One might think that an actor who’s achieved the success that James Franco has would just content himself with being a young movie star. Usually the million-dollar paychecks and lush lifestyle of one of Hollywood’s elite is enough to satiate even the strongest appetite for success.  That’s why it stood out to me to learn that James Franco was also pursuing an advanced degree in English. By advance degree, I mean PhD.

According to Wikipedia, in addition to graduating from UCLA, Franco:

…moved to New York to simultaneously attend graduate school at Columbia University’s MFA writing program, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for filmmaking (NYU), and Brooklyn College for fiction writing,while occasionally commuting to North Carolina’s Warren Wilson College for poetry. He received his MFA from Columbia in 2010. Franco is a Ph.D. student in English at Yale University and will also attend the Rhode Island School of Design.

What a busy guy.  But why? Well, also according to Wikipedia, Franco enrolled in UCLA after being “dissatisfied with his movie career.” Although I’ve been saying for years that Hollywood isn’t all it appears, I wasn’t thinking that applied to people who achieved stardom on the level of James Franco.  Currently, he also teaches a class at NYU on turning poetry into film.

What does all of this tell us about Hollywood? It tells us a little about the quality of effort and focus often possessed by those who succeed here. People think of Hollywood as a place where people live the easy life. For most, Hollywood is anything but easy. Before you make it you struggle to get known, build relationships and do your craft. After you make it, you may struggle with keeping your integrity, staying on top, landing the right roles and not alienating your audience.

In one of the first interviews I did after my book came out, I appeared with a director who almost hired Franco for his first major lead. The director went with another actor instead. During the interview he lamented that, had he hired Franco, he’d be driving a much nicer car now.  (You can see the interview HERE: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).  Franco noted in interviews that one of the things that initially hindered him in pursuing an acting career was his fear of such rejection. Perhaps that’s another reason he decided to make a backup plan?

My personal opinion is that he was tired of playing certain types of roles and wanted to play someone more intelligent but couldn’t get cast–thus all the press about going back to college.  Is a coincidence his latest role was playing a scientist in Rise of the Planet of the Apes instead of a pot dealer in Pineapple Express 2? By doing something intellectual in his own life, he changed the way casting directors and audiences saw him.

Still, whether you’re the type of person who needs to burn bridges to keep you from turning back, or the type of person who thinks though all the angles, it’s interesting to note that even someone who succeeded in Hollywood at the highest levels still keeps his options open… just in case.

Was it just to hype their new film?

Would you be surprised to see that headline? It seems lately that celebrities resort to the most ridiculous tactics to promote their new films and albums. With competition for news being what it is, the more sensational and outrageous a story hook, the more likely it will find its place on national news shows and in national magazines.

Whitney Houston goes on Oprah with an “exclusive interview” in which she talks about her drug addiction and leaving Bobby Brown. “Oh the horror of our marriage and what was going on behind the scenes,” she said crying, sobbing… “by the way, I have a new album born of my pain. May I sing you a few songs?” And to number one it goes. And since then? Gone—probably back to Bobby, and with her newly minted millions from her album sales… probably crack, too.

Phil Collins (talk about a blast from the past—has he even done anything since the Tarzan Soundtrack?) suddenly appears in Rolling Stone with a shotgun, pick axe, machete, hunting knife and various other antique farm implements laid out on the Persian rug beneath him, looking more like Courage the Cowardly Dog’s owner than a rock god.

From Rolling Stone

“I’ve had thoughts of su-su-suicide and I’m tired of all the people talking about me.” (What people? Didn’t Phil die years ago?) “By the way, I have a new album coming out. It may be my last. You never know. Better go get it.” Oh, that explains it.  Reminds me a lyric from Prince’s Pop Life:

What’s the matter with your life?
Is the poverty bringing you down?
Did the mailman jerk you around?
Did he put your million dollar check in someone else’s box? Tell me.

“No.  I just have an album to sell and talking about suicidal thoughts and paranormal activity seemed the most effective way to relate to this new generation.”

Tyler Perry was next. “I was abused, Oprah! Sexually so. When only a boy…” as the tears stream down his cheeks. “And that’s what gave me the sensitivity to do For Colored Girls… because…well, I was abused just like colored girls who considered suicide when the rainbow wasn’t enough.  I lived it myself. And, yes, it will be in theaters this week packed with all the emotion you see right here before you.”

Some have stories. Others truly live it out. Some seem such a mess that it’s hard to figure out how they even manage to complete any projects at all. I imagine that Lindsay Lohan’s next project is going to be huge.  Brittany Spears’ certainly was. It seemed she was such a wreck before her album came out—shaving her head allegedly over her breakup with Kevin Federline—in and out of various clinics. But that didn’t stop her from putting together one of the best albums of her life. It dropped and everything is great now. Wow. Grammy? VH1 Award? Sure. Thanks. I’m much better. See you next year.

What’s this tell you about Hollywood? Promotion is part of the game. Even Harrison Ford has to drag his dust-farting ass out to worship at the altar of Letterman, Leno, Stewart and Fallon. Harrison can’t even remember what film he was in or what it was about, but he’s there—looking like Han Solo’s grandpappy Dutch Blitz. “Hello everyone. Yes, I’m the guy who played that guy you liked in that movie 25-35 years ago. Hello! Please go see my next movie.” It’s all part of the sell.

Perhaps the one that actually made me laugh was Sting. I caught him on Jon Stewart looking rather annoyed at having to hustle his new CD on TV. But there he was. “I like doing new things,” he said. “I can’t stand playing the same songs year after year—I need to mix it up. That’s why I released this new album with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.”  (He even joked of it being reminiscent of the parody rock band movie This is Spinal Tap where one of the band members thinks his stuff is good enough to have the acoustic versions performed by the London Phil.) And what was the new thing he did with the Philharmonic that he wanted us to run out and buy? The Muzak version of “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” and every other song he did 30 years ago and has been doing “year after year” since. I could have sworn I heard that version in an elevator 25 years ago. Nonetheless, sell that “original” album Sting.

Remember it’s called Show “Business” and no matter how big a star you are, you can never stop being a hustler in Hollywood.

One of the great places to learn lessons about Hollywood is the commentary section of DVDs.  It’s amazing the insights you can gain from filmmakers talking quite innocently about the process of getting the movie made. Sometimes the things they think they’re teaching you about the movie business aren’t what you walk away having learned. In fact, sometimes you can learn things they don’t really want you to know.

Just recently I watched 8 Mile—the Eminem bio film. The film is about rapper Eminem struggling to become a successful recording artist in Detroit by winning rap battles. It follows the exact same format that most “outsider young person struggles to find himself in a strange world” films (Step Up, Stomp the Yard, Drumline, Bring It) follow.

In the DVD extras, there is a section about filming the rap battles themselves.  Particularly, there is a story about how the film’s director and producers decided they wanted to have local rappers actually battle Eminem in order to get a more gritty realism.

The call goes out among the hundred or so extras who made up the crowd during the club and rap battle scenes. Three rappers, the ones who possessed the skills to top a real rap battle in the room, would then be put in the film as star actors featured battling Eminem. This was a chance of a lifetime for these actors who’d only been booked in very low paying extra jobs where their faces would likely never even be seen (see article on being an extra here). Here was a chance to be credited in a major motion picture, to have the camera right in your face and to be able to launch a career in acting.

Dozens of the extras tried out for the roles. Most were rejected out of hand, but quite a few showed promise. Eventually the contestants were whittled down and three lucky and talented ones were chosen. They were very talented too.

One by one, the rapper/actors/contest winners took their positions before Eminem to battle him. Although initially told to save his voice for the dialogue scenes and only to lip sync his comebacks against these rappers, Eminem couldn’t let the taunts in front of the packed room go unanswered. Impressively, true to his character in the film, he improvised clever responses to each rapper—clearly putting them in their place.

So what did we learn from this DVD extra? That Eminem is actually a very good rap battler? Yes. That’s what the film director wanted us to learn. But here’s what we learned that he didn’t want us to learn: After all of the contest—all of the hopes and dreams of each rapper in that room being placed before them—the promise of a starring role in a major motion picture. After winning the contest and being chosen as one of the three actors to battle the star; after filming the battle against Eminem and rejoicing, celebrating and telling all their friends and family about it; after the movie comes out six to nine months later, after all of the anticipation, after buying the popcorn and taking your seat in the theater….

Not a single one of those actors’ battles appeared in the film.  Every single one was cut. Every one. Those actors are not featured anywhere except in the DVD rap battle extras section. But at least they were featured there. Many actors find their roles, in fact, whole characters cut from movies. Where they expected a reel to show agents, managers, casting directors, or at least a credit for their resume, they may get nothing.

Some executive didn’t think the scene was necessary—one battle too many. Or it didn’t work—the lighting was bad, etc. For whatever reason, the film you starred in you no longer star in. The film goes on to be number one at the box-office—oh well, at least it got released. Hundreds of movies get filmed that never even get released.

Welcome to Hollywood. Such things happen here. They don’t always happen, but they do happen. The point is not to discourage you. The point is to make you aware so that, if it does happen, you don’t give up.

Good luck.

TRL

A short time ago, the following message was sent to me via Twitter:

“@TRLocke– Morning! I need your feedback. What are your expectations and/or objectives when attending a film festival?”

With one of the world’s top four film festival, Sundance, right around the corner (January 21-31st), I thought the answer to that question would be helpful to the readers of this blog as well.

I have to admit that my initial answer to this question was less than favorable. I’ve attended about 20 film festivals in my life—only four of them intentionally.

The first film festival I attended was as a student reporter for my high school newspaper. It was a foreign film festival in Cleveland Heights at the Cedar-Lee Arts Theater. There I saw an amazing film shot in Port-Au-Prince Haiti with English subtitles. My memory of it tells me it was similar to a French version of Slumdog Millionaire without the game show device. Despite my flattering review, I doubt seriously anyone from my high school went to see it.

The other three film festivals I attended because I had a screenplay in contention (Chicago) or because a friend had a film in contention (Hollywood), or because I’d scored free tickets to the L.A. premier of an a movie that won the prize at another bigger film festival (Los Angeles—to see Hustle and Flow with Craig Brewer, John Singleton and Stephanie Allain ).

The rest were by happenstance–usually simply the result of living or working in some artsy district like River North and Wicker Park in Chicago or The Heights in Cleveland, or Burbank (and nearby NoHo—North Hollywood) now. The scenario often plays out like this—I’m walking down the street with family or friends, only vaguely aware a film festival is running, when some young filmmaker pops out of a near-empty theater and desperately begs us to come in and watch his movie for free. We look at each other, check our watches, ask what the film’s about and how long it is and then… sometimes we go. Sometimes we don’t. Suffice it to say, not all film festivals are created equal.

Although film festivals are primarily the domain of directors and producers, there are a few objectives that can be gained by anyone looking to attend. What you can gain is related to whether you’re a film director, producer, writer or actor, etc. Either way, having a plan and reasonable expectations definitely helps.

What follows is a list of what you can expect. The information is gleaned from my own experience as well as a number of other artists and books I’ve read over the years. I’m presenting this information in no particular order.

Contacts.  Regardless of what role you play in the movie business, film festivals are a place to meet people who share your interests and professional goals. These people often show up later at different places along your career path. Networking and meeting different people may help down the line. There’s no real guarantee it will help, but I’ve never seen it hurt.  You may have the opportunity to meet and befriend someone just before their film or yours blows up. Such a person could prove invaluable to helping you in your career. It would be rare—namely because people blowing up as the result of film festivals is rare, but it could happen. Actors and writers particularly stand to gain by meeting directors and producers who may be looking to hire you. The same can be said of cameramen, cinematographers, make-up artists, etc..

Parties. If you’ve been cooped up in an editing room cutting your film for the last six months, a party could do you a lot of good. When liquor’s involved anything can happen.

Education.  There are usually a lot of great panel discussions during film festivals. You can learn new ways to finance your film, new routes to submitting your screenplays to production companies, new ways filmmakers are making money through distributing their films in various markets around the world, cheaper methods of production, new insights into the latest technologies, how the business is changing, or you may even find me there talking about some topic from my book like what to expect in trying to get your film into Hollywood, etc.. Writers can learn about trends affecting the types of screenplays that are being purchased and new avenues for writing in emerging media.  According to a friend on Facebook, Nickelodeon and other studios often present discussion panels at film festivals in hopes of finding new talent for their writing programs or even to staff their shows.

See a Few Good Movies. Though you will likely see some films that make you wonder how in the world someone would put their time and energy into making it, you will probably see a few good films as well. If you’re really lucky, you might get to see the premier of a breakout film and maybe even meet the creators before they become famous and you have to go through their assistants.

Meet an Occasional Celebrity.  Most likely the ones you may meet would be of the B, C, and D-List variety. You likely don’t know their names, but you recognize them, right?  A-Listers are usually kept in a separate room/section/party—popping out to promote their pet pro-bono project (the film that will likely go on to win the top festival award) just before it premiers. But here’s a good chance to get some pics and impress some friends back home.

For those who actually get accepted into a film festival, here are some additional ways you can benefit:

Distribution. This is the grand prize of any filmmaker attending a film festival. “The winner gets a distribution deal.” That’s why most filmmakers enter. But because it’s only a prize for the winners, it’s not really something most should necessarily expect. In fact, even winners are finding the distribution channels for independent films are bottlenecking, according to the festival director at Sundance.

Get Your Movie Seen. Exhibition is another major goal for those entering film festivals. If your film is selected to be shown at a festival, you have the opportunity to be seen by industry professionals and audiences, which could end up opening doors for you. The key here, though, is that you must know that the festival itself is not going to hype and promote your movie for you. Just because your movie is showing in a festival does not mean people will see it. You have to promote it like mad. You went through all the work to make a movie and get it accepted to a festival. Don’t drop the ball now. Finish the work of packing out the house.

Prizes. You may not win the distribution deal, but if you get any kind of recognition to your film, you could use that recognition to help drive promotion later. Any type of prize at any festival looks good on the one-sheet—even if your prize was nothing more than a new Blue-Ray player.

Publicity. Local news media is sure to cover most film festivals in some form or fashion. If your film was selected for a film fest, use that opportunity to score an interview in local press or TV that might help lead to more exposure for yourself or you film.

These are all fairly reasonable goals you can have when attending or having your film in a festival. On top of these direct benefits, sometimes being in an atmosphere with other creative people can really get your juices flowing. Maybe you’ll meet someone who will become your producing or writing partner on your next film. Or maybe you’ll make a connection with someone who has equipment or an editing suite you can use on the cheap. If nothing else, perhaps you’ll meet someone who’s going through the same struggles as you and you’ll realize you’re not as alone as you may have thought.

Most importantly though, look not only for the benefit others can be to you, look for the benefit you can be to others.

Good Luck,

T. R. Locke

With a book entitled “What I Wish I Knew Before I Moved to Hollywood,” it is inevitable that I would get asked that question. After all, is it really necessary to move to Hollywood to be involved in the entertainment business?  Johnny Depp  lives in France. Morgan Freeman lives in Mississippi. Robert DeNiro lives in New York along with many other actors, directors and writers.

It’s pretty common knowledge that the entertainment business has two homes—one on each coast. Both New York and Los Angeles are home to nearly every national television show (excepting Oprah) and both also are home to the majority of Film, Music and Dance production. So perhaps the question is more fairly worded to include both cities. Of course, my book is named as it is because I moved to Hollywood, but the truths in it apply to both places. So…

“Do I need to move to either Hollywood or New York if I want to be in the entertainment business?”

The answer depends on which aspect of the entertainment business you wish to enter. What I want to do with this topic is break down the answer into separate blogs. So over the next few days I will address this question and share insights from successful Hollywood players for each of the following fields: acting, writing, directing, film producing (including crew), and music production (including singing/rapping, etc).

If you or anyone you know is considering whether to move to Hollywood or New York or wondering if you’re ready to take that next step, please check out the blog over the next few days for some insights that might help make that decision a little clearer for you.  My goal is to save you a lot of pain and time by helping to you to be sure that, if you do come to Hollywood or New York, you’ll be ready and you’ll know more of what to expect. Please bookmark, subscribe to the RSS feed above, or share on your networks to let others know about this series. Thanks.

First up tomorrow… Writers.

TRL

“Does that say Toy Story 2?” my daughter asked me as we passed a bus stop sign here in Burbank today.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, it’s in 3D… They already did Toy Story 2, but they’re just putting it back in theaters in 3D?”

“Yeah, that’s how they do it here.” I responded. “They resell the same movie over and over to new audiences as soon as they figure there’s a new market.”

I can’t say that I blame studios. If we’re stupid enough to go to theaters to re-view the same movie we could view at home, then they should keep releasing the same movies. Milk us for all they can get from us. Why not?

As I mention in my book, a few years ago I was in negotiations with Fox to write the sequel to the Omen. Fox wanted my take on how to keep the franchise moving along. They suggested that they wanted to begin to remarket movies they already had in their vault along the lines of what Universal had been doing with the Beethoven series. “You don’t have to buy ads for those movies. You just put it out on the shelf and it rents because everyone already knows the series. The series is the star.”

That is the highest goal of any studio—to own a series that never fails to draw an audience. Fox wanted to do that with The Omen. At the time, I hadn’t realized they’d already done four Omen movies. I was only familiar with three. At the end of the third, Damien, the Antichrist, was killed.

Apparently, Fox tried to resurrect this franchise once before. They decided a little girl would be born this time and would have the same evil in her. You didn’t see The Omen 4 because it sucked. It took me more than a week to find a video store that even carried it. By the rules in play at the time, I told the executives at Fox that the franchise was dead. That, even though Omen 4 left a definite opening for a sequel, no one would ever want to see it because the series now officially sucked. It had “jumped the Shark” as they say. The original Omen had birthed the soundtrack of operatic Latin that would go on to haunt nearly every film concerned with the devil or demons since. Omen 4 turned the greatest evil on earth into a hop-scotching joke.

So how did Fox solve this dilemma? The same way so many other studios have been quietly resolving it. They simply released the same movie they released in the seventies. Really? Yeah. Why not? The 18-34 demographic Hollywood aims at never saw the original, so all it takes is a little updating and a small budget and voila! What used to be reserved for Miracle on 34^th Street every 30 years or so gets applied to everything. But now it’s no longer called “an updated classic,” it’s simply released as if it’s never been released before.

Halloween gets redone and re-released, then Halloween 2. I believe they took that franchise to seven films—ending with “Halloween H20—Twenty Years Later.” Next? Halloween 3D. It’s in the works—just like The Final Destination—the latest incarnation of that series that sits atop the weekend box-office. Toy Story 2 comes out in 3D too. I’m waiting on Jaws 3D… Oh, wait… they did that one. I guess we see where this is going. Or maybe we don’t.

How many times will people pay money to see the same film over and over again? That’s the question studios want to answer. So far it seems the answer is endless numbers of times for the right film franchise. What’s great for studios now is that it longer takes the passage of years to re-release films. It seems they can re-release them within a year or two and still draw a crowd. It is, after all, what Hollywood does—sell us what we want—or at least what we’re willing to pay for.

T.R. Locke

Now that the doctor responsible for giving Michael Jackson his fatal overdose is on trial in Los Angeles, I thought it might be a good time to revisit one of the first post on this blog about the Dark Side of Hollywood…

It was reported last night on NBC news that a source close to Michael Jackson said the superstar was so distraught about being forced to do fifty concert dates in London, instead of the ten he wanted to do, that he may have accidentally killed himself through an overdose while trying to make himself too sick to carry out the contract.

The mere accusation of such a disturbing possibility shines a light on the reality of the dark side of Hollywood. When people talk about Hollywood, they are generally talking about the entire world of entertainment. Entertainment to the average person is fun-movies, music, dancing, television, sports, live theater, magic. It’s all the great stuff we pay to see or do because our participation takes us away from our day-to-day.

But for those who are the creators and producers of entertainment, a better term might be “Show Business.” There is the show. And there is also the business.

Michael Jackson loved the show. The same source on NBC reported he could talk about old movies, dance moves and music for hours, but when it came to negotiating contracts and the legal technicalities, MJ took a much dimmer view. Most artists do likewise.

That’s why Hollywood is full of people who make the business side of show business happen-agents, lawyers, producers, promoters, marketers, advertisers, accountants, banks, corporations, distributors, publicists, secretaries, assistants, drivers, construction workers, electricians…

For an artist, Michael Jackson was a very shrewd and intelligent negotiator. He was one of the first artists to maintain ownership of his own masters and publishing rights to his music (something Paul McCartney actually advised him to do). MJ took the advice so seriously that he also purchased the rights to half of the Sony music catalog that controls the Beatles music as well.  No doubt this shrewdness grew out of the massive experience of Michael Jackson’s 45-year career and having been on the short end of negotiations early on.

But just because Michael was good at negotiating doesn’t mean he enjoyed it. Most artists don’t. The vision artists have of coming to Hollywood might include getting rich, but it rarely includes the minutiae and details required to actually make getting rich happen. Artists usually just want to be discovered-to have the chance to make their living doing something they love. They’ve seen the money come for others and they hope it will come for them, too, but someone else usually handles that. And that someone else gets rich too. Very rich. And usually that someone else is much more powerful than the artist-no matter who that artist is.

When the artist (the show) and the people running the business of that artist are in sync, Hollywood is at its best. Great art can be produced and the world can get to enjoy it. The artist grows wealthy and famous and the money flows. But when the artist and the people running the business of that artist get out of sync, lawsuits, threats, drug addiction, depression, sickness, exhaustion, confusion, disappearances, bad artistic products and even death occur.

This is the dark side of Hollywood. It’s what awaits every artist who comes here. Whether the artist falls victim to this dark side or not, he will certainly face it. Eventually, the artist, whose art most freely flows from his own willing creativity will find himself being forced to do something he doesn’t want to do because it interferes with the business side of his show.

Business people don’t really understand what it takes to create art. They’ve studied a system of rules, formulas, legalities, educated guesses and leveraged hunches to determine what they believe (or sometimes know) will create money. So as an artist, if your lyrics, your story, your jokes, your self-expression, your movie ending, your energy level, your friends, your family, your desire to try something new, your vision, your look, your new wardrobe, etc. doesn’t jib with their scheduling, market testing, product lineup, distribution policy, Asian market strategy, image consultation or calendar, etc., you’ll find yourself confronted with the dark side. And in the worst cases, that dark side cannot only kill your art, but it can kill you.

The dark side of Hollywood reminds me a bit of that that old fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs. The man takes and kills the goose in order to more quickly get at all the golden eggs inside. In the fable, there are no eggs inside the dead goose. The man learns his lesson about greed and patience and caring for precious possessions. The goose must keep living, be healthy, and take his good time to produce golden eggs one at a time. But in Hollywood they can kill the goose that lays the golden eggs and no longer get the new eggs, but instead sell Golden Goose t-shirts, make Golden Goose movies, sell GG collectibles, copies of other eggs, commemorative special edition DVDs of the Goose’s Best Golden Egg Lays, televise gala events of famous people talking about their Golden Goose experiences and sell advertising spots, play old Golden Goose movies and, of course, dress up a duck in goose feathers, paint some eggs gold and shove them up the duck’s ass-the people won’t know the difference when they pop out.  Now, instead of one Golden Goose, there are twenty-all aimed at different markets, all saying and doing exactly what the surveys and market research says they should.

The dark side of Hollywood is that any artist, any art is first and foremost a product to sell. It’s one thing when the product being sold is a machine, a coffee cup, a wallet or a car. Such things can be marketed at will or disposed of without much consideration if it doesn’t sell well. It might seem another thing altogether when what’s being sold is a human being-his thoughts, ideas, dreams, visions…his music. But in Hollywood there is no difference.

As the circumstances surrounding Michael Jackson’s death begin to pour in, we get a view of one of the realities of Hollywood that I learned from one of the interviews in my book. That reality? That when it comes to celebrities, no one speaks truth to them. No one tells them “no, don’t do that.” Or, “you can’t do that.” No one.

“Real friends give you boundaries. When you don’t have boundaries, it creeps into your choices in movies and life. If nobody around you tells you the truth, you end up doing all kinds of stupid shit.“  –Writer/Comedian, interviewed in I Followed My Bliss to Bankruptcy–What I Wish I Knew Before I Moved to Hollywood.

Michael Jackson is the personification of the Hollywood dichotomy. So many people want the fame and fortune, yet often,  being known by everyone results in being known by no one. No friends to tell you “no.”

Michael Jackson was a father who, by all accounts, loved his children dearly. But it was revealed this morning that one of Jackson’s professional acquaintances was responsible for giving the news of his death to his children. Not a family member, a professional acquaintance. Wow. Welcome to fame and fortune.

We’re also learning that Michael had a private doctor who may have injected him with something or prescribed medications that may have harmed his health as well.  Perhaps a private doctor was necessary for Michael as it certainly seems that he couldn’t very well go to the office for a visit. And certainly it can’t be in that doctor’s interest to harm his only, or at least most famous patient and utterly ruin his own reputation for the rest of his life, but the details are yet to surface. Who knows what ways the fame of a patient effects a doctors judgment? Perhaps doctors are just as vulnerable as others to the charisma and proximity of fame.

Meanwhile, it is being reported that Michael Jackson may be as much five hundred million dollars in debt. That’s as much as Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld got for the syndication rights to Seinfeld. Even Oprah would take a couple years salary to pay that off. But for the rest of  us half a billion dollars won’t be seen in a lifetime of hard labor. Yet Michael Jackson, as half owner of the Sony Music Catalog, got paid every time a Beatles song played on the radio anywhere in the world.

How’s it possible that a man of those means could be in that much debt? Well, it was reported this morning that Sony was concerned about Michael’s financial condition and worried he might sell his portion of the catalog to someone with competing interest, so Sony did what it could to ensure that Michael got as many loans as he needed.

Loans? Interesting. Loans brought down the banks, the American economy and nearly the world’s. It is sad that the King of Pop was living in a rented mansion and nearly buried beneath a mountain of debt, but this is Hollywood. And in Hollywood, nothing is as it seems.

“People love me for my music, my talent…but they don’t really love me.” –Michael Jackson

T.R. Locke