F------ Brilliant

President Obama signs health reform legislation into law on Tuesday and what seems to get more attention on the morning talk shows on Wednesday? Vice President Biden leaning in and whispering to his boss who was about to speak about signing the bill, “this is a big f------ deal.”

Biden hasn’t been alone in using the curse word this week. Avatar director James Cameron called Glenn Beck “a f------ a------” at a news conference because of Beck’s criticism of his movie. And Tim Tebow, the Heisman trophy-winning quarterback who is known as much for his Christian faith as he is for football, reportedly was told to “shut the f--- up” when he tried to get other potential NFL players to pray before a test.

To honor (or ridicule, depending on your personal taste) these various uses of the F bomb, Portfolio.com takes a stroll through some of the more colorful examples of CEOs, politicians, lawyers, and others who let the word rip. And keep in mind that while we’re detailing the word’s use, we are not actually using the word. We're sure you can figure it out.

Steve Ballmer Really, Really Hates Google

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn’t take it well when he found out that archrival Google was hiring a Microsoft employee. According to a statement by the employee, an engineer named Mark Lucovsky, in a lawsuit over Google’s hiring of another Microsoft worker, Ballmer got angry. Very angry.

At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: "F------ Eric Schmidt is a f------ pussy. I'm going to f------ bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f------ kill Google."

Not Just a Man’s Word

Since taking the CEO job at Yahoo in January 2009, Carol Bartz has gotten considerable press for her choice of words. Sometimes, a room full of people and television cameras captured her decision to drop the F bomb.

Valleywag, the Silicon Valley blog that was part of Gawker media, published the following shortly after Bartz got the job: “At an all-hands meeting today, Bartz told the staff that she'd "dropkick to f------ Mars" anyone whose company gossip ended up on the blogs. And, of course, a Yahoo employee promptly told Valleywag.”

The Short Goodbye

Dan Neil, the former car critic of the L.A. Times who accepted a similar gig with the Wall Street Journal, wrote an email to friends and colleagues February 11 explaining his move. He saved a few choice words for the paper’s owners.

It’s been a rough few years here, mainly because of the jackasses in Chicago who own us. To them I say, with as much gusto as I can muster in an email, f--- you.

Senate Decorum. Not!

On the day in 2004 the Senate voted 99 to 1 to pass what was billed as the “Defense of Decency Act,” then-Vice President Dick Cheney took a decidedly indecent approach with Senator Patrick Leahy. Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, got into an argument with Cheney over his ties to Halliburton Co. and the success of the energy company in getting sole-source contracts in Iraq.

“F--- yourself,” Cheney said on the Senate floor.

Sumner’s Salty Words

No one ever accused Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone of being the shy, retiring type. In a profile of Redstone in Portfolio, Lloyd Grove tells about a “widely repeated anecdote” that involves Redstone, his wife Paula, and his next-door neighbor, the actor Sylvester Stallone. For the record, Redstone denies the following took place.

According to two Hollywood insiders who spoke with Stallone and his wife, Jennifer Flavin, Redstone erupted a year ago at one of Arnold and Anne Kopelson’s regular Sunday-night movie screenings, when Redstone was anxious to leave and Paula tarried to schmooze with Stallone. “Why don’t you just f--- him already, so we can go home?” Redstone allegedly shouted.

A Different F for Facebook

As Mark Zuckerberg was putting the pieces together to launch what would become the phenomenon known as Facebook, he was caught in the dilemma of what to tell some Harvard classmates with whom he had been working on a Web project. According to an account published in the Business Insider, Zuckerberg had this IM exchange with a friend in January 2004:

Friend: So have you decided what you're going to do about the websites?

Zuck: Yeah, I'm going to f--- them

Zuck: Probably in the year

Zuck: *ear

Ask Him No Favors

Josh Olson, the screenwriter on A History of Violence, apparently has been asked way too many times to read other people’s scripts. This is simply something he does not want to do and he made his point in the Village Voice.

I will not read your f------ script.

That's simple enough, isn't it? "I will not read your f------ script." What's not clear about that? There's nothing personal about it, nothing loaded, nothing complicated. I simply have no interest in reading your f------ screenplay. None whatsoever.

If that seems unfair, I'll make you a deal. In return for you not asking me to read your f------ script, I will not ask you to wash my f------ car, or take my f------ picture, or represent me in f------ court, or take out my f------ gall bladder, or whatever the f--- it is that you do for a living.

Going Hollywood

Marc Toberoff has made a legal career out of taking big entertainment companies to court on behalf of artists and their heirs. Toberoff represented the family of Superman creator Jerry Siegel in a lawsuit against AOL Time Warner. He spoke about the case to Amy Wallace in Portfolio.

“I’m like a pit bull with a towel in his mouth,” he says. “Movie studios take legal action against 12-year-olds for downloading content off the Web. But when it comes to creators, studios f--- ’em on an everyday basis. I like to level the playing field.”

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J. Jennings Moss is editor of Portfolio.com.