Of Hollywood and Hot Air

Of Hollywood and Hot Air
by Julie Foster

Anyone remember back when Jennifer Aniston first hit the big time when the show Friends began a few years ago? Shortly afterwards, there was quite a stir in the media about her weight. "How Jennifer shed 30 pounds!" "Jennifer's amazing diet program that can help you too!" The headlines were perplexing to me. I didn't realize she was overweight.

This week I saw Ms. Aniston again on the cover of a magazine at a news stand. This time the title was, "How thin is too thin?" The article's teaser said that the new trend in Hollywood is to be super-skinny, and that it may not be all that healthy. Interesting.

We hear talk all the time in the media and in our own social circles about the ills of Hollywood's idea of beauty. You know - the super-tall, super-skinny, hollowed-out, morose looking waif.

Celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and company come out and say that we must reject the idea that skinny equals beautiful. It's the backlash you always hear: "big is beautiful" and "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Blah, blah, blah. And yet, isn't Oprah the one who is constantly, and publicly I might add, battling her weight? She even wrote a book on her new lifestyle that has kept her healthy, lifted her spirits, oh, and reduced her dress size by half! I don't mean to be picking on Oprah, but she's a pretty easy target.

Don't tell me that I don't have to be skinny to be beautiful and then turn around and make it your life's goal to get into a size 8 (or 6 or 4 or whatever the case may be).

The more I pondered this idea of Hollywood beauty, I began to see Hollywood hypocrisies everywhere! Physical beauty is just the tip of the iceberg!

Take for example, the environment. How many celebrities have you seen that advocate for a better environment? How many enviro fundraisers do they attend? How much enviro-propaganda do they support entering into our classrooms? And yet, how many own multiple automobiles? Which of them have happily mowed down forested areas to put up their palatial mountain getaway? These Hollywood-types would have millions upon millions of dollars taken from corporations out of compliance with environmental regulations and use the money to fund the government and its enviro-propaganda while all the time those same people are contributing to the problem through their own lifestyles.

Which brings me to another Hollywood hypocrisy: taxes. Many celebrities love to tout the so-called virtues of "democracy" (read socialism) by saying that we should fund social programs that feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, you name it. But I wonder how many of them hire the best tax attorney money can buy in order to find a way to pay as little in taxes as possible. I'll bet every last one of our beloved, socially conscious movie stars do just that. What happened to "tax the rich because they can afford it?" Where do they think the money for their beloved social programs comes from? Maybe they meant "tax the corporate rich." You know, the ones who make their money through evil, big business. After all, the Hollywood rich are just artists! Oh really?

Hollywood is one of the biggest industries in the country. It's so big, in fact, that this year in the Legislature it gathered the endorsements of such big-name stars as Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, and Barbara Streisand, as well as a myriad of others, for a bill that would give special tax status to industry laborers. They, effectively, set themselves apart from other taxpayers to pay less in taxes.

And another thing, for all the capitalist bashing Hollywood does, I wonder if they realize they would not be as successful without it. Capitalism makes an industry like Hollywood as rich as it is. Were we to socialize our country, as many entertainers advocate, whether they call it that or not, these "artists" would be no more than middle-class, state workers like the rest of us. And I don't think that's what they want. Kind of hard to afford that new Porsche and monthly spa day when 80% of your money is going to taxes. But hey! At least you could rest easy knowing that you and your housekeeper, Consuela, are now in the same tax bracket.

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