[RipSawyer]

Great piece and thouroughly enjoyable reading. As far as the talent of actors I think a very few, and Robert Duvall is the only one who comes to mind, do have a rare talent to be believable in almost any role. My theory though is that entertainers who perform in movies and TV are very fortunate in being able to reach a mass market. If a good auto mechanic, a much more important person in reality than any actor, was able to market his ability to millions of people at a time he could earn more money in a year than any actor could in a lifetime. The people who do the most important work are precisely the ones who have to do it on a one at a time basis and therefore cannot ever earn what a fourth rate actor earns. On the other hand if actors had to perform for an audience of one there would be very few who could buy lunch.

[IronJack]

Thank you for the kind words.

The media have cultivated a hero worship on behalf of the Hollywood establishment. That serves any number of purposes. One, it generates huge revenues for the cinema community. Two, it elevates a suspect group of mediocre talents above the common fray, and imbues them with an authority their knowledge doesn't merit. They can then serve as front men for ideas the powers wish to promote, and potent adversaries for those values the powers wish to crush.

In view of the fact that most of these powers are avowed leftists, the message being delivered by the talking meat puppets is decidedly socialist. But their empowerment -- and their very survival -- depends on their continued cooperation. They are mass marketed, and in exchange, they mass market the diabolical disease of socialism. And that is why the causes they embrace -- from saving whales to saving Mumia -- are universally left-wing.

They are also universally out of touch with the sentiments of their consumers. And ultimately, that gap will be their downfall.