Latest news with #LostBoys
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'When Men Don't Have Money, They're Just Less Attractive,' Says Professor Scott Galloway, As Men Without College Degrees Now Earn 22% Less
Men without college degrees are still earning significantly less than they did five decades ago, and the implications stretch far beyond just wages. In the debut episode of the "Lost Boys" podcast, co-host and professor Scott Galloway put it plainly: 'When men don't have money, they're just less attractive. That's more of a hit to them than it is to women.' Galloway shared his own experience of growing up with limited prospects, saying that government programs and education helped change his trajectory. But he worries that today's safety nets are weaker. 'Had I been that kid today, I worry the outcome would have been different,' he said. Don't Miss: Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. The 'Lost Boys' podcast—hosted by Galloway and Anthony Scaramucci—dives into the broader struggles of young men, featuring author Richard Reeves. The group argues that young men today are falling behind not just economically but socially, and emotionally. Reeves, who authored the book 'Of Boys and Men,' noted that many young men today are adrift due to the absence of a clear path forward. "We tore up the old script for men, which was breadwinner, head of household, etc., and we didn't replace it with anything," Reeves said. 'And so what that means is a lot of men now feel that they're basically improvising. They basically don't have a script.' The numbers back up their concerns. According to a May 2024 Pew Research Center analysis, young men between the ages of 25 and 34 without college degrees earned a median income of $45,000 in 2023. That's up 15% from 2014, but still 22% lower than what men of the same age earned in 1973 when adjusted for inflation. Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — 'In the grand scheme of things, young, less educated men aren't where they were 50 years ago,' Pew economist Richard Fry told CBS MoneyWatch. He added that in the 1970s, these men were more likely to be union members and work in manufacturing jobs—industries that have since shrunk. Meanwhile, college graduates continue to outpace their peers in earnings and wealth. Young male college grads today earn around $77,000 annually, while women with degrees make about $65,000. College grads also have an average net worth of $120,000, compared to $31,000 for those with just a high school diploma. 'Higher education generates higher wealth,' Fry said. 'Families with college-educated heads have a higher homeownership rate. And college-educated adults are more likely to have access to 401(k)s and 403(b)s.' Still, Galloway argued that the issue isn't just about education. It's also about identity and purpose. 'You really got to keep an eye on the boy,' he said, referencing how family breakdowns and economic instability can hit young men particularly hard. 'They're actually weaker as humans.'Reeves pointed to the lack of male role models in schools, communities and even homes. 'The teaching profession has become very gendered,' Reeves said. Only 23% of teachers today are men, down from 33% in the 1980s, he noted. Despite some gains in the labor market for young men without degrees, both Pew's data and the 'Lost Boys' podcast underscore a growing concern: without direction, support and economic opportunity, many young men are at risk of falling further behind. Half of Americans agree that college is worth the money only if you don't have to go into debt. According to Pew, just 22% of Americans believe a degree is a good investment if it requires borrowing. That skepticism is strongest among Republicans, six in 10 of whom now believe a college degree is less important than it was 20 years ago. Read Next: Invest where it hurts — and help millions heal:. Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article 'When Men Don't Have Money, They're Just Less Attractive,' Says Professor Scott Galloway, As Men Without College Degrees Now Earn 22% Less originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
BBC News
30-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Young men are struggling. What does this mean for young women?
Young men in the US are struggling. There's no shortage of statistics – about academic achievement, income levels, loneliness, even lack of sex – which indicate that the boys are not alright. Compared to young women, boys are getting left behind. But even having the conversation about how to tackle the young man crisis is complicated, and can leave girls feeling, well, put out. After all, girls and women have had centuries of inbuilt disadvantages to contend with, don't they finally deserve a moment to shine? Add in the bad actors online, those who try to spin the plight of struggling young men into a zero-sum rallying cry for vengeance against women, and the conversation becomes trickier still. One person trying to bring the discussion into a more positive space, for young men and women alike, is Scott Galloway, a professor at New York University who's become a media powerhouse in recent years. He hosts several podcasts – including Lost Boys, which debuts in May. He's now counseling the Democratic Party on messaging around boys and men. And he has a new book coming out this autumn, titled Notes on Being a Man. I wanted to talk to Scott about what's going on with young men today and how all of this affects the lives of young women. We had a really thought-provoking conversation. You can watch (or read) more of it below. Below is an excerpt from our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity. Katty Kay: Set out the landscape for me on why you're looking at men, what the crisis is as you see it in the mental and physical health of young men. Scott Galloway: Look, the data's overwhelming: Four times as likely to kill themselves. Three times as likely to be addicted, 12 times as likely to be incarcerated. Record levels of depression. We're raising the most obese, anxious and depressed generation in history. For the first time, a 30-year-old isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at 30. Women are making more money in urban centers under the age of 30 than men. And by the way, I think that's a wonderful thing. I think that's a sign of victory and [there's] also more women-owned single homes than men. I don't think we should do anything to get in the way of that. While loneliness is an issue for both genders, it seems to be especially hard, or a lack of a romantic relationship seems to be especially damaging, for a young man. Women tend to channel some of that romantic energy if they don't have it into their friendships and into the professional career, whereas men tend to, young men tend to channel it into things like video games or porn – or begin sequestering from society. So, we just have a group of emotionally and economically unviable young men. And just on a personal level, I sort of relate to it because I was one of those men. And had it not been for just some of the incredible offerings of America, access to affordable higher education. And I've been very open about this, my mother had access to family planning. My mother got pregnant at 47, and had we not had access to family planning and my mum had been forced to carry a baby to term, I would have not gone to college. I would have done what I should have done. I was the only man of the house. KK: I want to look at this from the point of view of what this means for girls: A third of American women now earn more than their partners. But according to my research, and I've spent quite a lot of time writing books about women and girls, in couples where the wife earns more than the husband, they will often lie about it in the US census data to make it look like the man earns more than the wife. So, what does it mean for couples navigating a situation where women are doing better, earning more, getting better educated while men are falling behind? SG: Men have not kept pace in terms of picking up the slack. If they're not adding as much economically, are they picking up the slack emotionally or logistically or domestically around the house? And the reality is, the man's contribution to the relationship, in general, has not kept pace with the woman's ascent and increased contribution. So, basically, women are just sort of doing the math and saying, I'm not getting as much out of this. So, I'm opting out. Two-thirds of women under the age of 30 has a boyfriend. One-in-three men has a relationship. Women are dating older because they want more economically and emotionally viable men. KK: Part of me gets very depressed by this conversation – SG: Tell me about it! KK: Does this just not work, then? Is it zero-sum that if women are going to progress financially and educationally, somehow it's not going to work between men and women? SG: I think there are solutions. I think we should do nothing to get in the way of women being financially independent. I think it's wonderful and women, at the end of the day, should not have to lower their standards. They should be able to reap the rewards of their hard-fought victories, the fact that they work harder, they have better executive function, they're doing well in school, they're footing their skills to an information age economy. Good for them. Go girl. Way to go, sister. Do nothing to get in the way of that. At the same time, I do think there's a series of programs that would level up young people in general that would create more economic viability such that if two people get together, they're economically viable. And right now, that's not the case. We used to have metal, auto and wood shop for men who were meant not to go to college, but to be in the trades. And those are good paying jobs. I think if we raise minimum wage to $25 an hour such that in an economy where unemployment is at historic lows, such that people could just make more money. Mandatory national service such that we could demonstrate heroism and more than anything, I think men and young people need more third places: religious institutions, nonprofit, more freshmen seats, vocational programming, mandatory national service. Let me throw out a very provocative idea: I think young people need to drink more. There is an anti-alcohol movement that has gotten a lot of purchase. Forty per cent of all nightclubs in London have closed down, because young people don't have money and there's an anti-alcohol movement. I think the risk to the 25-year-old liver of alcohol is dwarfed by the risk of anxiety and social isolation. My advice to young people – and I'm being somewhat humorous here – is to go out, get out of the house more and drink more and make a series of bad decisions that might pay off. KK: One of the things that we've talked about and written about in our research was this notion of kind of broadening the concept of care and that obviously women are still doing the majority of the housework and the chores and the caregiving for both kids and for elders. I feel like you are looking at something similar, but in a slightly different way, which is redefining almost the concept of being a provider and a protector. Talk a bit about those two words, because you've done it in a way that I think we're actually getting you and I at something similar, which is understanding what it means to be a provider and a protector in a slightly different way from the traditional words which might be a little off-putting to some women. SG: I'm trying to figure out a way to thread the needle here. I think everybody needs a code to help them guide them through the thousands of decisions that they make every day professionally and personally. Some people get their code from their church, from their family, from their work, from the military. And I'd like to think that young men, if they're so inclined, could really lean into this notion of masculinity. But we need to define it aspirationally. And I think of it as three very basic pillars: provider, protector and procreator. Provider: I think every man at the outset of his career in a capitalist society should assume or aim to take economic responsibility for his household. And by the way sometimes that means realising your partner is better at this whole money thing and being more supportive of her career. When my partner and I had kids, she was working at Goldman Sachs making a lot more money than me. So, I stepped up. I was home for bath time. I organised the house, because I realised how important economic responsibility was for our house. KK: Did you find that emasculating in any way? Did any part of you struggle with the role of being the sort of primary provider? SG: A little bit, and also we can talk about this, but the hard reality is and I don't think we want to admit this: I think women are less sexually attracted to men when they lose their economic viability. Two: protector. I think your default mechanism as a man should be a protector. Men need to be strong. They need to be protectors. Think about the jobs that you think of as being masculine: firemen, cop, military. What do they do? They protect. And it's not only just physical. It breaks my heart that women in New York say they don't feel safe on the subway or that if they see a group of men coming down the sidewalk, they cross the street. We have to train our boys from an early age – KK: Well, that is physical. I mean that is what we're afraid of. SG: 100%, but I think it's more than that. I think being a man is when people are gossiping and criticising other people behind their back, your default mechanism as a man is you defend that person. You may not agree with the transgender community. You may not think we need a law forcing a third bathroom for corporations. But when you see a community being demonised, your default as a man is to defend, to protect. That's what we do. We protect. And then let me go to the third thing, procreator. I think sexual desire, want, wanting to find a mate, I think if channeled correctly, that can be a fantastic motivator and means for being a better man. I mean, what is this all for? We talk about AI, we talk about GDP, we talk about income inequality. The whole point of all of this is so you can establish deep and meaningful relationships. And most people would say the deepest and most meaningful relationships they have are the relationships that have been fostered by finding someone to mate with and their kids. I mean, I'll ask you, what is the most rewarding thing in your life? KK: Hands down, having four children. Not even a question. It's my relationship with my husband and the four children that we have. SG: Sixty per cent of 30 year olds had a kid in their house 40 years ago. Now, it's 27%. Is it because they've decided they don't want a family or maybe they can't afford it? Or maybe the dynamics of online dating? And I want to be clear, I love the fact that women are killing it. And I'm not asking women to lower their standards. I'm asking us to raise the viability to level up all young people. KK: Scott, I appreciate the fact that you're tackling stuff that is awkward, both for men and for women to talk about. But there are bad actors online who are taking some of this disconnect between the achievement levels of young men and young women and turning it into a victim story and turning it into a vengeance story. A lot of my women friends, and particularly younger women, have said to me in recent months, 'God, you know, we feel like we had 2,000 years of disadvantage inbuilt. We were finally getting ahead and now we're being put back in a box again.' How do you navigate that? SG: Well, first off is to acknowledge that the gag reflex is understandable and natural and maybe even makes sense, because from 1945 to, call it 2005, America registered unbelievable prosperity and economic growth. And all of that prosperity was crammed into a third of the population, specifically white dudes born heterosexual. So, my generation just registered massively unfair prosperity. I always acknowledge the majority of my success is not my fault. So, it's understandable that people say, OK, you've got a 3,000-year head start, and now your hair's on fire when men aren't doing well. But what I would urge is the following: empathy is not a zero-sum game. If you go into a morgue, and there's five people who died by suicide, four are men. And you know who wants more economically and emotionally viable men? Women. Our country and our women are not going to continue to flourish unless we have more viable men. And also just to recognise a 19-year-old male, maybe his mother's addicted to opiates, his father's incarcerated, has had a lot of middle class on-ramps, sequestered, is really struggling, has big tech companies trying to get him to engage in porn, gambling, he's got a much more risk-aggressive brain. We can have empathy for these people. Civil rights didn't hurt white people. Gay marriage didn't hurt heteronormative marriage. Our young men are struggling. When I had this conversation five years ago, I was called Andrew Tate with a graduate degree. I was called a misogynist. And the conversation has become so much more productive, because the people who are leading the conversation now are mothers. And what I tell young men when I'm coaching is the way you know you have failed as a man is when you start blaming other people. You start blaming women for your lack of sexual prospects and you start blaming immigrants for your economic problems. That means you have jumped the shark and you really have lost the script. So, there is an aspirational form of masculinity and I'd like to think it'll be a fantastic code for young men. But it all starts with empathy. This is not a zero-sum game. Women still face huge challenges, but we can also acknowledge our young men are struggling and they need our help. --
Forbes
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘The Legend Of Ochi' Cast And Director On A24's New Coming-Of-Age Fantasy Movie
'The Legend of Ochi' A24 'I have an allegiance towards the moral superiority of children, and the script was written from that perspective,' Isaiah Saxon told me during an interview ahead of the release of his feature film debut The Legend of Ochi. Right in the line of our favorite 80s coming-of-age movies, The Legend of Ochi takes place on the island of Carpathia, where Yuri, a young and shy girl played by Helena Zengel, befriends a wounded baby Ochi, an animal species feared and chased by her entire village. When discussing the misunderstandings and disagreements between the adults and the kids in the movie, Saxon said, 'Kids are just more open-minded, curious and often more alert to reality. Adults are often stuck in their own stories and patterns.' In The Legend of Ochi, Yuri indeed has a complicated and rocky relationship with her father, played by Willem Dafoe. As for her mother, Dasha, played by Emily Watson, she left when Yuri was little. Saxton cited Roald Dahl's novels as a source of inspiration for these characters. He said, 'Every adult in the Roald Dahl's stories and their dialogues are just manipulation and pathetic.' He added: 'He was also allied with the innocence and authenticity of kids.' Dafoe's character has a huge influence on the kids of the village and teaches them how to fight against the Ochi. He wears an armor and acts like a mean Peter Pan with his Lost Boys, orders the kids around and fills their heads with hatred against the Ochi. Willem Dafoe and Finn Wolfhard A24 Wolfhard's character, Petro, is on the other hand one of Yuri's only allies and even helps her escape her home in the middle of the night with the baby Ochi. In Yuri's bedroom, we can see a poster that says 'Destroy the Father' which is very telling of the relationship between Yuri and her father. Details like this one hidden on a set decor or even in a script can have a huge impact on an actor's performance. During the interview, I asked Zengel and Wolfhard if they remembered how these details helped them have a deeper understanding of their characters, or if a detail in particular stood out the most while reading the script. Wolfhard said, 'That's a great question! I read the script in 2020 but I remember just being really interested in my character's internal conflict, between being someone who's just like a normal kid, that just wants to express himself in some way by trying to be more like Yuri, more curious. But at the same time, he's caught between that and trying to be this sort of traditional masculine figure.' Wolfhard joked and added: 'Which is very fake, because you know, when you think of me, you think of 'Classic, masculine man!'. But I remember just really loving that in the script, I hadn't seen that in a while, so I was excited to have that sort of challenge.' 'The Legend of Ochi' A24 The precision of her character's description is especially what helped Academy Award nominee Emily Watson click right away with her character, Dasha, who now lives alone in the mountains, studying nature. Watson said, 'When I first read the script, instantly I thought 'This woman smells bad, she's messed up!' She's like a witch, there's something about her that's very knowledgable and true, she understands the science of these creatures, yet she kinds of missed the main thing, and her relationships are all completely dysfunctional. And she was married to a man who's essentially a child.' She added: 'When I read the description of her character 'The dash of her car is covered in litter, sweet wrappings and dead birds and there's a wooden hand on the stirring wheel,' I said, 'This smells interesting.'' Saxon's was determined to use puppets for the Ochi and not CGI. Zengel declared that six puppeteers were in charge of baby Ochi while she was interacting with him. She said, 'We wanted to really created a bond between the Ochi and Yuri and having it was almost like life to life, I was reacting to it with the different emotions, face expressions and the movement, it's a totally different experience. I was so excited.' 'The Legend of Ochi' A24 Their bond reaches new heights when Yuri realizes that she can speak the Ochi's language (which sounds a bit like a bird). I asked the director how writing the 'dialogues' between Ochi and Yuri also helped him get a new understanding of these characters. He said, 'They talk the Ochi language just a couple of times in the film, and the struggle is to just make it feel real, you know? Like what would be the common subject matter of these beings? What could they talk about?' He added: 'It's very physical and grounded in the universe, talking about bugs and dirt and trees and eating. Later when they start talking about feelings, it's not normally how you would write this type of scene, with a one word-dialogue. So the challenge was to see how much you can say with one word back and forth.'
Daily Mail
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Hollywood's richest actor (who you've never heard of) out earned stars like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Jennifer Lopez
Hollywood's richest actor has amassed a fortune that is many times the net worth of Tinseltown's better known stars. And her path to unimaginable wealth would seem simple enough, since she's married to a multi-billionaire businessman who founded multiple private-equity firms. But, according to Jami Gertz, she acquired her own multi-billion-dollar fortune thanks to her and her husband's ingenuity, as she was making more money than he was when they first met in the 1980s. The 59-year-old Twister actress is now worth around $8billion, according to Celebrity Net Worth, which makes her far wealthier than some of Hollywood biggest stars, including Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lopez. Gertz's riches even exceed those of other famously wealthy artists, like Taylor Swift, who is worth $1.6billion after the success of her Eras Tour, and Steven Spielberg, whose blockbuster films and lucrative contracts have made him round $5.3billion. As Gertz explains it, she put her lucrative acting career on the back burner after getting married and focused on joining her husband Tony Ressler - worth $10.9billion, according to Forbes - in making high-profile business deals. Riches: Her wealth far exceeds much more famous Hollywood stars, including Brad Pitt with $31.5m, and Tom Cruise with $43m In a 2018 Hollywood Reporter profile, Lost Boys star clarified that her ascent to the ranks of the ultra-wealth wasn't as simple as just marrying into wealth. 'Everyone thinks I married a rich guy,' she said. 'But I made more money - way more money - than Tony when I met him. 'I paid for our first house. I paid for our first vacation,' she continued. 'I married him because I fell in love with him.' Gertz's publicist put her in touch with Ressler, who was working at the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, which would file for bankruptcy in 1990 due to illegal junk bond trading. At the time, Gertz was starring with her Lost Boys costar Jason Patric in a small play 'about two people committing suicide every night.' In the same profile, Ressler said he didn't know much about his future wife at the time, other than that she was a 'working actress,' and he wasn't even familiar with the films and TV shows she had made up to that point. But the connection was instantaneous for the two, though Gertz joked that her family might have preferred it if she had married 'a doctor or a lawyer.' Gertz would go on to have high-profile success alongside some of the biggest stars of the 1980s and beyond. In 1987, she appeared in Less Than Zero with Brat Pack members Robert Downey Jr. and Andrew McCarthy, and The Lost Boys, which had an ensemble cast of rising stars including Patric, Keifer Sutherland, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. One of her biggest roles in the 1990s was a supporting part as the fiancée of Bill Paxton's character in Twister (1996), and she later focused on television in the next two decades with a lead role on CBS' sitcom Still Standing and ABC's sci-fi comedy The Neighbors. But Gertz's roles have become rarer in recent years, and she hasn't been credited in anything after 2022's rom-com I Want You Back, which starred Charlie Day and Jenny Slate. In place of acting, she has increasingly followed her husband's lead into business. Ressler made the move to Los Angeles in the late '80s to support his wife's acting career, but after co-founding the private-equity firm Apollo Global in 1990, followed by Ares Management in 1997, he quickly eclipsed her earnings. Gertz was inspired in 2010 to create her own production company, Lime Orchard Productions, which gave her a new income stream just as roles were becoming scarcer. 'You reach an age, and you slow down, and the jobs are a little hard to come by,' she said of acting. But Lime Orchard turned out to be a false start, as it was large unsuccessful, with only the 2011 film A Better Life counting as a success after it earned its star Demian Bichir an Oscar nomination. According to Gertz, she flushed away millions of dollars on the failed production company. Her next move was to focus on building connections with wealthy industry figures in Hollywood, such as Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was a guest at some of her opulent holiday parties. Around that time, Ressler began itching to control his own sports teams. The two went on to join Mark Attanasio's investment group to buy a baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers. Then Ressler, a Los Angeles Lakers superfan, decided they should buy an NBA team. He and Gertz first attempted to snatch up the Los Angeles Clippers after former owner Donald Sterling's racist scandal forced a sale, though Steve Ballmer was ultimately triumphant. They got a second chance in 2015, when they won an auction for a controlling stake in the Atlanta Hawks after a similar racist scandal forced the sale. After becoming owners of the Hawks, Gertz and Ressler built a 90,000-square-foot training compound and sports medicine center for the team's use at Emory University. They also renovated the team's arena, but like many other pro sports team owners, they convinced taxpayers to foot the vast majority of the bill - around $142.5million - while they and their fellow investors only had to pay $50million, even though they stood to earn the most from the team's success. Since taking over the team, Gertz's acting history made her a logical choice to be the public face of the duo, while Ressler could continue working behind the scenes. Now that the couple have joined the ranks of the ultra-wealthy, they have also became major philanthropists.
Daily Mail
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
How the richest actor in the world zoomed ahead of wealthy stars like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lopez
She has amassed a fortune over the years that is multiple times the size of several of the wealthiest Hollywood stars' net worths. And her path to unimaginable wealth would seem simple enough, since she's married to a multi-billionaire businessman who founded multiple private-equity firms. But, according to Jami Gertz, she acquired her own multi-billion-dollar fortune thanks to her and her husband's ingenuity, as she was making more money than he was when they first met in the 1980s. The 59-year-old Twister actress is worth around $8 billion now, according to Celebrity Net Worth, which makes her far wealthier than some of Hollywood biggest stars, including Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lopez. Gertz's riches even exceeds that of other famously wealthy artists, like Taylor Swift, who is worth $1.6 billion after the success of her Eras Tour, and Steven Spielberg, who blockbuster films and enviable contracts have made him worth around $5.3 billion. As Gertz explains it, she put her lucrative acting career on the back burner after getting married and focused on joining her husband Tony Ressler — worth $10.9 billion, according to Forbes — in making high-profile business deals. Jennifer Lopez is wildly wealthy due to her music, film and TV careers and investments, but she is only worth $150M; pictured April 3 in NYC In a 2018 Hollywood Reporter profile, Lost Boys star clarified that her ascent to the ranks of the ultra-wealth wasn't as simple as just marrying into wealth. 'Everyone thinks I married a rich guy,' she said. 'But I made more money — way more money — than Tony when I met him. 'I paid for our first house. I paid for our first vacation,' she continued. 'I married him because I fell in love with him.' Gertz's publicist put her in touch with Ressler, who was working at the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, which would file for bankruptcy in 1990 due to illegal junk bond trading. At the time, Gertz was starring with her Lost Boys costar Jason Patric in a small play 'about two people committing suicide every night.' In the same profile, Ressler said he didn't know much about his future wife at the time, other than that she was a 'working actress,' and he wasn't even familiar with the films and TV shows she had made up to that point. But the connection was instantaneous for the two, though Gertz joked that her family might have preferred it if she had married 'a doctor or a lawyer.' Gertz would go on to have high-profile success alongside some of the biggest stars of the 1980s and beyond. In 1987, she appeared in Less Than Zero with Brat Pack members Robert Downey Jr. and Andrew McCarthy, and The Lost Boys, which had an ensemble cast of rising stars including Patric, Keifer Sutherland, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. One of her biggest roles in the '90s was a supporting part as the fiancée of Bill Paxton's character in Twister (1996), and she later focused on television in the next two decades with a lead role on CBS' sitcom Still Standing and ABC's sci-fi comedy The Neighbors. But Gertz's roles have become rarer in recent years, and she hasn't been credited in anything after 2022's rom-com I Want You Back, which starred Charlie Day and Jenny Slate. In place of acting, she has increasingly followed her husband's lead into business. Ressler made the move to Los Angeles in the late '80s to support his wife's acting career, but after co-founding the private-equity firm Apollo Global in 1990, followed by Ares Management in 1997, he quickly eclipsed her earnings. Gertz was inspired in 2010 to create her own production company, Lime Orchard Productions, which gave her a new income stream just as roles were becoming scarcer. 'You reach an age, and you slow down, and the jobs are a little hard to come by,' she said of acting. But Lime Orchard turned out to be a false start, as it was large unsuccessful, with only the 2011 film A Better Life counting as a success after it earned its star Demian Bichir an Oscar nomination. According to Gertz, she flushed away millions of dollars on the failed production company. Her next move was to focus on building connections with wealthy industry figures in Hollywood, such as Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was a guest at some of her opulent holiday parties. Around that time, Ressler began itching to control his own sports teams. The two went on to join Mark Attanasio's investment group to buy a baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers. Then Ressler, a Los Angeles Lakers superfan, decided they should buy an NBA team. He and Gertz first attempted to snatch up the Los Angeles Clippers after former owner Donald Sterling's racist scandal forced a sale, though Steve Ballmer was ultimately triumphant. They got a second chance in 2015, when they won an auction for a controlling stake in the Atlanta Hawks after a similar racist scandal forced the sale. After becoming owners of the Hawks, Gertz and Ressler built a 90,000-square-foot training compound and sports medicine center for the team's use at Emory University. They also renovated the team's arena, but like many other pro sports team owners, they convinced taxpayers to foot the vast majority of the bill — around $142.5 million — while they and their fellow investors only had to pay $50 million, even though they stood to earn the most from the team's success. Since taking over the team, Gertz's acting history made her a logical choice to be the public face of the duo, while Ressler could continue working behind the scenes. Now that the couple have joined the ranks of the ultra-wealthy, they have also became major philanthropists.
