Variety Gets Some Blood
Thank goodness this was rushed onto the front page of Variety… sigh…
Posted: Thurs., Aug. 11, 2005, 4:08pm PT
Blogger bails on bid for ‘Virgin’ preem tix
Studio covers $4,050 price after Poland refuses to pay
By GABRIEL SNYDER
HOLLYWOOD — An eBay auction for tickets to the “40-Year-Old Virgin” premiere to benefit an L.A. homeless shelter turned into a fiasco after a movie blogger bid $4,050 for the tickets and then refused to pay.
David Poland, who operates MovieCityNews.com, actually got lucky since he set his maximum bid at $3 million, but none of the other bidders pushed things higher.
“I thought it was a joke thing and that other people would bid more than $3 million and it would go to $10 million or $20 million,” he said.
Still, even at $4,050, Poland said, “There is no way I’m paying for this.”
Universal listed the “Virgin” tickets under the headline “40-Year-Old Virgin Still Available” and with a wink and a nod offered “dinner, movie, conversation…and possibly the chance for something more!”
A little lower, the listing read, “You are bidding for two tickets to the world premiere of ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ which will be held at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood” and said that proceeds would go to Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, which provides social services for homeless substance abusers.
Though Poland said that when he entered the bid he thought he was bidding on the virginity of the fictional character in the film, other bloggers who wrote about it had no problem figuring out that it was a charity auction for tickets.
He now blames the small size of the text in the listing. But in an earlier email to Daily Variety, he wrote, “Even as scrunched up as the bottom of the description is, I find it hard to imagine that I didn’t notice it.”
According to eBay’s guidelines, which renders bids legally binding contracts, Poland was on the hook for the full $4,050. But it sounds like U will be cutting a check to the charity instead. “Universal’s last word was we’ll take care of it,” he said.
Beyond covering for the cost of his screw-up, Poland also asked the studio not to comment on the situation, which it didn’t.
But he blames the studio for his trouble and said he feared someone in the marketing department might get fired. “They let this situation happen,” he explained.
And who said studios never do anything for bloggers?
Date in print: Fri., Aug. 12, 2005, Gotham
Variety must be dying right now with laughter over this story.
Karma is a bitch, I suppose.
Good thing you’re a movie publicity/press kind of guy, otherwise you could have been skee-rewed.
Good thing you can take it, Dave. Good thing on that.
Dave, do you find it at all demeaning to be labeled as a blogger? Granted, you are one who blogs, but even “columnist” would carry a bit more respect.
Eh, maybe that’s the least of your worries today.
“”I thought it was a joke thing and that other people would bid more than $3 million and it would go to $10 million or $20 million.”
A joke? Just curious, Dave – who did you think was going to pay the eBay fee on your $3 million bid? Do you also order pizzas and send them to the homes of complete strangers?
“But he blames the studio for his trouble and said he feared someone in the marketing department might get fired. ‘They let this situation happen,’ he explained.”
So much for taking responsibility for your own actions.
wow…this is pretty F’ed up huh?
I think Universal can afford $4,000 considering how much David has promoted the movie over the last few months here and on MovieCityNews. But as payment, Universal should try to find a real 40-year-old virgin and force David to take him out on a date. š
Oh, you know what? I think I got the same Email that David did and I thought the same thing he did, that it was a promotional thing to ape that guy who really did put his virginity on sale on Ebay. I never clicked on the link so I didn’t read the EBay description but I wouldn’t have bid either way.
This is exactly what the Email said:
40 year-old Andy Stitzer has done quite a few things in his life. He
On bright side? You can write it off.
Uhhh….any press is good press?
Yes, Eric. Mainstream media calling everyone on the web a “blogger” is a cheap way of trying to keep everyone else in their place.
Another strong reason why the mainstream media is dying a slow and torturous death. They are trying hard to keep their monopoly instead of embracing the bloggers and the web journos.
I don’t think in todays age being called a blogger is derogatory. I think it should be embraced. It is a growing and thriving community. They’re basically columnists anyway. The days of the newspaper columnists are coming to a close. People don’t want to wait that long for their information.
>Yes, Eric. Mainstream media calling everyone on
>the web a “blogger” is a cheap way of trying to
>keep everyone else in their place.
In their defense, you did bid a few million on a bid without reading the fine print. Wouldn’t a journalist at least read the print? A blogger might not š
I am a journalist. I also blog. They are no mutually exclusive.
I’ll put my record of accuracy – and of corrections when mistakes are made – up against all papers but the Wall Street Journal.