This post has been updated on March 31st 2020 to include links to new posts and edited for content.
Dear grasshopper,
How far do you want to chase this rabbit? I have to say, this topic really resonated with so many of you in the tribe. I think it’s because you can feel that something is going on too.
Look, I could go into 1001 different topics and not even scratch the surface of the secret inner workings of the Hollywood Elite.
However, trust that I’m only telling you what you need to know. I’m only sharing things that will give you an advantage, once you’re aware, and that will help your career.
Plus, some of this stuff is just too weird...Even for the internet! LOL
When you reach a certain level of success in the industry, you will be faced with a decision. Will you follow the crowd or march to the beat of your own drum?
There is a little known, dark secret that no one really talks about. If you are prone to paranoia this would be the time to fashion your tin foil hat…
Since the dawn of the modern Hollywood era, the most powerful people in the industry were members of secret societies.
Jack Warner, Walt Disney, Daryl Zanuck, and virtually every other major industry founder were members of secret societies. Though fierce competitors in the public eye, behind closed doors, they would collaborate and hold bilateral negotiations about which actors they would release or “lend” to each other, which projects one studio would pass on (to avoid bidding wars), etc.
The industry we know today was designed and decided upon in a rather conspicuous building on Wilshire Blvd. where all attendees swore an oath of secrecy. Sound strange?
It gets a lot stranger, but we’ll keep things career centric and factual instead of indulging in theory.
So, here’s why this is important to you. Though organized very differently today, these societies are still very active in the industry. They pull the strings as much today, as they did 60 years ago.
These groups are very idealistic, and you can use this to your advantage when reaching out to their members.
Look at it this way.
Think of your closest circle of friends. Do you mostly agree with each other on your worldviews or are their views opposite of yours? When you share someone else’s ideology, it acts as an ethereal calling card. You’re drawn to one another and instantly bonded.
It’s much easier to operate in the industry if you’re a member, but you certainly don’t have to be. You just have to know how to subtly speak the language, and know what’s going on inside the head of the person you’re reading for.
The purpose of these groups is to give the insiders an edge over everyone else. If you really start to dig through the lives of the actors and A list producers, directors, and executives, you will quickly see that they mostly come from similar places.
Though they play up the story of being from a small town in South Dakota, and risking it all to make it big in Hollywood, they generally leave out the genealogy that ties them to Wilshire Blvd in some way. Typically, there is a member of the family that was part of the industry and paved the way.
Don’t take my word for it though. Look into it for yourself.
Because the industry is like one big club that is very weary of newcomers, the ones that have truly climbed through ranks and made it to the top of this town had to get really creative at times.
See, there is a backdoor into the inner circle that is often ignored.
The true gatekeepers are not sitting in glass towers fielding phone calls and sorting mail. They wear five figure watches and shiny shoes to man the doors at industry hangouts. Party promoters hold the keys to the kingdom.
Think of anyone you need to meet in order to get ahead, and there’s a good chance you will find them in a promoters contact list. They handle the recreation for A listers and know their darkest secrets because it’s the promoters that arrange for them.
They can tell you who is going to be where, when they will be there, and even walk you over to the table and make an introduction.
The same is true of personal assistants. Actors tend to be creatives that do not thrive in roles where organization and attention to detail are required. However, there are a number of executives, managers, agents, and lawyers that started as “go-fors.”
You can read that two ways:
You decide to become an assistant and hope that you get lucky and hired by an A lister or a B lister on the rise
You infiltrate the network of assistants that make the A lister’s world function.
The second is pretty easy to do if you pay attention to your surroundings. For example, rumor has it that Michael Eisner took his coffee at 10:12 every morning. This means that at about 10 am, there was a lowly assistant headed to fetch it for him. Everyday like clockwork.
When you think about it, you are one phone call away from reaching just about anyone in the world. Are you going to pick up the phone and reach Clint Eastwood?
Not likely, but there’s only one person between you and him. The assistant has the power to patch through any call or deny any call. Let the implications of that sink in for a moment and start plotting what to do with that.
There are a lot of myths about this town, and there are just as many truths.
The stories of Hollywood “fixers” making people with damning information about actors disappear, are true.
Yes, motion pictures were an important part of Mafia money laundering in the 60s and that hasn’t completely gone away either. Scorsese and DiCaprio were recently caught in the middle of a scandal when the rights to The Wolf of Wall Street were caught in a web of shady business dealings that tied the financiers to the mob.
A previous version of this article included other truths that I’ve since removed, because they were either irrelevant or too out there.
In the myth category, you can find stuff crazier than you can imagine. Apparently, the idea that Johnny Depp and Jennifer Lawrence are time travelers is a very popular subject in some circles.
If that same crowd is to be believed, then John Travolta, Tom Cruise, and even Beyonce have been programmed by a secret government agency to brainwash the masses and carry out an evil agenda...
A lot of this has been fueled by strange events that are taking place all around this town. Things like spirit cooking rituals, and Sanctum being exposed have sent ripples through the industry.
Rather than speculating or indulging the theory, here’s what that means for you career.
There is an air of desperation everywhere. I’ve covered the evolution of the industry in previous releases. Here it is in a nutshell.
Old forms of media are dying or they’re already dead and on life support. The studios haven’t yet figured out how to make new mediums work and they are desperately trying to keep the status quo, instead of evolving with the times.
The modern studio system is rapidly declining, and their fate is almost certain.
What’s coming is unprecedented and it can either be the best opportunity you’ve ever imagined, or it can be worse than you ever thought it could be.
The studios have lost control of the media, propaganda, distribution, and most importantly they’ve lost the attention of the public.
Here’s where the opportunity lies for you. Most studios will fail and fold or be taken over by forward thinking companies.
Amazon launched Amazon studios recently, Netflix and Hulu did the same, and even YouTube is quietly rolling out its own production division. These are companies that have already figured out the new operational models and already have distribution in place.
They are the sleeping giants of tomorrow and it’s possible for you to get in on the ground floor of a new era. What’s great is that they are not controlled by the old Hollywood Cabal trying to preserve the status quo.
They are actually working to destroy the industry and build it anew. The way in is much easier than being invited to the Lodge.
Your ticket into the new industry that is rapidly taking shape is simply a platform. Here’s how you build it.
Some of you will look at what I’ve written and see it as a message of doom. It’s quite the opposite. The power is literally in your hands like never before. You have the opportunity to build a platform, independent of traditional media, in a way that gives you 100% control.
As a member of the tribe, you have access to the best way to get started.
Online media is eclipsing traditional media in every way. Something you won’t read about in Variety is that there is an exodus of talent taking place, as more producers are turning to places like Youtube to distribute their projects.
To put this into perspective, Buzzfeed gets about 10 million viewers a day.
That’s more than Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, The Late Late Show, Conan, and The Daily Show combined! These shows used to be a gold mine of attention for actors and celebrities.
Today it’s “alternative media” that is coveted. Still in its early stages, getting a foothold in this massive market, is relatively simple and I’ve covered that in depth in previous releases.
Without this, the climb is much harder than it has to be. So you can either leave your career in the hands of the self serving cabal, or start to take back control and look for a way into the evolving industry.
See you at the top,
Scott
P.S. I know that there is so much more that we could get into it and I got tons of emails asking if I was going to cover X, Y and Z. I wanted to keep this focused on the facts rather than theory and speculation, and I wanted it to be relevant to your career and give you solutions like the one here.