Monday Musings

Just a couple thoughts that occurred to me over the weekend:

First of all, on the late night wars. Two things bother me, or rather two opinions bother me. One is the opinion that Conan O'Brien is a victim. Look, I've always liked Conan and I think he's pretty funny but let's be honest: the guy just got paid $33 million to NOT host a tv-show. Every day of my life, I've NOT hosted a tv show. Where's my check? I think that NBC and Leno pulling the plug on him was unfair, but he's been adequately compensated for it and then some. He's not a victim. The second opinion that annoys me is people responding to this story with "how can these celebrities get paid and companies throw around all this money when there are millions starving in the world" or some derivation of that. Entertainers and athletes are paid exorbitant amounts of money. Deal with it. They are paid that much because their is a market for their services, and that is the market rate. If you don't like it, I'm sure that Cuba and Venezuela would be glad to have you.

I was saddened to learn that apparently Dennis Hopper has late-stage terminal cancer and is facing his final days. Did I just have my head in the ground or has this just not been widely reported? Not like I'm the world's biggest Dennis Hopper fan but I've always enjoyed him and his work. I loved him in Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet, Hoosiers, True Romance, and, yes, even Speed and I think he qualifies as an American film icon. And not even the worst of human beings deserves the slow horrid death that cancer brings, so all I can wish for him is as little pain and as much peace as possible in his final days. It's times like these where I think that instead of the endless memorials and tributes that are going to be shown in his honor after he dies, wouldn't it be nice if we paid tribute to him now while he's still around to enjoy and be touched by them? That's something that's always seemed so backwards to me.

The other strange bend to this story is that he's apparently using his final days to file for divorce from his wife, supposedly to keep her from contesting his will. That just seems like some misguided priorities to me. You find out that you've got a month or so to live and rather than trying to cope and be at peace with it and learning to detach and disassociate yourself from materiality and things that will no longer be of concern to you shortly your thoughts turn instead to "Bitch ain't gettin my money!" And his wife, for her part, is certainly not doing much to elicit sympathy. Under their pre-nup, she is still entitled to one quarter of his estate even if they're divorced. So does she say "I don't care about the rest of the money; let's not spend the rest of our time together fighting." Nope. She's supposedly "barricaded herself into their house" while he's been at the hospital. Classy. And they have a 6-year-old child together (Galen). So always remember Galen: even (and, apparently, especially) in the face of death, money is always the most important thing.