Celebrity Mound

Entrepreneur and media mogul Russell Simmons has put together a one-minute video response to the My Fellow American campaign. Check out the video below:

http://myfellowamerican.us/

What does it mean to be truly rich? Does it mean owning planes, yachts, and designer clothes? Does it mean getting anything you want at a moment’s notice? According to the materially and spiritually rich mogul Russell Simmons, “the ultimate state of being rich is to honestly be in a state of needing nothing. To need nothing is to be super rich.”

This might sound crazy coming from someone who can pretty much have anything he wants, but, amazingly, needing and expecting nothing and being true to himself is the reason he is so wealthy. SUPER RICH: A Guide to Having It All by Russell Simmons with Chris Morrow (Gotham Books, on sale 1/4/11, $22.50), is Simmons’ ultimate venture—a genuinely helpful, motivational, and meaningful guide to making the absolute most out of life told in a unique style that blends spirituality with business insight and street smarts.

Everyone has unique gifts to share with the world, but many people have not yet tapped into what those gifts are and overlook the key to their personal success. SUPER RICH teaches how to drown out the noise and focus to find life’s purpose.

Check out this video with Russell to learn more about the book.

It would be nearly impossible to make a dull show that involved Russell Simmons.

In his newest reality venture, however, he is almost upstaged by two interns who apparently never saw “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Or, if they did see it, they didn’t get the part about how smart interns stay on task.

This new series, routine in the reality world, follows the staff that handles the day-to-day logistics of the Simmons empire.

That team is led by Simone and Christina, who have worked for him forever and understand all his code.

The wild cards are Sagen and Aly, the interns who do not.

Today’s Russell Simmons, for those who haven’t been keeping up, focuses on fashion and philanthropy. While this may disappoint a few old-school hip-hop fans, Simmons always dreamed of being more than a music guy.

He parlayed his hip-hop hits into other fields, and over the last 20 years has been both relentless and generally pretty successful in doing whatever strikes his fancy.

He probably still wants to produce the definitive contemporary blaxploitation movie, but hey, a guy’s always gotta have some dreams to reach for.

In any case, the plots in this premiere episode revolve around the launch of his new clothing line, ArgyleCulture, and his offer to throw a fund-raiser for Victoria’s Secret model Selita Ebanks.

She needs money to help African children. Simmons says he’ll round up a boatload of models and charge guys $1,000 a ticket to come to his place and meet them.

Prepping for a fashion show and setting up a major charity event would be taxing for any staff. At some points, it seems particularly taxing for Russell’s workers, because he’s a selective micromanager and has very clear ideas about what he wants, regardless of the work involved.

Christina and Simone understand all this, however, and at the end of the day, Simmons seems to understand them, too.

He’s a demanding perfectionist. He’s also a seasoned professional when TV cameras are around, so he comes off as much more human than, say, the Meryl Streep character in “Prada.”

Still, this would be just another tale of high tension in New York’s style and society game if it weren’t for Aly and Sagen, whose continuing missteps provide a darkly comic undertone.

Simmons catches them in his private bathroom because they took too long to clean it after they couldn’t believe cleaning a bathroom was part of their job.

At another point, Sagen seems more focused on meeting a celeb than, say, getting her work done.

That rookie mistake then has further consequences, and all these fumbles are so obvious that Aly and Sagen start to resemble the cheerleaders in horror films who insist on opening the dark closet door even though every viewer knows what’s inside.

This show may not be their ticket to the top, but credit them with helping keep it lively.