Who

The brash chairman of the advertising agency founded by his dad, Deutsch is an inescapable media presence and the former host of the late CNBC show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.

Backstory

Donny's father, David Deutsch, started a small ad agency called David Deutsch Associates in 1969. Donny, a native of Hollis Hills in Queens, took a job at the company shortly after graduating from Wharton. Unfortunately, he didn't take his work very seriously, and was almost immediately fired by his dad for slacking off on the job. David Deutsch eventually rehired Donny on the creative side and following his dad's retirement in the early 1990s, Deutsch Jr. took the helm of the agency. Promptly dropping David's name from the letterhead, he renamed it Deutsch, Inc. and set about carving out a rep as one of the most aggressive agencies in town. With a team of young, creative staffers on board (mostly "Jews, chicks, and fags" in Donny's words), Deutsch Inc. grew exponentially during the '90s thanks to the addition of blue-chip clients like Bank of America, Ikea, Domino's, Pfizer, Mitsubishi, Old Navy, and Revlon. By the time Donny cashed out in 2000, selling to Interpublic for a reported $300 million, Deutsch Inc. had 1,000 employees and more than $2 billion in annual billings. While still nominally chairman of the agency, these days Donny busies himself working on Donny Deutsch, the brand.

Of note

Since offloading his agency, Deutsch has been on a mission to achieve star status outside of advertising. In 2004, he began hosting a nightly show on CNBC, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, which debuted as a general talk show but later transitioned into business-oriented self-help fare and was eventually put on hiatus in late-2008. He's also become a seasonal ritual on good pal Donald Trump's The Apprentice and published his first book in 2005. (He also pens a regular column for Jason Binn's Gotham titled "Deutsch Mark.") And he's dabbled in film production, too, setting up Deutsch/Open City Films with Jason Kliot and Joana Vincent. But not all of his efforts to raise his profile have gone according to plan. A "youth culture advertising" company he founded with fellow Hollis-native Russell Simmons called dRush went bust in 2002. And in 2003 he failed in his attempt to buy New York magazine with partners Mort Zuckerman, Harvey Weinstein, and media columnist Michael Wolff, losing out to Bruce Wasserstein. He also seems to be making minimal headway in his longstanding promise (threat) to run for mayor. Despite first floating the notion back in 2003, Deutsch has yet to pursue the idea any further.

In print

Deutsch published his first book in 2005, Often Wrong, Never in Doubt. The tome offers plenty of potty-mouthed advice to entrepreneurs on how they might "Unleash the Business Rebel Within"—one of the chapters is titled, "Sometimes You Have To Be A Dickhead."

Drama

Donny's aggressive approach and frat boy antics earned him a good deal of resentment in the industry during the '90s. But it seems he's a little less easygoing when the joke's on him. Several years ago, when a Deutsch Inc. art director posted a photo of a youthful Donny clad in a Speedo on the Internet, he was promptly fired. Of course, Deutsch staffers were already inured to the sight of Donny half-naked: He reportedly sits in his office with his shirt off and a set of weights by his side. Since shedding more than 50 pounds in the 1990s, Deutsch has turned to buffing up, which probably explains why he told New York, "I can kick the ass of any CEO in advertising."

Personal

Known to have something of a wandering eye, Donny separated from his second wife, Stacy Josloff, in 2005. (His first wife was Jodi Deutsch.) He's since had a baby, Daisy, with his ex-girlfriend Amanda Zacharia, a real estate broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman.

Habitat

Deutsch, who paid $21 million for a fixer-upper townhouse on East 78th Street in 2006, is currently renting an apartment at Trump Park Avenue (for a reported $65,000 a month) while he waits for renovations to be completed. He also owns a 3.3-acre beachfront estate off Further Lane in East Hampton, which he paid $29 million for in 2007. He plans to scrap the 300-year-old house, though, and build his own mansion, much like neighbor Jerry Seinfeld did a few years back.

No joke

Shortly after college, Deutsch appeared on the TV game show The Match Game. He ended up winning $5,000.