The Hot Button by David Poland

Weekend, 14 March 1998

SHOWEST: THE WRAP-UP
It's over. By about 10:30 Thursday night, all the screenings had been screened, all the candy had been sold and all the questions had been answered. Well, not all the questions. If you've been reading the ShoWest coverage all week, you'll already know that only one of the five major studios made an appearance this year. That would be (sfx: Godzilla roar) Sony. Of the four mini-majors who sponsored events, DreamWorks did best, but left a bunch of questions in the air. (A note: Apologies for my forgetfulness about a DreamWorks project called Antz, starring the voice of Woody Allen and Sharon Stone. It looked terrific and exhibitors are looking forward to getting the film next spring.) And in the end, there was a lot of talk about the future of ShoWest itself. But as one insider told me, the show changes with the industry and ShoWest '98 reflects where the majors are as we move into this summer. Disney was the only other major with serious summer heat and their plans were stopped in their tracks by the preparations to demolish the regular off-site location of the studio's semi-annual supershow.

The ShoWest Awards reflected the same jittery reality. There were big stars, including Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Matt Damon, Minnie Driver and Helen Hunt. There were big directors and writers like Barry Levinson, Barry Sonnenfeld, Ron Bass and Gary Ross (the Big screenwriter who scored big with the sneak look at his directing debut, Pleasantville). And in an Oscar snub turn-around, ShoWest got Djimon Hunsou, but not Anthony Hopkins, who was satellited in from a set somewhere. (Djimon graciously turned away any speculation about race playing a part in his Oscar snub. Great guy.)

But none of that could make up for Tom Arnold. He hosted the award show, which TNT (our parent company) didn't televise this year. (That too was the source of more speculation. Did TNT pass because they chose to do the SAG Awards or did they just decide that ShoWest did nothing for the network? Hmmmm. Even RCTV didn't show up to grab celeb interviews like "E.T.," E! and so many others.) I'm trying to come up with the best words to describe his performance as host, but "sucked" seems too subtle and "disastrous" may be a little too El Nino-esque a description.
Let's just say that in a room of 3,000 people, about six were laughing with him, 50 were laughing at him and the rest were in a state of stunned silence. It wasn't just the stupid and offensive material either. It was the classic Tom Arnold delivery. Dustin Hoffman went on for a long time telling a story about passing wind on the set of Rain Man (This was a complimentary story about Barry Levinson), but he got laughs. Not Tom. (Actually, there was a windy theme at ShoWest this year. Leslie Neilsen went with the whoopie cushion for his entrance at the Sony event.)

For the press, this year's show was a disappointment, too. While Djimon, Burt, Minnie and Joan Allen stopped to talk to reporters, the rest of the stars zoomed through the photo line and ran past reporters. Julia Roberts didn't even do that, but she got a pass after she explained in her acceptance speech that she was working under a cloud of Midol and Alka-Seltzer. Damon, one of the runners, got no such pass. In fact, he was the talk off the press after dissing us by running by us twice in one day. He did apparently do a few private interviews, but he's starting to develop the kind of press-shy/press-contemptuous attitude that can turn a career to dung after just one bad movie. Instead of having media friendlies wanting to help you through the tough times, actors who pull this crap tend to get buried, often for no reason other than their press attitude. Everyone wants him on their cover now, but this is just the beginning of what he hopes will be a long career. Talk to Patrick Dempsey about that, Matt.

Coca-Cola sponsored the nice post-Awards dinner, complete with filet mignon and large shrimp. But the only premium items were 20 ounce bottles of soda. I didn't take any home. But I did emasculate my table's centerpiece by taking the very cleverly made Coke-bottle torch, which is basically a 10-ounce bottle on a flashlight. The light led the way to the bar, where some journalist colleagues and I drank to old and new friends and said goodbye until next year. And that's really what ShoWest is about. Getting together and talking about last year and the year to come. Let's hope that next year is a better year for all the studios and for ShoWest 1999. I'll be there for sure.

More ShoWest: If you've missed any of the previous week of ShoWest reporting, click Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday for the rest of the daily coverage. And check out the ShoWest feature that will run next Wednesday.

Back To Normal: Next week, The Hot Button goes back to the regular schedule. Monday will be the Weekend Review, Tuesday and Thursday are news days, Wednesday is Ranting and Raving day, Friday is Weekend Preview and the Weekender is News By The Numbers, the top 10 stories of the week.

E ME: I want to hear what you have to say about The Man In The Iron Mask after you see it. And I know I haven't responded to any of your e-mail this week. It was a minor technical problem. I'll make up for it next week. But any thoughts on ShoWest will be greatly appreciated.