The Circle of Life? Not at the MPTF
April, 06, 2010 12:09 pm | Comments On #MPTFThe circle of life can take on many guises. To me, it's a lot more than a song from "The Lion King." It is nature's gyre of replenishment. It is the natural order of the universe where energy displaced is energy replaced.
When that energy is not recovered, there is a void whose emptiness challenges nature itself, and upsets our own equilibriums.
MPTF, Not Us, Is Turning Passover Into a Political Football
March, 26, 2010 6:03 pm | Comments On #Bob Beitcher, Motion Picture and Television Fund, MPTF, passover, Richard Stellar, SederThanks, Wrap, but your article on the abandonment of the Motion Picture & Television Fund's nursing home's seder only scratches the surface on what is really going on.
Denying the nursing home residents, of whom there are only 57 left, easy access to the local seder that they are accustomed to is tantamount to denial of their right to worship.
This has come as no surprise to me, as Bob Beitcher's regime continues to fuel the demise of the long-term care facility and foster an environment that disregards patient rights, turns a deaf ear to quality of care, and seemingly encourages HIPAA violations.
Beitcher's statement, "There's nothing like taking a holy Jewish holiday and turning it into a political football, and I congratulate [the families] on doing that," is nothing short of ludicrous, as it was his intention that this be a political...
Read MoreThe Trickle-Down Theory of Uncaring at the MPTF
March, 18, 2010 2:10 pm | Comments On #Motion Picture and Television Fund, MPTFLife is punctuated by random occurrences that to others might seem insignificant, but to you will forever leave its imprint on your memory.
Mr. Spielberg, You Have a Lot to Answer For
March, 15, 2010 1:05 pm | Comments On #hollywood sign, Motion Picture & Television Fund Home, MPTF, Richard Stellar, Steven Spielberg, The PacificThis has been a fascinating week in the news. We are up in arms that people are savoring the lofty fragrance and forbidden taste of whale flesh in a popular sushi restaurant. We have joined together publicly in our outrage and have mobilized as if our very shores were being invaded by countless communists, to save some wood that spells out HOLLYWOOD.
We live vicariously through articles detailing Steven Spielberg's $30 million annual cut from Universal Studios' theme parks and his much anticipated HBO miniseries "The Pacific," where the story of bravery and liberation is told as only Spielberg can tell it. A sure money-maker.
Surely, there's a lot to get excited over.
Nobody can tell a war story like Spielberg. Add co-executive producer Tom...
Read MoreWet Rally to Save a Sinking Ship
March, 08, 2010 10:49 am | Comments On #MPTFThere is a play called "Tuesdays With Morrie" that follows the relationship between a young Brandeis University graduate, Mitch, and his favorite professor, Morrie Schwartz. Upon graduation, he promises Morrie that he will keep in touch, although he fails to fulfill that promise as he attempts to chase an empty life of celebrity.
Years later, Mitch rediscovers Morrie -- aged and riddled with ALS. Although Morrie's body had betrayed his passion for dancing, Mitch found that the wisdom and life lessons that Morrie could still bestow on him were a spiritual salve that helped heal the damaged life that Mitch had endured.
On Saturday evening, March 6, the rain soaked streets of Beverly Hills were awash with supporters who recognize the importance of...
We Will Not Let the Promise Be Broken
March, 02, 2010 11:15 am | Comments On #Motion Picture Home, MPTF, Richard StellarWe take from our life experiences certain things that create meaning, and provide a simple answer when we search for some type of cosmic understanding of life's problems.
This weekend I lost my dog Dustin. He was an old Golden Retriever that weathered being run over, losing his leg, and putting up with the vagaries of old age that would stymie even the most steadfast of dogs. In Dustin's later years, his personality bloomed. If you would come over to my house for a visit, Dustin would take a pillow off of one of the beds and bring it to you. You didn't have to ask him, he would know that you were a friend and he would want you to be comfortable.
He loved Egg McMuffins and belly rubs. When he was able he would get on the couch next to you, put a big hairy arm with those huge puppy paws on your shoulder, and rest his...
Read MoreRallying the Troops Around the MPTF
February, 17, 2010 1:15 pm | Comments On #MPTF, Richard StellarThe terse "We f---ed up" from Bob Beitcher, newly appointed CEO of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, was not as much an admission of guilt as a clue to the mindset that is running the malt shop they refer to as the Motion Picture Home.
To encapsulate the missteps, fallacies, shoddy treatment of residents, mismanagement, hostility and cover-ups as a "f--k-up" is like Gene Hackman, as the evil Captain Ramsey, uttering "oops" when pressing the button that unleashes the nuke in "Crimson Tide."
Fortunately, the good guy, played by Denzel Washington, stepped in to stop Ramsey, who was hellbent on following a misguided directive.
We realize that it's only a movie. However, we could use Denzel about now to help us stop the detonation of the Long Term Care unit. The evil commandant is gone, but Seth Ellis, who is...
Read MoreMPTF: A New Spirit Invades a Crumbling Regime
February, 07, 2010 10:39 pm | Comments On #MPTF
One image that probably is most representative of the Hollywood spirit that will ultimately save the LTC unit and the future of motion picture and television ...MPTF: There's Nothing You Can Do That Can't Be Done
February, 02, 2010 10:35 pm | Comments On #David Tillman, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Motion Picture and Television Fund, MPTFOver a year ago the Hollywood machine that had Jeff Katzenberg at its helm tried to divert the course of motion picture and television health care. By choosing the most frail and handicapped to sacrifice at the altar of their misguided theology, their temple is toppling under the weight of public outrage.
In the Biblical sense, this is not so much a David and Goliath story, as it is the embodiment of the words in Psalm 71:9: "Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone."
Being a Jewish kid who grew up in the Valley, I had to spend the last 20 minutes researching on the internet to make sure I knew what I was talking about. Maybe a sentiment closer to my world would be a lyric from "All You Need Is Love":
"There's nothing you can do that can't be done"
While we savor this event the following...
Read MoreAn Industry of Rich People Should Rally to Help Its Poorest Members
January, 13, 2010 6:23 pm | Comments On #MPTF, Richard StellarIn a challenged fiscal environment, the entertainment industry -- specifically the movie industry -- is gorging itself on record profits.
In what alternate universe would you find a movie grossing $1 billion, just scant weeks after it opens, showing in neighborhoods where families pool their change to share a Happy Meal?
Something is not right.
Where else would you find journalists flocking for a glimpse of a bobbing young actor's head as he bails out of an Aspen jail after allegedly popping his wife, while they sidestep and maneuver around the effluence of those seeking bankruptcy protection at that same courthouse? That actor being the highest paid on television, and already back to work earning millions.
Something is amiss.
In what bygone era would there be an economic fiefdom that brings in $10 billion-plus in ticket sales for the past year, and...
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Description
Winner of the Los Angeles Press Club's Best Blog Award and a Southern California Journalism Award for his Hollyblogs, as well as an award for the Facebook group that helped to muscle the salvation of long-term care for the motion picture and television industry, Stellar's "vituperative blog on TheWrap'" (Vanity Fair) has caused great discomfort to those culpable in the aborted mission to deny long term and acute care to motion picture industry elderly.
Shifting the focus to psychoactive doping abuse in the elderly, Stellar continues to fight for the rights of the elderly while maintaining a strong and award-winning social networking presence. Stellar lives in Woodland Hills, a stone's throw from the Motion Picture Home with his wife of 27 years, two dogs and a 1965 Epiphone Casino.
