Although he’s not the only bigwig to be the targeted with pastry — other notables include pundit Ann Coulter and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman — the pie-ing of then-Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was especially stunning, if only because his assailant scored a bullseye.
In Brussels, Belgium in February 1998 to meet with business leaders, Gates was hit in the face with a cream pie when writer Noël Godin and “his group” had ambushed him.
The New York Times reported it was Godin’s idea, and that his co-conspirators waited for Gates to pass by on the street, holding hidden tarts in camera bags and under their coats. The Times wrote that Godin had previously successfully pied 22 people. The publication also reported part of the reason Gates was chosen to be pied was because Godin felt Gates “chooses to function in the service of the capitalist status quo, without really using his intelligence or his imagination.'”
In the aftermath of the pie throwing, Gates declined to press charges. The Tampa Bay Times reported Gates had commented that “one of the worst things about this whole thing was that the pie wasn’t even that tasty,” according to a Microsoft spokeswoman at the time.
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