Los Angeles--Securities/entertainment attorney John W. Cones reveals the results of his ten year study of the Hollywood-based U.S. film industry Sunday (February 15, 1998) before the regional gathering of the Los Angeles Mensa (high IQ) society. In a wide-ranging critical analysis of what is really going on in Hollywood, Cones describes the Hollywood game as the "perfect crime". His studies show that Hollywood movies contain blatant patterns of bias in which whole populations of our diverse society are consistently portrayed in a negative or stereotypical manner. His studies also reveal that Hollywood movies further contain biased biopics, examples of historical revisionism and favoritism in movie portrayals displayed toward a single, narrowly- defined interest group of which the Hollywood control group primarily draws its members.

Cones suggests that such patterns of bias exist because movies are different from most products in the U.S., they tend to mirror the values, interests, cultural perspectives and prejudices of their makers. His studies demonstrate further that the people in Hollywood who have the power to decide which movies are produced and released, to determine who gets to work in the key positions on such movies and to approve of the screenplays serving as the basis for these movies are the three top studio executives at the major studio distributors. He further reveals that a clear majority of these executives throughout the term of existence of these vertically-integrated, distributor-dominated major studios share a common background (i.e., they are politically liberal, not very religious, Jewish males of European heritage).

Cones also contends that this Hollywood control group gained and has maintained its power through the use of several hundred specifically identifiable unfair, unethical, unconscionable, anti-competitive, predatory and illegal business practices, including massive employment discrimination and antitrust law violations. He further contends that the Page 2 Hollywood Study

Hollywood control group gets away with its "proclivity for wrongful conduct" by routing huge political contributions to presidential candidates and key members of Congress through excessively overpaid studio executives, their spouses and multiple political action committees, so as to discourage vigorous enforcement of the employment discrimination, antitrust and other laws in the Hollywood-based U.S. film industry.

Cones argues that the cited movie biases must be eliminated because as the U.S. Supreme Court stated in its 1952 Burstyn v. Wilson case, the motion picture is a significant medium for the communication of ideas. Cones reasons that since ideas have always and will always be a significant source of motivation for human conduct, movies will inevitably influence the thinking and behavior of some segments of our diverse population. Thus, he argues, in a democracy, no important communications medium, including film, should be controlled or dominated by any single, narrowly-defined interest group.

Cones is the author of a half-dozen books about the film industry. His books contain the detailed results of his studies upon which the above conclusions are based. Additional information regarding his work appears online at hollywoodnetwork.com/Cones, Surfview Entertainment, F.I.R.M., Amazon.com and YearbookNews.com.