March 6, 2003

We’re just 11 days away from the closing of the Oscar polls and the fury inside the machine is as intense as ever…

I was in the midst of a little incident yesterday that I will keep short and sweet, since the truth is, these wounds are not worth opening any wider.  It’s not sporting.  But a major publicist who is exclusively committed to one team let a basically unimportant piece of information slip to another team that is somewhat affiliated with her team… and all hell broke loose.  There were allegations and denials and non-denial denials and loud screams and tearful exchanges and overall, an enormous amount of unhappiness for all involved… except for the troublemaker who sparked this little wildfire.

Meanwhile, in public, both teams are being very generous to one another on the record. 

At one point yesterday, I was going to run this story on Movie City News with all the real names of all the real players.  There would have been some public denials.  This would have been lies.  There would have been some rage at yours truly. That, I could handle.  But the simple reality is that the evil horde was repelled and the loyalty of the unnamed publicist to the unnamed producer of the unnamed co-production has been maintained.  Will it turn out that the unnamed publicist will end up working for the evil horde next year at an exorbitant rate?  Possible.  But that is the nature of this particular beast. 

I’ve come to think of the 2002/3 Oscar race as the film business equivalent of the hijacked airplanes of 9/11.   Now that passengers realize that the evil horde could fly the plane into the building, no one will ever remain passive during a hijacking again.  I think you will find that next year, if the evil horde tries to pull the horrible crap that they pulled this year, others will stand up and fight back… kind of like the Elves and Ents joining the Hobbits and Humans to defeat evil.  Hmmm… interesting analogy.

QUOTE THIS!:  Jeffrey Wells took up the cause of Ed Burns in his column this week and quoted my less than generous comments.  I just saw an upcoming Ed Burns-led film and all I will say at this early date is that watching Ed Burns act is like watching paint think. 

WEEKEND PREVIEW:  The box office is so incredibly boring right now that I’m not even going to do a full list of guesstimates.  I like Bringing Down The House to beat Tears of the Sun, $23.5 million against $15.8 million.  Look for Chicago to fall out of the Top Five, though you can expect another single-digit drop from Miramax publici… uh, distribution. 

As for Oscar flicks, The Pianist is coming on, though The Hours remains the second leading current Best Picture grosser, after Chicago.  Also in the $1 million - $2 million weekend range are About Schmidt, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Quiet American. 

Yes. The Quiet American.

Harvey Weinstein is quoted by the forever catching up Tom King in this week’s Weekend Journal on Oscar-time TV ad spending: “Mr. Weinstein says that's happening because it wouldn't make fiscal sense to spend as much on ads for "Frida" now, when it's been out since October and is somewhat played out, grossing $200,000 last weekend.”

But The Quiet American grossed $1.1 million and scored a per-screen of $5061 last weekend.  And Gangs of New York, which is being advertised out the wahzoo?  $696,000 and $961 per screen.  Hmmm… Quiet American is bringing in almost enough in rentals to cover the cost of advertising Gangs…

THE TIME MACHINE:  Have you noticed how many recent movies featuring over-40s are using the idea of white adults trying to emulate black culture?  This weekend’s Bringing Down The House is focusing, nearly exclusively, in Eugene Levy’s street-talking suburbanite.  Chris Rock’s up coming Head of State is trading on old white people talking “fishel schizzel.”  WB’s upcoming What A Girl Wants trades on the cultural stuffiness of the British, brought to earth by a hip teenaged and yes, white, America with low-riding jeans.  But I feel like we are all still telling the same joke about Barbara Billingsley talking jive in Airplane.

RUMOR MILLING:  Some people are saying that if Barry Diller wins the Universal entertainment properties, he will all but shut down Universal Pictures.  I find that very hard to believe… but who knows?  I think it is more likely that he would give the reigns over to some young turk who’d have to live with an extremely strict business plan.

Meanwhile, the sudden series of Dimension co-production deals, combined with further reporting on Disney’s tightening the purse strings for Miramax, has let to speculation that Harvey Weinstein might be taking his caravan and moving on down the road.  Earlier reports that Weinstein was looking for outside financing, so that Disney’s exposure would become a non-issue, were pooh-poohed by Miramax acolyte Roger Friedman.  And now, the idea of Harvey running off has been pooh-poohed as well.  But something is afoot, Oscars or no Oscars.

THE MOVIES:  God, have they been crap!  I didn’t catch Bringing Down The House or Tears of the Sun... but I am sure looking forward to Willard!  But all the arty films I’ve been seeing lately are barkers too!  Yick!  Try to see something decent this weekend.  I’m going to watch some Oscar DVDs and linger in glory.

READER OF THE DAY:  THE FIG writes:  “As an African American women; I am disgusted at her new movie. From what I have seen from the trailer and from that article; she DOES NOT SPEAK FOR BLACK CULTURE.

1. When did she become a spokesmen for all black people. During her rap days she was always talking about respecting oneself and how black women should not fall into stereotypical traps. I guess when it is a non black man or when you need to eat; things change.

2. When will white people make a movie were a white women acts like a fool and talks about her pink breasts and wants a black man to get back with his black wife?  Yes whites have made movies about race; however love stories with white couples that are DRAMAS outnumber stories about race.

3. It seems to be easier to have a black singer ( who cant sing) become an actor instead of trying to groom a unknown black actor. Is " The Queen" and people like Ja Fool the future of black cinema. I would not mind some black actors.

4. Somehow variety with black people is not an option. I dont blame whites. I blames blacks who continue to write the same " angry black man" / black women without a man books. Why hasn’t mainstream black america heard of movies such as Compensation or Rain. Every black history month Showtime airs black short films. These go unreported by black media. Yeah blacks want to fall in love. We want to hold hands. Two blacks falling in love should not be considered racist.

5. Take Babershop; whites loved it. However how many movies are going to be shown were Anne Frank and her family are called cowards; jews that pass for WASPS are stupid or orthodox jews are crazy.

6. Compensation was about two blacks who fell in love. Their blackness was not important. The girl was deaf and the boy was a basketball player. Their romance mirrored the romance of a couple during the 1800s. Rain was about two lovers destined to die during a nuclear war. It is a shame that they did not receive any press by the black media. I am tired of hip hop. I am sure when some white executive realizes that white parents don’t like what their children are listening too; he will tell the hip hop \ rap crowd to straighten up. Funny that blacks have been trying to do that for years and too little succuss. Too much money at stake.

Don’t look towards Russell Simmons to care. He is only caring because he wants to be more likeable to white ameica. He was and still is the driving force to alot of the problems in that genre. I guess Lil "Justin "Timberlake who is know that prince of crossover *roll eyes* is safe.

E ME:  She ain’t just scmigiten the flickiten!!!  Yes, Jews can be Black too!  The only real difference is pork ribs.  Or not.  What do you think?