WHO CONTROLS HOLLYWOOD?

A column in the LA Times from the funny Joel Stein:

I have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22% of Americans now believe "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," down from nearly 50% in 1964. The Anti-Defamation League, which released the poll results last month, sees in these numbers a victory against stereotyping. Actually, it just shows how dumb America has gotten. Jews totally run Hollywood.

How deeply Jewish is Hollywood? When the studio chiefs took out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago to demand that the Screen Actors Guild settle its contract, the open letter was signed by: News Corp. President Peter Chernin (Jewish), Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey (Jewish), Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger (Jewish), Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton (surprise, Dutch Jew), Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer (Jewish), CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves (so Jewish his great uncle was the first prime minister of Israel), MGM Chairman Harry Sloan (Jewish) and NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker (mega-Jewish). If either of the Weinstein brothers had signed, this group would have not only the power to shut down all film production but to form a minyan with enough Fiji water on hand to fill a mikvah.

The person they were yelling at in that ad was SAG President Alan Rosenberg (take a guess). The scathing rebuttal to the ad was written by entertainment super-agent Ari Emanuel (Jew with Israeli parents) on the Huffington Post, which is owned by Arianna Huffington (not Jewish and has never worked in Hollywood.)

The Jews are so dominant, I had to scour the trades to come up with six Gentiles in high positions at entertainment companies. When I called them to talk about their incredible advancement, five of them refused to talk to me, apparently out of fear of insulting Jews. The sixth, AMC President Charlie Collier, turned out to be Jewish.

As a proud Jew, I want America to know about our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood. Without us, you'd be flipping between "The 700 Club" and "Davey and Goliath" on TV all day.

So I've taken it upon myself to re-convince America that Jews run Hollywood by launching a public relations campaign, because that's what we do best. I'm weighing several slogans, including: "Hollywood: More Jewish than ever!"; "Hollywood: From the people who brought you the Bible"; and "Hollywood: If you enjoy TV and movies, then you probably like Jews after all."

I called ADL Chairman Abe Foxman, who was in Santiago, Chile, where, he told me to my dismay, he was not hunting Nazis. He dismissed my whole proposition, saying that the number of people who think Jews run Hollywood is still too high. The ADL poll, he pointed out, showed that 59% of Americans think Hollywood execs "do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans," and 43% think the entertainment industry is waging an organized campaign to "weaken the influence of religious values in this country."

That's a sinister canard, Foxman said. "It means they think Jews

meet at Canter's Deli on Friday mornings to decide what's best for the Jews." Foxman's argument made me rethink: I have to eat at Canter's more often.

"That's a very dangerous phrase, 'Jews control Hollywood.' What is true is that there are a lot of Jews in Hollywood," he said. Instead of "control," Foxman would prefer people say that many executives in the industry "happen to be Jewish," as in "all eight major film studios are run by men who happen to be Jewish."

But Foxman said he is proud of the accomplishments of American Jews. "I think Jews are disproportionately represented in the creative industry. They're disproportionate as lawyers and probably medicine here as well," he said. He argues that this does not mean that Jews make pro-Jewish movies any more than they do pro-Jewish surgery. Though other countries, I've noticed, aren't so big on circumcision.

I appreciate Foxman's concerns. And maybe my life spent in a New Jersey-New York/Bay Area-L.A. pro-Semitic cocoon has left me naive. But I don't care if Americans think we're running the news media, Hollywood, Wall Street or the government. I just care that we get to keep running them.

jstein@latimescolumnists.com

BRAIN FITNESS 2 SIGHT & SOUND

The second part of a series on how to keep your brain fit. The brain is connected to the visual and auditory system which it uses to take in information.

Five keys of independent aging -

1. Keep what you have.
2. Be socially active.
3. Maintain focus & attention.
4. Positive attitude & effort.
5. Don't accept decline as inevitable.

BICYCLE CASINO FREEROLL

I received a postcard from the Bike awhile back informing me of the $10,000 freeroll poker tournament. I thought, how cool, a free tournament to end the year! I wonder what it's all about? So I called the casino and asked what the tournament structure was. The poker room guy was too busy and simply said, freerolls generally start with a low chip count and the rounds are pretty fast.

I figured that you can't really go wrong with "free". As my friends already know, if it's free - it's me! I woke up a little late and started to figure out what time I should leave for the tournament. I decided to eat lunch early and left about 11:50am. The freeroll was due to start at 1pm. Since Bell Gardens isn't that far from Diamond Bar, I thought that would be plenty of time. I imagined that the line wouldn't be that long but I was in for a big surprise.

There was traffic on some parts of the freeways so I finally got to the Florence exit about five minutes to 1pm. When I drove into the casino, there was a line that made its way outside the casino and all along its side. It was long and there was no doubt in my mind that it was the line for the freeroll.

After parking, I made my way to the end of the line. The people around me were nice and talkative and we started talking about whether we would even make it into the tournament. Someone said that they'd been in these freerolls before and they normally cut off the registration at 2pm. He was right because around 1:30pm, a manager came out and announced that registration was indeed ending at 2pm and that he didn't think most of us at that point in the line would make it in. However, we were free to stay in line and take our chances.

Since we only had 30 minutes to wait and since we'd all driven there for the freeroll, we all decided to just wait it out and see what happens. When we finally got to the front of the line, it was 1:58pm and I thought to myself, it sure would make my day just to get in and play a hand. I'd been locked out of tournaments before and it's a miserable feeling knowing you drove all the way to the casino and you can't even play.

Sure enough, I got in and sat right down to my table. I had 1800 chips in front of me since I was the big blind right before I sat down. Before I knew it, our table was broken and we all made our way to the banquet room. That's when I found out there were 710 entrees. When I sat down, the guy I was waiting in line with was seated to my right. He went all-in with A5 of clubs and busted out. I wished him good luck and then we went on break.

I doubled-up with a pocket pair and got some chips to work with. I wasn't really thinking much about making the money at this point since there was still a big roomful of players. But when there were just 100 players left, everyone started to talk about it. That's when I started thinking, boy it sure would make my day to get in the money. 72 players would be awarded some money and 72nd would make $20.

20 bucks isn't much, but it sure beats getting nothing. So I played tight to get into the money and sure enough, I got in. 72 players meant eight tables so at this point, anything was possible. I doubled-up enough times with good hands to survive to the later rounds.

Before I knew it, there were just 27 players and the money started getting serious. I didn't worry about making more, but instead just concentrated to deciding whether I should move all-in with marginal hands. Then, the field got even smaller and people started talking about chopping the $10,000. If we split it evenly, everyone would get a few hundred dollars. A lot of people were for it, but it only needed one person to shoot down the deal. So we played on.

Then, I found myself on the final table and knew that I was guaranteed $300. I stayed out of trouble and waited for the shorter stacks to gamble their stacks away and ended up in 6th place with a very short stack. I decided to put it all-in with 84 under the gun rather than let the big blind wash me out. I didn't pair up and lost to a pair of fives.

After about six hours of play, I ended up with $500. I was on a natural high winning $500 when all I spent was my time and effort. I'd never won that much money before on any tournament I'd ever joined, and the best thing about it was that it was free!

I called some of my poker buddies to share the good news and celebrated the evening by playing more poker at J.D.'s. We played a few tourneys and it was nice to win another one with 27 players. Talk about a winning streak!

HEROES #3

When you're booked as union background on a tv show, it seems like everyone else is also union. I don't know if the crew knows this, but I don't think they really care. Anyway, when you know that everyone is union, it just feels like everyone is just a little more professional. But that might just be in my head.

I checked into the Sunset Gower Studios where I had worked on Dexter before. It was cool getting booked on Heroes again since it seems most people know what you're talking about when you tell them about the show.

I was hoping I would get to work at least three days a week as union and I'd been booked on this in between working on Couples Retreat. The first thing they asked was if anyone wasn't able to return on Monday. I think I was the only one who raise my hand. They didn't really care but they just wanted to know so that they didn't place me in a position that was really noticeable. That way, viewers wouldn't notice that I was missing all of a sudden in the later scene.

We were set inside what seemed like a bunker (later found out it was supposed to be inside a building). It was a long shoot, but I didn't mind since getting into double time meant $30 an hour. We got almost a full hour, but not quite. Still, working almost fourteen hours isn't easy no matter what you're doing. Sometimes, it's worse when you're doing less because boredom and standing around for long periods of time doesn't seem natural.

COUPLE'S RETREAT FITTING

The nice thing about fittings is that it's really easy. You go in with clean underwear, the costume makers get you to try the costume on and they make adjustments to it so you'll look like a star when it's time to roll.

The bad thing about fittings is that it takes up your entire day because you really can't do anything but that since you're required to go at a specific time. Additionally, driving all the way to a studio for a simple half-hour fitting seems like a waste of gas.

Nevertheless, I'm not one to argue since it's easy and since I know a lot of other people don't even have a job.

I knew the rehearsal hall in Universal Studios would be the one where holding normally is. What I didn't know was that the fitting was inside an unmarked room. So I walked around the hall for a bit and saw a PA that usually works on CSI NY. I asked her if she knew where the rehearsal hall was for Couple's Retreat and lo and behold, she was standing in it!

I was ready to get out of there after the fitting that I totally forgot to fill out everything on my voucher. It was embarrassing not being prepared. I felt like a rookie even though I've been doing this over a year now.