About a month ago, the scuttlebutt around the Motion Picture Home was that "'the champagne was on ice," as the saviors of motion picture industry long-term care were about to reveal themselves.
Our appetite for a solution had been whet by yet another promise that came on the heels of the dashed hopes of a Providence-UCLA partnership. This one a promise that held more promise than the previous promise. Once again the crack MPTF wordmongers were spinning hope into an emptiness that has become palpable and all too familiar.
Are we to understand that no news is no news, or that no news is bad news?
The residents have suffered through a lot. Those who remain in the all but
emptied long-term care facility go about their daily routines, blessedly unaware of
how those who control their industry has failed them. The COO, who is the co-architect of the planned dismantling has returned from an illness, ending the hiatus of hate and tainting the promise and hope for a future that promises a return to the credo of "we take care of our own."
That same COO, who recently gave a glowing testimonial to the ousted Dr. David Tillman in his new role as First Chief Medical Officer of Partners In Care, continues to have the support of his handlers and apologists. Tillman's outrageous salary and golden parachute took money from the mouths of our elderly and enabled a soft landing on another high-paying executive position. Fortunately for us, he's someone else's problem. Unfortunately for us, the imprimatur of his and COO Seth Ellis' final solution for long-term care has never been completely erased.
As a matter of fact, it lives on as more residents die.
Consider the paper tiger A-listers who came to play and in the end, succumbed to the ministrations and manipulations of the MPTF board. George Clooney had seemed at one point to be chomping at the bit to help. Unfortunately, the tug on his leash was urgent and firmer than the strength of his haunches. We heard no more from him as his voice submerged to a decibel level only heard by the millionaires and billionaires who populate the MPTF board. The same people who plot the course of the entertainment industry couldn't get it together to offer something stronger than a non-binding letter of intent, showing us that indeed, there was no provicence in Providence.
And now that the letter of intent is gone, we have only their word that they are "working on it."
Those who fought most vociferously and put their reputations and careers on the line were painted as "publicity hounds" and "people who you wouldn't want to be in the same room with." Those people who were mocked and vilified by the MPTF board won the battle for the future of long-term care, and they will win the war. Working actors and actresses did the heavy lifting as their more famous peers sidestepped the excrement of Darfur villages while being illuminated by news videographers and broadcast into your living room during prime time.
