It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” ā some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it ā I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury ā he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” ā and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging ā I was with her at that moment ā she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy namedā” “Yeah, sure ā you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that Iām on the phone with you now, after all thatās been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didnāt seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereās not a case of that. He wasnāt using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had ā if that were what the accusation involved ā the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. Iām not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, āYou know, itās not this, itās thatā? Because ā let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. TimesĀ piece, thatās what it lacked. Thatās what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
First, it should be no surprise that someone associated from Fox News would not be up to Murrowesque journalistic standards.
Second, glad to hear someone else bash Last Samurai.
Dave I completely agree.
Not to get too off-topic, but there seems to be a lot of flack on Cruise’s Oprah stint. I guess he acted like the real freak.
Having not seen it, is it true? Is he potentially damaging himself with all this behaivor?
He went a bit far… but the midwest seems to like to believe what they see on Oprah… and they pay the bills, not the media.
Hmm… if only every $80 million costing movie (includes marketing) made over $164 million in the US (following a normal $30 million opening), and nearly won one of its actors an Oscar (and did, I believe win Chris Walken a Screen Actor’s Guild award). All this in the shadow of The Two Towers. Yup… Catch Me If You Can sure did flop. Hmm.
This column is a prime example of why I stopped reading Roger Friedman.
There are some of us here in the Midwest that don’t believe what we see on Oprah. Her program is just a front for promoting the latest in the entertainment world.
Do I think the relationship is a sham? Maybe.
If it isn’t, more power to Tom and Katie.
If it is, I can’t blame them for wanting to generate as much publicity as possible. I would think they wouldn’t need to, based on the eye-popping trailers and commercials so far.
i sheepishly admit i saw Oprah [red face].
Nothing could prepare me for Tom Cruise’s seizures! I want Oprah’s stage checked for Poltergeists. Stay off the “vitamins” Tom. Brooke may need them but You. Don’t.
I could care less re. a Personal Life of any Celebrity, I was more interested in WOTW since Wells has written my fave childhood stories.
but… It almost makes me wonder if the movie is only so-so if the Marketeers keep pushing Tom or Tom and Katie instead of a gripping WOTW campaign.
Tom Cruise is very good at stumping/touring for & supporting his flicks, but I do wish he’d keep the personal out of it. It’s a distraction from the business at hand and the timing feels forced.
By the way…
1)I hope WOTW is as good as Minority Report (minus the cheese ending).
2)Roger F isn’t half as smart as Sponge Bob. WHy is he still employed anyway? His conspiracy is silly.
Jeff, let me just add that Roger Friedman has proudly called himself Fox News’s biggest liberal. Not that that means one iota if he’s a good reporter, but I thought I’d match your flame with one of my own.
Friedman’s probably a liberal…
Man, The Last Samurai was pretty shit. Technicall great and a great perf from Ken Wattanabe but while i don’t excect rainbows and singalongs they could at least be a bit less glum.
…? And I was so happy when I found out the Last Samurai of the title was actually the American trator who stole the wife a dead samurai…?
Anyway, I find it funny that Tom has lambasted Brooke Shields for taking depression medication and saying she has no career left – I spose he hasn’t seen Chicago in London?
Tom Cruise has officially entered into CREEPY OLD
BASTARD territory. Not that his vaccant demeanor
or his lack of being able to answer a question were
not bad enough. Now he’s gushing over Chris Klien’s
leftovers! He easily freaks me the hell out now.
And I have no faith in War of the Worlds. The new
trailer looks like Signs. Plus the Aliens look
like Xenomorphs on the creme and the clear. I hope
The Thing knocks the living shit out of this film.
Do not sell me ID4. When I am already past ID4.
You think Tim Robbins is in the flick just because?
friedman can’t take it that hes 3 week late on a story. and who has katie holmes as a source?
How many other 44 yr old men would be jumping up and down if they got to be with Katie Holmes?
Terence: You have no idea.
I’m a 24 year old girl and I would be jumping around if Tom Cruise was declaring his love for me. You know how much hes worth???? Hes Tom Cruise!
At least Rog gets his facts straight about WOTW opening on June 22 … oh, wait. It’s the 29th? Man, he can’t even report properly. What a maroon!
Roger’s column wherein he stated that EVERYONE knows Michael Jackson will be acquitted THREE times is frame worthy. What a retard.
I am Spam Dooley and I use Garnier Fructis!
Nothing can make me root for Katie and Tom because I don’t care. From what I’ve seen I think it’s fake but I’m not loosing any sleep over it.
I’ve seen Tom Cruise live once at a “career retrospective” (Read: Shameless Oscar pandering) and trust me, this guy loves to play up to the audience. I didn’t watch Oprah, but the guy is there in a room with 500 female admirers of his and he wants to give them a show.
That said, he’s a freak-job. I don’t think he’s gay. I think the celebrity life is driving him crazy and he doesn’t know how to behave in public any more.
hes a scientologist. i think that says it all
I actually really, really like Cruise…but agree he’s getting downright freaky. And not in a good way…in a well, downright freaky way.
Here’s a taste of Oprah:
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200505/tows_past_20050523.jhtml
You think if War of the Worlds was being released by Miramax, Rog here would be bashing Cruise?
Excellent observation, joefitz84.
I very much hope WOTW is nothing like Signs. I HATE sanctimonious Sci Fi, it is worse than being stuck in a packed subway car with a manic street preacher (and I don’t mean the boys from Wales).
BUT…If Tom Cruise is indeed in a movie like Signs, does that make him the Mel Gibson of Scientology?
Maybe we’ll see a “Passion of the L Ron Hubbard” by next year. I may enjoy seeing a celluloid ‘L Ron Hubbard’ getting knocked around to be honest. Hell yeah I’d pay $10 for that.
Please Dave.
It’s time to retract the claws.
Friedman is a gossip columnist and nothing more. We all know it too.
Keep up the good work!
Full disclosure: “Signs” was my favorite movie of 2002.
Rog is a crappy, shill of a gossip columnist. What scoops does he get? When Miramax is releasing Proof????
if cruise is actually gay, then his performance on oprah should be emmy nominated
Friedman really knows how to get those scoops. You think he has a shrine dedicated to Harvey W at his home?
These movie stars and other celebs are mostly sick or creepy in some way…yeah, Cruise has been rumored to be gay for many years. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a PR stunt.
I don’t know, nor care if he is gay or not…
…but I know he is not good enough of an actor.
If its a PR stunt, its failing miserably since he looks terrible right now.
As Howard Stern so astutely put it. Tom appears to
be running around as if he’s shocked that he’s
“putting his HOT DOG IN KATIE HOLMES DONUT!” He
also could not tell the story about how they met.
Just utterly creepy.
And if that is the Science Guy. I must give him
all sorts of dap. If not; SHAME ON YOU SIR! SHAME
ON YOU!
Ugh, can we please get over the “Tom Cruise is not a good actor” line of thinking? Whatever you think about the guy’s personal life, he is a fucking great actor, and one that typically chooses damn good movies to be in. I mean, I can only think of one true piece of shit he’s been in since “Cocktail,” and that’s “Mission: Impossible 2.”
The guy has steadily improved at his craft since “Risky Business,” and he is the rare superstar that has the talent to back up his status.
he doesn’t want to say how they met because its even creepier. digs her so has his agent set up a meeting.
Bob – That’s how Douglas met Zeta-Jones, and he’s very forthcoming about it. Back in my junketeer days (I’m not proud), he told me so while promoting “Wonder Boys.”
Watching Cruise get all giddy during the show was like watching a nerdy high school guy brag about his one date with a cheerleader.
If you watch Tom cruise in Magnolia, you will not be surprise by his appearence on Oprah.
He is a terrific actor. Go Tom!
In his latest column Friedman makes this comment about Sith’s box office success: “The $200 million point will occur on its eighth day of release, which is certainly some kind of record.”
Yeah, it is a record, one it would share with “Spider-Man 2,” which might actually be ahead after 8 days by a little bit. Is it that hard to check Box Office Mojo? Lazy, lazy, lazy.
I hope I never become as jaded as most of you people seem to be.
How is it being jaded to comment on a gossip columnist being a hack?
Reading Friedman gets funnier each day. Hes trying to make himself the expert on Michael Jackson. But its noit working.
Everyone is commenting on Tom Cruise, but no one says much about Katie Holmes, because she is still a relative unknown. I am a big fan of hers going back to the beginning of Dawson’s Creek.
I don’t know what Tom is doing here or what his real motives are. But, I think that any 44 year old man that had a shot at someone like Katie would consider himself a very lucky man and possibly be acting a little “dippy” about it. (But, this dippy is a bit too much). So, I hope that his motives are honorable, because I don’t want to see anything bad happen to Holmes.
That said, Katie is acting very strangely – not like the Katie Holmes I have come to know. From what I know about her, she is a very sweet, clean living, honorable, rather private young woman that comes from a sheltered background and, therefore, has always seemed young for her age. She has too much self respect and too good a head on her shoulders to participate in a blatent fraud.
I think that her youth and naivete has translated into her films. Watching Snow White cluelessly trying to play the Wicked Witch in trashy films that continually bomb, has stunted her film career. If she would just be herself on the big screen as she was on the small screen she would become a huge star. The word that best describes her is clueless not calculating and her management, which shouldn’t be clueless but is, has done little to help. Pieces of April and Batman Begins are real digressions from her usual fare and I hope that this is a trend that I hope will continue.
But I digress. What I think is really happening here is that she is clearly on the rebound and is over her head with a big star that has swept her off her feet. The Tom Cruise name, private jet big home and continuous glare of publicity could sweep any young woman off her feet. So, I think that this romance is real from her point of view anyway.
This could happen to any young woman that has always been a Tom Cruise fan and now has come into close proximity to him. She has that deer in the headlights look and is being badly abused by the press that really doesn’t know her at all. Of course, when you play in the fast lane you can’t be surprised when you keep getting hit by big semis in the press. Whatever, happens here, I hope she comes out of this wiser and relatively unscathed.
If she does well in Batman Begins, things will work out well for her – as long as she doesn’t make any more ridiculous trashy films that bomb. No matter how this Tom Cruise thing comes out she will be OK over the long term if she does well on the big screen. If not, she will find herself back in Toledo well before her time.
Wow Lenny,
I hate to burst your bubble, but haven’t you seen the pics all over the net and magazine’s of Katie sporting the oral herpes? I don’t think she’s that innocent.
I also think that’s why she’s Cruise’s pick for the stunt. She’s gorgeous, she’s all american, they both have movies coming out, and he’s got legit reason not to want to touch her….
Cruise picvks women, hooks into them, ups their star power and moves on. Penelope Cruz was a teeny blip on the radar before TC and same with Katie (who I love).
Lenny- you have too much time on your hands š
The herpes photos of Katie are not flattering.
Herpes?!! You cynical cynical people. That’s the entry wound for removing poor Katie’s Reactive Mind.
Models and actresses usually use covermark to cover that stuff up.
But Lenny, what I really want to know is: Are you gonna go my way? (If so, I might have to lock my door.)
Hmm…I wonder if those pics could be photoshopped? If I was her publiscist, that’s what I’d be screaming right now “Photoshop!”
Even if they’re true.
If you looked closely when she got pulled onto the Oprah stage you could see the herpes marks over her mouth. She was not wearing a lot of makeup because she didn’t expect to be on camera.
I tend to agree with don about TC hooking into women. He probably noticed her some time ago and waited until she was available to move in.
I certainly hope he helps to make her a star. But, she won’t become a star until she starts to consistently play roles that make sense for her. The next Julia Roberts won’t make it playing roles more suitable for Angelina Jolie. Especially, if Jolie would only take the roles Katie has played if she had taken a sharp blow to the head and lost her senses.
Don, I love Katie too, which is an easy thing for any man to do. Tom may or may not actually be dippy about Katie, but from what I have seen of her everything he has said about her is true.
As for what Gdb said, I don’t believe that she is that innocent – what I wrote was that she was young for her age and naive. There is no reason that any young woman, however innocent, wouldn’t pet with a guy, especially a TC, if she had always been hot for him the way Katie has apparantly been for TC since she was about four years old.
Don is also right about me having to much time on my hands – today. But, tomorrow is another day.
lenny kravitz himself posts here
Tough to use makeup to cover up herpes. Ask Stella how that goes.
not a good mental image. not good at all
Dave, you should post that Page Six story about Roger Friedman.
The way he got booted three times from the courtroom? Priceless.
I just finally saw some of the Oprah footage and some Access Hollywood too. He’s crazy! Seriously losing it and scarier than the real-life anti-psychiatry people on Hollywood Blvd.
Mr. Friedman is glad to know that you are all reading his column and reading it so carefully. He is very important to all of you, apparently.
As for Mr. Poland, please stay over the poverty line so that we don’t have to pay for your food stamps. But just over the line, not too far.
I just think people like reading Rog for the goof he is. See the difference between a guy like David and a guy like Rog is easy. Dave will actually start a blog and answers email even when you disagree with him. He’ll discuss it with you. He won’t run from what he says. Rog? He’s too busy accusing third rate gossip hounds of thievery. The guys a hack.
You know, I’ve been accused of making rash and unfounded statements on this blog. But I think I can say, without much fear of being contradicted, that Polish Sausage doesn’t seem like a very nice person.
I don’t even understand what he means. But it’s obviously nasty.
the polish sausage is a proud member of friedmans fan club. a club totaling a whole 3 members. his mom counts as 2 people
Polish, or Roger, don’t hate David because hes an actual journalist. Hate yourself for not being one.