By Jonathan B. Wight

“The first thing an academic learns when he leaves his ivory tower is that the real world isn’t anything like what he’s been teaching.”

                --Nat Segaloff

Nat Segaloff is a sharp Hollywood writer and a long-time friend. He is famous for his Bah-Humbug Christmas letters, now extinct, but so very bitingly funny.

A new short story, “Jumbalaya” tackles the mentality of Hollywood corporate conglomerate executives, no longer in love with films as a product but only with turning out money. This is best done with trashy movies, which gives rise to the story’s sharp opening line.

Segaloff’s protagonist, a film professor on sabbatical, seeks to overturn the Hollywood trash with a brilliant twist. He will take all the “wasted” actors and scripts that are currently tossed aside in the messy process of making a film, and use them to make a “free” movie for the studio. Now that is economic efficiency!

Along the way, the story reminds us how love of craft is always an important element in entrepreneurship. If that is snuffed out during the MBA or PhD gristmill, the end result for society will be worse.

Treat yourself to a half hour of fun with Segaloff’s latest.