Ken Lay's Many Roles

In last year's movie review of Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room, David Faraci describes Enron's complicity in the California power shortages.

.....nothing...can compare to the tapes of Enron traders laughing at the misery of Californians as they earn money hand over fist from the state's energy troubles. These are played over scenes of the havoc the blackouts caused, and you realize that you're listening to the revels of soulless, evil people.....

It was a scene that reminded him of a certain comic book character.

In the mid-1980s, DC Comics restarted their universe with an event called Crisis on Infinite Earths. Out of that event the Superman comic line was subtly tweaked, and Lex Luthor, who was once a maniacal mad scientist in a ridiculous battlesuit, became a shrewd and crafty evil corporate leader, a guy who the public looked at as a civic leader but who was in fact a complete supervillain.

Lex Luthor would have been right at home in Enron.

Apparently, Kevin Spacey agreed. The new movie, Superman Returns, opens June 28th, and Spacey plays archvillain Lex Luthor. And guess who inspired his take on the character?

"There's a lot of [former Enron chairman] Ken Lay in him this time," smirks Spacey. "He is more smartly dressed than I think we have seen him looking before. I like to call the look General Rommel goes to dinner."

Ken Lay: Enron CEO, "Kenny Boy", Bush Pioneer, convicted felon, supervillain.