Friday, 29 August 1997

THE WEEKENDER

NEWS BY THE NUMBERS has the weekend off due to scheduling problems (Not mine. Hrmph!), so please accept my apologies.

I've decided to use the space this weekend for an open letter to Harry Knowles. Many of you read both of us daily and for those of you who don't, I'll let you know that Harry was invited to the Armageddon premiere. He went and he told the story as part of his review. He saw the film again and wrote a second review. As part of Review 2, Harry took the opportunity to whine a little and to wonder aloud why he was taking such grief for simply attending a premiere. So here is the answer:

Dear Harry,

There is a misunderstanding in the world that I somehow dislike you. I do not. But I do have concerns about your site and how it fits into the world of entertainment "journalism." See, I'm not much of a fan of any of this stuff. In fact, I created my columns at rough cut in great part to give me a place to tear down the hypocrisy of this business. Not that I'm not as vulnerable as the next guy. But I live with that fear every day. And I make my choices about what I do and I don't do with that in mind. I don't go to every junket. I rarely go to premieres at all. But when I do go, I am working. I am doing the job. When you went to the Godzilla premiere or the Armageddon premiere, you weren't working. You were being a guest. I think you are a very smart guy, but I don't think that you know the difference between those two things yet. Sure you wrote about it, but if that were what your invitations were about, you would have been sent to a screening, like every other reviewer. You aren't like Roger Ebert (as you suggest in your second review), working for Disney and getting bashed for his employment arrangement. Roger, as far as I know, doesn't attend any junkets, premieres or do any interviews in which his expenses, air or otherwise, have been paid for by any studio. I can't even say that. Roger is a guy who has been at this for decades. And whether people like him or hate him, he is a seasoned professional.

In the end, this problem, for those of us who are thoughtful about it, is the same as the problem with the central work on your site. You don't take responsibility for understanding where the line is. With your media-induced popularity comes the demand from those of us who aren't satisfied to root for you just because you are "the underdog" that you start to show a little responsibility. Disclosure isn't responsibility. It takes more than that. If you go to the premiere, review the premiere. But you lose your right to review the movie. You review the movie, you've lost your right to go to the premiere and have your ass kissed. Them's the rules, H-man. Get used to it.

And understand, your standing in Hollywood is based on the paranoia that drives this town. Your readers love the "exposing the big guys" element of your site, but the studio execs read you not for insight, but to make sure that you aren't exposing their flaws. Disney and Sony didn't bring you to their premieres to embrace you. They are trying to figure out how to control you. That's THEIR job. Can't blame them for doing that, can we? You want to be taken for more than another suck-up? Then don't act like one. Don't blame everyone else for your unwillingness to control yourself. Until you learn restraint, you will never be seen as more than your image. And you can do better than that. I mean that sincerely. As a good thing. I'm sure that I will get hell for this letter. I always get hell from your core fans when I say anything that can be perceived as negative about you. It's one of the difficulties of this job.

Whether it's you, The X-Files or Titanic, people who are passionate about subjects that I write about express themselves strongly. But that's also the great part of this job. That's what's made you possible and what has allowed me to get paid to write like this instead of delivering trend pieces week in and week out for magazines like Entertainment Weekly. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just not a job I covet.) The readers are our barometer of when we do right and when we screw up. So keep them in mind before you start being so defensive. As in my real life, when the sentiment of the people who care about me (in this case, about my column) start pushing me in a direction, even if I think they are dead wrong at first, I can usually glean some significant insight when I let down my guard a little.

Lastly, I didn't mean to make this a full column, but I had a lot to say to you and to so many people who read us both. This is a sensitive subject and I do get a lot of mail that starts, "I know you hate Harry, so here's this ..." I don't hate you and I wanted to make sure that my position was clear and not just some short hard slap at your work. Had you not written your second review, clearly upset by the backlash and looking for the reasons for it, I wouldn't have been writing this at all. But this open letter is not just about you. It's about this profession. Being "the outsider" and "breaking all the rules" only works when you really are an "outsider." Like the rest of us who have lost our innocence, it's time for you to adjust your game. You don't have to be a sell-out. But you are certainly as big as a small city newspaper reviewer in terms of "civilian" readership. Perhaps bigger. And you definitely have the ear of the entertainment press. So, step up or get stepped over. Phenom to forgotten is not an unusual leap here in Tinseltown.

And Harry ... welcome to the jungle.

David

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E ME: I'm interested in takes going both ways. Like the last time I wrote extensively about Harry, I'll be putting a moratorium on him for a while after the dust settles. So, get it out now or forever hold your rage, agreement or indifference. And again, sorry about no NEWS BY THE NUMBERS. Maybe a look at The Grossest Movie Moments will make it up to those of you who like gross stuff. Have a great holiday weekend. See you on the other side.