As most of you know, Jeffrey Wells is not my favorite journalist and is often not my favorite person… but he is a human being. And I know some of you read him.
I’m sure he will explain the whole story tomorrow on his blog, but he is ok. The hospital he is at has no internet access, which is why he hasn
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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” — 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 — 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 — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — 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 named—” “Yeah, sure — 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 I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s 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 didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — 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. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s 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
Best backhanded ‘Get Well Soon!’ ever?
I don’t think Jeff would want sentimentality here. Saturday, somehow he was able to blog in the morning, saying, “The worst of it had passed by this morning, thank fortune, but if I’d been stuck out in the desert somewhere and beyond of the reach of good medicine…” elipses (dot, dot, dot) his own. He’s opened the door, David walked through. You have to see it as a dance. I don’t know of any other blog that bothered to post an update on his condition — that says more to me than the swipe.
I’m sure Jeff will have something to say about that last comment – it was pretty funny, and I like the guy!
Yeah Sane, I think poison blood Jeff would like nothing more than a few jabs. I’d love it if he posts his final bill, but careful with the exacto knife. Hope he throws that cursed thing away.
I’m surprised he didn’t post any photos of his infected hand on his site.
“Poison Blood Jeff” is an awesome nickname.
That is a very classy post, David (and I’m being serious, not sarcastic–I know how hard it is to tell with me sometimes)… between that and the high ground you took with reporting this weekend’s box office–which IMO is too close to call–I think that you’ve decided to follow your own advice from last week’s Lunch with David.
It’s not always easy or fun to say something nice to or about someone who you don’t always like or get along with, but I’ve found that very often, it’s the better road to take, because it lets you sleep better at night. If they don’t appreciate your kind thoughts or words, then you know that you’ve done what you can to try to be civil and any problems are less your fault.
I hope that this is the first step to you and Jeffrey trying to get along.
Then again I read this wrong:
“I wish him the best of health and a quick exit from the ranks of entertainment journalists to become a crusader for better health care. ”
But still, at least part of the sentiment was there. 🙂
No matter how Dave’s post is worded, we know he is a decent, compassionate guy.
It’s still a classy post.
/toasts Fijian Wrestler
“I’m surprised he didn’t post any photos of his infected hand on his site.”
The week is young… Expect those and creepy pictures of the nurses’ feet fairly soon.
Did he get bit by a snake? On a plane?
EDouglas, you were right, it is classy AND deceptively flat, void of emotion, it opens with a hammer swing and quickly pulls the humanity punch, and the last sentence needs a second read to feel the pain, the blood poisoning is wicked, and the whole thing is amusingly counter intuitive to Jeff’s high falutent condescending writing. Which is why I like both, I love when Wells says David has written a heart piece.
I tried calling Cedar’s Sinai Hospital yesterday myself, but I’d never know what code name Jeff checked in under, so the opertor said piss off. Maybe I should have tried Kaiser Permanente Hospital anyway. When Jeff said stuck in the desert, I know he meant he was grateful to be in the hospital getting attention, but my mind went to our own Twenty-Nine Palms and the high desert, where every emergency room and hospital’s been closed for miles and miles.
Hey, Dave, nice post. I got rid of all my other time-wasting movie biz bookmarks and just kept you and Jeff. And I feel sorry about Jeff’s stolen bicycle, too.
BTW, on another topic: You linked to a piece about Indy IV, where Lucas says he finally discovered a “McGuffin” he can use. Does he not even know what a McGuffin is? It’s an item that presents itself as being essential to the plot but is irrelevant in the long run, like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. When did an Indy film ever have a McGuffin? All the items — the Ark, the Grail, etc. — were all central and remained so. The Indy films were never clever enough to actually use a McGuffin.
Mr. Muckle, can’t a McGuffin also refer to an object that supposedly drives the plot but is really just an excuse to catalyze action/chases/derring-do? (For example, getting the rabbit’s foot is technically plot-central throughout Mission: Impossible III, but it’s hard to see it as anything other than a McGuffin.) Put it another way: to most people, is Raiders of the Lost Ark “the one where they find the lost ark of the convenant” or “the one with the kickass truck chase, the part where Indy shoots the swordsman, and the part where he has to go into the cave with snakes,” etc.?
Maybe I’m misunderstanding the term “McGuffin” but I don’t think it’s exclusively a decoy item.
yeah, you’re probably right, jesse. oh well. I was under the impression that Hitchcock coined the expression, but I’m no historian. No doubt, Lucas knows what he’s talking about — but he has also forgotten how to make a good movie, imo. Ha ha ha.
He Did. And in a sense, you’re both right.
That’s interesting, the McGuffin thing does seem to have gone soft. The jelly half (JW) of the peanut butter (DP) & jelly sandwich had it much worse than I ever could have imagined. What did peanut butter do, track jelly down on cell, or work the journalistic friends network.
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/archives/2006/08/getting_well_so.php
Wells has responded.
Taking the high road. How uncharacteristic of him.
Personal attack posts get a lot of traffic. So do Mel posts — Jelly’s (JW) attack on Peanut Butter (DP) and the Mel post are really companion pieces.
A few days later, but I lost interest in Hot Blog for awhile when it became POTC vs SR vs X3 24/7 for awhile there. However, this fairly demands a rebuke…
Poland, you start off fine, deciding to be honest and not hide your differences with Wells (“As most of you know, Jeffrey Wells is not my favorite journalist and is often not my favorite person… but he is a human being. And I know some of you read him.”).
Fine and even bravo.
But then, it seems the lessen you failed to learn last year with the ebay bid thing is back this year, namely knowing when to stop and say no more. It takes your somewhat classy/quasi-high road (I write this because you lead with your feelings about him instead of the observation that he is a human being and fellow commentator on things cinematic).
You apparently just couldn’t stop your fucking fingers from adding “I wish him the best of health and a quick exit from the ranks of entertainment journalists…”
It really makes you look scummy.
And considering some of the complete morons and petty, pompous airheads to be found stuffing their faces at junkets who call themselves “entertainment journalists” it also seems gratuitous. While some of his pieces leave me cold and lord knows I have had my own personal issues with him, Wells writes with intelligence and passion about films made with intelligence and passion.
Heaven and Earth are impartial;
they treat all of creation as straw dogs.
The Master doesn’t take sides;
she treats everyone like a straw dog.
In the wake of looking for RoyBatty, I’m thinking of going un-anon.