Exclusive: Since Katie Holmes was cast in “Mania Days,” a very minor movie, the production has gotten a lot of press. Now the p.r. geniuses behind “Mania Days” promoting the idea of a romance between Katie and the movie’s little known male star, Luke Kirby, in real life — whatever that is.
But I’ve told you the story about “Mania Days” quite a a while ago. It’s directed and written by Paul Dalio, the son of hedge fund king Ray Dalio. Ray Dalio owns Bridgewater Associates of Connecticut. He presides, presumably, over $80 billion or so of investments.
Since Paul Dalio has no actual credits, but has managed to attract Spike Lee as an executive producer and actors like Christine Lahti, Griffin Dunne and Bruce Davidson in secondary roles, the talk is that Ray Dalio is underwriting this project for his son.
Paul Dalio’s only other credits are making videos for the Maharishi University and the David Lynch Foundation. This isn’t a surprise since Ray Dalio is a big big financial backer of Lynch and of Transcendental Meditation, which is the whole purpose of Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa. Basically Katie has traded Scientology and auditing for TM and mantras.
Ray Dalio obviously has his own interest in celebrity and Hollywood. He has also been the major financial backer of Jennifer Lopez’s charitable foundation, formerly called Maribel. He gave the foundation $450,000 in 2009 and $75,000 in 2010 according to Federal Tax Filings.
How did Spike Lee get involved? You’ll notice in the press about the so called Katie-Luke Kirby romance the movie has been reduced to “a Spike Lee production.” It takes money to run Spike’s 40 Acres and a Mule. And frankly, though he’s a great director, Spike hasn’t had a financial hit of his own in a long, long time. Getting him to executive produce a movie financed by the biggest hedge fund creator in the U.S. (if not the world) couldn’t have been hard– there’s a big fee involved.
And what will “Mania Days” be like after all this money and press have been thrown around? No one knows for sure. But last week I spotted Paul Dalio (or his doppelganger) walking around in the West Village during the afternoon, far away from his film set. Maybe he was meditating.
