Why are you surprised OP? Wealth isn't just physical money, cultural wealth includes the ability to network and have the resources in order to do things in industries that are otherwise brutal.
My neighbors are very well off. I love them. They're kind and quiet. Their daughter went to school at a community college, went to film school, and tried to get her foot into the industry by taking on lots of unpaid internships, etc. She doesn't need to worry, and her parents don't care, if she never makes a lot of money in her passion, because she's set for life anyway. The only reason she was able to do this was living off her parents, which I have no problems with. But, I acknowledge that advantage. In college, I lived with a guy whose parents are loaded. He fucked around and after college opened his own business buying and selling homes. The only reason he could do that was because his parents gave him a ton of money to begin with, to buy a few homes.
There's no way in hell I'd be able to do shit like that. My parents are not wealthy. We don't have the kind of money that lots of people around us do, family money. I have to work long and shitty hours to have nice things. People who are free to pursue their passion and also enjoy the nicer things in life (safe neighborhoods, good hospitals, healthy habits, relaxed minds) without worry are almost always backed by money. No hate there, just a fact of life.
I know a ton of people in the movie industry (after all, this IS so cal). The ONLY ones that are actually not starving artists, and aren't stressed or working part time in retail or whatever, who come out to dinners with us and have nice long chats over cups of wine-- they're the ones whose families are MEGA wealthy. The others are usually struggling and broke, very stressed, working part time jobs to support themselves, etc. c'est la vie.
