Did you hear that CBS is coming out with a new CSI franchise? It's called CSI: Time Warner Center. Yeah.

Time Warner (not the police, not the SEC, not Ernst & Young) late yesterday announced that they had cleared CFO Wayne Pace of having used company funds to support accused madam Andrea Schwartz, or of having done anything illegal. Assisted by "outside advisors," of course.

Pace was not cleared of having been Schwartz' friend, lover or sugar daddy, it should be noted: he was simply cleared of doing wicked things with company money. Which is always a good thing.

Wayne Pace cleared of being 'Sugar Daddy' by ... Time Warner originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 Jun 2006 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It just goes to show: Time Warner is such a huge conglomerate and its stock is so immovable that the news and its price have no relation. Take today, for instance.

On a day when the big news included the company's beloved baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, in dead last in the team's division ("I'm just looking for a score that has a 'W' in front of it," said GM John Schuerholz "calmly") and the salacious rumors of CFO Wayne Pace's role as "sugar daddy" to a high-class prostitute, the stock was up 15 cents, nearly 1%, to $17.11.

Perhaps it's true, as one commenter noted, that it's a good thing Pace is [alleged to be] getting more love -- "If he's happy in the bedroom he'll perform better in the boardroom. As a stock holder, I think maybe she should bring over her friends and make sure he's extra happy."

Time Warner after the bell 06-19-06: Braves last, Pace in trouble, stock up? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 19 Jun 2006 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As long as I've been following business news, it seems that sex is always only a whisper away from any press release ... sexual harassment, sexual dalliances between colleagues, famously, when an Infoseek EVP tried to have sex with an FBI agent who said she was 13. Sex is never so sexy as when it touches money.

So when Time Warner CFO Wayne Pace was accused of having been the "sugar daddy" (oh how we love that phrase) of high-priced hooker and accused prostitution ringleader, Andrea Schwartz, let's be honest, we licked our lips.

Pace, naturally, denies it through his attorney. And if it's true, it would be racy indeed: the position of CFO is generally seen as a boring, straight-laced, buttoned-up job. One that requires the utmost ethics and should never smack of partisanship. It's only when we think about who else Schwartz may have entertained that we start imagining the possibilities for compromise. It's a mind-blowing list of potential Law & Order plots.

Either way, we hope we read all about it in People.

Time Warner CFO linked with high-priced hooker originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 19 Jun 2006 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.