Real Estate & the "Miley Cyrus Factor"

"30 Under 30?"
How About "50 Over 50??"

The overwhelming question that arises from the 82nd Annual Academy Awards goes like this: what level of respect should we accord to an industry that finds a place onstage for Miley Cyrus, but not for Lauren Bacall?

Resplendent and omniscient, sat Ms. Bacall, long since blessed with a place among the gods, on the empyrean heights of movie history, yet consigned, for the purposes of Sunday night, with a lowly place in the stalls.

When her name was announced, she stood and waved, like the Queen, and was pleased to note that her subjects rose to pay appropriate homage; but she was forbidden, nonetheless, to mount the sacred stairs, where Miley had gone before.

--Anthony Lane, "The Anxiety of Age"; The New Yorker (3/8/10)

"Ageism" may be most pronounced in Hollywood, but it's also abundantly evident in other professions, too.

Like real estate.

To take just one example, Realtor magazine has an annual piece called "30 under 30," that features 30 up-and-coming Realtors nationally under the age of -- you guessed it -- 30 years old.

How about celebrating some of the more "mature" members of the profession?

Dear Realtor magazine -- here's a thought: how about an annual feature called "50 over 50?"

After you're done profiling me, you just need to find 49 more Realtors over 50 (I now make the cut by 3 months).

P.S.: At least in my opinion, it's easier to teach an "older" Realtor how to use Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, etc. than to impart judgement and experience to a "newbie" Realtor.

Oscars on Sunday Night: the REAL "Avatar" Revolution

"Avatar" and the Commoditization of Actors

Quick, name an actor from "Avatar," the world's highest grossing movie at $2.5 billion (so far).

With the exception of Sigourney Weaver, you probably can't.

While the movie reportedly cost $250 million to make (and another $150 million to market!), almost all of that went into technology, not actors' salaries:

Avatar's highest paid actor appears to have been Sigourney Weaver, though she almost certainly worked for a small fraction of the $11 million she was reported to have been paid for “Alien: Resurrection” in 1997. Zoë Saldana and Sam Worthington, meanwhile, got fees that were more than guild minimums but less than enough to make them feel financially secure.

--"For Movie Stars, the Big Money Is Now Deferred"; The New York Times (3/3/2010)

In fact, the (increasingly prevalent) technology used to make Avatar all but obscured the actors' identities.

And if you don't know who the actors are, they become (interchangeable) commodities.

Commodities, of course, are sold exclusively on the basis of price. Lowest price.

P.S.: Sigourney Weaver's real first name is Susan; she changed it as a teenager because she thought "Susan" was too plain. The Stanford sweatshirt she sports in "Avatar" is for real -- she graduated in 1971.