The Showbiz Bible

One of the perks in my job is that we subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter. Along with Variety, the Reporter is a major entertainment industry "trade" magazine that breaks news of every Hollywood deal, whether it's movie casting or media mergers. It's really cool to be able to get all the news about what's going down (and what's "in talks," meaning it's about to be going down). But what really kills me is all of the ads that various studios and agencies take out in the magazine. During Oscar season it was ridiculous: "For Your Consideration: Daniel Radcliffe for Best Actor in Harry Potter!" There were 30 ads like that every day for every conceivable candidate in every category. But even apart from the Oscar hoopla studios, agencies and management companies randomly take out sycophantic congratulatory ads for famous people. These are real examples of full page ads taken out in the Reporter:

"Universal Pictures proudly congratulates Morgan Freeman on receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame"
"FreeMantle Media congratulates Bob Barker for their much deserved seven Emmy nominations for The Price Is Right"
"William Morris Agency congratulates our 2003 Guild Award winners"

Everybody just relentlessly sucks up to everyone else. It's both sad and funny.