The Hot Blog Archive for August, 2005
If I Were Lions Gate…
I’d be considering suing Disney for their Primetime Live piece on Timothy Treadwell, who is the subject of Grizzly Man.
They interviewed the same people and used much of the footage that Herzog uses. Of course, the experience was inferior… but some people may skip the movie because of it and this sucks.
My Last Comment Before Moving On
I have made a $150 donation to Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles in Judd Apatow’s name. That’s more than the $105 bid that was the last legitimate one on the eBay site.
If $4050 were that easy for me to give away, I would have given that away too.
And now… on with real show business…
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
New Rules
So it is time again to try to make sure we are all acountable for our words… at least a little.
We are going to try again to require free, easy Typepad registration in order to post.
Sorry for the inconvenience, but once you register, you never have to fill things in again… plus you don’t have to let me or anyone else know who you are… you just have to be registered.
To register, just go through the process of making a comment and the computer will take you through it.
Thanks
The Chester Hates DP String
One of our most prolific blog commenters, Chester, has a beef with me. So, instead of subjecting people to reading through all of this in another posting, I’ve moved it all here. Enjoy.
38 Comments »Eaing It, Virgin Style
Do you every have one of those moments when the circumstances and bad choices lead to embarrassment? Welcome to my Wednesday.
On August 5, someone sent me a link to an eBay item titled
Cupcakes Are The New Cocaine
How many people will stand on line to pay $35 for a dozen cupcakes?
So far, lots.
The new hip thing in L.A. – much more fun than the pool at the Roosevelt Hotel – are cupcakes from Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills.
Not only are the cupcakes excellent and, of course, made from natural stuff, but They make about 20 different combos of cake an frosting, from basic Vanilla to Ginger to Red Velvet.
The virtually unmarked store, open for 4 months now, is the size of a Beverly Hills broom closet and can easily be missed… except for the telltale line out the door.
So, the hipness clock is running… by Christmas, you can be sure that the cupcakes will be flying, competitors will be open, and cupcakes will be well on the way to being next year’s Winchell’s Donuts.
But for now, what better way is there to say, “I went out of my way to amuse you… and I don’t care if your ass/gut is just a little bit bigger… indulge!”
The Summer of Excuses Hits Fifth Gear…
Rob Cohen – “I think there’s a love of infamy and heroism that doesn’t play into the zeitgeist.”
David Poland – “I think there is a hack director who doesn’t know how to entertain an audience.”
Rob Cohen – “Action films are usually about the male hero, and if you live in a time when you don’t believe in heroes, it makes it difficult … to make action films as they’ve been traditionally defined.”
David Poland – “Or maybe if your “hero” wasn’t willing to bomb the crap out of a sovereign nation so he can retrieve the one piece of ass in the military he hasn’t tapped yet, we could think of him as heroic. Could your “hero’s” action be any more like you feel Bush’s actions are?”
And just one point on Rachel Abramowitz’ piece, which tells the story well except for the one psychotic narcissist given play at the top…
“With a few exceptions, such as Russell Crowe, manly men have disappeared from the screen to be replaced either by platoons of outsider friends working together (the “X-Men,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Ocean’s Eleven”) or thin, lithe, beautiful and boyish creatures, usually alienated somewhat from their environs. In “Spider-Man,” “Batman” or even “Harry Potter,” the hero is an orphaned young man, traumatized by his past, with duty and greatness thrust upon him. His power is in his head, not his hands, and the audience feels empathy for him, not awe.”
X-Men – 25 years old
Lord Of The Rings – 50 years old
Ocean’s Eleven (which had minimal teen appeal) – 45 years old
Spider-Man – 40 years old
Batman – 60 years old
Good storytelling works. Good iconic stories tend to have good hooks to market them with.
Sony sold Stealth with everything the movie had… CG effects, good looking actors, and Jessical Biel’s body. There was NOTHING else… and audiences smelled it. Had Russell Crowe been in the lead, it would have opened before it died. But Josh Lucas and Jessica Biel don’t open movies and Jamie Foxx has never opened a movie to as much as $7 million without a lot of help (Oliver Stone/Al Pacino, small role in a Will Smith movie, Tom Cruise, Ray Charles/Oscar push). Want to say that is a typical Hollywood excuse? Wake up and smell marketing ass.
It’s lovely to claim that The Island got caught in a jetstream, but DreamWorks knew they had a problem before the summer started and before the film was finished. The Academy first-act-and-shoe party screening was not a lark.
And how can you claim there is an action problem when Mr & Mrs Smith overperformed, Star Wars topped the summer, not to mention War of the Worlds and Batman Begins!
And stop trying to throw all this on Dukes of Hazzard… do you realize how much money WB spent for the $30 million opening and that if the film doesn’t perform better overseas, they are going to lose a bundle when/if the film tops out at $100 million here?
Of course, now the wags are already tearing into King Kong – “It’s do well, but can it really get to $300 million?”. Don’t even get them started on V For Vendetta.
Toronto is coming…
MARY Abel Ferrara, Italy/USA, Visions, North American Premiere
An independent director (Matthew Modine) casts himself as Jesus Christ in his film. The actress (Juliette Binoche) playing Mary Magdalene travels alone to Jerusalem after the shoot to continue her spiritual journey inspired by her role. A year later in Manhattan, a superstar network journalist (Forest Whitaker) investigates the life and times of Jesus Christ. While his show receives high ratings, he and his wife (Heather Graham) face a crisis for which they are spiritually unprepared.
(For TIFF PRess Releases, here is the spot)
David Carr Remembers The Good Old Days…. 10 Years Ago
Here’s his story…
Here’s my response…
What do you think?
I Don't Know Why…
Peter Jennings death at 67 upsets me so much.
Maybe it is that he was the first anchor of my generation of mature television viewing. Maybe it is because he seemed so strong, looking well while the not-ill Dan Rather looks like a wreck. Maybe 27 years from me is not nearly far enough to do all the things I want to do.
He was never my favorite anchor. For me, there was direct line from Brinkley to Koppel. But unlike Rather and Brokaw, there was never that earlier career in which he developed in my eyes.
I don’t think I ever had more than a word with him, along with a handshake.
He was elegant. And he seemed to really know his stuff. He always seemed above the pettiness we all get drawn into now and then.
With Nightline turning into a 30 minute crap news roundup as Koppel goes away, Brinkley gone, Walters more about showbiz than news now… woe is us. Another loss that may bring things a little lower… a little closer to a standard too easy to meet.
I Think The Lack Of Comments…
… tells us just how uninteresting this last weekend was.
45 Comments »You Guys Tell Me…
When The New York Times runs a feature about a remake of The Devil & Miss Jones, it makes me deeply sad.
It is so normal to see pornography and smirky references to sex on the web. And I think a story on the pornography business is 100% legit… it is big, big, business.
But 298 words is an EW News & Notes piece… it is not news… and the piece seems to focus on mundane sensationalism, like “…There’s so much hair everywhere.”
Can you hear the smirk in the word processor here? “Ms. Spelvin, 69, said she was still surprised that she, a small-breasted brunette, got the starring role.”
Is it news that Vivid claims they will spend $250,000 on this film? (Pure bullshit there.) Or that they got a billboard in Times Square?
Will this bit of oral, anal and other varieties of sex be any different than other porn films, other than that it gets a marketing push in the New York Times?
Is this The Times’ way of thumbing its gray nose at he Bush Administration?
Honestly… how far is The New York Times from covering Lindsay Lohan’s breasts on a daily basis?
Has Tom Grunick gone to work for The New York Times?
Some of you will think I am overreacting to this… and no one story is that important… unless it is symbolic of something bigger… and to me, this is one step away from a paper that I really care about and read every single day streaming freeway car chases on their website because “you gotte give the audience what they want.”
