Star Dust Losing Its Glitter … and Studio Heads Starting to Roll
By Linda Anselmi on October 7, 2009 at 2:01 PM in Current Affairs
(Bumped up and expanded from Monday.)
A few weeks ago, Will Ferrell and other Hollywood celebrities along with Moveon.org felt the need to educate the American public regarding health care with a satirical video/spoof ad about “protecting” insurance company profits from health care reform. It was called the Protect Insurance Companies PSA and if you missed seeing it, you can view it here. Every media outlet and pundit lauded it as hysterically funny.
For me, at least, it was far from funny. At a time when the American people are passionately concerned about what will happen with their health care, I found the sarcasm from people who are not under the same kind of financial constrains to be deeply offensive. And I must not have been the only one to take offense, because the video faded away in record time.
Still, it was nice to come across this video response by Jon David, that summed up my feelings beautiful.
(h/t Big Government)
I’m not sure how or why the celebrityhood of actors became so elevated, but maybe it is well past time to let the pendulum swing back the other way. As Glenn Harlan Reynolds at the Washington Examiner points out:
…until pretty recently, actors and theater people were just a rung, or maybe a half-rung, above common criminals in the public estimation, and suggests that the Polanski scandal, and Hollywood’s tone-deaf reaction to it, may go some distance toward returning things to the status quo ante. …
Though self-righteous moralism has been Hollywood bigwigs’ stock-in-trade for decades, the evidence suggests that, overall, their moral position is nothing to brag about, and the Polanski affair may bring this home in a way that earlier scandals have not.
Indeed, the Hollywood response to the Polanski affair suggests that, in Hollywood’s estimation, artists enjoy a sort of droit de seigneur by virtue of their talent, or at least their acclaim.
It’s easy to see why an industry founded on the casting couch might feel that way, but it’s surprising to see such alleged experts in communication state their position so bluntly. In the words of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, “It’s poor salesmanship.”
But poor salesmanship seems to be a problem for major studios these days.
IF THIS year’s Hollywood box-office sales could be turned into a film, they would fit only one genre: horror.
Like zombies who keep getting up, the turkeys of 2009 just won’t stop coming: Land of the Lost, Gamer, Surrogates, Funny People, Love Happens, The Taking of Pelham 123…
It is now clear that only a fraction of the $US400 million ($450m) total outlay will be recouped at a time when DVD sales are vanishing.
Inevitably, heads are beginning to roll.
So far it is only studio heads at Walt Disney and Universal. But with merchandising and brand tie-ins needed to replace cash from lost DVD revenues and dwindling Wall Street loans, more heads are bound to follow. Especially when films like Land of the Lost, Will Ferrell lastest has worldwide takings, currently, at barely two-thirds of the $100m that it cost to make.
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If no one paid to see these elitist morons like Ferrell they would STF up.
Time for Hollywood to come under the same pay scrutiny as the CEO`s. I mean if lowering their wages would allow more people to see a movie, isn`t that what redistribution of wealth is all about. Like Biden said…..”put some skin” in the game Hollywood.
The Hollywood industry is in the tank right now. Studio heads are being fired, etc.
Their biggest expense is these self-absorbed stars.
Maybe it’s time they start making movies with actors that no one has heard of. Put these egotistical jerks out of business.
Why does anyone care about or take seriously the spoutings of the entertainment ‘giants’?
George Gobel, the commedian said something many years ago that remains indicative of the relevance of the showbiz figures: He said he felt like a pair of brown shoes in a world of tuxedoes.
That sums up entertainers nicely. They live and operate in air so rarified that they cannot relate in any way to us. Their lives make them alien creatures to the rest of us.
Perhaps they just shut up and memorize their scripts and let the real hardworking people voice their opinions. That would be far more relevant.
I keep thinking how can anyone watch and enjoy a movie these days after hearing how some of Hollywood views it’s viewer.
I will not watch a tv show; pay to see a movie or buy a cd these days from anyone who has insulted me and will use my money to put someone like the O in office.
That ad was brilliant. I mean, really, I had NO idea what was coming.
I hope Ferrell saw it.
Wow.
I just realized how appropriate his name is.
It was brilliant. The only thing funnier is the idea Farrell and MoveOn think Obamacare is NOT a bill about protecting and increasing insurance company profits under the rubric of “health care reform”
That’s the irony, isn’t it? i’d love to have an actual bill that makes health care more affordable and accessible; i don’t know, but i’m pretty sure that anything this POTUS and congress come up with will just funnel more of our dollars into the pockets of the corporations that own them.
Ted Kennedy sponsored the “Medicare for All” Act.
Obamacare is not this, in fact, the opposite. Also, he says he wants to take half a trillion out of Medicare to fund Obamacare insurance for uninsured.
That means money out of Medicare and handed over to health insurance industry. The theft is blatant, but the MoveOn types are deeply, as deep as Hell, enamored with Obama not to see the bait and switch.
The ObamacRats’ plans for “Health Care Reform” all do an excellent job … of protecting the profits for the Health Insurance Companies. That’s why the “Public Optiom” is such a threat to them. But the MSM seems to unfailingly neglect those little details.
Check out who really pays….
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/10/06/who-pays-for-obamacare-fees-and-excise-taxes/#comments
Yep, the self-righteousness of these Hollywood types is beyond irritating. I remember during the primary, that guy Matt Damon and DeNiro in an interview and Damon’s smug face and even more smug pronouncements about Obama. We should kick them to the curb.
Good post, Linda.
Just because they are “celebrities” doesn’t mean they can find their butts without both hands and a map.
LOL, ain’t that the truth.
At SciFi “Cons” I have met more than a few “celebrities”. I don’t hate them. I am just monumentally unimpressed by most of them.
Amusing video. I am very much for reforming our health system, but after listening to the assessments of Andrew Weil, Timothy Johnson and my own doctor, I have come to the conclusion that what is being proposed would just add to existing problems.
Weil claims that unless we restructure the entire the system by providing different incentives for treatment and payment, the country will go bankrupt. Johnson sees the new plan as akin to a bucket with a hole in it — and that by adding more and more we will just exacerbate existing problems. My own doctor is also skeptical and just plain scared of what is yet to come.
I feel that Congress and Obama are just throwing a mishmash of ideas against the wall and hope against hope that it will all somehow work out, rather than methodically devising a coherent plan.
I wish everyone would get that idea– health care desperately needs reforming– it is corrupt, but the various plans being proposed do not do the job of helping the ill avoid financial catastrophe nor will the plans really aid those lacking health care. The current plans will simply enrich insurance companies at the expense of us all.
Will ferrll? He ain’t never been funny.
After the WF video ended, if you waited a couple of seconds before clicking off the link, you would learn, Move.On.org paid for this ’spoof.’ The sentiments expressed on the video about health insurance companies is not out of the realm of reality. However, I was saddened by the disdain and contempt evidenced by these people for the millions of Americans who, having read AND understood the numerous options for health care / health insurance reform on the table, reject all such ‘plans.’
Great post; loved the video. Thanks Linda!
Yes excellent post!
Amazingly, these morons and Move-On are telling us we have to support whatever plan is put forward by Congress. How in the world can anybody, let me re-phrase, why ’should’ anybody blindly support something that none of us know nothing about? No plan has been put to paper. There isn’t a bill yet. Lots of suggestions, proposals, etc., many detrimental to families, but here we have people telling us we have to support it. Support what? Tell us the plan, let us read the bill. Then and only then should anyone throw his/her support behind it.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9B6COT00&show_article=1
Of course Obama is going right to the cess pool of Hollywood. for a new commercial to support his healthcare plan.
If it means Tom Cruise is NEVER polluting the big screen again - I’m all for it!
From your mouth to God’s ear! Anybody remember that horrible remake of War of the Worlds a few years back? I was cheering for the aliens shooting at Cruise’s character 10 minutes in.
I think you have identified the problem. Studio heads are rolling, not because of their politics, Roman Polanski, or the half-wit stars. The problem is that they are making lousy movies that no one wants to see.
I always, thanks to Netflix, run the remake back to back with the original.
The Pelham 123 original was funny and quirky with a great “aha!” ending. Movies now have to be big and violent and build to a massive climax. They’re just dumb and boring!
You know things are bad when an evening of old British TV series like “Yes Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister” is head and shoulders above the latest Hollywood blockbuster.
Heck, an evening with The IT Crowd or Father Ted is more fun.
Oprah, Ellen, Matt Damon, Patricia Heaton, Madonna, Cher, Bette Midler (sob!), Mel Gibson. That’s my personal list the off the top my head of entertainers that will not only never see another dime of my money, but neither will their pet causes.
They’ve got to learn that they’re only entertainers and should keep their mouths shut when it comes to politics.
DeNiro too? Damn. He’s my favorite actor of all time.
Cokie Roberts let loose and said Polanski “should be taken out and shot.”
Finally. Cokie says something I agree with!
These are the same “celebrities” who jumped on the Obama wagon early last year. So why, oh why should anyone take them seriously when it comes to healthcare reform?
As to the Polanski fiasco, I signed the petition as soon as I read Amy S.’s essay. The whole matter is disgusting from where I sit. And sorry, “artists” don’t get a pass on child rape, regardless of how great the talent or how you twist the definition.
Thanks for the article, Linda.
Maybe they are all showing up on the Keith Blowhard, one hour special comment tonight, on health care reform. Can you imagine, an hour of that crap?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMU7pklZN2s
WHY DOES THIS WOMEN, THINK SHE IS A AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING AT ALL?
NUT JOB NUMBER 2.
Per Red Eye on Fox, Nut Job Number 2 is referred to as “that sad little tattooed person”. Seems right.
She can’t get a date, she doesn’t appear to bathe and now she is unleashing her bitching and moaning on the world. What a sad little tattooed nightmare.
We need to boycott Hollywood. No movie tickets and no DVD sales until they get it. How will we know? We will get one of these ads apologizing for their arrogance. Until then, no more.
On a lighter note there is this cartoon. Breakfast of Chumpions. Juvenile… maybe yes. But also therapeutic.
http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=7663
So, I look at Drudge and here it is. A financial times article “Hollywood braced for budget cuts”. Welcome to change. Hope we get our country back. Because, I don’t think making movies in Venezuela pays very well.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/edd9a0e8-b29e-11de-b7d2-00144feab49a.html
I’m fresh out of pity.
Isn’t it funny (and I don’t mean humorous) that celebrities who earn millions, and who could easily help an entire village without too big a dent to their wallets, campaign for the Joe Plumbers of this nation to help out their fellow men while they sit in their Hollywood mansions and pat themselves on the back for doing a frickin 30 second PSA?
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie may have made some lame movies, but they are out there helping rebuild New Orleans. When the rest of Hollywood can show some selflessness, I might consider listening to their opinions. (And Oprah opening a school in Africa with her name on it does not count. That is advertising, pure and simple.)
Well, here’s the deal. Charity begins at home. I don’t see many of them investing money (other than Branelina in New Orleans) in the USA. I won’t support anyone like Ophrey giving her millions to Africa while Chicago remains a cesspool…or Detroit a burned out hulk.
I still don’t understand why she overlooked Chicago schoolchildren like that. She could’ve accomplished so much just by lending her name to a project.
And instead of giving away Spanx and a La Mystere bra to her audience, she could’ve given bookbags and coats to students.
I never wanted to become one of those old fuddy-duddies who reveled in the good old days.
However, here I am!
After cringing through the profanity in movies now, and spending hours trying to select age-appropriate materials for my grandchildren, I have had it!
Put them all out of work!
I just watched the Will Ferrell vid. I didn’t even know who the other “stars” were. It was so lame, it was almost funny.