Michael Douglas … How Kirk Must Be Ashamed of You!

Michael Douglas has had such an illustrious career in the entertainment business. It’s like I grew up with him. "Streets of San Francisco," the producer of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" — hell, Gordon Gekko, playing opposite Glenn Close and Demi Moore in those hawt films.

 

"Falling Down" — fantastic! "An American President" (my wife loves this — a bit too much of a chick flick for my tastes), but then comes "Traffic" — freaking awesome!

 

What an inspired, consummate actor that defines the characters he plays and creates timeless cinematic art. I congratulate him on receiving the AFI Award this week.

Like his father Kirk, another great inspiration — an American icon. It’s obvious that the apple has not fallen far from the tree. Unfortunately, the polish on the apple is dulled and there seems to be rot threatening what is underneath the peel.

Michael Douglas, how painful it is to lump you into the group that is evicting my mother and her fellow residents from the Motion Picture and Television Fund Long Term Care facility. How ashamed Kirk must be that you are not championing the rights of motion picture and television workers whose home and health care is being ripped out from underneath them like Gekko’s hedge funds.

 

How can you not see down the road on where this is going? How ignorant are you about the fate of Harry’s Haven — the wonderful clinic for Alzheimer patients that will be the next to go in the purge to create a ‘successful aging’ paradigm at the Motion Picture Home.

"Successful aging," if you didn’t know, is a term coined by MPTF COO Seth Ellis to describe MPTF’S new stance on elder healthcare: "we want this campus to be a place for elders to live their best lives, not a place that looks at sickness but at the key ingredients of successful aging."

I guess your father Kirk is not "successfully aging." Don’t feel bad — neither is my mom who once worked with your father. Neither is the nearly 100 (yeah, some have died recently after being transferred by your lackies) who are receiving the best care in the country from your marvelous MPTF health-care workers.

But I digress. See it for yourself.

When the lawyers take over, and this becomes a bigger mess than anyone ever hoped for, how will you explain your statement that "Everyone will be happy" when asked at your press suite in the Beverly Hills Hotel? Will you then return Jeffrey Katzenberg’s phone calls when you realize that your name is being dragged through the blood and mud that stagnates around the recent deaths of the elderly who had been moved?

 

Will you hear the sobs of despair of those who are going to be, or have been transferred against their or their family’s will to facilities that in no way meet the promise you made to them when they were admitted to the MPTF?

If I asked you to read a script called "Transfer Trauma," will you recognize the handsome, successful health center board member / actor who was unaware of the real reasons behind the closure of his beloved facility?

Would you cringe at the pain and suffering of the old people who slowly die, their minds addled with confusion and despair as to why they are being forced to leave their homes? Would you be able to smell the piss and decay in the hallways of the facilities that they end up in? The ones that your character recommends in mailings to their families?

The script is very descriptive of that, and there’s not much dialog.

The dialog between the board members and the families are virtually non-existent, so don’t worry about memorizing a lot of lines. Your character is practically mute. In this modern day American tragedy, your character fumes and festers over what is going on, and in the end, speaks out too late. I’m not going to spoil the ending if I tell you that your character’s legacy is one of elder abuse, eclipsing what should be a legacy of brilliant acting and charitable giving.

That’s the tragedy — a fallen hero whose life is shadowed by a mistake in judgement, and eclipsed by a moral dilemma.

As you accept your AFI Life Achievement Award, please know that this fan thinks that nobody else is as deserving of it. If Michael Douglas is on the marquee — I’m there. I’m not just saying that, it’s true. I’m a huge fan and have been for years.

Please stand with the families of the elderly and infirm under your care. Please renounce the evictions and work with us to find a way to keep the LTC open and thriving as it has been. Please look into the financial smokescreen and the "successful aging" nonsense that is being evangelized by MPTF executives.

You don’t need this in your life. We need you in our lives. Please reach out to us and help us. You know how to contact me.

 

Comments