I was just about to respond to a friends post on Facebook about whether one should feel bad that he gets paid a crazy amount of money to stay off of the airwaves for a while.
It seems unnecessary that he gets paid for "not working". In one way, that just goes with the whole hollywood dis-proportionate work load to money ratio for stars that is unfortunately fed by most of western society and based on reaction to the short term most of the time. However, I do think that it sucks for him because in the general picture it doesn't seem that contracts mean a whole lot any more - people just do what they want and deal with the consequences. How many people do you know that have broken a rental lease? Or copied a CD or DVD from a friend for themselves?
Only the staff that came with him to the Tonight Show form Late Night will get any part of that settlement money. Other people lost their behind the scenes jobs with no back up. People that have regular salaries that pay for regular mortgages and support regular families. All of them have to look for other jobs. I know several people who work in the industry, mostly behind the scenes stuff. They work their butts off. I myself was a chihuahua wrangler for a day just for a super local indie director and I was amazed at the brain power that went into making the actors look good and what the actors were responsible for to make the scenes go well. It is work.
Also NBC is a poorly run company. They seem to be more loyal to Jay who couldn't cut it in prime time (trust me, I tried to watch him for awhile) and less loyal to Conan even though there were contracts in place and my understanding is they wanted him there and spent much energy in that transition. Everybody knows a show like that takes a while to get going. Certainly more than 7 months. There are other shows that I have enjoyed as well that don't really seem to get a fair shot or they let the staples drag on and on. They never canceled Saturday Night when it sucked worse then Leno's new show.
Truly there are few who will ever know what really went on, all the details of the contract, which parts of this whole fiasco are souped up for public consumption. It certainly has got people all over the world talking. It took a devastating earthquake to kind of cool off the topic for a while.
Which brings me to my next point. Why am I even worried about this. It doesn't effect me. There have been so many things in my life that I am not dealing with, the fact that I choose to float out my own opinion on this over the internets kind of baffles me.
I could choose to write about my beautiful and well loved aunt that passed last week. I could choose to write about other people in my family that are sick and why that is completely unfair. I could choose to write about how I have probably been depressed about the state of my own life. Feeling stuck and fat and unmotivated and generally bored. I could choose to write about how I feel disconnected and angry at myself that I don't do a lot to change those things.
It's easier to talk about things that don't force me to feel pain or joy for the fear of what it will do to me. Seeing this written down makes me think maybe it's time to change that.
Oh, I'll probably still talk about things like Hollywood and Haiti, but maybe I'll make more of an effort to address today, what I see, what I feel, since some big changes are coming up. I think I will do that. Make the commitment to share, to write about reality, everyday stuff. Even if it brings tears or means sharing joy with others even though they might be gone sooner (or later). Or sharing in others joy from afar.
Here's to really feelin' it.
Swaddling Clothes
14 years ago
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