Archive for the &;Hollywood Follies&; Category
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Joan Rivers isnot 77
June 14, 2010
Last week, according to the local &;paper of record&;, the LA Times, on June 8, &;Joan Rivers turned 77, an age that makes her shudder. After all, for years, the comedian has put a lot of money and effort into trying to look younger.&;
Certainly the latter half of this statement is all too demonstrably true, as Rivers has in her campaign to not become Phyllis Diller became the poster child for repeated plastic surgery. But along with erasing lines, Rivers has erased her birthdate&;and the Times is complicit with this.
For Joan Rivers to be 77, she would have been born in 1933. This would mean she wasn&;t quite 21 when she graduated from Barnard College in NY in May of 1954. This is barely possible, but unlikely, especially as she was a transfer student.
More than 15 years ago, when I was employed by the National Enquirer, I did a &;clip job&; on Rivers, going through printed clips on her at AMPAS, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library in Beverly Hills.
According to these aged clips, Joan was actually born in 1931, meaning she is now in her 8oth year, a prospect she no doubt finds far more insufferable than &;turning&; 77 (again).
I have to hand it to her; she&;s worked really hard to get the later date out for years, and short of pulling her birth certificate a la &;Kenyan alien&; Barack Obama, it&;s hard to prove.
Does it matter if a woman shaves a couple of years off her age? Probably not; I know someone who&;s half-seriously attempting to shave 9 years off hers. What&;s not OK is for the Times to just print it. What ever happens to &;If your mother says she loves you, check it out?&;
Tags:Hollywood, Joan-Rivers, LA-Times, National-Enquirer, uncritical-press Posted in Hollywood, Hollywood Follies, Los-Angeles-Times, tabloid-journalism | 3 Comments &;
2012: Sick withCGI
October 7, 2009
The Mayans are coming! The Mayans are coming!
Or at least the supposed Mayan prophesy about the end of the world in 2012. As the website for the movie 2012 states, &;With the Mayan calendar ending in 2012, a large group of people must deal with natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, typhoons and glaciers.&;
Personally I&;m more concerned with the Iranians getting the H-bomb, but then I&;m not trying to sell a movie overstuffed with computer-generated imagery (CGI) and Hollywood hooey.
Saw the 2012 trailer before Zombieland last night, and was repelled by the overuse of CGI.
Fake cars falling off the fake freeway.
Santa Monica&;s palisades crumbling into the sea.
Fake meteorites hitting the fake highway where John Cusack is driving his RV.
The arms falling off the Brazilian statue of Jesus.
Michelangelo&;s Last Supper, cracking.
St. Paul&;s Basilica, topping over.
Fake floods toppling a fake monastery.
Planes flying over a digitally crumbling city.
Cusack, usually a great actor, trying to scream on the green screen.
&;Find out the truth. Search 2012.&;
The truth is that 2012 may make Armageddon look like a classic. CGI is becoming so horribly overused in action movies that only the exceptions stand out. District 9 looks so impressively/depressingly &;real&; that the audience is happy to accept people in &;prawn&; suits.
And Gladiator won the 2001 Visual Effects Oscar, even though it had only 90 special effects shots, as opposed to the 350 in the favored Perfect Storm with its monstrous tidal waves.
Unfortunately, filmmakers have not learned from Ridley Scott&;s judicious use of CGI in Gladiator, which he used to enhance the Colisseum and even bring Alan Bates (Proximo), who died during filming, back to life.
When will filmmakers learn that with CGI, less is more?
John Cusack in 2012
Tags:2012-The-Movie, John-Cusack, overuse-of-CGI, Ridley-Scott Posted in Hollywood, Hollywood Follies, Hollywood-turkeys, Uncategorized | 1 Comment &;
Hilary Clinton and the RollingStones
September 12, 2008
In &;Shine a Light&;, the new Rolling Stones concert film directed by Martin Scorsese, now on DVD, Bill and Hilary Clinton make brief on-stage appearances (it&;s billed as a benefit for the Clinton Foundation.)
That got me thinking. What&;s Hilary Clinton&;s favorite Rolling Stones song?
&;Honky Tonk Women&;?
&;Some Girls&;? real | windows media&;
We know Bill likes &;Little T&A&; real | windows media
Hilary? (I Can&;t Get No) Satisfaction real | windows media
Tags:Bill-Clinton, Hilary-Clinton, Martin-Scorsese, Rolling-Stones, Shine-A-Light Posted in Hollywood Follies, Music, political-correctness, Politics | 3 Comments &;
Lindsay Lohan Remembers9-11
September 11, 2008
Lindsay Lohan is growing up. Her recent comments (and those of her friend, Samantha Ronson) about remembering 9-11 show someone who is putting the chaos of her family life and personal problems behind her and caring about the lives of others&;and our country.
“I am in New York and I would like to remind everybody to take a moment today for those lost in tragedy that occurred on 9/11/01,&; Lohan blogs.
Ronson adds &;I don’t really know what to say,&; she says. &;To all those we lost, we will never forget, and never take for granted, the sacrifices that you made.&;
It seems that Lindsay is finding some of the happiness she has brought others as an entertainer in films like Mean Girls and, yes, even Herbie.
Playing the twin girls in The Parent Trap, she gave my family (and probably many others) some comfort after we turned off the TV in the days after 9/11 and watched her over and over again. Its good that she and Ronson remember, seven years later, and understand that the pain never goes away.
Tags:9-11, lindsay-lohan, Samantha-Ronson Posted in Hollywood Follies | Leave a Comment &;
Indiana Jones Reviewed in 7Words
May 27, 2008
So much
So much
So much
Exposition.
Tags:Indiana-Jones Posted in Hollywood Follies | Leave a Comment &;
Passport BreachesUpdate
March 21, 2008
I hadn&;t seen this before, but I had guessed that celebrities would be the target of your typical bored, unethical passport processor at the State Department.
Bingo!
According to ABC News, &;On at least two other occasions during the last eight months, contractors were fired for accessing records of Hollywood celebrities, the official said.&;
Posted in Hollywood Follies, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment &;
Beautiful andCrazy?
January 29, 2008
No, not her, but Sean Young, the (still) gorgeous star of Blade Runner, No Way Out and the MP who pairs up with Harold Ramis in Stripes.
By various accounts bored, drunk and seeking attention, the white fur coat-clad star started heckling director Julian Schnabel at the DGA Awards&;and making comments about Piaf star Marion Cotillard in French!
Schnabel &;suggested that she should finish his speech for him and started walking off the stage. Music began playing for his exit, but the audience urged him to stay and keep speaking, and he did. Young, meanwhile, was removed from the ballroom.&;
She got attention, all right, although probably not the kind she was seeking; it&;s off to rehab for Bladerunner&;s radiant replicant Rachel, who Letterman points out went to the awards and started &;heckling the winners.&;
Perhaps the cruelest comeback Schnabel made? &;Who was that?&;
Posted in Blade-Runner, Hollywood Follies, Hollywood-meltdowns, Sean-Young | Leave a Comment &;
Paris Hilton TakesResponsibility&;Not
May 7, 2007
Paris fired her long-suffering publicist Elliott Mintz over the weekend. No doubt her DUI-related sentencing was all his fault.
Usually, the best media strategy is to apologize and try to move forward. But unlike Prison Break star Lane Garrison, Hilton blames others for her conviction, saying that Mintz had told her she was permitted to drive for work-related reasons.
For his part, Mintz took the high road. &;I have nothing but love and respect for Paris and her family. Paris is a wonderful person and does not deserve the punishment that was handed down by the court. I only wish her my best.&;
Mintz&; public relations job description, apparently, was not only to keep her in the media spotlight, but to keep her out of jail. Now she&;ll have to find someone else to clean up after her.
Posted in Eliot-Mintz, Hollywood Follies, Lane-Garrison, Media Training, Paris-Hilton, Prison-Break, Public Relations, public-relations-disaster | 4 Comments &;
Animal Acts and the SillySeason
May 1, 2007
Reggie, the lovable alligator dumped in a Long Beach lake by his loser owners when he got too big, is back!
This week also brought us a grizzly bear attack and aftermath. It follows the death threat against little Knut the Polar Bear and the pet food panic. Last spring, a coyote in Manhattan was a huge story, even as Californians used to real Wileys said WTF. There&;s West&;s incredible cover piece on Cheeta, 75-year old survivor of Hollywood&;s golden era. Lucky and Flo. And panda porn.
Alligators, bears, monkeys and coyotes don&;t buy papers. But people who care about them apparently do. Is reading about animals a respite from the depressing doings of humans? Do animal stories pull like Hollywood fish-out-of-water tales? Do they bring the call of the wild to sedentary urban people? Or are animals part of the reader&;s idealized family, as in this 1939 (!) shot of Cheeta with Johnny Weismuller as Tarzan and Maureen O&;Hara as Jane.
Or has what was once the summer silly season become a year-round media game of trivial pursuit?
Posted in alligators, animals-in-the-news, bears, Cheeta, Hollywood Follies, Journalism, panda-porn, Pets, Publishing, silly-season, Tarzan, Television, Wiley-coyote | Leave a Comment &;
Los Angeles Riots Remembered, 15 YearsOn
April 30, 2007
The media loves &;celebrating&; anniversaries, but there was surprisingly little coverage on the LA Riots this year. What coverage there was talked about how South Central (now South) Los Angeles remains a tinderbox . Worse, the Yuppies are coming.
The Los Angeles Riots began on April 29, 1992, at around 6:45PM. The not-guilty verdict in the trial of four LAPD officers charged with the beating of Rodney King came down around 3:15PM in Simi Valley, a northern (white) suburb of Los Angeles. By 4:30PM, crowds were gathering at Florence and Normandie Avenues in South Central LA. By 6:45PM, a division of LA Police officers had &;redeployed&;, never to return,. The crowd grew violent, pulling (white) truckdriver Reginald Denny out of his truck and beating him.
In the same way many can remember where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated, I remember where I was April 29: arriving at a Los Angeles Lakers playoff game against the Portland Trailblazers. Leaving our two year old with a babysitter, we had driven south from West Hollywood down La Cienega Boulevard to the Great Western Forum. Listening to Chick&;s pre-game analysis, we probably missed radio news reports about the just-beginning troubles by minutes. We also just missed the rioting which had spread to Inglewood between 7 and 9PM.
The game, which took place long before the cell phone/mobile Web era, was an engrossing thriller. Few had any idea what was going on outside. The Lakers, staggered early that season by the HIV-related retirement of Magic Johnson, won in overtime in what would be their only playoff win that year.
Late in the game, a message flashed on the square scoreboard above center court. &;Inglewood Police Control: Exit to the North and West only.&; The crowd had been psyched&;until we stepped out into the darkness and fire. A friend&;s Honda had the windshield smashed. Our inconspicuous 1987 Chevy Cavalier was unharmed. All the streetlights were out. People threw rocks as we drove through deep puddles where firemen had tried to stop the burning. We raced north on LaBrea, looking into every car as they looked at us, wondering if the people inside were angry enough to kill.
We made it home and sent the babysitter away. The next day, I carried my two-year-old on my shoulders to my office at Larry Flynt Publications. Our child care provider couldn&;t make it to work from the devastated area. A curfew was declared, schools and businesses were closed, and we went home and watched TV. Our neighborhood was relatively safe, patrolled by the Los Angeles Sheriffs department rather than the embattled LAPD. Still, opportunistic thieves smashed their way into a Gap store two blocks away. Much of the rest of the city was burned or looted in what the politically correct called &;the uprising.&; The California National Guard stood with their M-16s guarding streetcorners near our house.
On Monday, May 4, 1992, schools and businesses reopened. The toll: more than 50 killed, over four thousand injured, 12,000 arrested, and $1 billion in property damage.
To this day, my wife tells me I should have known better. I can only hang my head, knowing we had driven into the inferno. The good news: we are still together, Magic Johnson is still alive and going strong and so is Los Angeles.
Posted in Hollywood Follies, Lakers, Los Angeles Riots, Magic Johnson, Sports | 5 Comments &;
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