Death, Taxes and 49 Hollywood Inevitabilities

This week, Hollywood’s greatest villain of all made his annual appearance — the taxman swooped in to take his cut of our ill-gotten gains.

For all the visionaries at work in this business (not to mention Hollywood’s legendary “creative” accounting), taxes are a foe we’ve never been able to vanquish — certainly not with the sort of zeal of other companies, including, infamously, Amazon. It’s all part of the great cycle in Hollywood, where the more things change, the more nothing ever changes. Projects are perfect . . . until the day they are irresponsible. Rising execs are infallible geniuses until the day we always knew what morons they were. And so the wheel turns.

What else is inevitable in Hollywood? Here, in honor of tax week, are a few features of the landscape that you’ll encounter along your journey. Many thanks to my expert consultants who weighed in for this roadmap:

Can’t afford The Ankler right now? If you’re an assistant, student, or getting your foot in the door, and want help navigating the craziness of this business but don’t have the money to spare, drop me a line at richard@theankler.com and we’ll work it out. No mogul or mogul-to-be left behind here at The Ankler.