On the afternoon talk show The Talk, there was a guest from Entertainment Tonight named Cameron Madison. He showed up to tell a story about Star Wars creator George Lucas. He showed clips of Lucas leaving a hotel and being asked for his autograph. Madison said they were autograph dealers trying to make money off his signature and not real fans. Lucas is shown in the clip saying to one of the autograph dealers, “You know why I have money and you don’t have money? Because instead of spending my time doing autographs, I spent my time making movies.”

The man responded, “But I can’t make movies,” to which Lucas replied, “Sure you can. I started just like you. I had nothing when I started.”

Later, the clip shows him outside that hotel, with about eight other autograph dealers. Another camera catches him saying, “It’s only a few of us, come on.”

Lucas said, “No, no no. Fans only.”

A different guy, I believe...responding to a part of the video you don’t see where Lucas tells them they should just panhandle instead, asks Lucas, “Do you have a job for me? I’ll work for you if you have a job for me.”

Lucas responded, “Only for the fans. Fans only!” The guy pleaded, “It’s for your fans.”

As Lucas gets into the car he says, “No you’re not. You’re asking for money. And this doesn’t go to my fans. I have a choice of saying no, and I’m saying no!”

Madison asks the panel on the show, “Should it just be for fans and not professional autograph seekers?”

The crowd applauds, yelling “Yes!”

The beautiful Aisha Tyler (who I regret not going to her book signing when it was a mere five blocks from where I live), said “We’ve all experienced that. When they have a stack of 20 photos, you know they’re going to sell it and it’s not for them. I think about the fact that somebody that might love the Star Wars franchise is homebound, and can’t get to Chicago, or New York, Los Angeles, and it might be meaningful to that fan. It feels exploitative when they’re holding up 20 pictures. It’s a little unfair. Knowing they have a photo Lucas signed that he paid 20 or 50 dollars for online. So, I’ll sign two. I let them pick the two photos. But I do think they go to a fan.

Sheryl Underwood said, “You think it can inspire the fan? Well, if you can do all that, do what our fans do. Write to this show and ask for an autograph. They do it all the time. The photo goes around and we all sign it. That’s different then somebody coming for commerce. If they’re gonna do all that, they might as well go out and panhandle and make that your business instead of using my signature and my photograph to make money.”

They went to Ozzy Osbourne’s wife Sharon, since she had a recent story to share. She said, “All the time in the music industry, these guys come with stacks of stuff. Plates you put on guitars [pick guards], drumheads to sign. The other day in Chicago this guy had a stack for Ozzy. He said, ‘How much do you get for these pieces?’ He went through the list of what he would earn and Ozzy said ‘thank you for being truthful, I’ll sign everything.’ It’s the first time in a hundred years that somebody every said how much. It was his business.”

Julie Chen said, “Wow! Well, I’m sure he’s a fan now.”

No doubt.