August 23, 2004

I'm not a big birthday guy. But this column turned seven yesterday and I guess I should acknowledge the event.

The first column was 167 words (few ROTDs are that brief these days), mocked the then launching Sundance Cinemas, and the graphic consisted of a red button with the name of the column. (I'm afraid that the redness was probably my bad idea.) Every journey starts with a first step.

I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people for the ongoing existence of this column. Andy Jones (yes, that Andy Jones) dragged me onto the web and Scot Safon kept Andy from killing me. Rod Lurie was one of the very first industry types to take notice and to encourage me to stick with it. When things went south at AOL Time-Warner, Laura Rooney stuck with me and since, not only has she posted every THB column and come up with the great daily quotations on the front page, she has partnered with me in building MCN.

But as I have always said, it is the readers who make this worthwhile. Love me or hate me, agree or disagree, you all have become part of my daily routine. I have been embraced, abused, avoided and indulged by people from the highest levels of the industry to the most junior. Some of you have been around from the very earliest days... others may be "tuning in" today for the very first time. Thank you all for stopping by.

Whether I am being publicly attacked by Drew McWeeny over a long-boring argument over the legality and morality of exposing the work of filmmakers in process or being embraced by some great new (or old) director who is happy that someone out there is paying attention or if I am simply being understood as someone who truly loves this industry by someone who knows a lot more about what is happening in the ivory towers than I do... I love this game.

There are slow days, but there is always something new around the corner. There is always a bully to throw stones at and glass houses to consider. There are people I really, really like whom I find myself attacking and people I really, really don't whose sides I have to take. At least two important internet columnists have died prematurely during the run of this column, many others have lost their jobs (some deservedly and others not) and the industries relationship with the web has zoomed around like a rock from a dyslexic slingshot.

Looking back at the August 22 columns over the year, the memories are sparked. 1998 dealt with two never-happening projects from PT Anderson and Jerry Zucker. 1999 included Steven Spielberg trying to make The Talisman (he's still trying) and Andy Jones leaving roughcut.com. 2000 was an Almost Famous review. 2001 was a brief look at Toronto, back when I was going there to program The Miami Film Festival. 2002 includes this if-I-say-so-myself gem:

TOP TEN HOT BUTTON RULES OF THUMB

1. Great Media Outlets Allow Themselves To Be Represented By Inferior Talent When The Subject Is Entertainment And That Sucks.

2. $100 Million Is No Longer A Blockbuster

3. Successful Movie Advertising Sells One Idea At A Time

4. The Story Of The Moment Is Almost Never The Real Story

5. There Are Very Few Journalists In Entertainment Journalism

6. Talent Is Your Friend Until It's Time For Talent Not To Be Your Friend

7. Reviewing Scripts Or Test Screenings Is Selfish And Immoral

8. Opening Weekend Is Never About The Quality Of The Movie

9. There Are Things I Know And Things I Don't Know And Sometimes They Change

10.Love What You Do And Do What You Love Or Get The Fuck Out.
And so it goes...

E ME: Do you have a THB memory that stands out above any others?