Zuckerberg laughs off SNL jabs

As Oscar Wilde put it the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Mark Zuckerberg has either made the last week an opportunity or an exercise in hubris.

As most of the Western world seems to be aware there's a new film, written by the excellent Aaron Sorokin of West Wing fame, has been released showing one side of the creation of Facebook.

In response Zuckerberg has been on a PR offensive. He's given $100m to fund school classes in technology and community, appeared on the Simpsons last weekend (although to be fair the run up for that honour is pretty long and has posted online that he likes the film.

On Saturday Night Live Zuckerberg was parodied by comedian Andy Samberg.

"What does it matter? It was $100 million," his character said. Zuckerberg laughed it off in a Facebook posting.

All this looks like a masterfully executed spin campaign about the movie. Zuckerberg has never made a secret of his dislike for the book that spawned The Social Network and refused to co-operate in its writing. Sleuth finds this perfectly understandable.

But Zuckerberg's next actions need to be watched closely. Do will have another philanthropist on a par with Bill Gates, or will we see Zuckerberg join Peter Thiel on the dark side?