2008 Woodie Awards
Actually, money does buy happiness
Karen Heller ; Knight Ridder Newspapers
Issue date: 2/1/06 Section: Opinion
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The rich are forever being portrayed in books, movies The rich are forever being portrayed in books, movies and television as truly miserable when the truth is that, in real life, they seem to be happy all the time.
Or much of the time. Certainly when they need to pay the bills. Or fix the roof. Or plan a trip. Travel for them is an orgy of choice.
You won't find rich people paying top dollar to squeeze into the middle seats in the middle of "economy" on a long transcontinental flight, with unidentifiable "food" and an unwatchable "movie" placed before them while the "gentleman" in the seat behind them kicks their seat incessantly while singing along, badly, to his iPod.
Not that I'm familiar with the experience.
Reporters love to luxuriate in breathlessly documenting indictments, divorces and comeuppances, to say nothing of cataloguing a rogues' library of celebrity mug shots. It's an entire beat carved out by the tabs, daily gossip columns and Vanity Fair: Rich People Messing Up, with subspecialties in Dead Heiresses and Dynastic Gene Mutations.
I've interviewed many rich people and they often seem quite content, delirious even. You might be, too, if you knew you never had to do the laundry or go to the grocery store again.
We want to believe that the rich are not better or happier but, contrary to logic, emotionally worse, their woes rivaling those of the poor. We want to believe the wealthy pay for their good fortune through misery, like the Kennedys, when many of them, Maria Shriver for one, seem quite content in addition to having spectacular hair.
Woody Allen's bracing "Match Point" is one of those rare movies in which the rich are portrayed as joyous, with barely a concern in the world while being in possession of stupefying gardens, excellent scotch, Asprey baubles and superior upholstery.
Emily Mortimer plays Chloe, a beautiful, slim, smart, eternally sunny and kind rich woman, loved by all, with exquisite taste and better skin, whose only blemish is a fondness for Andrew Lloyd Webber _ which, to be fair about it, could happen to anyone.
Or much of the time. Certainly when they need to pay the bills. Or fix the roof. Or plan a trip. Travel for them is an orgy of choice.
You won't find rich people paying top dollar to squeeze into the middle seats in the middle of "economy" on a long transcontinental flight, with unidentifiable "food" and an unwatchable "movie" placed before them while the "gentleman" in the seat behind them kicks their seat incessantly while singing along, badly, to his iPod.
Not that I'm familiar with the experience.
Reporters love to luxuriate in breathlessly documenting indictments, divorces and comeuppances, to say nothing of cataloguing a rogues' library of celebrity mug shots. It's an entire beat carved out by the tabs, daily gossip columns and Vanity Fair: Rich People Messing Up, with subspecialties in Dead Heiresses and Dynastic Gene Mutations.
I've interviewed many rich people and they often seem quite content, delirious even. You might be, too, if you knew you never had to do the laundry or go to the grocery store again.
We want to believe that the rich are not better or happier but, contrary to logic, emotionally worse, their woes rivaling those of the poor. We want to believe the wealthy pay for their good fortune through misery, like the Kennedys, when many of them, Maria Shriver for one, seem quite content in addition to having spectacular hair.
Woody Allen's bracing "Match Point" is one of those rare movies in which the rich are portrayed as joyous, with barely a concern in the world while being in possession of stupefying gardens, excellent scotch, Asprey baubles and superior upholstery.
Emily Mortimer plays Chloe, a beautiful, slim, smart, eternally sunny and kind rich woman, loved by all, with exquisite taste and better skin, whose only blemish is a fondness for Andrew Lloyd Webber _ which, to be fair about it, could happen to anyone.