-
In the Spotlight
Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Move to Hollywood
by Dirtbag
Put a bunch of rats in a small cage and what do you think happens?
photo credit: jurvetson
1) Los Angeles is rated number one as America’s “Most Polluted City” by Forbes.
2) You will have plenty of time to apply makeup, eat breakfast, read the newspaper, email your mom, and build your website while sitting in traffic driving to your job as Assistant to the Receptionist.
3) With 10,000,000 friendly people in Los Angeles, if one stabs you in the back you still have 9,999,999 to go.
4) Cost of living, gas, and homes are inflated, just like every woman’s breasts.
5) You like the sunshine? It never rains. Your brain will be in a drought, permanently.
8 Screenwriting and Hollywood Secrets About Me
by Jaden
The Deep Friar gave me this bloggy-wog tag to write 8 random things about me. I don’t know how to do this without embarrassing myself, so here it goes…
1) I wrote a script called The Sixth Sense a few years before M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense hit the theaters. Mine will remain unregistered and in the closet forever. Dark little bad script, you stay there, and don’t ever come out!
2) When I was 19, I wrote Nick Cage a letter inviting him to hang out with me. A mutual acquaintance gave it to him. ***Silence*** Good gawwwwd! Did Nick miss out or what?!
3) I dream in feature length movies, which is one reason I chose to study film.
4) I have a published writer in the family.
5) I have not met Charlie Kaufman, but I met his twin brother.
6) With my rolling suitcase bouncing over cobblestones, I squeezed by John Malkovich and his lovely family on a tiny sidewalk in the rainbow neighborhood of Paris last summer. For a moment, I thought I had gone to the half floor. Only after checking out young Mr. Malkovich Junior (quite a good looking kid), did I notice his famous pop! Bad girl! Somebody spank me; I could be Junior M’s mother! The mom, by the way, is super sexy and was rattling off in French. All of this was happening in front of a gay bondage store with a bunch of black leather, whips, and handcuffs in the window. Gawd, I love Paris.
7) My favorite Hollywood mansion belongs to a screenwriter. It has a bar, disco floor, movie theater, a gazillion rooms, 3 levels, 3 wings, 2 level guest house with a cat that uses the toilet, a salt water pool, the best Halloween parties ever, several movies have been shot there, and to all of our chagrin, the biggest conman in Hollywood set up camp there for several months.
8) The only time I ever wished I was a smoker was when Benicio Del Toro asked me for a cigarette at the Sin City premiere. In smoker talk, asking me for a cigarette means he thinks I’m hot, right? Dang, I blew it!
WHO IS NEXT?
The rules (according to Brett’s blog!):
- Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
- People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
- At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people (or 2!) and include their names.
- Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’ve been tagged, and to read your blog.
..{Finger Shush photo credit: misscelophane }
Most Famous PG Underwear Scenes in Cinema
by Jaden
A few of my writer contemporaries wrote posts recently that related their website’s topic to underwear. I couldn’t resist but to join in the fun.
Here is my countdown of the most famous *PG-esque sexless underwear scenes of the last four decades.
Lost in Translation (2003)
Never have granny-panties looked so good as on Scarlett Johansson in the opening scene of Lost in Translation, written and directed by Sofia Coppola.
The scene is written like this:
INT. CHARLOTTE’S ROOM - NIGHT
The back of a GIRL in pink underwear, she leans at a big window, looking out over Tokyo.
CUT TO:
Melodramatic music swells over the Girl’s butt in pink sheer
underwear as she lies on the bed.
TITLE CARDS OVER IMAGE.
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Written and directed by John Hughes, Molly Ringwald plays a teen girl named Samantha who gives her panties to the high school geek in exchange for information about the boy she likes, Jake.
Played by Anthony Michael Hall, Farmer Ted the geek tells Jake about Samantha, “I mean, not many girls in contemporary American society today would give their underwear to help a geek like me.”
Like Lost in Translation, these are not the sexiest panties, but the scenes written around these underwear are priceless!
Samantha’s best friend tells her, “Last night at the dance, my little brother paid a buck to see your underwear.” Samantha screams.
Risky Business (1983)
By far one of the most famous non-sexual underwear scenes is Tom Cruise dancing in his tighty-whities, singing to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock ‘n Roll,” just after his parents leave him alone in the house.
Written and directed by Paul Brickman, I think this scene is so famous because it is something to which we can all relate. It is that embarrassing performance that most of us would never do in front of anyone else. It is that private moment alone in your underwear using some inanimate object as a microphone as you sing at the top of your lungs to your phantom audience. Come on, you know you have done it. Tom Cruise goes over the top in this scene, it was sort of the precursor to Oprah’s couch, and we love him dearly for it.
Alien (1979)
Writers Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett didn’t specifically write in the script what Ripley was or was not wearing, but director Ridley Scott made a fine choice dressing tough and sexy actress Sigourney Weaver in white cottons. Again, as with the other three movies, these are not the sexiest underwear and the scene has nothing to do with sex, but the way the underwear are worn and the way the scene is shot, makes for a lasting impression.
What is your favorite PG-esque underwear scene in cinema?
You may see Melissa’s brilliant panty twist on writing at Writing Forward in her article called Briefs are Not Just Underwear. Melissa was inspired by Brett Legree from 6 Weeks who wrote about why blogging for profit is like collecting underpants.
*PG-esque: Some of these movies are R-rated, but none of these underwear scenes are sexual.
Spank David Lynch, That Naughty Boy
by Jaden
On my site, I focus on teaching people the basic rules of screenwriting for Hollywood so that people have a chance to make a sale.
In my heart is another thing: creative freedom.
David Lynch is one of my top five favorite filmmakers and by far the most unruly of the bunch. Who else breaks all the rules of screenwriting better than David Lynch? Due to his screenwriting delinquency, Lynch does not have pop appeal. Most people I know (outside of Hollywood), walk out of his movies saying, “I didn’t get it.”
Despite confusing the average Joe, Lynch has a large dedicated following, oodles of respect, and some of the coolest weirdest films ever made: Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks, Crumb, and Wild at Heart.
I praise Lynch’s selection of unique actors and lifelong commitment to them: Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini, Kyle Maclachlan, and others.
Not too long ago, Lynch launched a bizarre website with odd things for sale like coffee (yum), coffee cups, ringtones, posters, and a few films.
One special item for sale on David Lynch’s site is the DVD “I Don’t Know Jack,” which is a documentary about Jack Nance the actor in Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, Blue Velvet, and Wild at Heart,
who died from a head injury shortly after a brawl at Winchell’s donut shop.
Also, you will find on his site, the David Lynch Foundation that teaches transcendental meditation to troubled youth.
Poke around on the David Lynch site, see what you find.
Mother of Marfa! A Film Festival
by Jaden
Marfa, Texas rose over the horizon into my view when my unconventional 
brother and his herd of exceptionally talented artist friends migrated there from San Francisco, California.
What everyone wonders is: Why on earth would you move out to Texas and why are you talking with a reversed-lisp? (Marfa is spelled with f and not th; it takes a long time to accept this.)
Marfa is said to be a microcosm of Manhattan in the way that 10% of the 2,000 town folk are art enthusiasts who open galleries, create art installations, and host performances.
Oscar winning films shot in Marfa are: There Will Be Blood (2007), No Country for Old Men (2007), and Giant (1956), a fantastic film starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson.
Do you love actors like Dennis Hopper and Daniel Day-Lewis? If so, go to marfafilmfestival.org to learn more about the Marfa Film Festival that gallops May 1 - 5, 2008 in Texas. If you are spontaneous and have some extra rope, jump on a plane and rent a horse to get yourself out to Marfa for a wild and weird filmophile adventure.
Screenings in the corral are: There Will Be Blood On the Set, Night of the Hunter, True Stories by David Byrne (from Talking Heads), plus 40 other feature, short and experimental films.
While you are out there, check out the Marfa Lights at night, it is some kind of alien-science-military-astronomical-electro-thermal-automobile-mountain-quartz mystery.
-
Subscribe
content rss