"What an absolutely brilliant piece. I am sure like many others out there as a child you wished you could be a "movie star." I know I did. But as an adult in the real world looking at how shallow and really useless these people are, I wouldn't trade my life for the most famous or the most wealthy of them."
Most of them are'nt as wealthy as you'd think - many of them make about the same as the average manager at a corporation, they just get a lot of perks that makes them look like they live extravagent lifestyles. Just like rock stars, not many of them are millioniares, and even if they do have money, it's spent fast, thus the certain actors who just won't go away, or who were very big in movies but now are on tv shows or game shows.
It's entertainement. Most of them barely passed high school, and their level of intelligence is low. Anyone who looks to them for wisdom is a fool, as they rely on polling data more to craft their attitudes and opinions, or they rely on smarmy, lying press agents to speak for them.
When it comes down to it, if Brad Pitt never makes a movie again, it's not the end of the world, governments and society will not fall if Tom Cruise finally shuts up and goes away for good. The entertainment industry takes themselves entirely too seriously, and it's starting to annoy people - most people I know were disgusted that Al Gore won an award, and I don't know anyone who actually watched the show.
The cult of personality that is Hollywood disturbs me, but it will fall, eventually. I ignore the press, the tabloids, I don't watch tabloid tv, and I go to see few movies as most are garbage. Is my life poorer from not seeing these movies? Hah! It's BETTER.
300 does look like one hell of a movie, I'll go see that. It's the only movie I've wanted to see in a theater since King Kong.
See this thread before you spend $$$s on that movie.