Big Hollywood writes that its titular industry has a public approval rating of “just a touch lower than George W. Bush’s the week before he left office:”
This shouldn’t be. The entertainment industry is, above all else, entertainment. It’s a tool we use to help ourselves enjoy our leisure time and from time to time, if executed in just the right way, it’s one way to gain a bit of insight into our culture or some other. Pretty simple, really. As we’ve noted time and again on Big Hollywood, the entertainment industry should have a 100% approval rating. Either it does what it’s supposed to and entertains us, or it doesn’t and we find some other entertainers who do. What’s not to like? If the objective is in fact to entertain and you have countless billions at your disposal, your approval rating should be somewhere between purebred beagle puppies and motherhood.
Apparently it isn’t that simple, or even close to it. For Hollywood to have an approval rating of 33%, just a touch lower than George W. Bush’s the week before he left office, it should be a splash of cold water to those running the show in Tinseltown.
We could explain in full detail why we think these poll results are what they are, but instead, we recommend you simply read through the Big Hollywood ariches until you get it. And if you are a hot-shot Hollywood type, for your sake and ours, read quickly.
Between Roman Polanski, Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, Spike Lee, and all of the pro–Taliban activists running amok in Tinseltown, Hollywood has pretty much offended everyone. As Mark Steyn wrote in 2004 after a particularly disastrous Hollywood fundraiser for John Kerry, “Having the most popular figures in popular culture on your side can seriously damage your popularity.” On the other hand, much as modern day General Motors is a union healthcare and retirement plan that produces cars as an derivative industry, Hollywood’s chief product these days is political activism. It produces mass-market entertainment as an increasingly vestigial and legacy offshoot of its primary business function.
(Though for how long remains the subject of debate.)
Join the conversation as a VIP Member