Soft Power In Hollywood:
Lots of people in here wondering how a director of yore and a costume designer of note, could exert so much power. Firstly, it's not just them, it's their direct connections to guilds - and to other Hollywood royalty. They are friends with and have worked with the absolute pinnacle in the town.
Secondly - even Landis himself - perhaps especially Landis himself - has enough clout on his own terms - TV shows, movies, scripts and endless access - that creates an aura of influence, connection and possibility for people who are extremely vulnerable and frankly - desperate to make it.
Take every cliche about a waitress working three jobs praying she'll get the chance to land on a greasy casting couch - or a handsome bellhop who has written thirty spec scripts and delivered pizza to studios just to get within shouting distance of a recurring extra role. It's all true and worse than you think. Put away your own opinions about what those people mean to you, and consider instead the reality of their situation.
Hell, even successful people in Hollywood are always one cancellation or deadline or missed schedule away from the precipice. It is not a normal place. David Geffen took a job as a mailroom boy at the William Morris agency - a drudgery bottom of the barrel low-paying job he only got because he LIED and said he had graduated from Harvard. Because he was in the mailroom, he was able to intercept the letter from Harvard denying he ever attended. He replaced it with a fake that said he had.
Think about that. To get a mailroom job, you have to be a HARVARD GRADUATE. How do you think less impressive people make it except through luck, brutal effort and yes, sometimes extremely poor decisions in an extremely predatory environment. Swimming With Sharks does a KINDNESS to the underbelly of the place.
