October 26, 2007
LOS ANGELES — A study released today by the University of California, Los Angeles is sending shockwaves through the social, behavioral, and publicity sciences, after finding that everyone in Hollywood is close personal friends with everyone else in Hollywood.
Cameron Diaz, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Denzel Washingon all gather for a game of Monopoly at Tony Hopkins' place, like they do every Sunday.
"The evidence shows that our nation's show-business capital is a town of virtually boundless goodwill and camaraderie, where the backstabbing, ego-rivalry, and grudge-holding common to the rest of society do not exist," said UCLA sociology professor Gina Carlisle, lead author of the five-year, 700-page study. "The entire region is a veritable utopia of deep, abiding interpersonal affection and mutual respect."
Additionally, the report found that 98 percent of Hollywood residents "love [their friends'] work."
The findings, published this month in the journal American Psychologist, were based on information culled from DVD commentary tracks, promotional junket footage, talk show appearances, more than 1,500 behind-the-scenes magazine profiles, and hundreds of poolside cocktail party conversations.
"I love David Caruso," said Caruso's CSI: Miami costar Khandi Alexander, one of thousands of celebrity best friends quoted in the study. "He's just a great guy—always joking around on the set, making the crew laugh, and just being an all-around wonderful person. At first I thought it would be intimidating to work with such an iconic star, but after a few days, I thought of him as a great friend."
But the intense friendships that run through the Hollywood community also extend to those beyond the red-carpet elite, the study found.
"Even persons with relatively limited connections to the Hollywood hierarchy, such as caterers and valet attendants, regularly cited such A-list celebrities as George Clooney as their 'good friends,'" said UCLA's Carlisle, who herself described Clooney as "a friend." "No one is excluded from the near-universal circle of intimacy and brotherhood that surrounds the city."
"It is a truly egoless culture," she added.
According to the study, friendships formed in Hollywood are stronger, more passionate, and more meaningful than any friendships yet measured.
"While we were making Transformers, the whole cast and crew were like family," actress Megan Fox said in an Access Hollywood episode cited by the study. "I would totally love to work with those people again if the decision is ever made to do a sequel. That's how much those friendships mean to me."
Hollywood friendships are also longer lasting, researchers found.
Producer Gil Netter, also quoted in the study, expressed these sentiments about some of his many best friends: "When we did Dude [Where's My Car?], Ashton [Kutcher], Jennifer [Garner], and Seann [William Scott] were just on the verge of exploding. Since then, they've all become much bigger stars, but to me they're still just the same great friends of mine they always were."
The study's authors say if research continues, the principles of social interaction found in Hollywood could, one day, serve as an example to the rest of humanity of how to live together in harmony and universal love.
"Bad-mouthing others' work, looking down on those who earn less money than oneself, making insulting assumptions about the amount of plastic surgery others have had—none of these things happen in Hollywood," Carlisle said. "It is a city of total and unconditional respect, both for the integrity of everyone's creative endeavors, and for everyone personally, as human beings."
Added Carlisle: "If every community could interact with the same genuine compassion and goodwill that Hollywood has somehow achieved, the world would be a much better place."
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