Weekend, 12-13 February 2000

NEWS BY THE NUMBERS

Welcome to yet another abbreviated version of The Hot Button. Fortunately, I am just about done with my Sundance-traumatic-stress-syndrome and things should be more back to normal next week. Thank you for your indulgence. And now, the Top Seven stories of the week:

7. Pooper Scooper: Our intrepid Sundance agitator, Ray Pride, wrote in to let us know that, if anyone really cares, that Charlize Theron will NOT be in Pearl Harbor, telling this to the entire press corps that pressed her for an answer during the Reindeer Games junket. Mr. Pride also points out that the photo of another blonde bombshell, Cameron Diaz, in the ads for Any Given Sunday, ripped in Bad Ad Watch (THB 2/11), shows her "her beaming, only seconds after having been flashed by the naked black gentleman who is still visible in the background...remember him standing full frontal before her, exerting his substantial charms? This I find amusing and perverse in the extreme." Indeed.

6. Sometimes A Banana: The Fine Line deal to distribute But I'm A Cheerleader was so set that the studio entered the film in Sundance's Midnight Movie section to give it a big U.S. kickoff. But sometimes a deal is just a case of mutual disinclination. The studio even went as far as setting an April 7 release date. But it was the video deal, where all the profit would be on a movie like this, which figures for a short stay on screen and a long life in the gay section at Blockbuster. (Ha ha! Actually, this film will be campy fun for more than the gay set.) Who knows? Maybe it will come back together. Though it would be an unusual negotiating ploy to dump a film and go public with it. The real question is whether the film's negotiating team is overestimating its strength. Seems very possible. Maybe Artisan will pick it up as the antidote to Chuck & Buck.

5. Hey God!: Jim Varney is dead at just 50. And remarkably, this is a significant movie business story. People sniff at $100 million in this business, but when it's mostly profit, it's nothing to sniff at and Varney's Earnest series grossed about that much for Disney here in America alone. Varney also brought his talents to hits like The Beverly Hillbillies and the Toy Story series. But most of all, Varney is memorable for being a good guy and a performer who loved his creation and knew how to take care of him (that would be Ernest).

4. Kissing Up & Paying Due Respect: TNT has a new honcho. Mr. Steve Koonin will serve as a layer between Mr. Brad Siegel, who is now overseeing all that is Turner and TV, and the rest of us. I have not met Mr. Koonin, but I'm sure he's a great guy...top of the line...Prime Grade A...sweetheart. As Mr. Koonin is the guy who came up with "Always Coca Cola," I look forward to the "Always David Poland" ad campaign. Nonetheless, my roughcutting heart belongs to Scot Safon, our marketing chief, who is still our direct Lord and Master. If you like roughcut.com and you notice that we don't sell a lot of crap or promote a lot of TNT programming, that's because Scot has allowed us to remain above that fray. And as you see initiatives, like the roughcut.com Internet Movie Awards, playing out over a bigger and bigger international stage, that too is a reflection of Scot's love and attention to our small site (which has quietly become on of the biggest on the web). It's a rare thing to be able to thank a marketing guy for a soft sell. Thanks, Scot. And welcome, Steve. And hi, Brad. And Ted, about that billion dollars...

3. FX-R-US: Reading in the Hollywood Reporter about the process by which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences visual effects branch goes about picking the three best effects Oscar® nominees was pretty fun. First, they have seven films to consider. Each film presents a 15 minute clip, an oral presentation of 3 minutes and then opens the floor to a Q&A (5 minutes). And all of this takes place with 1000 people in the house at the big Academy theater. Of course, there less than 200 voting members in the branch. But we'll all know what's up come Tuesday when the nominations are announced. And I'll be there, live on Yahoo! Chat, for all the fun at (gulp!) 5 a.m. PST. (By the way, the contenders are Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace, Stuart Little, The Matrix, Wild Wild West, Sleepy Hollow, The World Is Not Enough and The Mummy.)

2. "O" Is For "Oh S**T!": It wasn't exactly highlighted in Friday's Hollywood Reporter, but the other shoe may be about to drop at Mike Ovitz' AMG. The battle to make talent agencies free to compete with management companies in a wider range of production and ownership opportunities is coming to a head at the Screen Actors Guild. And if agencies are allowed to pull even with managers, Ovitz is floating the idea of resetting AMG as an agency. Fascinating. We live in a time in which every wall seems to be being broken down and I suspect in about five years, all of them will be rebuilt for the same reasons that they were built back in "the good old days." In the meantime, looks for the '00s to be remembered as a decade of the rape and pillaging of talent as the people who actually do the work get less and less and the dealmakers get more and more.

1. Premature Congratulations: My favorite showbiz story of the week? It's got to be the deal with Mattel to make toys from the Harry Potter series of movies that haven't even been set completely yet. Steven Spielberg MAY do the first Potter film. He probably will NOT do the second. Yet, the toys are being readied. And this is probably the biggest single toy deal since Mattel hooked up with Disney to produce Toy Story toys. Of course, the movie is due out next summer (2001), so I guess they have to get started sometime. The clock is runningÉ and it has a happy little face and dribbles out Skittles and M&Ms...

READER OF THE DAY: From A: "Regarding the overkill bashing over The Beach - it appears some critics have taken this opportunity to rake over Leo for his off-screen activities rather than analyze the film. Take for example Rex Reed and Gene Shalit. Mr. Reed, I think, has outlived any usefulness, if he ever had any. When someone brings up Veronica Lake as Reed did in his review of The Beach, I think it's high time he considered retirement. As far as Gene Shalit, when I heard him say in the midst of his "review" that Leonardo DiCaprio can't act...well, what can you say? I'm sure the film has it's problems and I can appreciate a critic explaining to me why it didn't work for him or that Leonardo doesn't appeal to him, but please, Mr. Shalit, don't say he can't act -- that makes you sound ridiculous."

To Z: "When I found out who had been nominated for the WGA awards, I was elated and saddened. Elated, because M. Night Shyamalan, David O. Russell, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor were nominated. But I was most happy for Lewis Colick for October Sky. I just saw the movie and I'm kicking myself for not seeing it in the theater. The writing was just brilliant. I am saddened by the fact that Frank Darabont got passed over. I thought he did a excellent job adapting the book in his screenplay. When I saw the Cider House Rules, I felt that it was too disconnected in the first two acts and the screenplay only started to come together in the third act. R.I.P Jim Varney. I'll always miss Ernst."