True Hollywood Icons

In commentary on one of the Ocean's movies, George Clooney or Brad Pitt or Matt Damon remarks that while they are the ones who get approached by fans in public, behind the scenes, the guy everybody wants to talk to is Elliott Gould. 

If you don't remember: Elliott Gould played Monica and Ross's dad on Friends. 

And he is all over television--like Herb Edelman (Barney Miller, Golden Girls) and Beverly Garland.

When I first watched Scarecrow & Mrs King, I thought Amanda King's mom was being played by a random female actor. And then I began to see Beverly Garland everywhere. And then I ran across Decoy. And I read her online biographies. And I realized, "This woman is a force in Hollywood. Scarecrow & Mrs. King likely recruited her on purpose!" 

The point here is how the existence of these actors challenges the idea of the Hollywood icon. Not that Hollywood celebrities don't exist. But there are insiders and outsiders. And who the insiders know and talk about--the people who create those "7 degrees of separation"--may not be at all the actors the outsiders imagine and extol.