Buffett embraces Erica Kane, mocks mortgage mess

By Jonathan Stempel

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - It's part of Warren Buffett's job not just to answer questions from many of the 31,000 people at the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (BRKb.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). He also has to entertain.

Especially if the entertainment involves Susan Lucci, one of America's best-known soap opera stars.

Part of the roughly one-hour movie preceding this year's meeting, produced by Buffett's daughter Susie, showed a clip of Buffett's recent cameo on the soap opera "All My Children." Buffett, who plays himself, visits Erica Kane, portrayed by Lucci, who is in prison on an insider trading charge.

The movie included faux news reports about his leaving Berkshire, which the 77-year-old has run since 1965, to swap jobs with Lucci.

So at the start of the meeting, instead of Buffett emerging with Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, Lucci came out.

And she promised change.

"The first thing we need to change is our dividend policy," she said. "I have never heard of anything so cheap and so unfair to our shareholders." Berkshire hasn't paid a cash dividend since 1967.

She then urged Berkshire to give weekly guidance on earnings, and to pay directors more than $900 (456 pounds) a year. That let directors -- including Microsoft (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chairman Bill Gates, worth $58 billion -- to jump up and roar approval.