20 Weeks To Oscar: A Thin Line Between Love & Hate

Jessica Chastain is a bona fide trouper when it comes to promoting her movies. She is not only willing… she makes it look like she wants to be doing it.

So this morning, when the New York Times’s Michael Cieply dropped “One Star, 2 Films and Conflict (sub hed) Jessica Chastain in a Publicity Tug of War,” it clarified what anyone covering the season has known for a week or two or more… Jessica was not available for A Most Violent Year, for which Oscar Isaacs and JC Chandor are doing press this week. Some of us knew more about what was going on. Some knew less. A24 has been hedging. But now, thanks to the New York Times, it has become a public issue.

I will spare you the lecture about whether this is News in any legitimate way. (In my opinion, it is not. It is gossip that is only deeply inside baseball.)

But the question stands… who benefits and who is damaged by the story being out there… and more specifically, the story the way it is being told by the NYT?

This time of year, it is common to connect a story like this to a “dirty tricks” campaign. But it is very possible, that faced with a lack of access to Chastain, the New York Times and Mr. Cieply simply followed the trail and came up with this story, no one inducing the effort in any way. Personally, I think it is the most probable case, as Team A24 is not exactly The Dirty Tricks Squad.

But when people start answering questions under the protection of anonymity (“isn’t identified for lack of wanting to be seen taking a position on this in the New York Times because there is only downside from being quoted in a story like this”)… well, professional spinners are gonna spin. And professional reporters are, it seems, going to take a side when they don’t have truly firm facts.

As a result, there are still winners and losers.

“Mr. Nolan and others, for the most part, are enforcing an agreement that says she cannot campaign for any film but Mr. Nolan’s from early October through early December, with the exception of her appearance at the premiere on Thursday, according to people briefed on the dispute.”

Read: This is Christopher Nolan’s thing, not Paramount’s.

“Speaking on Wednesday from Washington, where she is on a press tour for ‘Interstellar,’”… “(Chastain) noted that Mr. Nolan had personally helped her get out of an appearance on “The Late Show With David Letterman” so she could attend the premiere for ‘A Most Violent Year.'”

Read: This is Christopher Nolan’s thing, not Paramount’s.

“Mr. Chandor and his backers—Participant Media and the independent distributor A24—believed that Ms. Chastain, while blocked from media appearances, would be allowed to attend the screenings and get-togethers that are de rigueur for those seeking Golden Globes and other prizes that pave the way to the Oscars.”

Read: Jessica is being disallowed from participating in the (idiotic) HFPA news conference tomorrow that is, however, pretty much 100% required in order to get a nomination from the awards groups of random semi-journalists. Also, no SAG nom com Q&A this weekend. Etc, etc, etc.

“Mr. Nolan and his backers have insisted that Ms. Chastain’s contract forbids even those semiprivate encounters and have not given in to pleas from Mr. Chandor, A24 and others for a waiver. Next week, however, she will be permitted to attend a private tastemakers’ screening at the Creative Artists Agency here.”

Read: Again, it’s Nolan, not Paramount. Jessica will be in LA and available for at least 3 or 4 days… but will not be allowed to support this movie that will have a total marketing budget that is less than what Paramount will spend on Interstellar this week. “Pleas.”

“Paramount Pictures, which is distributing “Interstellar” in the United States, and Warner Bros., which is releasing it abroad, declined to comment, as did representatives for Mr. Chandor and A24. Kelly Bush, who represents Mr. Nolan, also did not comment.”

Read: None of these people or companies spoke on the record or even on background. But someone representing every one of these companies talked to the reporter. And unmentioned is Ms. Chastain’s representation, who both in logic and their absence remain the most logical candidates for intel about the boundaries places on the actress… though I have no doubt that Ms. Chastain would not be happy if it turned out that they were exposed as a key source for this story. So maybe they are just innocently on this ride as well.

And so… why is this story out there?

Is it a coincidence that this story ran the morning of the premiere of the film at AFI and before the HFPA press conference and the press engagement?

Hard to say… but no. I would say that NYT put a piece of provocation into the ether, not really in control of the story. The timing is a function of the expected availability. But why not hold the story until Violent has premiered and Interstellar opens wide, given that by next Tuesday, we will know if Ms. Chastain ended up participating in any events, thus turning a conflict into News that has occurred? Could be purposeful. Or it could be that no one really cares about News anymore… they care about speculating until something becomes news, noting the News without admitting having speculated poorly, and then moving on to the next speculation.

Who is the story aimed at? The press. Media companies do this now. Getting linked and mentioned matters as much, if not more, than actual reporting.

It might also be aimed at the HFPA, which would forgive Chastain and A Most Violent Year for her no-show and punish Interstellar‘s Nolan for causing it.

And now the story is, “Poor little A Most Violent Year. That bully Christopher Nolan and his Steve Jobs cover wardrobe are trying to destroy this lovely little movie made on Interstellar‘s craft service budget.”

I am not the biggest fan of Interstellar… but this is not fair to the hundreds of people who made the movie.. or Paramount… or Warner Bros… or Chris Nolan, for that matter. He may be the nasty mastermind of narrowing Ms. Chastain’s and her other film’s opportunity. But he may not. Remember, she signed this agreement and there is little doubt that when she did, there was good faith on both sides.

Paramount hasn’t given me jackshit from Interstellar. Christopher Nolan has joined in on some of the most insipid coverage of his career, heavily controlling the idea that everything about his movie is a spoiler. And media has ceded control to him like the sheep we have become. So I have every reason to be privately happy to see The Man take a big bite from a NYT-sized shit sandwich this morning. But I am not happy. I am not okay with it.

I do not have a right to get what I want from whom I want. I do not have a right to access. I can make legitimate arguments about the value of my work all day long and it just doesn’t matter. People, whether Nolan or his reps or the studio or their reps and on an on, make choices. That is their prerogative. That is their business. And my frustration with their choices does not make the interaction between us into News.

This kind of thing is a constant in our little universe of talent wrangling. There are all kinds of internal dramas through award season. But we don’t report them. I have a dozen DP/30 interviews scheduled in the current 7 days. Five of them are with likely Oscar nominees. Almost every single one of them has moved at least once this week. Two of them are still in flux. And in the specific instance of A Most Violent Year, I was forced to not shoot Oscar Isaac or to wait for his return to town so we can shoot him and J.C. Chandor together… and that was yesterday afternoon for a Friday shoot. You don’t see me writing it up as a news story. I may be shooting Sunday. I may not. There are people promoting the same movie who are not working together on the awards push. There are personal publicists tearing up schedules. There are conflicts everywhere.

And Christopher Nolan may, indeed, be acting like an ass. It may be 100% on him. But I don’t know that. You don’t know that (well, a dozen of you reading this do know). And as things go, it is not your place or mine in print to speculate.

This is work product, gang. This is the job that I choose to do and a part of that is navigating bullshit. This is not an ongoing public conversation.

You may want to know what is going on… but it’s really none of your damned business. Sorry. But it just isn’t.

How many times do I hear, ‘This is just between us,’  on a given day this time of year? More than I can remember. Some meetings have a dozen instances. And this is with people who know that I am not going to burn them.

So… is it a muscle flex by the NYT? Could be. Is it just a way of getting attention? Could be. Do the editors at NYT really think this is News? Could be.

If I had to speculate, I would guess that A24 is hoping that this story in the NYT will embarrass Nolan enough to make him cough up some flexibility… and that Paramount really wouldn’t mind that so much because the “arrogant” tag on Nolan is already causing them grief in positioning what will surely be a very popular movie for Oscar season… and that Ms. Chastain would really like to not be being discussed in this regard… and that her team probably thinks she is a better candidate for Oscar from the Chandor film than from the Nolan.

But I could be wrong on every single one of those speculations. Dead wrong. Or half of them. Or one of them. And when the NYT speculates like some blogger at a bar, it becomes News. And that ain’t right.

I know one thing… there are a lot of angry people this morning. Some are hiding, some are giggling and some are seriously considering whether anyone should be fired.

This, my friends, is the kind of story that gets people fired. Maybe not this week. (Too obvious.) But soon.

I am pretty sure that I will know what actually happened by the end of the weekend. But I am sorry to say, I won’t be writing a sequel to this column with the details. They were private a couple days ago. And next week, they will be treated like state secrets.

I’m going to the movie tonight, by the way. I hope Jessica kicks some serious ass. She usually does. Oscar, too. And would love this to be the best work from Chandor, as some have told me it is.

But I can be sure that after 30 seconds of “The movie was XXXX or XXXX,” the conversation will turn to this morning’s “news.” And that’s a shame. There is no doubt that the movie will have been much more interesting.

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