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Comment by ode | Hacker News Reader

> not a wealthy man by Hollywood standards

It’s funny, but as someone who’s worked in music production, when you say that what comes to my mind is that the vast majority of people in the entertainment industry are nowhere near as wealthy as David Lynch. “Hollywood standards” to me is several struggling actors sharing a flat.

It's like the Bill Murray quote though - I always want to say to people who want to be rich and famous: 'try being rich first'. See if that doesn't cover most of it.

The entertainment industry is filled with a lot of more-famous-than-rich people. By these numbers David Lynch (at 78) was probably as wealthy as 1000s of random (and anonymous) successful Mag7 SWEs are at retirement.

Lots of people who are paid well are not at all wealthy, because they spend nearly all their income, and sometimes forget to pay taxes.

See Will Smith.

I'm skeptical that entertainment industry workers are thousands of times more irresponsible that their peers in other industries. (Those who consume a lot of political media demonizing the "liberal Hollywood elite" may disagree.)

Care to speculate on how many struggling actors sharing flats are fallen celebrities?

The Will Smiths of Hollywood are a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction.

The phenomenon at play in “Hollywood standards” poorly reflecting the totality of the Hollywood population are winner-take-all income/attention distribution and cultivation of an illusion of opulence to satisfy audience demand — not licentiousness and depravity amongst entertainment industry personnel.

I have no idea how many there are. But there is an ESPN documentary, I forgot the title, about suddenly rich pro football players who quickly go bankrupt. They spend the money on parties, cars, lavish gifts, and suddenly the money is gone. Then they age or injure out of the game, and spend the rest of their lives in regretful poverty.

Why would suddenly famous actors be any more savvy?

See the documentary "Val" on Val Kilmer.

> Why would suddenly famous actors be any more savvy?

Despite what Hollywood would have you believe, Hollywood is not exclusively populated with rich and famous celebrities.

Somewhere there is a mere single-digit billionaire who feels poor next to the double-digit and triple-digit billionaires.

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