Scarface meets high finance: Pacino among attractions for SALT crowd

At Bellagio on Thursday, some guests lounged by the pool while others were enjoying the botanical gardens or betting modest sums on hands of blackjack. Some even slipped $20 bills into slot machines hoping to hit a jackpot.

But in a conference center adjacent to the casino, more than 1,800 hedge fund workers gathered to discuss deals or rub shoulders with politicians and economists. They also took advantage of the free shoeshine station, and hung out in the grand ballroom trying to meet CNBC anchor David Faber.

The hedge fund workers were attending the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference or SALT, a three-day event that has grown from just another hedge fund conference into a gathering of influential thinkers approaching the level of a Davos or the Milken Conference.

“I want to bring people here who are the smartest at what they do,” said Anthony Scaramucci, managing partner of SkyBridge Capital and co-founder of SALT.

SkyBridge believes that SALT is the place to share ideas. This year’s sessions include influential economists, business leaders, politicians and philanthropists.

On Wednesday, one session featured John Paulson, president of Paulson & Co., a New York-based hedge fund, followed by a panel with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak discussing geopolitics with Leon Panetta, former secretary of defense and CIA director in the Obama administration.

That was followed by a session called A Night at the Movies with Al Pacino.

Pacino has appeared in 50 films, and has eight Academy Award nominations and one Academy Award for best actor in “Scent of a Woman” in 1992.

But Scott Wapner of CNBC quickly asked Pacino about his role in “The Godfather,” pointing out the film is now 41 years old.

“That’s what happens, times goes by,” Pacino said. “I was not a sure bet at all. It was a famous book. It was a terrific book. But they didn’t want me.”

Pacino, who describes himself as a “method actor,” thought director Francis For Coppola “was off” for asking him to play the role of Michael Corleone.

“I was not known to anybody,” he said. “Robert Redford is who they wanted for the part.”

Pacino said he was lucky because “The Godfather” allowed him to make such celebrated films as “Serpico” and “Dog Day Afternoon.”

However, the loudest applause during the hour-long interview were for his role in “Any Given Sunday” and “Scarface.”

Pacino said a lot of people still approach him to quote his famous line, “Say hello to my little friend,” from “Scarface.” Pacino still expects to play Joe Paterno in a movie about the late Penn State football coach and will join Robert Di Niro and director Martin Scorsese for the film “The Irishman.”

Also on the speakers list at SALT were Wall Street heavyweights Sam Zell, Dan Loeb, and Mike Novogratz, as well as former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyewski.

Robert Wolf, founder and CEO of 32 Advisors LLC moderated a discussion Thursday on citizenship and partisanship among former Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., former Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff for George W. Bush, and former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

Wolf touched on issues from taxes and education, to sequestration.

“It’s a terrible way to get it done,” Ford said of automatic budget cuts, known as sequester. “Congress won’t do their job until they are forced to. They are incompetent and childlike.”

The conversation eventually turned to who will replace Ben Bernake as chairman of the Federal Reserve and will Congress pass immigration reform this year.

Both Brown and Ford said it was up to the president to choose the next Fed chair, while Rove suggested Milton Friedman, “but he’s dead,” and Frank suggested Janet Yellen, current vice chair of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve.

As for immigration reform, Brown, Ford and Rove believe Congress will pass a bill, while Frank said “no” predicting the “House Republicans will kill it.”

Contact reporter Chris Sieroty at csieroty@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @sierotyfeatures on Twitter.