Hollywoodization of Doing Good: It's Starting to Sound Cliche
Remember, when everyone with a pulse seemed to have a book deal, from Monica Lewinsky to Charles Barkley--what a contrast. Well, today it is not enough to have a book deal, but have your own foundation. Better yet, your own social cause or 501(c)(3) to channel resources and thus hide from the feds. Good call from a tax planning perspective.
However, we have a problem, and it's an unfortunate one. We are becoming saturated with celebrities who are on the social cause bandwagon. So, what does one do when you are "in between" films, and you just bankrolled AFTER taxes $8 million dollars and you're 22 years old? You go to Africa and become enlightened of course. You get some cool pics of yourself with famine striken families or people with other maladies and on the plane back, you call your friends and talk about "doing something".
So, if you're trying to raise $1 million to help prevent malaria, and in the heat of the moment, you challenge other wealthy executives and the like to match your $10,000 pledge, only to find out later, after the hang-over of course, that few people honored their pledges, what do you do? That was a long sentence, I know.
So, is anyone for real? Of course they are, but after reading the associated link I Included, please post back and share your thoughts. We can discuss some more.
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