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The Sunday LAT chooses "middle class" actor Michael O'Neill as a representative of the throng of steadily-working-but-still-struggling thespians whose very existence is threatened by Hollywood's New Order of reality TV programming and escalating A-list salaries. While not having "The Conversation" with their families (about when to abandon their Tinseltown dreams), the middle class actor is given to concocting crazy scenarios in which the world's Tom Cruises magnanimously sacrifice part of their quotes to save their lower-paid brethren.

"I just keep thinking if some of these big stars would just say something," he says. "Like, 'How about I only get $24 million and you take the other $1 million and make sure the rest of the cast is getting their quotes.' "

He knows that talking about such things may well cost him opportunities, but O'Neill believes that the problem is not so much greed as ignorance.

Hmmm, let's think about this for a minute... Nope, it's greed. Maybe O'Neill should get his hopes more in line with the attainable, and start praying that Lindsay Lohan will drive her Porsche through his living room after a night unwinding from a hard day of filming.