No Audiophiles in Hollywood

My educated guess would be that the cost of renting audiophile gear to put in a Hollywood production for the limited amount of background set dressing would be prohibitively expensive. Producers like to spend their dollars elsewhere.

Check out Mel Gibson's system in the movie "What Women Want"

Tvad...can't be the cost with $100m budgets commonplace nowadays.

Think of the product placement mileage Martin Logan or Genesis would get placing a pair of their speakers in Stately Wayne Manor in a Batman movie along with a Krell or Audio Research stack with a Wadia cd player. If the audio companies are smart, they would provide the stuff on loan at no cost. Other companies pay to have their products prominently displayed.

Mitch4t, you contradict yourself within three sentences when you mention at the top of your post that the cost can't be the reason with $100m budgets, and then say later in your post that companies should provide the placement at no cost. Your second statement is more likely. The problem, though, is hi end audio gear is not as readily recognizable as a brand as, say, a Coke can, or an Audi or BMW badge. And, unlike a car or Coke product that can reappear over and over again throughout a film in several locations, a stereo is a location specific item that may get limited exposure, thereby bringing into question the value of paying for such high priced props.

One has to realize that the largest portion of a films' budget goes to above the line costs...specifically cast salaries.

Are you aware that the terminal building in "Terminal" was built entirely as a self-contained set in a large warehouse, and all the shops were actual functioning stores stocked with real product? In fact, some of the franchises provided free food, coffee, and ice cream for the cast and crew throughout the shoot. Now, that's product placement.

Mitch4t,

Yer totally right. What really blows my mind is how many episodes i see of MTV Cribs, showing the high class living of celebritys from all walks of life. Every time i watch these shows i keep an eye out for thier audio gear, and normally im pretty suprised by what i see. Nothing.
They have this huge 4 million dollar home, with all the nice stuff.
However, audio gear is apparently severly lacking, especially since they show the homes of alot of musicians. You see plenty of BOSE Accoustimass systems hooked up to a $20,000 tv, but it seems like the audio systems are nothing more than an afterthought.

You think a musician would be interested in more than a $500.00 HTIB setup for listening.

The only speaker i have seen on cribs that suprised me was a set of Definitive Technologys Bipolar speakers. Cannot remember who'se house that was.

Then you have the television shows. Did anyone else notice the set of Martin Logans in the guy's apartment on the TV series Friends??????
Stuffed next to a wall surrounded by a bunch of junk. Nothing more than a prop. Ml's deserve to be listened to, not just thrown in as a prop. It is sad really.

Then you have that new HBO series Entourage, im not positive about it, because i only saw a few brief glimpses, but in the bar-room of the house there look to be a set of higher-end paradigms flanking the bar on either side.

The only movie i ever saw what appeared to be an "Audiophile" was in the movie "The Sum of All Fears" where in the end, that guy is sitting in his chair listening to opera and totally into it and gets whacked by that stealthy US agent/assassin.

I'll have to watch that movie again sometime, and see if it actully shows the system he is listening to.