{"id":117394,"date":"2024-04-24T21:38:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T20:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/?p=2039907"},"modified":"2024-04-24T21:38:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T20:38:19","slug":"heres-why-we-cant-forget-hollywoods-pandemic-bailouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/24\/heres-why-we-cant-forget-hollywoods-pandemic-bailouts\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s Why We Can\u2019t Forget Hollywood\u2019s Pandemic Bailouts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inflation is on its way up again, and it\u2019s a top concern among voters in poll after poll.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t require a survey to know Americans are stressed when their money continues to buy less. What should also capture our attention? The underlying causes.<\/p>\n

There are many, including the big-money pandemic relief programs that dumped huge amounts of government-borrowed, consumer-spent cash into the economy. It often didn’t go to those who actually needed it.<\/p>\n

By now, there are tons of examples of pandemic aid going to individuals or business entities that were hardly struggling like the hourly-pay worker unable to do their shifts due to a workplace closure.<\/p>\n

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This is setting aside outright fraud that occurred, where money will hopefully be recouped. There are many examples of businesses that saw a boost from the pandemic but nevertheless took part in PPP, as outfits like ProPublica have pointed out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s The Washington Post report on how a bunch of law firms received the maximum $10 million<\/a>\u2014somewhat baffling, since the pandemic hardly stopped the need for legal advice and, if anything. seems to have sparked a bevy of pandemic-related class actions<\/a> as early as summer 2020.<\/p>\n

But if bailouts for lawyers or profitable RV sellers might be seen sympathetically in at least some quarters, it\u2019s pretty unlikely that bailouts for Hollywood moguls will be \u2014 yet it appears that companies tied to a big name in the music industry who recently bought Rod Stewart\u2019s song catalog<\/a> were big beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump started the process of dishing out pandemic aid– $3.2 trillion of it<\/a>. President Biden then added another $1.9 trillion<\/a> to that total.<\/p>\n

Like the law firms that maxxed out with $10 million in aid, a business belonging to Irving Azoff\u2014the mogul whose Iconic Artists Group bought the Rod Stewart catalog\u2014did, too.<\/p>\n

According to a now-public spreadsheet of grants<\/a> on the SBA\u2019s website, in August 2021, just two months after SBA began disbursing the funds, Azoff\u2019s management company, Full Stop Management received its $10 million.<\/p>\n

Critics of Azoff speculate that his businesses might actually have taken more than just that $10 million. They point to CAM LLC,<\/a> which appears to be owned by Full Stop and registered at Azoff\u2019s Glendon Avenue address in Los Angeles, having received nearly $7.5 million the following month.<\/p>\n

Azoff, through his lawyer Marty Singer, has pushed back on the notion that anything untoward occurred here<\/a>, telling Insider \u201cthat the companies complied with the SVOG program’s rules and that Azoff himself was not in need of any bailout funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

But of course, this is sort of the point with regard to all that COVID aid.<\/p>\n

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Many entities that most Americans would say didn\u2019t need bailouts because, say, they were backed by Hollywood bigwigs who, in the midst of the pandemic were able to do things like buy $21.5 million properties in luxe neighborhoods (as Azoff did with one property in Beverly Hills<\/a> in November 2021), still got money.<\/p>\n

And most Americans understand on some level that money is fungible. Undoubtedly, Azoff didn\u2019t need COVID aid personally. But the fact that his business(es) got it is unlikely to have hurt his bottom line.<\/p>\n

Azoff advocated for pandemic aid targeted towards the music industry. In March 2020, he tweeted his thanks to Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander<\/a> for their work to secure pandemic aid for the music industry. Azoff is also a Board Member of the Music Artists Coalition<\/a>, which appealed for bailout money.<\/a><\/p>\n

Azoff personally signed that letter.<\/p>\n

Azoff\u2019s Global Music Rights, represented by Greenberg Traurig, reported lobbying<\/a> the U.S. House and Senate in the first and second quarters of 2020 on \u201clegislative activity related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal governments [sic] response to the outbreak,\u201d as well as \u201cH.R. 748, CARES Act (P.L. 116-136)\u201d and \u201cH.R. 6800, The Heroes Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Save Our Stages Act\u2014a vehicle for pandemic relief meant to target live venues\u2014did include talent representatives<\/a>, of which Azoff is one, among those eligible for aid.<\/p>\n

What has Azoff and\/or his businesses done with the money? Hopefully, yes, kept people employed through the pandemic who otherwise would not have been. But more broadly, and less scientifically or forensically, your answer to that may depend on exactly how fungible you think money is.<\/p>\n

What is known is that Azoff, through Iconic Artists Group\u2014which incidentally was founded in the same year<\/a> the pandemic kicked off, 2020\u2014has since the pandemic purchased Graham Nash\u2019s catalog<\/a>, Cher\u2019s catalog<\/a>, Dan Fogelberg\u2019s<\/a>, Joe Cocker\u2019s<\/a>, Linda Ronstadt\u2019s, David Crosby\u2019s, and even Dean Martin<\/a> and Nat King Cole\u2019s catalogs<\/a>\u2014plus, of course, that of Stewart.<\/p>\n

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Rod Stewart, the star behind hits like \u201cMaggie May\u201d and \u201cDa Ya Think I\u2019m Sexy,\u201d has sold his song catalog as the music-rights market draws a flurry of fresh capital https:\/\/t.co\/sFBQImaz6q<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/sFBQImaz6q<\/a><\/p>\n

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) February 15, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n