Everyone agrees that Oliver Stone’s Wall Street is a film classic, and who can forget Martin Sheen‘s performance? He played Carl Fox, the hardscrabble mechanics union leader who railed against the greed of Michael Douglas‘ Gordon Gekko and even that of his own son, Bud, played by Charlie Sheen.
One of Martin’s most memorable scenes in the film was an exchange between his character and Gordon Gekko:
Carl: “There came into Egypt a Pharaoh who did not know.”
Gekko: I beg your pardon, is that a proverb?
Carl: No, a prophecy. The rich have been doing it to the poor since the beginning of time. The only difference between the Pyramids and the Empire State Building is the Egyptians didn’t allow unions. I know what this guy is all about, greed. He don’t give a damn about Bluestar or the unions. He’s in and out for the buck and he don’t take prisoners.
Imagine our surprise to see a curious press release from from pump and dump penny stock fraud World Moto (FARE) that was issued after the close of trading yesterday (a day on which FARE shares almost doubled):
FARE US: Shortlisted To Appear On Martin Sheen’s “In Focus”
2013-01-23 21:25:51.983 GMTWorld Moto, Inc. (“World Moto” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that “In Focus” has contacted the management of World Moto. The Company has been selected as the potential participant in an upcoming documentary on Business Technology hosted by Martin Sheen for CNN and various public access channels. The documentary will be aired in 43 different countries and in 14 different languages.
“In Focus” is an award-winning series that benefits from strategic partnerships with Public Television and a variety of nationally recognized content providers. These relationships, coupled with their commitment to production excellence, have placed “In Focus” in a unique position in the educational television industry. The “In Focus” series is hosted by television and feature film icon, Martin Sheen.
What this press release fails to mention is that In Focus is essentially an infomercial. Neither CNN nor PBS are involved in the production. Only thanks to the embarrassing presence of Martin Sheen is it even marginally classier than Donald A. Baillargeon’s MoneyTV. Baillargeon’s previous stock touting TV show, the Emerging Stock Report, was sanctioned by the SEC in 1998. The FARE release continues:
World Moto’s CEO Paul Giles stated, “We are honored that In Focus has given World Moto the opportunity to participate.”
This should be translated as “We sent in a check, and if it does not bounce, we’ll actually get an ad for our junk stock on the air.”
And as for Martin Sheen, associating himself with such an outfit, one can only suppose the paycheck is making it worthwhile. Your author wonders, though, what would Carl Fox say about it? What would Sheen’s character, President Jed Bartlet, from the sanctimonious Aaron Sorkin‘s West Wing, think?
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