Tobey Maguire’s Preposterously Hard Life

Pity poor Tobey Maguire. Sure, he’s just signed up to film both Spider-man 4 and 5 back-to-back, but at what cost? Well, now we know?$50 million for six months worth of work, and, uh…100% paid vacation. Maguire only agreed to the deal after making sure he had mornings free and would be able to quit at mid-afternoon for “family time.” So say your prayers for Mr. Maguire tonight, knowing that he’s being barely compensated for a half-year of half-days of work.

This raises an interesting point I was discussing recently with the ToyFare crew, particularly in light of their “Manly Men” Twisted ToyFare Theater strip, which was that today’s action heroes are huge sissies. We used to have Chuck Norris, Arnold, Stallone, etc. as our action leads. Now we have Tobey Maguire, Christian Bale (he was a Newsie, for fuck’s sake), Shia the Beef, etc. But we weren’t the only ones who have noticed, as the widow of ’60s action icon Steve McQueen has too. From FilmDrunk:

Some critics have mocked the current generation of Hollywood actors as ?boy-men?. Steve McQueen?s widow Barbara said she could not imagine him asking for ?family time? when making The Great Escape. Like McQueen, Maguire came from a troubled background. He planned to be a chef until his mother, an aspiring scriptwriter, gave him $100 to take acting rather than cooking lessons to make sure he ?got to know the world?. It worked.

So not only Tobey only get $50 mil for 500 hours of work, but he has to put up with McQueen’s widow calling him a pussy. Pity Tobey Maguire, my friends. And thank God you are not he.