For me, Mulholland Drive is a postmodern work that touches on Jameson's theory on the cultural logic of late capitalism.
Jameson believes that late capitalism has three parts: the separation of capital from labor and the sign from its referent, the separation of culture from social and economic life which allows critique and a utopian aspiration (modernism) and a dedifferentiation or expansion of the power of capital into the realm of the sign, of culture and representation which is the overall commodification.
Mulholland Drive follows this path as well: Betty sees Hollywood for all of the glitz and glamour that it represents: fame, fortune, acting, beauty and desire yet she does not immediately see that there is a regular side to Hollywood as well, the working class, the mundane and the glum. Lynch's interpretation of Betty only seeing Hollywood through rose colored glasses represents this separation of Hollywood as a whole into the the Hollywood that comes to mind when people think of what the town represents and the town as a whole which encompasses high, middle and low class workers, glitz and glamour as well as the ordinary, worn and mundane.
Lynch the goes on to separate culture from social and economic life. He does this by portraying the changing lifestyle of the film director from a wealthy man who suddenly loses everything unless he agrees to hire the actress being forced on him by unnamed and seemingly unknowable forces. If he fails to agree he will have no career and no economic freedom that he has enjoyed to date. Hollywood is depicted as being this utopian place where dreams come true and it is what many people aspire to belong to, but the hold on the dream is a precarious one unless you are willing to play the games set forth for you.
Lynch goes on to identify the de-differentiation that Jameson writes of where Hollywood capital expands its power and is all encompassing, representing overall comodification. Betty spends all of the money that her aunt has left her in order to kill her lover whom she despises for having taken a part and the fame that she felt should have been her own. The director complies with the casting demands of unknown individuals and his life is restored to him; he is once again wealthy, valued for his directorial prowess and falls in love with the lead actress. Rita is the starlet that the director was forced into hiring who is in love with Betty (perhaps) and who helps Betty's career along but who ultimately causes Betty so much pain that Betty wants her killed. Betty's grief in having her lover killed over jealousy of her fame and fortune forces Betty to kill herself. Hollywood has come full circle; it is both a place where dreams are made and broken. The town represents one reality for individuals around the world yet it is like many towns in America where not everything is as beautiful as it seems, where bad and good things happen.
I had not thought of Mulholland Drive in terms of Jameson's theory, but I think your assessment of it is spot on. The example you gave of the director who is basically held hostage for potentially not casting the person he is told to cast is quite interesting. I can see this as a separation of culture from social and economic life. If he is not willing to "play the game" and do as the higher ups tell him to, his life will come to a screeching halt.
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