Author: Marshall Sontag

USA Today recently published an article on the demonization of CEOs in America:

CEOs have been portrayed as villains since the dawn of silent movies and black-and-white TV. The recent real-life parade of perp walks and pay packages is making them even bigger marks.
CEOs didn’t even escape this summer’s sci-fi releases: Halle Berry becomes Catwoman due to skin cream made addictive; Dr. Otto Octavius turns villain in Spider-Man 2 in a gone-haywire attempt to make a profit; and I, Robot exposes the ultimate warranty hassle when products made by U.S. Robotics start killing humans because sleazy executives in 2035 try to cut a few corners.

The article then goes on to ask if the rampant depiction of CEOs in such a negative light is harmless, or “does it have a lasting impact on a system that has made the USA the world’s economic engine?”
Sound like a good plot-line for a novel? How about a movie? American CEOs think so:

CEOs have long awaited the promised production of the movie Atlas Shrugged from the 1957 Ayn Rand novel that portrays business leaders as heroic and society’s saviors. The screenplay is supposedly being written, but that’s been reported before.

I highly recommend you read the full article, which includes a sidebar of movies in which business executives are portrayed as evil — ironically enough, The Fountainhead is one of the movies listed.
You might also be interested in the The Atlasphere’s Atlas Shrugged Movie Archive, as well as The Unofficial Atlas Shrugged Movie Homepage, which was last updated August 29th.

The Albany, NY Times Union recently published an article about five students from the same class being chosen as semifinalists in the Ayn Rand Institute’s annual essay contest:

Marc Sullivan shrugged when asked how five of his students at Mohonasen High School ended up as semifinalists in an Ayn Rand essay contest with more than 14,000 entrants across the country. He attributed their success to having them do several rewrites and critiquing one another’s work.

While the teacher misrepresents Ayn Rand’s philosophy as “uber-libertarianism” and opposed to cooperative efforts, five semifinalists from one class is quite an accomplishment. See the full article to read more about them.
According to ARI’s list of 2003 Fountainhead Winners, one of the students went on to become a finalist.