The Age of Ageism

I responded strongly to the article on ageism in Hollywood, because when I worked in the business I immediately missed the men and women of graying temples to show me the way.

I mentioned this to Coleman Luck, producer of television’s “The Equalizer,” and he told me there was absolutely no mentoring in this business. “Leadership” and “long-term goals” are terms I’ve never heard outside of associations and blathering awards ceremonies.

In the business, I have met many 45-year-old men who act like children and women who scramble for power and tell a lot of lies. It is a community degraded by fear, because there is little job security.

The business is run by youngsters giddy with power and satisfied with a prime time of dumb jokes wrapped around minor emotional values. We take entertainment as a filler of time, a replacement for joy, a soundproof batting to fill the spaces where sorrow or suffering would clean the soul. Is this any wonder, coming from a group who’ve largely never fought a war or buried their children?

ANNE FARR BARTOL (age 30)

Los Angeles