Sunday, October 16, 2011

#Occupy Hollywood

A long look at the robber barons you are NEVER instructed to hate. 
Liberals are strangely incurious about why their betters never instruct them to hate Hollywood during their class-warfare lectures. I mean never. Movie stars, singers, producers, directors, and star athletes are the millionaires you’re never told to envy. Their “fair share,” and the methods they use to avoid paying it, are not topics for discussion.

Liberals are even willing to extend this consideration to a grotesque caricature like Michael Moore​, the greedy millionaire who made a fortune by making his fans look stupid, and refused to employ union labor while doing it. He walked right past union operatives to receive a warm welcome from the Wall Street protesters. He moved out of a luxurious New York City penthouse to avoid paying his “fair share” of New York taxes on his immense movie profits, celebrated the release of a movie lambasting capitalism with a posh party at another swanky penthouse, and filled in a wetland to put the finishing touches on his million-dollar Michigan estate.
Remind me again why the millionaires that bring us TV and movie fantasies and other entertainment are exempt from the general contempt against the rich?  It's certainly not because they are any more ethical in their business practices.
...the Occupy Wall Street crowd really should think about dispatching some angry protesters to Occupy Hollywood. For one thing, Hollywood accounting is crooked on a scale that would make any Wall Street firm blush. David Prowse, the very tall actor who wore the Darth Vader costume in the original Star Wars trilogy, recently remarked in an interview that according to the studio, Return of the Jedi has never made a nickel of profit, so Prowse has never been paid any residuals. The film grossed over half a billion dollars worldwide, but the studio rigged the books to show zero net profit, almost thirty years later. In the course of explaining why this sort of thing is commonplace, Atlantic magazine notes that even Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is currently on the books as a net loss.
So, if movies almost never officially make any money, why do the they bother to make them?  Oh right; bread and circuses to keep the masses quiet while the barbarians assault the gates.

Based on a post at Instapundit.  Keep it going.

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