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A feature in the Washington Post Style section on the colorful inhabitants of the Motion Picture home in Woodland Hills reveals some tough rules. You must have worked in the biz for 20 years to get in, or be married to someone who did. If the spouse with credentials dies, you have to get out. The piece by Paul Farhi also plucks a canard about Oscar campaigns.
Any celebrity who visits the campus (recent drop-ins include Kevin Spacey, Michelle Pfeiffer, Billy Bob Thornton, Ron Howard and Willem Dafoe) is immediately suspected in press accounts of canvassing residents for their Academy votes. It's a sexy angle, but a wild exaggeration. There are, after all, about 5,500 film professionals who determine for the Oscars each year. About 15 of them live at the Motion Picture home.
Average age is 85, and do they have stories to tell.