Director Erich von Stroheim, right, was fired by Hollywood for his profligate spending.
Hollywood, an overwhelming leftist enclave, has a deep, dark secret.
This secret has nothing to do with substance abuse or adultery.
Hollywood’s best kept secret is that it is deeply Conservative–when it does the business of, well, Hollywood.
Step into any pre-production meeting and this is what you’ll hear:
Executive Producer: “Who do we get to direct?”
Producer: “Here’s my list.”
Exec Producer scans list, crosses off a few names: “Not enough experience,” he says.
Exec Producer and Producer consider: director of photography, production design, costume design, casting director; the dozen top choices are discussed in excruciating detail. Credits are pored over again and again. Are they right for the job? Do they connect with the material? But the main question is always: What have they done before?
It comes down to four essentials.
1. Experience.
2. Talent.
3. Temperament.
4. Cost.
No one will hire a first-timer to fill an important position. It does not happen. Schlep jobs go to Harvard graduates who are dying to get into the biz.
Hollywood is brutal, the hardest industry in which to get a break, and once you’re in you have to fight tooth and nail to stay on the inside.
There is no room for excuses. If you don’t do the job you will be fired.
If you are in a position of authority, say a show-runner, and you’re ratings plunge, you will be replaced.
Years ago, I was producing my own TV show and I told my Executive Producer that our director could not get the performance we wanted from our leading actor.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said.
“You know what you are doing, Robert?”
“What?”
“Kvetching.”
I burned with embarrassment.
“There’s no room in this business for whiners. Fire the son-of-a-bitch.”
“Huh?”
“Fire your director or I’ll fire you. You wrote the show, you’re producing the show, you are responsible.”
It was that simple, that cold-blooded.
In short: business.
America was not downgraded during the Great Depression.
But America has been downgraded under Obama.
And Obama kvetches: It’s the fault of the Tea party, the S&P, Bush, Eric (A Jew who refuses to be a court-Jew) Cantor…
Obama has no experience in business or governance.
Not one member of his cabinet has experience in the private sector.
His economic advisors wouldn’t know how to run a falafel stand.
These people would have been fired long ago if they were working in Hollywood.
Heck, they never would have been hired.
If America wants to get out of this economic nightmare then we must fire Obama.
Only then will the kvetching stop and America will have any chance of recovering jobs and economic prosperity.
Welcome to Hollywood.
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