A Changing Dream Machine And The Shrinking Of Hollywood
John Ink2Quill
www.ink2quill.com

Hollywood is still an industry rife with scandals and outrageous behavior. Some of the public’s outrage is very justified because the corruption is real. Think of the Harvey Weinstein scandals, Bill Cosby scandals, Amber Heard scandals, the Asia Argento scandals and now … drumroll please. And now, the Blake Lively/ Ryan Reynolds scandal.

That is the latest scandal that has invaded the established media and is plastered all over our screens. But, this is a new kind of scandal. It’s a different form of corruption. This is a scandal about the usurping of a person’s film project in the hopes of someone, notably Blake Lively, positioning themselves closer to winning an Oscar Award. Yes. This is the story of Blake Lively trying to force herself in the pipeline to win an Oscar and it backfired horribly. This scandal involves bad behavior of all kinds. So, you have false accusations of all types, notably false sexual harassment allegations, sabotaging the film project you are currently working on and the threat of sabotaging the film you are currently working on if your ideas are not done. How many of us have gone to our bosses at work, no matter what our jobs, and told our bosses we were taking over and if they had any objections you would walk off and leave the business devastated behind you. Yes. That is the summit of crazy.

So, this new scandal is a scandal of project theft, as well as the worst kinds of slander inflicted on a person. As if the sexual crimes of Hollywood’s’ past powerful people was not shocking enough. Now, I’ve known that project theft in Hollywood is a fairly common occurrence but this case really gives us a blueprint, it’s the anatomy, of a nearly successful project theft. You have the notorious Blake Lively and her now infamous husband Ryan Reynolds laying the foundation with false accusations and bullying behavior. You have bogus law suits with false claims. And also you have support blackmail where Blake and Ryan tried to yank control of the project using contract stipulations of the false claims she made. If this were a mini-series it would have us glued in our seats.

I just hope the artform prevails because although I have not read the book the topics of domestic violence, relationship violence, dysfunctional people and their relationships are very serious themes that need to be addressed for everyone, even those of us that are not in that world. It’s a learning moment for many of us. I think that the offended party in all of this, Justin Baldoni, is a good person to bring this message to the screen. I also hope he gets his day in court after what they did to him.

The point of all of this and you could say the irony in all of this is the fact that Hollywood stardom is no longer such a great and awe inspiring thing. The famous people today are internet influencers. They continue to replace Hollywood stars as people who grab our attention. The Oscars are much less a big deal than they were 20-30 years ago. Living in New York every once and a while I’ll have someone come up to me and ask me if I’m an influencer, and that makes me laugh. Walking down the streets of most major cities I’ll see people making content for their Instagram, Youtube or other such channels. It’s always a quick dance with shaky camera angles but the goal is all the same, to make that video or clip that will go viral.

So, where will all these older Hollywood stars with the swollen heads go? These people that cannot accept the fact that they are no longer the center of our attentions when they step into a room. That means no more free burritos or coffee for them when they step into a restaurant. Nobody will ask to take a picture with them etc. How will they handle that? How will their therapists advise them on their new place in life?

I don’t know what else to say except to just keep the good stories and content coming. Let the artists be, to do their crafts and participate in society the way they do. We love them for it. And keep the bad behaviors away from that industry and all others.

John Ink2Quill

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