I drive a Rolls Royce 'cause it's good for my voice
The Mercury News chimes in on that up-and-coming idea: "Silicon Valley is taking over Hollywood." Nevermind, for the moment, that it isn't. Pay attention to this excerpt, 'cause there's a quiz after.
When he's in the Bay Area, Tom McInerney, the 33-year-old co-founder of San Francisco online video site Guba, zips around in his "low-end" 325i BMW, the 2003 version. In Hollywood, he powers up a Porsche 911, the 40th anniversary model. His home in San Francisco is a Victorian. His L.A. digs are a bit splashier: a Beverly Hills penthouse perched across the street from the William Morris Agency.
McInerney is angling to cut deals with the Hollywood suits and become an online distributor of their video.
"Looks matter here," said McInerney.
I was serious about the quiz.
1. Fancy Tom McInerney and his PR people got Guba into the press 67 times in the last two months, according to LexisNexis. Competitor YouTube got 853 mentions in the same time frame. Which looks hotter to a Hollywood suit?
1b. Is it a bad sign that only a half-dozen of the "Guba" citations are actually about McInerney's company?
2. What's the lease like on a Porsche 911?
3. Which is a surer sign that an article about tech and Hollywood is headed downhill: Quoting Tony Perkins, or the word "rooftop" dangerously close to the word "party"?
4. The article also says: "A valley VC held forth on the new, new convergence — the sudden collision of those who work to change the world and those who just want to entertain it." In an essay with a topic sentence, supporting examples, and conclusion, describe the pros and cons of beating the shit out of this VC.
