The Retaking of Hollywood

The Kimmel Suspension and the Return of the Studio System

There’s something comical about the liberal elite crying out for a Disney boycott. This week, late night host Jimmy Kimmel was placed on indefinite leave after his on-air remarks about the murder of Charlie Kirk. Both factually inaccurate and cruel, Kimmel’s remarks were part of a wave of on-camera expressions of glee at the news of a young conservative father’s murder.

Shockingly, ABC yanked his show off the air, sending a chill through Hollywood. I say shockingly because the entire entertainment industry has had carte blanch to spew hatred at half the country, their paying customers, without reprisal for years now.

Five years ago, Conservatives called a boycott of their own after Star Wars actor Gina Carano was fired for tweeting about conservative vilification (using a Holocaust analogy)—a boycott that was met with sneering disinterest from actors and other Hollywood elite.

“May Trump supporters ... never know peace.” - Rachel Zegler (Snow White)

“I don’t hate Donald. I hate you for voting for him, for not having intelligence. For not being able to see what’s going on with the coronavirus, for not being able to see what the Justice Department is doing. I hate you. I don’t want you here." - Howard Stern

“…three years ago, I was equally liked by Republicans and Democrats, and then Republican numbers went way down, like, 30% or whatever… as a talk-show host, that’s not ideal, but I would do it again in a heartbeat… Well, not good riddance, but riddance." - Jimmy Kimmel

They didn’t care about the silent majority because they didn’t have to. Or at least they thought they didn’t. But now with Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension and the rash of private citizens being fired for celebrating Kirk’s death, the message has clearly been sent.

The money men are back in charge.

This is Hollywood's admission that its decade-long experiment with stakeholder capitalism has failed, and the industry is scrambling to rebuild the bridge it burned with mainstream America.

Stakeholder Theory - A Middle Finger to America

For years, Hollywood operated under the delusional premise made famous by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink: companies didn’t need to prioritize their customers above all else. Instead, they should serve their "stakeholders"—employees, communities, social causes, and yes, somewhere in that mix, the people who actually buy tickets and subscriptions. Fink insisted that "stakeholder capitalism is not about politics. It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not 'woke.' It is capitalism, driven by mutually beneficial relationships."

This gave entertainment executives cover to produce content that pleased coastal sensibilities while dismissing declining viewership as a temporary adjustment period. They believed, as Fink argued, that companies embracing this model would "enjoy greater long-term prosperity, as will investors, workers, and society as a whole."

They thought they could “love us in the right direction,” as Andrew Garfield said to Rachel Zegler. They thought if they just beat us over the head with their gay race communism long enough, that we would come to our senses and enjoy the slop. And pay good money for it too.

They were wrong.

Entertainment is a fundamentally populist enterprise that lives or dies by its ability to connect with audiences. The old Hollywood studio owners knew this, and that was before the internet. You can't force-feed values to viewers who have infinite alternatives at their fingertips, which the modern consumer does.

The Charlie Kirk Moment

The murder of Charlie Kirk laid bare many truths about this country and the people living in it. For those of us active on Twitter, we watched that man die in 4K. It was horrible, paradigm shifting. And Kimmel and his ilk didn’t understand. Maybe they still don’t.

The industry that provides them cover to be as nasty as they want to be suddenly realized that its assumed cultural authority had evaporated. Hollywood is a business, yes. But more than that, it’s a power center, a place to ascend beyond normal society. Or at least it was. The men in suits, I think, finally realize that it isn’t true anymore. And the fallout from Kirk’s murder presents an opportunity for them to regain their position.

The Return to Old Hollywood

If I can play fortune teller for a bit, I think we’ll soon witness a correction—a full-scale retreat to the controlled, managed entertainment ecosystem that existed before the cultural revolution of the 1960s. The Coen Brothers' "Hail, Caesar!" depicted a Hollywood where studios exercised total control over their stars' images, where morality clauses were standard, and where entertainment was carefully calibrated to avoid controversy. That film, a hilarious satire, now looks prophetic.

We're already seeing the early signs of this transformation. Studios are implementing stricter social media policies for talent, thanks largely to Rachel Zegler’s nonsense. The same executives who championed "authentic voices" and "challenging narratives" are now desperately searching for the next "Yellowstone"—traditional, archetypal American storytelling that draws massive audiences across political lines.

This shift will also extend to the very structure of celebrity itself. In the age of the cell phone, there simply can’t be the level of image control there was in the 1940s, but I think the word has gone out: “Alienate the audience, and you’ll never work in this town again!”

The freewheeling, anything-goes atmosphere of peak social media is being replaced by calculated image management.

According to “Sinners” actor [Michael B.] Jordan, [Denzel] Washington imparted wisdom about how to navigate fame in the social media era. Washington advised Jordan to stay offline as a way to entice audiences to go to theaters, telling Jordan, “Why would they pay to see you on a weekend if they see you all week for free?”

The Art That Shapes Us

The ultimate irony is that Hollywood's attempt to shape society through stakeholder capitalism forgot the fundamental truth about entertainment's power: art influences culture through compelling, emotive storytelling, through characters who make us think we can be better, do better, and be remembered when we’re gone.

The greatest films and shows in history didn't tell audiences what to think—they reflected their experiences, fears, and aspirations back to them in ways that created genuine emotional resonance.

When Frank Capra made "It's a Wonderful Life," he wasn't trying to score political points. He was telling a story about human dignity and community that resonated across political lines. When "The Twilight Zone" tackled social issues, it did so through allegory and imagination, not heavy-handed messaging. The entertainment that truly shapes society does so by bringing people together, not by dividing them. Diversity of creed, of values, is, in fact, not our strength.

Old Hollywood asked important questions of every picture. “Will this make money?” is of course the primary one. But they also asked, “Is this good for the audience?” and “Is this good for the country?” They understood their role. Yes, they were probably rich assholes who thought they were better than all the “little people” who bought tickets to the picture show. But they also knew they had a responsibility to those little people, an important one. They weren’t paid all that money because it was owed to them. They were paid the money because of the weight of their responsibility.

New Hollywood needed a little reminder of that. And they got one. Though I think we can all agree it took a lot longer than it should have.

Hollywood's great stakeholder capitalism experiment is over. The industry that thought it could reshape American values while ignoring American audiences has learned that in entertainment, power ultimately flows from the people. The question now isn't whether Hollywood will change—it already has. The question is whether audiences will trust it enough to come back.

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