And the Oscar for Investing Goes To...

From THESTREET.COM: Mutual fund investors looking forward to the 80th Academy Awards might not realize that they probably own a piece of the Hollywood dream factory.

The age of Samuel Goldwyn-Louis Mayer-type Hollywood titans is long gone. Large, diversified corporations that are common holdings in mutual funds now control the moviemaking business.

With major corporate players such a big part of the motion picture industry, movies are generally intertwined with other lines of business. All the firms are diversified into other aspects of the media business, and some are known as much for their manufactured goods as for their manufactured dreams.

As for mutual funds, a search of TheStreet.com Ratings' database could find no pure plays in the movie industry. The business of moviemaking and film distribution is now largely influenced by the corporations listed in the article below. The columns of data on holders of the eight firms show that fund ownership of their shares is relatively widespread.

Because General Electric (GE) controls Universal Studios, a mutual fund with an investment objective of industrial stocks that include GE is also, to a certain degree, a movie play. Universal's Oscar nominees include Atonement from Universal affiliate Focus Features for best motion picture and Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age for best actress.

With firms such as GE, Time Warner (TWX), Disney (DIS), Comcast (CMCSA) and Sony (SNE) now dominating the movie business, mutual fund interest is relatively heavy because of the firms' other interests, rather than for their respective exposures to the motion-picture business.