{"id":1827,"date":"2003-12-15T17:27:00","date_gmt":"2003-12-15T21:27:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2003-12-15T17:27:00","modified_gmt":"2003-12-15T21:27:00","slug":"postmodern-euergetism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meehawl.com\/Blogfiles\/2003\/12\/15\/17\/27\/postmodern-euergetism\/","title":{"rendered":"Postmodern Euergetism"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Hollywood, “celebrities” get to charge charities to make appearances at fund raisers. And there I was thinking they were doing it out of generosity…<\/p>\n

Many celebrities appear at these events not solely out of the goodness of their hearts. They come to line their pockets. Actor David Schwimmer, who has made many millions of dollars starring in NBC’s “Friends,” received a pair of Rolex watches worth $26,413 in advance of a 1997 charity gala that had among its intended beneficiaries the John Wayne Cancer Institute.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>But my favourite has to be Roseanna Barr, who got a charity to spend $60,000 fetching BBQ ribs from a specific Canadian mall…<\/p>\n

The comedienne was hankering for fare from the Tunnel Bar-B-Que in Windsor, Canada .. Barr [was] to be the emcee of the upcoming SHARE gala while helping to launch her private foundation [they] whisked Barr and two of her associates onto a hastily chartered private jet for the 2,000-mile jaunt from Van Nuys to Canada. The flight cost $48,351, records show: $4,750 an hour for the plane, $1,350 for three flight attendants and a $1,009 in-flight catering tab that included $356 in Beluga caviar served with four mother-of-pearl spoons at $28 each. On top of that came limousines, an $11,500 shopping spree at a local mall and, of course, the barbecued ribs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>This is not charity, it’s selfish euergetism<\/a>. One of the welcome social developments during the transformation of the Roman’s Mediterranean culture from secularism to Christianisation was the transition from euergetism to charity. Sadly, Hollywood seems to be harking back to an earlier model…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Hollywood, “celebrities” get to charge charities to make appearances at fund raisers. And there I was thinking they were doing it out of generosity… Many celebrities appear at these events not solely out...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t