuckerberg Turns On The Charm For Oprah
September 28th, 2010 | by Jen |Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg has donated $US100 million to schools and let a film crew from Oprah through his house, possibly as a precursor to negative publicity surrounding new movie, The Social Network.
Shy Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has provided a rare glimpse inside his modest abode and rejected suggestions his $US100 million schools gift was part of a charm offensive against an unflattering new film.
The reclusive Zuckerberg appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and let the talk show queen’s cameras inside the surprisingly ordinary house he rents with his long-term girlfriend Priscilla Chan.
The clip, which has been published on YouTube, shows a hatchback in Zuckerberg’s driveway and minimal furniture inside his house. Chan gives him a kiss at the start of the clip and Zuckerberg is also seen hard at work studying Chinese ahead of a planned trip to China later this year.
It’s not the mansion one would expect considering Forbes last week estimated Zuckerberg’s fortune to be $US6.9 billion ($7.2 billion) – more than that of Rupert Murdoch and Apple founder Steve Jobs.
Viewers are also given a tour around Facebook’s headquarters, where we are told Zuckerberg spends up to 16 hours a day. Staff are seen riding on skateboards and inspiring signage (i.e. “Fail harder”) dots the building.
Zuckerberg appeared on Oprah to talk about his $US100 million personal gift to public schools in the US city of Newark, New Jersey.
It comes on the heels of The Social Network, an unflattering film written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) and directed by David Fincher (Fight Club) that portrays Zuckerberg as a ruthless geek who stabbed his college friends in the back when creating Facebook.
The film, which critics have said could be a contender for best picture at the Oscars, opens in Australia on October 28.
Zuckerberg’s charm offensive also comes after he was forced to admit to the authenticity of leaked chat messages in which he called users who trusted him with their information “dumb f—s”.
But Zuckerberg, 26, has defended the timing of his schools announcement, saying it was driven by the needs of kids in Newark.
“Every child deserves a good education and right now that’s not happening. I’ve had a lot of opportunities in my life and a lot of that comes from having gone to really good schools,” the Harvard dropout said on Oprah.
In fact, Winfrey said on the show that Zuckerberg wanted his donation to be anonymous but “we talked you into coming on here”. She said that the announcement was slated to be made several weeks earlier but it had to be postponed until the show aired.