VanityFair.com ♥’s our protest pic!

I don’t know what I was more excited about a couple weeks back, the fact that the Motion Picture and Television Fund has reversed it’s decision to close their beleaguered hospital and retirement home in Woodland Hills, or the fact that VanityFair.com used my picture (from a 2009 protest rally we attended there, shown below) for their story about it.

Just kidding. I mean, sure, it was kinda cool to be asked by the editors of VanityFair.com to use my pic, but, come on, that doesn’t even compare to the real good news story of the week!

That’s right, amigos, after an epic, two-year battle by the teamsters, every major union in Hollywood, and most importantly, people like Nancy Biederman and her rocking “Saving the lives of our own” campaign, the MPTF finally came to their senses and found a way to save the home and do the right thing. Yee-haw!

And though I’m sure some changes lie ahead for the home and its occupants, the good news is that the facility will remain open to the very-deserving elderly members of the entertainment community for years to come.

I was out there recently for an appointment and let me tell ya, that campus is plush, yo. Really a gorgeous place to grow old. So, here’s hoping the facility stays solvent till I need it too!

To read the full VanityFair.com article on the subject, click here.

Greta’s first protest rally…

She may have missed the Writer’s Strike of 2007-2008, but Greta got to stick it to the man anyway this week at her first official protest rally! That’s right, amigos, our little red-shirted cutie joined Mommy and Daddy at the “Hole in the Heart of Hollywood” rally in support of saving the beleaguered Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills.

For those of you who might be unaware of the situation, the MPTF Hospital has been a Hollywood institution since the 1940’s and a place where elderly actors, directors, writers and other film industry veterans can retire among their peers. Set on a sprawling campus in Woodland Hills, the home is now in danger of disappearing forever sometime very soon.

The bigwigs at the Motion Picture and Television Fund are crying poor and saying that in today’s economic climate, they just don’t have the money to keep the home open. But the problem with that claim is that when the families and supporters of keeping the home open approached the MPTF about starting up some possible fundraising efforts, the board declared that no amount of money could keep the home open. Huh?

If the problem is money and you won’t let anyone from arguably one of the most creative communities in the world help you raise it, then what is really going on here? My guess is that the MPTF has already sold the land — which they own outright, by the way! — to some developer and therefore has no real intest in keeping the home open.

But no matter what the back-all shenanigans are here, the situation for the folks still living in the home is dire to say the least. Of the dozens of residents who have already been “removed” from the home, 18 have died within a matter of weeks due to something called “transfer trauma”. WTF, man?!!

These people paid their dues, worked for years in “the biz”, prepaid for their care and are entitled to live out their golden years with their peers. I don’t pretend to know all the details on this one, but what I do know is that if there is a way to keep this place open then we need to do it! If for no other reason than because it is the right thing to do.

I mean, seriously, the motto on the sign out front says it all “Taking Care of Our Own”! So, come on, guys, let’s put the greed aside for a change and get back to the business of doing just that.

For more information on what you can do to help save the home, please visit SavingTheLivesOfOurOwn.org. And to see more pics from Greta’s first protest rally, including many more shots of the celebrity guest speakers, John “Dukes of Hazzard” Schneider and Frances “Titanic” Fisher, click here.

And in the meantime, que viva los viejos a la casa de MPTF!