Media Executives Nervous About Exposing Their Packages
The faceless multimedia conglomerates behind your favorite movie factories are on edge about an SEC proposal that would require that they disclose the staggering amount of money that they pay out to to their stars and studio heads, as they prefer to keep shareholders blissfully ignorant of, say, how many millions Viacom will really hand over to Tom Cruise to save Paramount's summer with M:i:III. Variety details other reasons why the studios don't want their paychecks on the record:
There are dozens of comments posted on the SEC Web site, including one from DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. He feels disclosing the richest packages would "cause significant morale issues."
"It is inevitable that some employees will take issue with their respective rankings," he wrote, "and create unnecessary and counterproductive strife with their fellow employees and the company."
Still don't see what the big deal is? While the entertainment industry is really nothing more than one big dick-measuring contest, no one wants the government coming in, lining everyone up at the table, and forcing them to plop down their packages in public, revealing who's really packing the inches and who's been getting by on well-played bluffs for years.