From KCRW in Santa Monica, I'm Claude Brodesser Ackner, and this is The Business.

So you still want to do the show business, and you think that you got what it takes?

I mean, you really got a rap and be all at.

Aftercare yourself for the brakes, check it out.

This week on the business, it's six degrees of celebrity philanthropy with actor and musician Kevin Bacon.

He's behind a website that wants you to give

away money like you're a star. But first, it's the Hollywood News Caravan. Go nowhere. It's

the business from NPR. The longtime producing partner of Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner, said last week

that she'd be leaving her

job as CEO of United Artists, the venture she co-owns with Cruz. Quote, as much as I've enjoyed

my time as an executive, I have longed to return to my true love, which is making movies. So,

that's what I've decided to do, end quote. Those are some amusing parting words, because the real reason Wagner is leaving United

artists is precisely because she was supposed to be making movies, but wasn't. Given half a

billion dollars from Merrill Lynch, to date, Wagner and Cruz have made just two films in two

years at UA, both cruise vehicles, Lions for Lambs, which crashed and burned, and Brian Singer's

Nazi drama, Valkyrie, which has been grounded more often than a United Flight out of O'Hare

in December. Meanwhile, Hollywood production is showing signs of coming back to life, despite the

lack of progress between the Screen Actors Guild and producers. Normally, the lack of such a deal

would have shut down production

indefinitely. Studios would be unwilling to risk having to shut down a big movie before it was

finished shooting due to a strike. But the math is against SAG. So many of its members are also

members of AFRA, and AFRA already reached a deal with producers. As such, SAG couldn't possibly get a strike authorization,

...