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In early December 1999, Sean ''Puffy'' Combs attended the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute gala, where he met, of all people, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. After their brief, historic encounter, a confused Kissinger reportedly turned to his socialite friend Pat Buckley. ''Why,'' he asked in his famous German croak, ''does he call himself Fluffy?''
Today, even Kissinger would probably get the name right. Since Combs' arrest later that same month -- Dec. 27, after fleeing with his movie-star girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, from an early-morning gun battle in a midtown Manhattan club that wounded three people -- the flamboyant 31-year-old rap entrepreneur has been front-page news in papers across the country. And while his recent trial for illegal gun possession and bribery wasn't televised, it nevertheless became the year's first media pile-on, the most feverishly covered legal case since Bill Clinton's impeachment hearings (or at least since the press frenzy over those Girl Scouts busted for allegedly illegal cookie sales in Georgia).
Combs, of course, has survived the ordeal unscathed; on March 16, he was acquitted of all charges. In fact, what could have easily ended in a 15-year jail term may turn out to be a boon for Combs and his Bad Boy Entertainment empire, already a $300 million-a-year enterprise. Certainly, curiosity has been piqued about Bad Boy artist Jamal ''Shyne'' Barrow, whose self-titled debut has climbed back up the charts since the trial's start and who now faces up to 25 years in prison for his part in the shooting. (While Combs and bodyguard Anthony ''Wolf'' Jones, 34, were both acquitted of all charges, the 21-year-old Puff protege was convicted of five more-serious charges, including first-degree assault and reckless endangerment, and is now detained at Rikers Island, pending his April 16 sentencing.) Combs will be back in the spotlight this summer with Jon Favreau's film Made, in which he makes his acting bow as a crime boss. And then there's Bad Boy's textile division: Combs' six-week trial was a superb setting for a Sean John fashion show, with supporters, bodyguards, and even lawyers sporting Daddy duds.
''He's such a celebrity,'' gushes one exec from a rival hip-hop label. ''People can always come back, especially in entertainment.'' Johnnie Cochran, one of Combs' attorneys, notes a change in his client: ''Before, he had the image of this bad boy. When you're young, that's kind of cute. But now he's a man.'' Adds another music executive, ''If anything, there's even more glow on him.''
In other words, pop open another bottle of Cristal, Fluffy. Frankly, the verdict couldn't have been less surprising. Throughout his meteoric rise, Combs has often skidded into violence only to bounce off without a scratch. There was, for instance, that 1991 charity basketball game he promoted in Harlem. (Nine people were crushed to death in a stampede; while escaping criminal charges, Combs and others made financial settlements with victims' families.) There was his rumored mid-'90s feud with rival L.A.-based label Death Row -- which some believe led to the murders of Death Row star Tupac Shakur and Bad Boy's Notorious B.I.G. And in 1999, there were assault charges for the beating of Interscope executive Steve Stoute, for which Combs was sentenced to a one-day anger management class -- in addition to reaching a monetary settlement with Stoute.
