Nothing like buying an ancient Hollywood mansion from David Geffen and giving $10 billion to environmental charities to let the town know that the Lord of Amazon is here to stay.
What is odd is that under normal circumstances, Hollywood is not immune to the charms of the insanely wealthy. Look at how moguldom lined up to kiss the ring of the Saudi Crown prince or pay their respects to the potentates from the People’s Republic when they came through a couple years back.
Under normal circumstances, the richest man in the world buying his fourth house in BH would create a traffic nuisance of producers lining up to tell him about this project that he can be all his, or poohbahs who’ve got a little studio to sell him. The gossip circuits would be filled with tales of who he was seen nodding to across the room; crumbs of wisdom that fell from his lips after hours at Stately Bezos Manor.
But somehow, the richest man in the world, the inventor of the greatest disruptive force to civilization since the bubonic plague, putting down roots here has failed to capture the imagination of the town. And it comes down to: He wants us too bad.
Hollywood likes its potentates shadowy and remote like Bond villains, not yukking it up in the foyer at the Golden Globes and certainly not showing up at every awards show whether they have a major nominee or not so that they can be mocked from the podium. Letting it be known that you are turning your new estate, the Geffen/Warner Manse, into your “party house” reeks of just about 20 times too much desperation to be liked by this community.
After seeing himself mocked front and center at the Oscars, making the largest contribution to environmental causes in history means that he didn’t like that experience and wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Or perhaps he liked it a lot and wants to make sure it never stops, that he never falls out of the front and center of Hollywood consciousness.
The fact that Bezos has been running a company that has been fecklessly dipping its toe into entertainment for a few years now, without a mega-hit to show for it and several repositions later doesn’t exactly inspire awe. Hollywood trembles in reverence before the shadowy and powerful who silently manipulate the puppet strings of the world. But rich people who come here with money to spend are what is known as “marks,” and Hollywood has very good systems in place for helping make them feel comfortable. We just saw what the real purpose of the awards season is: to make Mr. Bezos and Mr. Sarandos go blind at the sight of so much glamour and reach to write yet another check.
So what if Amazon could buy every studio 50 times over? Go ahead and do it! All the better to get you committed to funding some overhead and housekeeping even quicker.
What is the implication of all this for Amazon though? Well, he’s not buying a fourth party mansion so that he can sit on the sidelines and watch Ted Sarandos get all the glory. (Or Neon). The billion dollar Hobbit project is just the beginning.
Another way to look at the Great Streaming War is as an open call for every mogul in the world who ever saw themselves accepting and Oscar to come and get it. The field is wide open and we do accept personal checks.
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