Kite Runner

There’s a crazy scene brewing around the movie version of bestselling novel The Kite Runner. Apparently the parents of some of the Kabul-based child stars of the film are worried for the safety of their kids, so they will be moved to safety outside the country.

It’s all pretty funky, and definitely not the sort of thing you have to deal with — even when you make a flick with Lindsay Lohan.

But a throwaway paragraph in the story I read is where things get really weird.

Paramount hired Rich Klein—a Middle East expert from Henry Kissinger’s New York-based international consulting firm, Kissinger McLarty Associates—to travel to the United Arab Emirates and prepare a safe haven for the children, according to the Times. Klein arranged for visas, housing and schooling.

Oh great, let’s get Kissinger involved. That’ll smooth everything over.

Then I got to this bit:

All told, the Times reports that Paramount has committed to supporting the preadolescent actors until they become adults, a cost estimated to be upward of $500,000. For their work on The Kite Runner, (actors) Ebrahimi and Mahmoodzada were paid about $10,000 each. The film’s total production costs were about $18 million.

In other words, they put these kids in mortal danger for an initial dollar amount equivalent to, say, Russell Crowe’s weekly Skittles budget.

Paramount, you’re all class. Here’s hoping your latest revenue stream doesn’t get some poor foreign kids beheaded.

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