Evil & Good in Law & Entertainment

www.fanpop.com (Black Swan)

Since I was a child I have been fascinated with the full-length ballet "Swan Lake". I had the good fortune of having a mother that would take me to watch classical ballets in Portland, OR or San Francisco, CA. I witnessed The Royal Ballet from London, and The Bolshoi Ballet from Russia.
With the emblem arch-types of black & white, thus evil & good, my small child mind was riddled with symbolism for psychological metaphor.

The producer for the film "Black Swan", Fox Searchlight, is being sued by two former interns for violating minimum wage and overtime laws. Interns Glatt and Footman were seeking a jury trial in a suit where they were required to track purchase orders and personnel files. They was also gossip amongst the dance community about the use or misuse of the company dancers and stand-ins also.
(www.thewrap.com)

We are privy to another politically charged film, where there is a suit against "2016: Obama's America" Dinesh D'Souza, the documentary's star and director. Judge Kevin Enright wrote that "The applications before the court are vague, lack specificity, and do not seek to enjoin a particular act"...."The plaintiffs failed to make an adequate showing of irreparable harm to occur in such a way which cannot be later remedied". Apparently decisions about funding had been made in a manner that was not in line with the memory of the Sain Communications, Inc. or Rancho Esperanza, both entities felt entitled to rearrange how the money was being spent.(www.hollywoodreporter.com)

There has been some squabbling in California courts about Netflix in a Class Action Lawsuit. Netflix has had a practice titled "decoupling" which separates Entertainment Content Viewing History, be it television or movies a person may have watched. The issues include the protection of privacy, identity, and personal information through user control.(www.lawyersandsettlements.com)

In Sum: To me, the common thread of these three stories is the altered landscape of boundaries. In the dance world, there is such competition and willingness to perform on the stage, that often dancers are taken advantage of. Privacy concerns by customers are begin generated as each of us who use the Internet are inundated with companies and social websites beckoning and urging us to give us more and more personal information. The third boundary for me with serious consequences is that we now have a celebrity President. This is a manifestation of the need of government officials to look the part.
Unfortunately, we recently needed a Commander-In-Chief with military experience to make some difficult decisions that could have saved our Ambassador's life, and not a person who speaks well and rubs shoulders with television hosts, with priorities that included stardom but not citizen safety. As a product of the 50's-60's I well remember the McCarthy era, and to me, it is in reverse. People with traditional values are black-listed while celebrities without boundaries get the roles. Religious and faith-based persons who just say NO, are not often included in the crossover lifestyles witnessed and celebrated by most of today's public. I do not know a better place than the arts to express one's ideas, but I think so much of creativity can be sifted through a lens of political correctness, that creativity itself, has lost its innocence.