NBC Promotes Class Envy in... Hollywood?

The media usually leaves Hollywood out of the class warfare it engenders, but NBC's Michael Okwu found a sore spot among union members angry at Hollywood hot shots like George Clooney: Top dollar celebrities pulling down millions to voice over commercial spots.

“Let’s put it this way, there are some people that are making a million dollars an hour,” announcer Tom Kane griped. Okwu told viewers Kane is paid “a lot less.”

“Just go make your movies. Let us do our commercials and no one gets hurt,” Kane told Okwu.

But Kane is far more successful than the average union dues-paying announcer and he himself has starred in a few animated movies.

A look at Kane’s professional Web site and his profile at the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), tell of a career voicing over television shows, video games, and trailers to movies such as “Booty Call,” “Ice Age 2,” and “Jimmy Neutron.”

And despite Kane’s gripe about actors staying out of his profession, the announcer for the 2006 Oscars has himself taken a stab at acting, from various cartoons on children’s television to at least two major animated movies: 2002’s “The Powerpuff Girls” and in 1998’s “The Wild Thornberrys.”

For my full article, go to BusinessandMedia.org.