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Sumner and Shari Redstone
Holiday gatherings are doubtlessly testy affairs for the Redstone clan. Until recently, media mogul Sumner Redstone, 83, was being sued by his son Brent and the elder Redstone’s nephew, in both cases for allegedly running roughshod over their interests. (He settled the suit brought by Brent.)
Relations are much better with Redstone’s 52-year old daughter Shari, who he once called his “clone.” By all accounts, Shari, a one-time lawyer like her father, is as driven and demanding as the family patriarch. She now runs the 1,500-theater National Amusements chain and serves as co-chairman of the Viacom and CBS boards and vice-chairman of the 87.6% family-controlled video game-maker Midway Games.
The two sometimes disagree: “I would like to think that as much as I love and respect her, I have the capacity to make decisions myself,” Sumner Redstone once said. Redstone, who has famously said he intends to run his empire from the grave, isn’t likely to retire anytime soon. Still, he says that his trust is set up so that it is “extremely likely” that Shari will “one day” control National Amusement and the companies it owns.