Malicious Content: Gossipmongers and the Paparazzi
by Jaden
The media has massacred all that was charming, exciting, and glamorous about Hollywood.
Today’s press makes me sick; they have snuffed out the allure of entertainers, making them impotent at their job to fascinate.
I want to watch a movie and not think about how the actor had a booger hanging out of her nose at Coffee Bean. I want to believe in a character and not know about the actor’s real sexual history. I want to fall in love with a story and not be distracted by the actor’s personal life.
Watching TV with an actress friend of mine, a news clip came up about a new law to try to protect celebrities from the paparazzi. They showed aerial footage of photographers running into traffic and sticking their cameras up against the car windows of Britney Spears. She couldn’t see the road or drive. The cameramen looked like blood-sucking mosquitoes. It was disgusting. My friend added that she too once almost drove over a gang of stalker photographers because they just ran right out in front of her car while she was driving. Too bad she didn’t flatten a few of ‘em and make the world a safer place.
These stalkers with an apparatus give photography a bad name. It is not freedom of the press; it is a creep with a mental illness. The press are invited to premieres and official places where they are welcome to take pictures. Trespassing on private property, stalking, and violating traffic laws are illegal acts.
Wasn’t the death of Princess Di enough? It has only gotten worse since then. Hey, let’s see how many celebrities we can murder with our cameras. BONK!
Worship and envy combine to kill.
These things exist because the public pays for it. The public pays for the pictures. The public pays for the news about whose armpits stink. The public makes this happen and they need to realize that as long as they are buying, as long as the demand is there, the goods will be supplied.
To me, our society has degenerated into something ignoble. When we should be advancing, we are digressing.
Let entertainers do their job and entertain. If you want to voice your opinion about the quality of their work, go right ahead, but why pick apart every little detail about them that you hate? Hate and envy are ugly.
To endanger lives for a stupid picture is an embarrassment to our society. Why do you care whether they wipe their babies’ butts? Or buy coffee? Or eat? Or drive? Or get in arguments with their spouses? Of course they do! They are human beings.
Why are people so hell bent on breaking down and destroying others more successful than themselves? One should be inspired and feel hopeful by viewing others’ success, not held back and angry by it.
All someone else’s success means is that you can do it too. Everything is possible. You don’t have to be a beauty queen or have an operatic voice; success is available to everyone. There are endless examples of hugely imperfect people who have excelled to great heights. You just have to find the right niche for youself.
“That’s what they get. I don’t feel sorry for them.” 
Several different people have said this to me about celebrities having to deal with the paparazzi.
Why do entertainers deserve it? Because they enjoy performing for you? They deserve a bunch of creepy people harassing them day and night? What is the logic in that?
Acting and singing are jobs, and I am telling you from first-hand experience, they are a lot harder (and more fun) than sitting in a cubicle. Can you memorize 120 pages and deliver each line with believable emotion? Can you handle auditioning for years, several times a day, and deal with the endless rejections? Can you stand on a stage, dance, and sing in front of thousands of people or two strangers? If you think celebrities deserve it because you are envious of what they do, you ought to move to Hollywood, give it a try, and see how easy it is not.
When you hear about their salaries, take into consideration that half that amount goes to the government in taxes. The more money you make, the more they take. The next chunk of it (about 25-40%) goes to their representation: agents, lawyers, and publicists. They are then left with maybe 10-20% of that enormous sum. With that, they have to pay for food, home, and family, just like everyone else. On top of that, they have to pay for clothes, make-up, and whatever else so that they look fabulous when the paparazzi catches them off guard. Taking the expensive location of Hollywood into consideration, celebrities are not as rich or glamorous as you might think.
Briefly, I was an organ in the beast, but I could only go to so many red carpet functions and ask celebrities so many personal or trite questions about their face lotions, pets, and marital plans. It was humiliating. I wanted to ask respectable questions about the film and their role in it, but for that information, I was not being paid.
There is a difference between what is news, what is a critique, and what is malicious gossip.
“The movie tanked at the box office,” is news.
“The movie sucked,” is a critique.
“The actress looked fat,” is gossip.
A nude photo up a woman’s skirt is illegal.
One is informative. Two is an opinion. Three and four are simply malicious and creepy.
Some positive respectful movie-lover sites focused on news and opinion are:
For a fresh raging backlash at the catty press by Mystery Man on Film, click to read this excellent piece about 2008 Oscar winning screenwriter Diablo Cody.
Are you a malicious consumer?
Dream Cast for My Script
by Jaden
The current fiction screenplay I am writing is a murder mystery time period piece that has a thing or two to say about the press.
This is my dream cast:
George Clooney
Kirsten Dunst
John C. Reilly
Cate Blanchett
Benicio Del Toro
Catherine Keener
One time, a screenwriter told me to write with certain actors in mind; it helps to shape the story and give life to the characters. This works great for me and my writing partner. When working with a partner, it also helps to make sure you have the same vision. Additionally, the hope is that it will resonate with the actors and, best case scenario, they accept to play the roles.
By looking at the photos, who do you think gets killed? Who is the murderer? Who is blamed for the murder?
What is your dream cast ensemble?
4 Male Actors Worth Hiring: Passion, Humor, Sensitivity, Class
By Jaden
Screenwriters and directors, note these fine actors with whom you would enjoy working.
PASSION
SENSITIVITY
HUMOR
CLASS
Who are your favorites for passion, sensitivity, humor, and class?
(We’ll get to the lady actors later.)
80 Years of Oscar Losers I Love
by Jaden
One time I had a dream that I won an Oscar, but no one was in the audience.
That was probably a premonition; by the time I win an Oscar, I will be such an old bag, I won’t be able to see the audience.
Winning awards can be a bonus that makes your sales skyrocket, but that is not the ultimate prize. You win by enjoying life and loving what you do.
To see some of the best Oscar winners of all time, go to Writing Forward.
For suckers like me who love the losers, here are some of my favorites.
1933, She Done Him Wrong
With a title like She Done Him Wrong and starring the notorious brazen sexpot actress Mae West, the Best Picture loser from the 1934 Oscars has got to be good! Lady Lou is a singer / nightclub owner in New York whose ex-con lover has come back for his unfaithful lover. Mae West wrote the theatrical play Diamond Lil; Harvey F. Thew and John Bright adapted it for the screen.
1948, The Snake Pit
Psychoanalysis was a popular movie theme during the World War II era. To make sane people go crazy, they put them in a snake pit. It was believed that a snake pit could shock a crazy person into being sane.
Magnificently shot in black and white, The Snake Pit is about a woman in an insane asylum. Olivia de Havilland, the actress, is phenomenal; she was also in Gone with the Wind. Mary Jane Ward wrote the autobiographical best-selling novel that stirred up talk about treatment in mental institutions. Frank Partos and Millen Brand adapted the novel to screen.
England added a script to the beginning of the film that stated their institutions were not anything like those depicted in the film. Why so defensive England, hmmmm?
The biggest loser of the 1949 Oscars and by far the best film was The Snake Pit. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, and Best Music, it lost in all categories. Having a bunch of crazy broads screaming, it won the Oscar for Best Sound.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet won Best Picture in 1949 — yawn. How many times can a 444-year old guy win the Oscars? Geeze. Give the little people a chance. On IMDB Shakespeare is listed as the writer on 696 projects. There is something to aspire to my fellow screenwriters.
1956, Flesh Merchant: The Wild and Wicked
Flesh Merchant is the kind of low budget film that would never see the golden glimmer of an Oscar, but that doesn’t mean it is not good. Two sisters go to Hollywood to be big movie stars, only to end up enslaved in a remote country club prostitution ring. For the retro cars, hairdos, fashions and lingo, this film is smokin’ hot, innocent and naughty. Jay M. Kude and Peter Perry Jr. wrote the screenplay.
1966, Seconds
Starring Rock Hudson, directed by the great John Frankenheimer, with lots of unforeseen twists, Seconds is a psychological thriller about the heavy costs of taking on a new identity. David Ely wrote the novel that Lewis John Carlino adapted to screen. Not nominated for its superb acting or clever screenplay, it was nominated for Best Cinematography and lost. Seconds is a stunning loser not to be missed.
1970, Myra Breckinridge
If you are a stoner or any kind of freak, you have to get the Myra Breckinridge DVD and watch the extra footage on this movie written by David Giler and Michael Sarne who adapted the novel by Gore Vidal. Basically, the filmmakers were so high, they were lost in a purple haze of flower-painted buses and rainbow snakes. Whatever they were tokin’ on, this film is out there! Its bizarre scenes are referenced in many other modern films. Raquel Welch (just the most beautiful woman ever!) stars as a man. Need I say more?
1983, Valley Girl
Epitomizing the 80s, Valley Girl is, like, a totally awesome script written by Wayne Crawford and Andrew Lane. Save yourself the pain of looking at their writing credits; I mean, where can you go from Valley Girl? Other titles for this movie that luckily didn’t stick were: Bad Boyz (gag me with a pitchfork), College Lovers (borrrrring), and Rebel Dreams (puuuhleeezzz).
The Valley Girl: Music From The Soundtrack
In more recent years, Valley Girl director Martha Coolidge directed episodes of Weeds, Sex and the City, CSI and Material Girls. Way to go woman!
The Directors’ Guild had a Valley Girl reunion, screened the film, and had a Q&A with the cast who were all holding up pretty good after 20 some-odd years, each with their own interesting life stories. Nicolas Cage was the only actor not present, hopefully due to a schedule conflict and not conceit.
Nick Cage, who plays a punk rocker, was my teenage heart-throb until a pigeon pooped Fire Birds on his head — a pro-army anti-drugs gawd-awful helicopter movie on the heels of the fighter plane hit Top Gun. Prior to that turd-bomb, Nick chose exciting unorthodox movies like: Wild at Heart, Moonstruck, Raising Arizona, Rumble Fish, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Cage, love him as I do, left his radness in the 80s and went into the 90s trying to be the tough guy with The Rock, ConAir, Face Off, and Snake Eyes.
Cage — an action hero? Give it up already!
Quirky, funny, charming? Yes, Cage, yes! Awkward is sexy; don’t you know, Nick? Nerd is the new punk rocker. Think Napoleon Dynamite and the chair sex boy in Juno. Being a dork is cool. Adaptation is the only film I have loved from Cage in the last couple decades; Charlie Kaufman wrote it, so of course it’s a winner.
How did I get stuck in the 80s on a Nicolas Cage tangent? Shoot. Is my hair sprayed into a doughnut shape on my forehead? Are those purple leg-warmers over my Wrangler blue cords?
1992, Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me
Winning awards from everybody (Saturn, Brit, and Independent Spirit) except for the Academy of Motion Pictures, written by David Lynch, Robert Engels, and Mark Frost, Twin Peaks is one of David Lynch’s most famous psychedelic cult masterpieces. If you are the type of person who enjoys deciphering nightmares, you should get into David Lynch’s work. His characters are off the beaten path and yet more real to me than the bland stereotypes of common films. Lynch is the ultimate winner of losers. “Damn good coffee! And hot!”
2006, Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
This Oscar loser was nominated for Best Writing (Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, and Todd Phillips). Was it just too funny? Too controversial? Tell me why comedy is not award winning? What is harder than getting people to laugh? Sacha Baron Cohen did not even get nominated for acting when he had to embody his character night and day for months, getting real people on the street to believe his performance, so much so that they played right into their lines of bigotry.
What losers do you love?
(And don’t say me.)
For more information or reviews on any of the mentioned movies, click on the colored title heading or go to IMDB.
Heath Ledger and Wuthering Heights Live Long After Death
by Jaden
On January 22nd, a full moon lit up the sky; a moon full of bright souls stopping for a layover on their way to the sun.
“Is it true?” A production assistant asked.
“I don’t know,” I told her.
The rumor spread like wildfire on the movie set, one person telling the next. No one could believe it. Was it some kind of sick joke? Was young Heath Ledger really dead? Later when we all returned home to our faithful Internet bases, the rumor was confirmed true.
Heath and his sister Catherine, sources are reporting, were named after the Heathcliff and Catherine characters from one of my favorite novels, “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë.
“Wuthering Heights” is a dark story. One might guess that Heath’s mother, if she was the one who named him, liked complex passionate men and tragic love stories.
In one article I read, it said that Heath liked dark brooding roles.
The word on the street is that Heath was so disturbed by his role of playing the twisted Joker in “Batman” that he needed sleeping pills to fall asleep; the prescribed sleeping pills that may have killed him.
Isabella says of Heathcliff:
“Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil? I sha’n't tell my reasons for making this inquiry; but I beseech you to explain, if you can, what I have married . . .” — Emily Brontë
Heathcliff to his true love Catherine as she is dying:
“You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry, and wring out my kisses and tears; they’ll blight you - they’ll damn you. You loved me–then what right had you to leave me? …Because misery, and degradation and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart–you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.” — Emily Brontë
Heathcliff to the ghost of Catherine:
“Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you–haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe–I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always–take any form–drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” — Emily Brontë
Catherine about Heathcliff:
” . . .he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…” — Emily Brontë
Published in 1847, “Wuthering Heights” is about a love hindered by racism and wealth, a love that transcends time and goes beyond death.
It takes a unique and interesting person to name her child after Heathcliff.
A writer inspires a reader. A reader inspires an actor. An actor inspires a writer.
Whatever role we take in life, we are all connected and all affecting each other. Time is no matter.
Today’s teen girls will grow into women; some of them will name their beautiful sons after Heath Ledger, their favorite movie star.
After we die, we all live on through that which we have loved.
A book.
A person.
A movie.
A career.
The more love and passion you have to give to the world, the longer will be your life after death.
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