For over six months — once the families of the residents received that fateful letter from the MPTF — we’ve been fighting tooth and nail to keep the long term care center of the Motion Picture Home open, and to elicit support from the entertainment community.
We’ve written letters, we’ve attempted contact with Jeffrey Katzenberg, we’ve rallied, we’ve petitioned, we’ve prostrated ourselves at the feet of the unions for support. However convincing our mission is to those that will listen, the process of gaining support is slow. With the exception of SAG, whose involvement and support grows stronger every day, we’ve failed miserably in getting IATSE and the other trade unions and guilds to stand with us.
I’m not a member of SAG, but I carry their flag and consider them brothers and sisters-in-arms.
It’s like this: You didn’t have to be black to march on Selma. You didn’t have to be Latino to support the rights of farm workers. You don’t have to be gay to enjoy Coldplay. Okay, maybe that’s a reach. The point is, even if you’re not a member of SAG, we need your support as we turn up the heat, no matter what your affiliation.
Our efforts to get the support of A-listers has fallen flat, despite the heroic efforts of our SAG supporters. We’ve assured those contacted that their help will not de-mystify their stature as a star and a demi-god in the land of make believe. In fact, their help could only increase their street cred.
Cease genuflecting to the likes of Katzenberg and Spielberg! They are not your fathers who you have sought validation and approval from for all these years! Try to remember your roots and the lessons you’ve learned at your parent’s knees without the misgivings that years of therapy has obfuscated. You’re a good person! There’s nothing wrong with you! Standing up for the motion picture and television workers who built the industry that you pillage with your smile and percentage of the gross will be liberating! Being credited with saving the continuum of care and the future of motion picture and television health care will fill the pages of People and OK magazine with positive press that will obscure news of infidelity and cellulite.
Liposuction of the soul will be yours, just step up and stand with us.
This is not to denigrate the amazing support and compassion that some actors have already shown the residents. These brave and talented souls have toured the Motion Picture Home in the face of threats and heightened security. The beaming faces of residents and caregivers have been the light that guide us through the tortured halls as we usher concerned SAG members on a zig-zag course that efforts to avoid the hired stooges who urge them to “move on.”
Imagine … denying access and egress to those that pay their wages with their dues and donations. I can tell you that more than a few of our SAG friends have been royally pissed off — and these are people who are much better friends than enemies.
It’s time to unleash hell.
Unlike John Lennon, whose “Revolution” lyric went: "But when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out … in." His vacillation on endorsing violence as a solution doesn’t sit well with this old hippie.
I choose the hell that is the courtroom, and like the characters painted in Dante’s Inferno, the tortured writhing bodies of the MPTF executive staff and board of directors will smoke and sputter as they are vilified in a public forum. How will they explain away the statistics of those residents who have died after the announcement, and after being transferred out of the facility?
Will they take the Fifth, or down a fifth after being presented with evidence of transfer trauma? What is the penalty for assassinating the continuum of care that was the hallmark of the Motion Picture Home?
Who will hang. Who will walk?
Please hang with us for a drink and some conversation this Wednesday evening
at 6 p.m., July 15, as we discuss the Motion Picture Home problem and
confront some of those that have brought motion-picture industry health care
to its knees. We’ll be at the Mondrian Hotel, 8440 Sunset Blvd., in West
Hollywood. Look for us at or near the Skybar.
Please confirm your intentions to join us by contacting me at
richard@richardstellar.com. I might have news updates that may interest you
and affect our evening.
Stay tuned, and please join us at www.savingthelivesofourown.org.
