Bankers — the new prostitutes

In 1990, the movie Pretty Woman took the country by storm and turned Julia Roberts into a major star.  It was a “new age” Cinderella story, one that saw a prostitute, through her soulful innocence, redeem a corporate raider.  I was not charmed.  To me, corporate raiders are useful people, while prostitutes are very sad people.  Corporate raiders create wealth; prostitutes sell their bodies for money and, too often, dull the tremendous pain that goes with that sale by using drugs and alcohol.  If they’re really unlucky, they end up with an abusive pimp, a loathsome or deadly disease, or a john who beats or kills them.  It’s not a glamor job — and the problem with Pretty Woman was that it made a good case for the wholesomeness and potential profit of prostitution.  I hated the movie.

It turns out the Richard Gere also hated the movie . . . but not because it glamorizes a deadly and demoralizing profession.  He hated it because it glamorizes — wait for it — bankers:

The 62-year-old actor added to Australian magazine Woman’s Day magazine that he believes his character in the film even helped trigger the worldwide economic meltdown.

Speaking to Woman’s Day magazine, he said: ‘People ask me about that movie but I’ve forgotten it.

‘That was a silly romantic comedy.’

He also says the character he played in the movie, Edward Lewis, glorified brash Wall St financiers.

Gere added: ‘It made those guys seem dashing, which was wrong. Thankfully, today, we are all more sceptical [sic] of those guys.’

Please remind me why we buy movie tickets that fund these people.  Is our momentary entertainment really worth the cost of keeping these guys in the spotlight?