Transcript: The Scariest Word in Hollywood

Rob Long on the Bible, the surefire, public-domain IP everyone is afraid of

This is Rob Long with Martini Shot for The Ankler.

I have a friend who has an MBA from a very prestigious business school, but when confronted with things like a balance sheet, a profit and loss statement, or the basics of a stock offering, his eyes glaze over.

“My MBA,” he says, “just didn't take.”

Which is probably why he's in journalism, though the best and most lucrative place for a person to go who has an MBA that didn't take is the entertainment industry, which is filled with folks who on paper should know a lot about business, but when it comes right down to it, are less an MBA Master of Business Administration and more an MWT Master of Wishful Thinking.

It was't always like this. The first studio chief I ever met was a classic of the genre — he smoked cigars, barked at his secretary, and gave pretty much the same note on every project — “Where are the sex people?” he'd ask. "You need sexy people. This is TV. You know that, right?"