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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

BYOB 4610

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72 Responses to “BYOB 4610”

  1. Stella's Boy says:

    Were rival studios scared off of April 9 due to the potent star power of Tina Fey and Steve Carell? Or is it not unusual for an April weekend to feature only one wide release?

  2. CaptainZahn says:

    So can we talk about Marc Cherry being crazy? Fucking log cabin Republicans, man.

  3. jeffmcm says:

    I went and saw A Prophet last night (yeah, I know, I’m way late on this one) but it was really, really good. Audiard keeps getting better as a filmmaker.

  4. Cris says:

    So, while we’re waiting for the Cannes entries to be announced, I have a question if anyone knows. Does it cost a lot of money to “take” a film to Cannes? On another board there was some chatter about some films being too niche for distributors to want to spend $ on, that the cost of Cannes isn’t worth it. I always assumed getting a spot at Cannes was a good thing, regardless of how “niche” a film was? I think Anne Thompson alluded to this as well on her recent Cannes wish list entry.

  5. Chucky in Jersey says:

    @StellasBoy: “The Runaways” was scheduled to go wide this week … until it stiffed on its limited release.

  6. Jeffrey Boam's Doctor says:

    jeff – All three of Audiard’s films are better than any US feature in the past three yrs. Bank it. I would have been happy if White Ribbon had won but was rooting for Prophet and then ?? WTF?
    Are there really adults who are gagging to see Kick Ass? It looks like Luc Besson’s simple cousin took a spandex dump and rubbed it on some polyester. I love Cage to death but even if wolverines were about to gnash my sac I wouldn’t save my scrot by fleeing into a cinema playing it.

  7. Jeffrey Boam's Doctor says:

    Cris – there are lots of ways to take films to Cannes. Buying your way into the festival competition is the most expensive. You need to distinguish festival vs market too. You can always take your indie and slip dvds under the drinks of buyers as pseudo coasters in the Carlton for the cost of a plane ticket, just don’t expect much in return.

  8. jeffmcm says:

    JBD, if I had seen Prophet back when the Oscars were happening, I definitely would have been rooting for it too (it doesn’t hurt that I’m definitely a bigger Audiard fan, in general, than I am a Haneke fan).
    Kick-Ass looks like fun to me, but I fear that it’s getting overhyped by the fanboy machine.

  9. Jeffrey Boam's Doctor says:

    Jeff – Audiard’s directorial control is pretty staggering. I too am in awe of his sensibility and ability to cover so much and yet keep the pace brisk and compose every scene in a gripping manner. He’s really a kinetic filmmaker with a keen sense of how important it is to maintain a coherent and narrative momentum.

  10. Eric says:

    Kick-Ass looks like fun to me, but I fear that it’s getting overhyped by the fanboy machine.
    This made me wonder– is anyone especially turned off by geek hype? I wonder because, if you’re aware of it at all, there’s a good chance you’re a geek in the first place. Does anyone that’s not a geek care about whatever they’re hyping this week?
    Geek movies oftentimes fail to break out, but I wonder if it’s correlation and not causation. In other words, that special something that makes the geeks gush over a movie is possibly what limits it from breaking out at well, not the gushing itself.

  11. leahnz says:

    i’m a sucker for movies with lip-reading. audiard’s one is a little noirish gem (cassel’s ‘paul’ is so sleazy yet compelling with his ‘crim mo’ and bloody shirt, great sexual chemistry with ‘carla’, she’s terrific in her role)
    ‘read my lips’ is interesting because from what i remember audiard’s hand-held work is quite natural with lots of close-ups, and much of the pertinent details/action occur in the background/off to the side of frame so that you catch it out of the corner of your eye — you have to be paying attention rather than having everything spelled out for you
    (i haven’t seen ‘prophet’ yet, but audiard certainly would appear to have a thing for exploring the nature of petty thugs and crims)

  12. I saw Kick-Ass last night, and I strongly suggest you ignore the ‘geek hype’. It’s a messy and often contradictory movie (it constantly struggles with ‘being real’ vs. indulging in adolescent male fantasy), but it’s pretty entertaining and contains surprisingly decent acting along with the solidly staged action scenes. It’s a pretty good movie with some pretty great moments, and its failures are ones born of attempted ambition rather than laziness. Just don’t go in thinking it’s going to be anywhere near as amazing as the AICN crowd has told us. Kick-Ass is a solid B-movie, which was probably the idea before the geeks started drooling.

  13. Triple Option says:

    I’m not really a geek, I just have the social life of one. For the record, I heard about Kick-Ass from this site.

  14. I’m really excited for “Kick-Ass” but wish it was dropping THIS weekend instead of next. Seems like the buzz is wearing off daily and opening a week early might have helped it. I think it’s doomed because the geek bloggers are raving but they’re out of touch with the common moviegoer who is not excited for the film. I hope it does gerat, but I think it’s gonna tank.
    And;
    I’m a HUGE Haneke fan but was left kinda cold by “White Ribbon.” I want to see it again and enjoyed it and all, but overall was kind of let down by it.

  15. Kick-Ass is really good fun. Definitely problematic in places – I’m not sure why anybody in the making of the movie thought the lead character pretending to be gay was anything remotely close to being funny, what year is this? – and there’s some dodgy CGI in the big climax, but it’s genuinely a lot of fun.

  16. When I first read CaptainZahn’s comment up there I read it as “Mary Cherry” and though “yes! another Popular fan!” and then I realised it was Marc and that turned out to be incredibly disappointing, although I will admit this whole Cherry/Sheridan story is juicy. Couldn’t care less about Bullock and her husband, but gimme an on-set stoush and a law suit and I’m all ears.
    Stella, please go see The Square if you’re in a city that Apparition has chosen to release it. It’s fantastic and shits all over Date Night (which is only passable for fans of Fey and Carell, otherwise don’t both).

  17. LexG says:

    “Stoush”?
    Speak Engrish, motherfucker.

  18. Are you for real? Like, actually being serious? I never can tell.

  19. LexG says:

    I had to google what the hell that word meant.
    Please in the future use proper American English if you want people to know what you are saying.
    Out of curiosity (actually, not that curious, barely care), how does a 21-year-old Australian rentboy seize on a random American movie blog as a place to opine? Nothing against you by saying that, but the equivalent would be my dumb L.A. ass randomly, out of nowhere, of all the blogs in the world, running my mouth like some EXPERT on the NEIGHBOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURS official web blogs in Australia or something.

  20. LexG says:

    Also your first paragraph about Marc Cherry and Popular is so gay that Harvey Fierstein just phoned and told you to tone down the queen.
    Total gaylord.

  21. Stella's Boy says:

    Kick Ass may indeed be a good movie (I like Layer Cake) but I’m automatically skeptical of anything that causes geekasms at places like AICN. I don’t care for most of the stuff they go bonkers about, and some of it I outright detest.

  22. leahnz says:

    fuck proper ‘american english’. the queen’s english is proper, twat

  23. Aah, yes, being called a “gaylord”. Now that’s something that hasn’t happened since high school. I’d become accustomed to you people (as in you and your homophobic arsehole buddies) calling me “faggot” in my twentysomething years (I’m a few years older than 21, I might add). It’s been my experience that as a homophobe’s age increases so too does their propensity to use “faggot” because stuff like “gaylord” or “queer” or good ol’ fashioned “pansy-assed homo” just don’t cut it. So, good for you Lex. You’re regressing! Maybe you’ll now have something in common with the girls half your age that you wanna screw. Your mother must be proud. I could make you a graph if you need pictures.
    I do so enjoy reading that sort of stuff. And being called a “rentboy” too! Times are tough, but I haven’t reached the stage yet where I must prostitute myself out to sugar daddies.
    Not to be nitpicky at all, but how can I be a “gaylord” and a “queen” at the same time as being a “motherfucker”? CALL ME CRAZY, but I think there’s a bit of confusion there, Lex. I don’t really want to give you a lesson on what being a homosexual means, but I will if you continue to slip up like that. I mean, if you’re gonna go around throwing offensive insults at people you should at least do it correctly (thank you, Monsters Inc.).
    Silly goose. Run along now.

  24. Oh, and well done on the racist joke too (“Engrish” being a curious, ahem, typo after all). You’re kicking goals left and right today!

  25. anghus says:

    the best endorsement i’ve heard for Kick Ass is from a UK producer who told me “it’s the kind of movie that makes you want to make movies”
    energetic, fun, and not afraid to be ridiculous.
    i’m in.
    but i’m also a fan of the comic and millar. so i suppose i’m just another geek participating in the overhype.

  26. christian says:

    Sometimes Lex thinks this is HE, where proto-frat-boys are beloved.

  27. jeffmcm says:

    I think Lex has issues with masculinity and sexuality.

  28. Stella's Boy says:

    Lex reminds me of my brother-in-law and frat guys I knew in college who are always trying to prove how manly and straight they are by repeatedly shouting “fag,” “homo,” “chicks” and “the-name-of-some-hot-celebrity-they-totally-want-to-fuck.” This despite the fact that no one is asking them to prove their manliness or straightness, nor do they care.

  29. christian says:

    Which usually means they’re totally gay.

  30. Martin S says:

    Lex knows exactly what the reaction is going to be.
    Re: Kick-Ass. IO, who seems to have disappeared, called it many moons ago. The comic derails because Millar writes for the movie sale, not the medium, so the final product is going to have the same defects.

  31. Nicol D says:

    All this talk about rent-boys is reminding me of that list of songs on the ad for Spinal Tap’s Heavy Metal Memories and the track called “Bent for the Rent”.
    It made me laugh.

  32. jeffmcm says:

    Just because Lex is obviously baiting everybody for attention, doesn’t mean that he doesn’t also have major issues.
    And nobody would care if either (a) he wasn’t so whiny, or (b) he was funnier.

  33. Joe Leydon says:

    I’m kinda-sorta glad I forgot while watching Kick-Ass (which I quite enjoyed) that the young lead actor also is the star of Nowhere Boy…. and the guy who impregnated the latter film’s smokin’ hot, conspicuously older director. Mind you, I’m not questioning his taste in female pulchritude. (As I said: The lady is smokin’ hot.) But it might have been just a teeny bit more difficult for me to accept him as a virginal geek in Kick-Ass had I remembered…

  34. The lead in Kick-Ass is very much in a She’s All That predicament. If he’d just get contacts and give himself a buzz cut he’d be what the kids call “smokin’ hot”.

  35. Yes, Aaron Johnson is actually pretty handsome, and there are moments where the movie acknowledges this. But the film seems to subtly suggest that it is his personality not his looks that makes him uninteresting to girls.
    As I was looking at the resumes of the various ‘fresh young actors’ in Kick-Ass for my review, I was amazed at how many of them had huge resumes already. The biggest shock for me is that he was the surprisingly amusing young sidekick in Shanghai Knights back in Feb 2003. And I’ve seen Chloe Moretz countless times over the last five years without realizing it (she was in a wonderful first season ep of My Name is Earl back in 2005 among others).

  36. LexG says:

    They should have cast AnnaSophia Robb instead of that Moretz moppet.

  37. Chucky in Jersey says:

    Another good omen for “Kick-Ass”: Regal Entertainment, largest US theater chain, is selling advance tickets.

  38. jeffmcm says:

    Chucky, what’s your source for this inside scoop?

  39. CaptainZahn says:

    Robb looks a little old to be playing 11 year olds.

  40. LexG says:

    My point exactly.
    ROBB POWER. BOW.

  41. LexG says:

    EXPLODING GIRL POWER.
    I am going to write a MUMBLECORE MOVIE.

  42. jeffmcm says:

    Pedo-Bear: The Movie.

  43. LexG says:

    Hey can anyone tell me some info on MUMBLECORE.
    I read the WIKI entry and saw EXPLODING GIRL, so now I want to write my own mumblecore movie.
    But, like, is it a RULE that kinda nothing has to happen? What if it was all wispy and mumbly and static and longing for a great portion of the runtime, then it did a SOMETHING WILD and went hyper-awesome in the last third? Does that disqualify it as mumblecore?
    Also, for those of you who write SCREENPLAYS: You know how sometimes a writer has an actor or actress in mind? How do you know who their representation is?
    The PIECE I am writing now, my casting ideal would be JENA MALONE. My backups would be Zoe Kazan, or in a perfect world, K-Stew, Dakota or Evan Rachel. But mostly Jena Malone is who I would “write it for.”
    How do you get a name actress your script once it’s done? Do you send a query to their agent? Does it automatically get RTS’d?
    Do you mention it again and again on Hot Blog and Wells and link to a PDF of it on your blog so thousands of Hollywood insiders read it and bid on it? Or is that a BAD IDEA?
    Answers, please, thanks.
    OFF TOPIC, I feel bad that I offended KCamel with the term “gaylord.” I thought that was too benign and silly to ever offend anyone, just some nonsensical smack-talking term with no heft; Thought it was ridiculous enough it would be seen as the idiocy that it is. Sorry to be a dick. The Lexman is a friend to all peoples, all creeds, all persuasions, not a prejudiced bone in sight.

  44. Note to Lex, gay people get offended when people like you go on anti-gay rants, telling them they shouldn’t act like a “queen” and call them shit like “gaylord” for absolutely NO reason whatsoever (not that there’s ever a good reason for doing so, but – yet again – you started up on me for no reason at all.)
    You’re a fuckwit arsehole and your pathetic “i feel bad” is, just that, pathetic. Did it never once occur to you that someone might actually be offended by your “nonsensical smack-talking” and that being berated, without fail, once a month for acting like a “queen” might actually effect someone.
    Shove your sorry up your arse. Maybe you’ll be able to find it one day in the future when someone actually gives whats coming to you and kicks your head in. Fuck. You. Worthless. Shit.
    Oh, and insulting my nationality? I know you make fun of marychan because they speak in broken English – how grown up and mature of you – but, really? Come the fuck on. You’re a coward. You wouldn’t ask someone to stop acting so “arab” or some offensive term would you? No, because you’re a weak coward. Not prejudiced? Except when you’re in your apartment using an internet handle to talk shit behind the safety of a computer monitor.
    Seriously, maybe one day somebody will give you a punch in the face for being, oh I dunno, American and then see how much fun it is to have violence directly targeted at you for something so harmless and see how well you respond every time somebody just makes jokes about it. It’d be so fucking funny, wouldn’t it?
    Again, Fuck. You. Worthless. Shit.
    I hope you rot.
    I did laugh at “OFF TOPIC” as if it was anything of the sort since it was you that made it the topic.
    Now I’m gonna take my “21-year-old Australian rentboy” self and go have a life away from your hate. I haven’t done anything to deserve reading your harangue everytime I come here.

  45. LexG says:

    So far I HAVE WRITTEN one page of my MUMBLECORE MOVIE called JENA.
    Hey Poland, you wanna be a movie producer?

  46. LexG says:

    KCamel, as Poland and Voynar (who have met me) have said REPEATEDLY, I am a NICE GUY and wouldn’t say an ill word about anybody in real life unless really provoked. You’re taking it WAY too seriously… You can’t seriously believe I am remotely homophobic.
    Much like THE MIGHTY RICHARD PRYOR, I am defusing certain words and perspectives by presenting them as their most ridiculous.
    And, really, I offered a polite and contrite apology… No need to be so put-upon. And DRAMATIC! That’s kinda gay.

  47. I can believe it and I do. People who aren’t homophobic don’t say the things you say as a joke or in any way, especially to someone they don’t even know. And you prefaced this so-called police and contrite apology with a big “OFF TOPIC” as if you couldn’t believe somebody could have actually had enough of your troll shtick and that you had to apologise out of pure pressure. If I hadn’t chucked a stink you would’ve just carried on as you always do without a peep. You were sorry for being called out, not for actually saying anything hateful.
    Luckily for me, I don’t base my opinions of people on what Dave Poland or Kim Voynar say. Your mother might like to know that they speak so highly of you though. I, on the other hand, go by what you say and the way you act to myself and others and what you say and how you act is vile, contemptible and offensive and I’d like nothing more right now than to kick you in the balls (I don’t wanna mess up my pretty hands by punching you, obviously). I can’t do that though so I’ll just hate you from a distance and hope you get some sort of disease that’ll sit well with your ugly personality.

  48. polite*, obviously.
    I’m going to watch some standup at the comedy festival. You remember standup, don’t ya Lex? Just one of the many things you failed at and whined about like the world owed you something.

  49. LexG says:

    Trust me, I barely remembered it and couldn’t give a FUCK about being called out by the likes of Christian or Jeff McDouche. I thought I’d say something nice and BYGONES it away, but if you can’t accept an apology and wanna be a drama queen about it, that’s on you for taking the LOW ROAD. As you get older, you might find that people from different backgrounds and experiences do something called AMUSINGLY RIBBING EACH OTHER IN POLITICALLY INCORRECT WAYS, because it’s funny and fun.
    Christ, you’re like a college freshman who thinks he’s the first person in the history of time to be gay. Maybe it’s an Australian thing, where that’s some rare event in a patriarchal culture, that you have some complex about it. But I’m from L.A., dude. Half the fucking city is gay, so you ain’t that unique. And no one takes themselves as seriously as you. I got all kinds of gay and lesbian friends who’d just say you’re being kind of a bitch. Or at least REALLY arrogant and immature. You may have noticed one of the most well-liked, articulate and openly gay Hot Blog regulars here both LOVES me and says he can’t stand YOU.
    What does that say?
    THAT I AM IN THE RIGHT, as always.

  50. Stella's Boy says:

    “I got all kinds of gay and lesbian friends.”
    Really? This seems a little hard to believe Lex. Like when a racist swears they have lots of black friends. In my time here you have consistently been an asshole to Kami. You can spin and dodge and get defensive, but you have been. Not that you give a shit of course, but most of the time I think you’re swell. Not so with Kami. You act like a puerile homophobic jerk with a tiny brain and serious sexual issues, otherwise known as a closet case.

  51. Foamy Squirrel says:

    True story – I have a friend whose LA apartment used to get flocks of the semi-feral parrots that people with too much money and not enough attention span like to set free. Her neighbors delighted in teaching them phrases such as “That’s SO CUTE!”
    LA – the city in which even the parrots are flaming queens.

  52. Cadavra says:

    Breaking News: K-Stew turns 20 today. Lex loses all interest in her.

  53. LexG says:

    K-STEW 4 EVER.
    I hope everyone is celebrating! Cadavra, that is utterly ridiculous. She is IMMORTAL.
    I am going to watch a double feature of NEW MOON and IN THE LAND OF WOMEN and will refrain from drinking alcohol, because K-Stew makes me want to be a better man.
    Most beautiful and enchanting woman EVER. BOW.
    HAPPY 20TH POWER.

  54. Stella's Boy says:

    Lex, why not shake things up a little. Rather than New Moon and In the Land of Women, how about Zathura and The Messengers?

  55. LexG says:

    I own them all, except for Safety of Objects and Cold Creek Manor, but those are way too old-school.
    Zathura is a good one though… Messengers they show her feet a lot, which is cool. Maybe I’ll throw in the last ten minutes of JUMPER, where her cameo was SO surprising and DELIGHTFUL I literally GASPED and jumped out of my chair in theaters. She’s way too big a star now for that minor role when they do JUMPER 2, but the possibility of K-STEW/BILSON catsuited catfights would’ve been the happiest thing of my life.

  56. jeffmcm says:

    I would like to see Lex literally gasping and fanning himself, Victorian-lady-style, to prevent from fainting.
    Otherwise, you’re SO GROSS.

  57. Stella's Boy says:

    You even own Speak and The Cake Eaters?

  58. LexG says:

    SPEAK is my very favorite K-Stew performance and THE moment when I became a fan for life; She is HEARTBREAKING in that movie and at her absolute most piercing, sensitive, and BRANDOESQUE.
    CAKE EATERS rules. But you caught me; I don’t actually own it, though I LOVE the DVD extra where LEGEND Bruce Dern breaks down crying as he explains that he’s NEVER worked with a better actor or actress than Kristen. HE SPEAKS THE TRUTH.

  59. LexG says:

    GOD I LOVE KRISTEN STEWART.
    SHE IS A DREAM.
    Joe, thanks for the link, that interview was AWESOME. They go together like EBONY AND IVORY, but still TEAM K-STEW by a hundred million zillion miles.
    Even the mighty MEGAN FOX is such a distant second to GOD HERSELF KRISTEN, it’s like comparing THE BEATLES to Stawberry Alarm Clock.

  60. LexG says:

    I hope everyone is CELEBRATING THIS GLORIOUS DAY.
    I am CELEBRATING K-STEW TODAY if you know what I mean.

  61. Foamy Squirrel says:

    I don’t know what you mean.

  62. LexG says:

    Hey, do you guys think I’ll ever really get to meet K-Stew someday? Let’s have a poll. I don’t know how it would be possible but like if I made an indie movie (like my new MUMBLECORE script entitled JENA, I can show you guys the first page if you want) and I go to Sundance and she’s there…
    Like, what’s the move? Can a mortal man just speak to her? Do you melt instantly? I would FAINT at the sight of her as a dork like I am now, but say when “Jena” (aka THE LEXG MUMBLECORE MASTERPIECE) drops in late 2011, and I’m at the SUNDANCE BAR or whatever, and she’s there IN A CUTE HAT. Could this ever happen? Should I have taken Poland and Wells up on their respective past offers to go to screenings and junkets and stuff? But they don’t just want to hear how great they are right?
    So what would I say? See, I couldn’t do it. I am too inferior, I would shrink away and be mad at myself, though just SEEING HER would make my life better.

  63. leahnz says:

    kam

  64. Foamy Squirrel says:

    Possibly.
    Honestly, if you’re really shy it may work to your advantage – talk to her friends instead after introducing yourself. It’ll get you more comfortable, and getting the approval of a group is much better than pissing most of them off by ignoring them in favor of a single individual.
    You never know – she might have some cool handlers that you hit it off with who are slightly more age appropriate. 😉

  65. Joe Leydon says:

    LexG: Next time I run into her, I’ll put in a good word for you.

  66. LexG says:

    Hopefully if I can get Jena Malone to read my AWESOME MUMBLECORE script and she helps get it made and we all get to go to Sundance, it’ll bolster my credibility to ROLL IN THERE with AWESOME JENA MALONE, and K-STEW will be all, “Hmm, who’s that doughy but awesome balding 40 year old man with Jena Malone?” And it’ll get Jena a little jealous and then drinks will be thrown just like in the NOVEMBER RAIN only with 100% less Gilby Clarke.
    In other news, when I went to the VONS earlier I had to buy a card for some friends, and in the CARD AISLE came this AWESOME SKINNY WHITE CHICK. Not K-Stew or Jena level but pretty hot, and I glance over and she’s being awesome by herself and then I realize I have that STUPID GLITTER FROM THE CARDS all over my hand and start trying to swipe it away in some RIDICULOUS HARLEM SHUFFLE that makes me look like a total spazz, and I look back and this chick is looking at me like I’m fucking I AM SAM or something. Not that I would’ve had a shot anyway, she was like 22 and hot and I’m like 37 and not.
    But how do you meet YOUNG CHICKS if you’re 37? I’m really not interested in mature women, just INGENUES in their EARLY 20s. It’s like it’s impossible or something.
    SO DEPRESSED. I shouldn’t be depressed on this DAY OF CELEBRATION, but 2010 is shaping up to be another sexless year.

  67. LexG says:

    Alright, that was a little disingenuous; I’d TOTALLY date a chick age 17-20, too.

  68. jeffmcm says:

    GROSS.
    It’s okay to think these things, but please stop typing them.

  69. Joe Leydon says:

    LexG: Yes, but would a chick age 17-20 date you?

Quote Unquotesee all »

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