British actor Michael Caine has observed that Superman is how America sees itself, and Batman is how the rest of the world sees America.

The sweet scents of women’s cosmetics and the stench of politics are an unlikely blend. Yet few corporate boards are more politically active than that of Estee Lauder.

A new power-couple has been born. Courtenay Semel and Casey Johnson are dating, reports the New York Post.

With all the hand-wringing about the domination of American politics by members of the Bush and Clinton dynasties, there has been scant attention paid to another lapsing political dynasty – that of the infamous Skull and Bones Society.

When Arizona Sen. John McCain said last week that he would veto “every single beer - bill with earmarks,” it seemed more than a mere slip of the tongue.

The private wedding yesterday of First Daughter Jenna Bush and Henry Hager in Crawford, Texas, brought together two Republican families.

Gates men are suckers for smart women.

Rupert Murdoch’s distaste for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has often spilled out onto the pages of the New York Post, and into broadcasts on Fox News, both of which he owns.

The billion-dollar family feud over two trust funds established by legendary Dallas oil tycoon H.L. Hunt is getting very personal.

Albert G. Hill III, the first great-grandchild of H.L., accused his family of being “dysfunctional” in a long story about the dispute published Sunday in The Dallas Morning News.

Nobody does nicknames better than the mob.

And nobody, except maybe the tabloids, loves mob nicknames more than the feds.

Warren Buffett has followed the dealings of the Pritzker family for half a century, but he had never had a direct business connection to them. . .until now.

The Connie Mack dynasty extended its reach over the weekend.

After a two-year courtship, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV of Florida married U.S. Rep. Mary Bono of California.

Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony D. Marshall, was indicted today on charges of pilfering money from his mother’s estate, valued at nearly $200 million.

It’s a billion-dollar family feud straight out of central casting.

The first great-grandchild of legendary Dallas oil tycoon H.L. Hunt is suing his father and other family members for alleged mismanagement of two trust funds with up to $4 billion in assets.

We’ve come to expect political dynasties. They’re a fact of life in the U.S., perhaps even more than royal succession is in the modern UK.

The Kennedys. The Bushes. The Fords. The Rockefellers. If you define dynasty as families holding power for at least three generations, with living people of influence, these names rule.

The family name has stood money and power since John D. Rockefeller built one of America’s great fortunes with Standard Oil Co. Subsequent generations have continued to hold sway in politics, finance and philanthropy.

As dynasties go, it was short-lived. Just 68 years elapsed from the time Robert Worth Bingham bought the Louisville Courier-Journal and Times for $1.5 million in 1918 until the newspapers and other family holdings were sold for $448 million in 1986.

The Ford dynasty

The Getty dynasty