We got to start paying people more in this town...

Somebody should have told the cop who pulled over film director Lee Tamahori that, as Oscar Wilde once said, "Experience is the only thing you can't get for nothing." You'll recall, about a month ago, the highly regarded director of the James Bond film, "Die Another Day," and "State of the Union," who is now preparing to direct the big screen version of the book, "The Golden Man," was arrested for soliciting an undercover policeman, and offering to perform "a sex act for money," according to the AP.

Frankly, I find uniforms rather sexy myself, but the quesion is why would a working motion picture director have to charge for his services? (unless, of course, he happens to be an independent.) What is equally baffling to me, in a town where gang bangers outnumber cops roughly 12 to 1, what is the vice squad doing in back alleys with their hands on their fly?

Attorney Mark Geragos has arranged for a plea deal which gets Mr. Tamahori off the hook by acquiescing to the charges of criminal trespass in exchange for having two counts of prostitution dropped. What's wrong with this picture (no pun intended); a director who can afford top gun Mark Geragos has to work the back alleys of Hollywood in an "off the shoulder" dress, and black wig, no less? This gives a whole new meaning to the concept of working on "spec."

In addition to being sentenced to three years probation, the New Zealand director was ordered, by the court, to perform 15 days of community service for the "Hollywood Beautification Project." One wonders what would happen to our biblical friend, Onan, were he to find himself a Southern California transplant who has fallen upon bad times. Were Onan, too, to be ordered to perform community service for the Hollywood Beautification Project, one can only imagine what that "beautification" might include!

It seems that those with the deepest pockets, in the only business with the chutzpah to call itself "the business," have found better things to do when sticking their hands in them than pull out cash.