Where Is The Fred Astaire Of Today's Entertainment Industry?

For no specific reason other than the usual boredom with things television, I stumbled tonight upon the old movie Top Hat starring Fred Astaire. Sometimes by happenstance I ephemerally stop on some obscure cable channel and end up fixated on one of the historic movies of the 1930's or '40s. Tony Bennett, incidentally, the "singer's singer" as noted by compatriot Frank Sinatra, hero of I Left My Heart in San Francisco unleashed at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown SF, was ultimately to become an unsigned artist. His son stepped in as his creative consultant and Tony's career went flying again with the release of this wonderful compilation CD of Fred Astaire Music entitled Stepping Out. This was the exact musical content of Top Hat, the movie I accidentally landed on tonight. Now why would I go on about Fred Astaire who I do not know is even mentioned or discussed in our illustrious 21 Century?. It is because if you look at the sheer magnificence of the gentleman's presentation and the alacrity and precision of his singularly genius abilities in dance and unmitigated charm, do you realize that there is not one person in the entertainment business who could even tie the shoes of Fred Astaire. While it is true that for years I have written about the Idol Mentality and the influence this has had on our music business and Hollywood in 2009, I am not really going there again at this point. I am just wondering why not only is there no Fred Astaire performing today, there is no Ratso Rizzo, Five Easy Pieces or going back, no Bob Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Humphrey Bogart, Lana Turner and endlessly going forward with many more entries. In music, no band can rock like Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, croon like Billy Eckstein or vocalize like Brook Benton or Benny E. King or Jerry Butler. I am in no way saying that the music business or Hollywood and entertainment is a vast wasteland but we have got to stop depending on oldies acts to carry the ball over the line. Jackie Vernon has been dead for many many years and a long time ago I remember him as a fixture  on the Ed Sullivan Show as a stand up comic.  Jackie emanated from the old Time Square Dixie Hotel set which included Lenny Bruce and the real deal comedians that were the colleagues of Don Rickles and Don Adams as they were discharged from service in WWll. Jackie Vernon would stand there on stage with a clicker and exhibited a completely dead pan face and say "I was a deck hand on a submarine then I got a job as a night watchman in a day camp.Needless to say, besides my favorite comedian Chris Rock, Jackie Vernon, a blast from the distant past, was much funnier than anybody out there today. In summary, I see a  need for a reorganization of the entire bunch today (Johnny Depp excluded), which means to somehow stop the millions of dollars it is needed to appease actors and singers who should be more negotiable and whereas some are no real talent hard bodies. What we need is some Fred Astaire's, 21 year old Stevie Nicks and a 2009 James Taylor. There is too much cherry picking Cd's out there and no more Tapestrys.