Grants to Billionaire's

[Steelhead]

davemarc (sorry about the capitalization error in the last post) dredges up
an old topic:
>I haven't read Steelhead's expose, but, as far as I can discern, what he
>writes here doesn't contradict anything I wrote previously.  I don't see
>anything wrong with Spielberg receiving any additional support for this
>very ambitious and long overdue project, which involves interviewing as
>many Holocaust survivors as possible--actually giving voice to the very
>same people so stubbornly ignored by Riefenstahl and so viciously demonized
>by Goebbels.  Spielberg's put plenty of his own time and money into the
>project, but even if it were entirely funded by others I'd still applaud
>him for spearheading it.  That other worthy projects may not "get" the
>million is far more the fault of government policies than it might be the
>responsibility of Spielberg.

Just a couple points here. First, if I recall, davemarc praised Spielberg
for the laudable--and highly publicized--decision to donate *all* of the
profits from SL (he said, I believe, that accepting director's fees or
profits from the film would be like taking "blood money") to the SHOAH
Project Foundation. This turned out to be an accurate quote. However, the
total budget of the SHOAH Project, according to its annual filing with the
IRS (a form called a 990-PF, for those of you interested in this branch of
the secret histories of the US), is projected at between $30 and $40
million. Schindler's List made more than $250 million in international box
office and video "sales." The movie cost less than $50 million to film,
advertise and distribute. That's a disparity of more than $150 million.

But there's more. In addition to the grant from the National Endowment for
the Humanities (which was awarded by Congress--through the good services of
Sen. Barbara Boxer, to whom Spielberg had shoveled more than $100,000 in
political contributions over the past 6 years--in a one of a kind deal,
after being rejected by the NEH staffers, who believed that the SHOAH
project was already more than well funded) of $1 million, the SHOAH
Foundation lists major contributions from many FORTUNE 500 companies,
including, ironically enough, some corporations with ties to the Nazi
regime, ie, Texaco, General Electric, and--gulp--Shell. Moreover, David
Geffen, Lew Wasserman, the Bronfman's (ie., Seagrams/MCA), Michael Ovitz
(lately departed from Disney), and Michael Eisner all kicked in more than
$500,000. EACH! It turns out that the profits from SL only accounted for
about $5 million of the SHOAH budget--this is less than 5 percent of
Spielberg's *annual* income. Now, I know the accounting methods for
Hollywood movies is--ahem--creative, but I'm curious...WHERE DID THE MONEY
GO? Switzerland? You know those Swiss bankers. They'll never tell. Look at
how long they've held on to that Nazi gold.

Steely