When Lionsgate and Channing Tatum teamed up for the second Magic Mike movie, nobody could have been more happy than me. The first movie was the dream child of Channing Tatum and it took him years and years to get it made. After finally getting enough backing to make the movie himself, he was able to convince the hard headed Jeffrey Katzenberg to executive produce his film. It wasn't easy. He experienced what most of us experience...bullshit. Lots and lots of bullshit. As we all know, that movie went on to make a ton of money and went well beyond what anyone expected at the box office. XXL, the second movie, did well beyond that. The movie is owned by Lionsgate...and they profited beyond their wildest dreams as did Chan.
Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Channing Tatum and the guys did an excellent job promoting the films and were highly visible here on the blog and in the gay community. Joe, Chan and Matt are staples in the gay community and do tons of charity work. They are the right kinds of people for us to work towards friendships with in this endeavor, so we reached out to them. Friendships were struck with all of the guys and we really enjoy what they give to this project. In exchange I do what I always do. I think of more ideas to help further the "Magic Mike" brand. One of the ideas that I had was a live version of the show for Broadway and Vegas. Sort of Magic Mike on the stage.
This came true. I wrote about this idea for Chan and Lionsgate (the Katzenbergs) which was on this blog and it was immediately discussed and the show was put into production talks and guess what? It's now a hugely popular show in Vegas. It's something like number one or two in Las Vegas...I think it goes "Britney Spears: Pieces of Me" then "Magic Mike"....and is sold out for a long time. The tickets are expensive. The dancers are hot. The show is great. They've been on Ellen. The production is making lots of money. But guess what? Instead of that translating into money for this project for the idea for our community, it all went into the pockets of the Katzenbergs and Channing Tatum. Wasn't that nice of them? We didn't see one dollar of that money. We didn't even get a thank you for it. What we got was a great big, "fuck you".
That's not friendship, that's stealing. That's not the spirit of doing business, it's ripping off the gay community that supports movies like Magic Mike and guys like Channing and Matt and Joe whom give their time to us and when it is convenient promote their movies. I'm sorry to everyone that thought that our efforts would yield a better relationship with Lionsgate and Magic Mike. This was in the spirit of better relationships between Hollywood and the gay community here in Palm Springs afflicted with HIV and electronic harrasment. This is a very important project for the entire country. It is important that people understand that I don't get paid to do this kind of work. I do it for free and I'm losing all of my health benefits and social security disability in a month. Now I have to spend less time on this than ever. When it is someone like Jeffrey Katzenberg stealing from me under the guise of friendship, it is particularly evil. I think this guy is a thief. I think he should be prosecuted for what he's done. He didn't just steal from me, he took from the good of what this project stood for.
I gave up my job at the U.S. Justice Department, I sacrificed to find justice for my shooting...he made this sacrifice this much harder...now it is nearly impossible because of him and his new girlfriends Missy and Bessie. I will now refer to that company as LionsHate
