HR and Hollywood hunks

Workforce, June, 2002 by Carroll Lachnit

This issue of Workforce features a 360-degree view of HR. And that got the editors thinking about another set of degrees: What is HR's degree of separation from, say, a handsome, hardworking movie star?

As you might know, Harvard social psychologist Stanley Milgram did an experiment in 1967 to demonstrate what he called the "small world" theory. The theory (still unproven, but some sociologists at Columbia University are working on it) states that there are only six degrees of separation between any two people in the world. As the Columbia sociologists put it, there's "a short chain of social acquaintances" at work. The idea inspired John Guare's play and movie Six Degrees of Separation.

Get ready for startling news: Workforce has found that there are only three degrees of separation between human resources and movie star Kevin Bacon. You may know that Bacon, by virtue of being in so many films whose very large casts featured actors who vary widely in age and nationality, is closely linked with performers ranging from the silent era to obscure foreign films. But can HR and Kevin be close? It's true.

Here's how it works, thanks to the computing wonder known as the Oracle of Bacon at the University of Virginia (www.oracleofbacon.org). The site is fascinating, but a gigantic time-waster. If you have Web-site blocking software, you might consider adding the Oracle of Bacon to the list immediately. Or maybe you and your colleagues can exercise self-control. Some Workforce employees have had a hard time tearing themselves away.

First degree: There's a bleak but absorbing 1999 French film called Human Resources. It stars Jalil Lespert. Lespert is featured in the new biographical film Sade, which stars Daniel Auteuil. (Note that's just one degree of separation between HR and the Marquis de Sade.)

Second degree: Daniel Auteuil was in the 1999 film The Escort with Stuart Townsend.

Third degree: This fall, Stuart Townsend will appear in an American thriller, Trapped, with--Kevin Bacon.

Voila. Your profession has put you three steps away from a Hollywood hunk. Who said the job doesn't have perks?