Bernie Madoff's one degree of separation from Kevin Bacon

Actor Kevin Bacon famous for the six degrees of separation theory -- that is, Kevin Bacon is connected by film role to every actor through at most six other actors. For instance, Bacon was a guest on NBC's Will and Grace when Will said to Bacon, "You did a movie with Val Kilmer?" and Bacon replied, "No, but Val was in Top Gun with Tom Cruise, and Tom was in A Few Good Men with me. Huh, that was a short one."

Why am I talking about this? Bernie Madoff, who claims he stole $50 billion from investors around the world in a Ponzi scheme, is a mere one degree of separation from Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgwick. New York magazine reports that the two "lost everything except for their checking accounts and the land they own" thanks to Madoff.

How did Bacon get sucked into the Madoff network? I don't know. It could have been through his Hollywood connections -- after all Steven Speilberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg are among the other Madoff victims and it would surprise me if Bacon didn't know them. Fortunately, both Bacon and Sedgwick are still working actors so they can rebuild their savings at a relatively rapid rate.