a frequent butt of jokes in the Anglo-Saxon world. Why did the blonde draw the curtains? Because she was afraid that the neighbours might see her change her mind.
Why pick on blondes? There is nothing to suggest that fair-haired women (male blonds are never the subject of jokes) are mentally deficient as compared with their brunette counterparts. So why this jokey creation of a popular myth about the blonde's brainlessness? The answer seems to lie in the perception that men find blondes more attractive than they do women of other hair-colouring. As the title of the Hollywood film has it, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Whether or not this is true, there is another factor at work here. Quasi-scientific studies suggest that, in the next few decades, blondes may become an extinct species, thanks to the increasing incidence of inter-racial marriage or at least breeding which will gradually eliminate the pigmentationally weaker fair-haired gene in What do blondes, Jews, Sardars and Gujaratis have in common? The answer of course is that people make jokes about them. The supposedly 'dumb' blonde ipreference for the stronger dark-haired gene. This gives blondes a rarity value, and hence a real or imaginary advantage over other women in the mating game. This in turn leads to a subconscious envy of the blonde, who is made the subject of jokes so as to whittle her down to size: laughter is an antidote to anxiety and fear; we laugh at those who, rightly or wrongly, we perceive to be more powerful, more successful, or more desirable than us. Laughter is an antacid against corrosive envy, and a restorer of our self-esteem. Sure, blondes may be sexier (more successful in reproductive competition). But we darkies are smarter. So there.
Similarly, other groups of people who are, or traditionally have been, envied or feared find themselves an inspiration for barbed humour: the greater the envy they willy-nilly generate, the bigger the barb. Age-old moneylenders to the world, with the capacity to finance kings and king-makers, the Jews have in the Christian world always faced a deep current of anti-Semitism, the least objectionable of which are jokes at their expense (generally to do with their alleged meanness in money matters). In fact, Jew jokes cruel as they might sound against the murderous backdrop of the Holocaust could help to deflect more violent expressions of anti-Semitism. Better a 'kike' joke any day, than Auschwitz.
Immigrant communities people who have literally the get up and go to seek a livelihood in far-flung places are inevitably feared by the native populace who apprehend that the newcomers will take their jobs or businesses away from them through dint of greater energy, enterprise or acumen, or simply because they'll work for lower wages.
In India, arguably three of the most visibly enterprising communities, each in its own way, are the Sikhs, the Gujaratis and the Marwaris. The cartoon showing American astronauts landing on the Moon only to find a Sardarji who offers them an omelette from the tea shop he has already set up there, says it all. Wherever you are, wherever you go, the chances are a Sardarji has got there before you. If you can't beat 'em, you might as well join 'em. How? By telling a Surdie joke. What else?
Much the same goes for Gujaratis and Marwaris (respectively known in joke-lore as Gujjus and Marrus). The economic stature they have achieved, in India and abroad, is so great that the rest of us feel it necessary occasionally to lampoon them through the downsizing, distorting mirror of humour.
From blondes to Surdies, the subjects of jokes are invariably those whom people envy. So don't worry if the joke's on you. Treat it as a left-handed compliment. Indeed, it's only if you aren't being made fun of that you should worry. Are you really that unenviable?
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Kher test for De Niro
Cambridge University is willing to act as an honest broker to boost film collaboration between Hollywood and Bollywood. The undertaking was given at a seminar, “Globalisation of Indian Cinema: Opportunities for the West”, held at Judge Business School in Cambridge. Anupam Kher, who spoke about how much he had “loved” playing Freida Pinto’s father in a new Woody Allen film currently being shot in London, provided a bravura performance after a key note address by Jaideep Prabhu, director of the Centre for Indian & Global Business. The centre was set up 10 months ago at the Judge Business School. Kher, who has chalked up 400 Bollywood films, summed up why this was an ideal time to invest in Indian movies: “Indian cinema has really arrived globally because Cambridge is holding this seminar. If you have a script that has the ethnic and cultural heritage of India, put all your money into it at this time. This is the golden period of Indian cinema.” He also defended the Indian way of making films because cast and crew “laughed” on stage and enjoyed the process of making a movie: “It is very easy for a lot of people to criticise Indian cinema, to make fun of song and dance sequences but you need guts to do that because Indian films are made for Indian audiences and the Indian heart is larger than life.” To much applause he stressed: “A Shah Rukh Khan or an Aamir Khan can do what Al Pacino or Robert De Niro can do but a Robert De Niro or an Al Pacino may not be able to do what Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir Khan can do. You have to understand the Indian psyche.” The school, where Prabhu is the first academic to be appointed the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian business and enterprise, was established 20 years ago at the university, which is celebrating its 800th anniversary in 2009. “This has been a place of creativity and ideas for a long time,” said Prabhu, who posed a question which repeatedly came up during yesterday’s seminar, “How do we create more Slumdog Millionaires?” “In a more systematic approach to co-production, I would argue,” was his answer. He posed another fundamental question: “How do you balance improvised creativity, which a film depends on, with a more structured creativity, which is a business approach. We hope this event will start a dialogue between India and the west to identify more systematically the opportunities there are for collaboration.” He pledged: “The centre is well placed to broker this partnership.” Before delegates trooped off to the Picture House, a local cinema, to see a small budget Indo-French film, Hava Aney Dey (Let the Wind Blow), directed by the Brighton-based Partho Sen Gupta — it charts the progress of two young men in Mumbai who dream of building a new life in Dubai — another insightful address was given by Patrick von Sychowski, chief operating officer of Adlabs, a Reliance Big Entertainment company. There was no hidden agenda, he said, behind the $825 million deal that Hollywood, represented by Stephen Spielberg’s DreamWorks and studios run by big name actors such as Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts (who is currently shooting in India), Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey and George Clooney, had signed with Anil Ambani. “It’s money — Hollywood is always desperate for money,” he maintained. The whole industry was seeking another Slumdog Millionaire but Sychowski reflected: “Do you think it is easy to come up with a film like Slumdog Millionaire? It’s not. It’s a very difficult formula. There’s a very good chance the breakthrough will come from the south — from the Tamil or Telegu film industries. The cinematic language they speak is closer to the western one.” Kher gave his views on the search for a second Slumdog Millionaire: “If you make a film like Slumdog Millionaire, the second film will never work. You have to come up with a fresh idea.” Kher got his part in the Woody Allen film after his agent in London asked him to submit an audition tape to the casting agent. The requirement was for “a very regal looking, very aristocratic father of this Indian girl. He is supposed to be an art critic, a book critic”. Kher found that although he knew almost everything there was to know about Woody Allen, the American knew almost nothing about the Indian. “When I had finished a shot, I naturally wanted an approval — and he looked pleased. For me that was worth quite a bit.” The film, provisionally entitled “WASP” (Woody Allen Summer Production), is likely to be released early next year. As for Freida Pinto, he agreed that after Slumdog Millionaire, her rise had been a phenomenon: “And why not? It’s fabulous. God is on her side. She has to work very hard to retain the position that has been given to her. I am sure she is in good hands, both off and on screen.” |
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PHOTOS: Stars Arrive At 61st Emmy Awards
Hollywood’s royalty is gathered together for the 61st Primetime Emmys Awards.Tonight, after weeks of preparations, Emmynominees get to show off on the red carpet and maybe take home a coveted award.
Click here to see all of the A-Listers arriving on the Red Carpet
There were few surprises in this years nominations with Mad Men and 30 Rockdominating the drama and comedy categories, and Grey Gardens leading the way for TV movies.The show’s host, Neil Patrick Harris looks set to win his own award tonight for How I Met Your Mother.The Comedy categories will be first during the show followed by Reality, TV Movie, Variety and Drama Emmys.
Official Emmy Cocktail: GuzzleResponsibly
To celebrate this years Emmy's, GREY GOOSE will serve "The Emmy," a specialty cocktail that will only be served at the sponsored events such as the ritzy Governor's Ball.
For those of us stuck at home, here's the secret recipe!
"The Emmy"
1 ½ parts GREY GOOSE® L'Orange flavored vodka ½ part Licor 43
1 ½ parts fresh with pulp
Splash of grenadine
Green grapes for garnish
Pour all ingredients into shaker. Shake vigorously and strain into a martini cocktail , garnish with three green grapes on a skewer
Cheers!
Kristin Chenoweth’s Emmy Speech: ‘I’m Unemployed Now So I’d Like To Be On ‘Mad Men’
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Kristin Chenoweth picked up the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the 61st AnnualPrimetime Emmys on Sunday night – and the “Pushing Daisies” star wasted no time taking advantage of her new resume booster.
“I’m unemployed now so I’d like to be on ‘Mad Men,’” she said while accepting the award. “I also like ‘The Office’ and ‘24.’”
ABC’s canceled “Pushing Daisies” wrapped up its second and final season earlier this year. Kristin was also nominated in 2008 for her work on the show.
“Thank you for recognizing a show that’s no longer on the air,” she told the crowd. Kristin is best known for her roles on “The West Wing” andBroadway’s “Wicked.”
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Ghost in the Hollywood machine: 'Paranormal Activity' beat the odds (and gave Spielberg the willies)
You may remember John Horn's name from our Comic-Con International coverage, he led our team of reporters in San Diego while I took a year off from the expo so I could sit on a beach in Hawaii with my wife and kids. Mahalo, John! Horn is one of the savviest journalists covering Hollywood, and today he's got a cover story in the Los Angeles Times Sunday Calendar on the against-all-odds path of "Paranormal Activity," an unsettling movie that even managed to spook the producer of "Poltergeist."
Steven Spielberg was certain his copy of "Paranormal Activity" was haunted.
It was early 2008, and the director's DreamWorksstudio was trying to decide whether it wanted to be a part of the micro-budgeted supernatural thriller. As the story goes, Spielberg had taken a "Paranormal Activity" DVD to his Pacific Palisades estate, and not long after he watched it, the door to his empty bedroom inexplicably locked from the inside, forcing him to summon a locksmith.
While Spielberg didn't want the "Paranormal Activity" disc anywhere near his home -- he brought the movie back to DreamWorks in a garbage bag, colleagues say -- he very much shared his studio's enthusiasm for director Oren Peli's haunting story about the demonic invasion of a couple's suburban tract house.
"Paranormal Activity" was hardly a typical studio production. Peli, an Israeli-born video game designer who had no formal film training, shot the $15,000 movie in a week in 2006 with a no-name cast, a crew of several San Diego friends and a hand-held video camera.
But as Spielberg and the DreamWorks team believed, the movie held a special appeal -- it was original and scary. The challenge was to fit this round peg into a DreamWorks square hole -- a process that would ultimately take more than a year and a half, the delay exacerbated by the slow collapse of Paramount's acquisition of DreamWorks. For a time, it looked as if Spielberg was right: "Paranormal Activity" appeared cursed -- to sit on a shelf.
But now, supported by one of the more unusual marketing and distribution strategies conjured up for a studio release, Paramount is finally opening the film in 13 college towns on Friday, with a wider national rollout planned for mid-October. Scary movies are a dime a dozen these days -- at least 75 horror movies have been released theatrically in the last three years -- and "Paranormal Activity" doesn't have the franchise awareness or recognizable actors that help separate a handful of genre films from the teeming herd.
Yet as preview and film festival audiences can attest, "Paranormal Activity" exhibits something many fright flicks don't -- goose-bump inducing, gore-free scares. Now it's up to the film (and Paramount) to translate Internet buzz into a "Blair Witch Project"-style phenomenon.
"The movie could be stratospheric, or it could just become a cult favorite," says Stuart Ford, the chief executive of international sales agent IM Global, which sold "Paranormal Activity" to more than 50 foreign distributors. "It just depends on whether the studio can catch a wave."
Indian Summer' production postponed over Nehru's portrayal
The shooting of Hollywood film 'Indian Summer' has reportedly been halted over the portrayal of Jawaharlal Nehru's friendship with Lady Edwina Mountbatten, wife of India's last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten.
The government officials are reportedly "assessing" the script to ensure that Nehru's "friendship" with Edwina in the movie is not shown wrongly.
"Filming of Indian Summer, starring Cate Blanchett and Hugh Grant, has been halted while Indian government officials assess the portrayal of Nehru's "friendship" with the last Vicereine. They are thought to have asked to see the script to ensure the plot is not too salacious," British newspaper The Telegraph reported quoting sources from movie production.
Directed by 'Atonement' filmmaker Joe Wright and produced by Universal Pictures, the film reportedly depicts Nehru and Edwina as secret and passionate lovers, which is likely to ruffle feathers in India, the newspap
The movie, which reportedly also stars British actor Hugh Grant and depict the last days of Empire in India as Lord Mountbatten hands over power during the summer of 1947 to Nehru, is slated to go on floors early next year. It is slated to release in 2011.
Mountbattens' daughter Pamela has also written about "special relationship" between her mother and Nehru in her memoir 'India Remembered: A Personal Account of the Mountbattens During the Transfer of Power' where she claimed the pair were deeply in love, but their relationship remained platonic.
... contd.
Camilli column for editions of Sept. 20
Los Angeles police have made an arrest in the break-ins at the homes of Lindsay Lohan and Audrina Patridge, reports People. Nicholas Prugo, 18, was nabbed by the coppers Friday morning and charged with felony burglary; he's currently being held on $20,000 US bail.
``Yes, we have found (him), God is good,'' Dina Lohan told People.
(Of course, since this is Hollywood, it's only a matter of time before a hip high-school teacher takes Prugo under his wing and shows him the value of a life off the streets.)
LiLo's home on the Hollywood Hills was broken into last month by a man and a woman, with the culprits stealing bags, shoes, jewelry and ripping a safe out of the wall. The couple reportedly also broke into Patridge's Los Angeles house in February, taking several of her possessions.
LAPD officers have yet to find the woman associated with the crimes, though they did confirm Prugo's arrest.
``As of now, we just have this one person in custody, and the investigation is ongoing,'' said LAPD spokeswoman Karen Rayner.
Although Prugo was only arrested in connection to those two burglaries, he's suspected of being one of the most prolific celebrity burglars in recent history. In addition to Lohan and Patridge, other celebs who have been targeted this year include Paris Hilton, Hayden Panettiere and Rachel Bilson.
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With advance ticket sales for New Moon already reporting sellouts, it looks as though you might stand a better chance of getting Robert Pattinson to "bite" you than scoring tickets to a midnight screening.
The anticipated Twilight sequel isn't due in theatres until Nov. 20, but, according to Reuters, advanced ticket sales being held through online ticket vendors Fandango and MovieTickets are already experiencing sellouts at several locations. MovieTickets tells Reuters that more than a dozen New Moon premiere screenings are completely sold out. As for Fandango, it tells the outlet that New Moon tickets are currently accounting for 57 per cent of its sales.
It's still nine weeks until the movie's premiere, so expect some very girly tent cities to begin springing up around North American cineplexes.
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Since Sunday night's MTV VMAs, Kanye West has apologized (at least) four times, had his comments turned into an ever-entertaining Internet meme (again) and made people who should know better watch the Jay Leno Show.
Presumably, five days should be enough time for this pop-cultural blip to pass. But Google Trends - and will.i.am - would suggest otherwise.
The Black Eyed Pea has posted his own take on West's VMA stage-crashing: a mashup of West's Heartless, President Obama's now-infamous off-the-cuff remarks calling West a "jackass," a whole lot of will.i.am's "heal the world" commentary about how this whole sitch is lame because it's distracting the world from "real" problems (but apparently not enough for him to not write a song about it). And oh yeah, a snippet of the Peas' current mega-hit, I Gotta Feeling (in case you forgot it dominated the Billboard chart for 12 straight weeks).
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E! Online reports that a paltry 1.5 million U.S. viewers tuned in to The Beautiful Life on Wednesday, making Melrose Place's mediocre premiere ratings of 2.6 million viewers look positively huge. Granted, the America's Got Talent finale siphoned off a lot of viewers from other shows, but The Beautiful Life didn't even score well among its target demo. According to the Nielsen ratings, young women didn't tune in, opting to watch Glee on Fox instead.
On the surface, The Beautiful Life seems like the perfect CW show: an angsty drama about young, beautiful models running rampant in the streets of New York City. But as the ratings for Wednesday night's premiere suggest, maybe viewers just weren't that interested in watching a show in which Mischa Barton sulks because she had a baby and her modelling career went to hell.
Manish Malhotra's star studded bash
No, it wasn’t her car but a car parked at the entrance of a banquet room at a five-star hotel in the suburbs on Saturday night. She didn’t get into the driver’s seat but she sure was in full throttle at the party hosted by Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Manish Malhotra after his show on day two of LFW. The bar was buzzing and the music was pumping with model Megha Kawale in the mix.
“Peroni and Manish Malhotra are two brands renowned for their craftsmanship and versatility — the collection that Manish has created encapsulates everything that is beautiful and glamourous, it is stylish and eye-catching. Peroni is happy to celebrate this moment with Manish Malhotra as it reflects Peroni’s heritage and provenance as an iconic brand,” said Derek Hugh Jones, Director, SABMiller India.
Enjoying the energy were models Candice Pinto and Hemangi Pate who has been busy scorching the ramp through the day. Looking dapper was Manish’s Bollywood friend Karan Johar who caught up with Bollywood babe Urmila Matondkar. Also making a splash at the bash were Sheetal and Atulya Mafatlal, Imtiaz Ali, Riya Sen, Madhavan, Saru Maini and hotelier Rohit Khosla who recommended the pasta to round up this night out on town.
I don't mind the comedian tag: Govinda
Comedy may be an "undervalued" genre in Bollywood but actor Govinda embraces the moniker of 'comedian', so often attached to him, with pride though his future plans include an action film.
While most Bollywood stars are averse to being stereotyped, the Govinda says he does not mind the tag at all.
"I don'y mind any tag, if it brings me success. And why would I have a problem with being called a comedian? It has made me successful. I am known as a comic actor by my audience," Govinda told PTI in an interview.
But the 45-year-old actor who will next be seen in 'Do Knot Disturb', which marks the return of the superhit Govinda-David Dhawan duo, is quick to add that he does not want to be restricted to the genre and wants to do a "entertaining action" film in the future.
Pakistanis await release of latest Bollywood movies
With the latest Bollywood movies set to be released in Pakistan, cinema hall owners and television channels in the country are hoping to cash in on the craze for Hindi movies during the Eid holidays.
Such is the demand for the Bollywood flicks that distributors and cinema hall and cineplex owners are finding it difficult to accommodate all the latest releases.
Salman Khan's 'Wanted', Ashutosh Gowarikar's 'What's your Rashee' and Shahid Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee's 'Dil Bole Hadippa' are the films that would be released during Eid holidays week and distributors and exhibitors are hoping for a cash bonanza from these movies.
And the Indian movies' windfall doesn't end at the cinema halls because several channels have also lined up latest Bollywood movies in their special Eid programming. Geo network is showing 'Singh is King' while ARY will air 'Race'.
Bollywood heroines shed clothes at earliest opportunity?
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INDIA - Shedding inhibitions, as one would like to think, is not a recent phenomenon of the liberated times. Every decade in Bollywood witnesses the emergence of a bevy of actors who grab headlines with their dare-bare acts. Flaunt-it-if-you-have-it mantra has become so commonplace that there's hardly any heroine, established or newcomer, who has not capitalised on her oomph. They justify the display of skin by saying that the script demanded it, that it was integral to the plot, that the character would otherwise not be properly explored. It is further added that the director had quite aesthetically shot the explicit sequences, making the heroine feel relaxed and comfortable on the sets. Lock lips, show cleavage, get wet under a waterfall or splash in a pool in an itsy-bitsy costume, cavort on the beach, romp in the bed, get bolder and bolder on screen since ample show of assets does generate hype before the release of the film and the tantalising nuggets ramp up expectations of the audience as well as the producer who wants the steamy scenes to fetch good opening sales. Groomed by Raj Kapoor to be cast opposite his son, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia created history in the early seventies. Bobby, a teenage love story, was a stupendous blockbuster that catapulted her to the zenith. Clad in a red hot bikini, she set the screen on fire. She is best remembered for this film that was perhaps the first one its kind to introduce the idea of teenage romance in Hindi cinema. Evergreen Dev Anand gets the credit for introducing Zeenat Aman in his huge hit, Hare Rama Hare Krishna. She was also cast in the role of a village belle opposite Shashi Kapoor in Satyam Shivam Sundaram where she sizzled as an Oriental beauty despite being so westernised in real life. These were landmark films and she bagged many glamorous roles on the strength of the performances she put in. She is also noted for her role in films like Lawaaris opposite Amitabh and Qurbani opposite Vinod Khanna who beat a hasty retreat to find spiritual salvation in the retreat of Osho Rajneesh. Eighties saw the influx of a fresh crop of faces. Leading the pack was Kimi Katkar who traipsed around with Tarzan Hemant Birje. This adventure movie was a mega hit and she became a star overnight. Offers poured in and she worked opposite stars like Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Govinda and Chunky Pandey but none of the subsequent films could become a milestone in her career which began to stagnate. Finally she called it a day and settled in conjugal bliss with lensman Shantanu Shoerey. Sonu Walia, a lissome lass with an hourglass figure, sparkled on the silver screen in Akarshan opposite Akbar Khan. Though the film was a turkey at the box office, yet it managed to draw the attention of the likes of Rakesh Roshan who cast her in Khoon Bhari Maang with Rekha and Kabir Bedi, where she conspired with the hero to get rid of his beau. A seductive song picturised on her required her to slip into a bikini. The film was a grand commercial success and she was appreciated for the negative role. In the late eighties, Pooja Bedi, daughter of Kabir Bedi, was all over the magazine covers for her bold ad shoot for a condom brand. Bollywood was not far behind as she soon made her debut. Vishkanya ruined her career and so did many other flicks except Mansoor Khan's magnum opus, Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar, where her skirt flying high in a Monroe-sque manner remains fresh in public memory. Having mismanaged her career, she bid adieu to the film world in search of love and peace on the domestic front. Another actress with a rich film background should have done her mother, Suchitra Sen, proud had she not signed up forgettable films like Andar Bahar that typecast her in the role of a sex bomb and she could not come out of that image in Bollywood. Moon Moon Sen did not get a mentor like Raj Kapoor, otherwise her career would have seen a different growth curve. Yash Chopra's Vijay was the best foray any newcomer could ask for. Sonam, paired opposite Rishi Kapoor, revealed her curvaceous figure by wearing a two-piece bikini in the film that unfortunately did not set cash registers ringing. Luck favoured her as she got noticed by several ace directors like Rajiv Rai who cast her in the multi-starrer, Tridev. The film broke all records and is one of the biggest hits of all times. Though there was no looking back for her, she did not garner success as a lead heroine. It was mostly in multi-starrers that she acted. Mitti aur Sona being one example. She got to share the screen with all leading co-stars of her times but then she took early retirement and settled in matrimony with the director who gave her the biggest success of her ephemeral career. The vacant slot was occupied by Madhuri Dixit whose first film, Abodh, was a complete washout. But N. Chandra launched her successfully in Tezaab and since then she never looked back. One wonders why she chose to kiss Vinod Khanna in Dayavan and share the bed with Anil Kapoor in Parinda when she was already a leading actress with hits like Ram Lakhan, Saajan, Dil, to name just a few. She continued to essay a variety of roles and that is why she was never identified as a sensual actress though she has done many bold scenes like few other actresses of her times did. Family entertainers like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Beta were such money-grossers that the middle class audience forgot all about her sexy image. In the nineties emerged Ram Gopal Verma with hard-hitting films on the underworld. Urmila Matondkar could not have been luckier to be cast in Rangeela, Mast and Daud where she ran along the sandy beaches in revealing dresses or sat suggestively on bikes to become the reigning diva of glamour whereas her earliest films like Aa Gale Lag Jaa opposite Jugal Hansraj and Chamatkaar opposite Shah Rukh Khan did no miracles to her fledgling career. In this decade, two sexy sirens are the strong contenders for the top slot. Having started their careers with small budget films which went onto become resounding hits, they are exploring avenues beyond Bollywood. Both Bipasha Basu and Mallika Sherawat who had Jism and Murder to launch their careers are now walking the red carpet and looking for meaty roles that offer them the chance to showcase their acting skills. Viewers are mature enough to realise that there is something more to a character than mere skin. Every heroine knows full well that every entrant from the modelling background has a fantastic body to reveal. Exposure will not always work though it does improve the prospects of a wannabe star. At the end of the day she has to act. Now that's what one would like to call a revealing truth! | |||
Hollywood's biggest mystery: Why did Bob Iger get rid of Dick Cook?
The message that Bob Iger just sent to Hollywood couldn't be more cold-bloodedly clear. Friday's news that the Disney CEO had ousted studio head Dick Cook -- coming less than three weeks after the company acquired Marvel Entertainment -- is a strong signal that the Disney we've known in the past is not going to be the Disney we'll be seeing in the future.
If the Marvel deal was a bold move by Iger to grab hold of the demographic that Disney has the most trouble attracting -- young men -- then Cook's abrupt departure was a sign that the studio would soon be in the hands of someone without any strong ties to Disney's storied, safe-as-milk past. After all, Cook, who began his career 38 years ago as a 21-year-old Disneyland tour operator, was the last active Disney executive who'd been at the company before the arrival of Michael Eisner, Iger's former boss. It was Eisner, of course, who was the first man to reinvent Disney, taking over the sleeping entertainment giant in 1984 and transforming it into a hugely profitable modern-day family entertainment conglomerate.
When Eisner first stepped in to run Disney, the fabled studio was so out of the Hollywood mainstream that when he drove to work on his first day as its new president, he had to call his lawyer to ask for directions. It's unlikely that Iger's new choice to run Disney will have trouble finding the studio lot. But what is likely is that the studio chief will oversee a wholesale reinvention of the Disney brand, which after a long, successful run, has begun to show its age, slowly losing much of its stranglehold on young audiences to other edgier, more vital youth culture brands, including Marvel.
I got quite a laugh reading in the media accounts of Cook's ouster that Iger might have been frustrated by the Disney veteran's personal style, which was described as genial but uncommunicative to the point of secretiveness. When it comes to playing it close to the vest, no one is more covert than Iger himself. After all, when everyone else in the world, starting with Ron Meyer, assumed that DreamWorks was doing a new distribution deal with Universal, it was Iger who was secretly negotiating a deal with Steven Spielberg last February, stealing DreamWorks right from under Universal's nose.
While he's keeping mum on the subject, it's becoming increasingly apparent that at some point in the past year Iger decided that Disney needed a radical restructuring, starting with the film division, which is still the engine that drives most of Disney's other businesses. The studio's family-oriented offerings have been losing momentum, with recent efforts to age up its young audience (via films like "G-Force" and "Bedtime Stories") falling flat while the studio has had little success in launching a new all-ages franchise to take the place of its aging, increasingly costly "Pirates of the Caribbean" cash cow.
At some point, Iger must have decided that the youth market was moving in one direction while Disney, which had been cutting back on film production outside of its core Disney and Pixar brands, was moving in another. Either Iger and Cook disagreed on exactly how to retool the studio or Iger came to believe that Cook, as a Disney traditionalist, was the wrong person to execute a sweeping creative realignment. It's the only way to view Cook's departure, which was done in such a hasty fashion that Cook had to scramble to call friends and top talent on Friday to let them know what was happening, including some people who'd had meetings with him just days before without any sign of unease.
Can Disney survive the tumult that could result after Cook's departure? Keep reading:
As the longtime maestro of the Disney brand, Cook had no equal. There has been speculation in the media that Cook was let go because of the studio's poor performance in recent quarters, but that's a very shortsighted way of looking at the question, since all sorts of studios have experienced bad patches -- look at 20th Century Fox's performance last year -- without making wholesale changes at the top. The timing of Cook's departure signals a bigger set of issues, since no one knows better than Iger what a strong lineup of films the studio has set for release in the next 12 months.
Even if you buy into the reinvention explanation, Cook's departure is a huge loss. Having cut his teeth in distribution and marketing, Cook was brilliant at transforming films into events. From "The Lion King" to "Toy Story" to "Pirates of the Caribbean," he made movies into something more than just theatrical experiences, realizing their value as pop-culture juggernauts. Only someone who began his career as a tour ride operator could have possibly envisioned the astounding global success of "Pirates," which was initially derided in more sophisticated media quarters -- meaning by people like me -- as an impossibly hokey, retro idea.
Cook was also a brilliant handler of talent. It's hardly a surprise that my colleague Claudia Eller was able to get Johnny Depp on the phone Friday night, who happily sang Cook's praises. Cook had the same rapport with filmmakers as varied as Tim Burton (whose "Alice in Wonderland" will be a big Disney event film in March), Jerry Bruckheimer and writer-director John Lee Hancock, who never forgot that Cook gave him the chance to direct his first film, "The Rookie," at Disney.
When Michael Eisner was publicly feuding with Pixar chief Steve Jobs, prompting Jobs to begin auditioning new studio distributors, it was Cook who quietly flew up to the Pixar campus nearly every month to meet with Jobs and John Lasseter, keeping the lines of communication open and helping pave the way for the eventual Disney acquisition of Pixar. Long before Pixar was in the Disney fold, Cook -- a big baseball fan -- would occasionally invite my colleague John Horn and myself to join him and Lasseter at a Dodgers game. Cook and Lasseter would often arrive a little late. It turned out that Cook was picking up Lasseter at the airport himself, driving from Disney to the airport and then back to Dodger Stadium, all because he wouldn't delegate the duty of chauffeuring Lasseter to an anonymous assistant.
Those are the classy little touches, perhaps spawned by Cook's early years in the lowest rungs of the Disney organization, that don't show up in a company's balance sheet but are long remembered by the studio's roster of A-list talent. Is Cook replaceable? Absolutely. But not easily. I suspect Iger has already decided on a new studio chief, since you can't move aside someone as connected to the studio's fundamental DNA as Cook without selling the Disney board on his replacement, not to mention Jobs and Lasseter, who have an enormously influential stake in the studio's future.
Is it someone from Marvel, who might have asked for studio control as part of its acquisition? I'd say it's unlikely, since there's no one at Marvel with the stature or experience to run the Disney behemoth. Is it Spielberg's DreamWorks partner Stacey Snider, who when she was at Universal ran an equally big studio with a theme park and has the requisite people skills and political savvy to smooth over any talent resentment over Cook's departure? It looks good on paper, but Snider has repeatedly insisted that she has no interest in running another big studio. Lasseter has also been mentioned, but Disney insiders say that he doesn't want the headaches of the job.
My guess is that the new studio chief will be someone without any close ties to the cozy old Disney traditions, since I'm betting that Iger is eager to push the studio in a new direction. It's telling that in his official goodbye, Cook acknowledged that he was unable to offer a neat summation of his years of service at Disney, saying "in the words of one of my baseball heroes, Yogi Berra, 'If you come to a fork in the road, take it.' "
But it's really Disney, under Iger's prodding, that has come to a fork in the road. It's apparent that Iger wants the studio to move in a new direction, but if he knows which way it's going, he's doing a good job of keeping it to himself.
Photo of Dick Cook by Gautam Sing
Why Hollywood Won't Make 'ACORN: The Movie'
When two scrappy D.C. journalists brought down Richard Nixon, the story became "All the President's Men."
When an unemployed single mother took the fight to an energy giant, we got "Erin Brockovich" — a vehicle for Julia Robert's cleavage.And when Al Gore blew the whistle on global warming, they made a movie about him: "Free Willy."So when two under-financed, amateur journalists dressed as sex workers casually take down a sleazy syndicate that leeches off American taxpayers, you'd think Hollywood and the media would really notice.I mean, what Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe did to ACORN is the whistle-blowing film to end all whistle-blowing films. By causing the House to demand an end to ACORN's funding, these kids did what Michael Moore could never accomplish: Uncovering lurid incompetence and saving Americans millions of dollars.So where is Clooney? Soderbergh? Spielberg? Shouldn't Megan Fox be playing Hannah, with Daniel Radcliffe as O'Keefe? When "Red Eye" makes an appearance, will I be played by Verne Troyer?Or am I just engaging in some fantastical fantasy?I mean, movies and fawning media pieces about whistle blowers only work if the media dislikes the targeted entity. Seriously, if ACORN wasn't a left-wing outfit, how fast would Oliver Stone be slobbering over the script? Hell, he could just replace "ACORN" with "FOX News" anyway and still call it "historically accurate." I'm sure the critics wouldn't mind.Finally, check out the latest Washington Post article on the ACORN scandal. In it, they focus a bit on Hannah Giles's dad. Weird. Do you think they would have done the same thing to Woodward or Bernstein?"Screw this Watergate thing! I bet Carl's dad is a lib!"Not likely.And if you disagree with me, then you're probably racist!
Rahman set to compose for Hollywood comedy
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Mumbai, Sep 21: Oscar winning musician A.R. Rahman is set to compose music for his first full-fledged Hollywood project "Couples Retreat" and he is determined not to create anything similar to the "Slumdog Millionaire" tunes. He also stressed that while there wouldn't be any Indian sounds, there would be a touch of Indianness. Apparently, there were numerous brainstorming sessions during which the sound of "Slumdog Millionaire" kept cropping up repeatedly. And Rahman gently but firmly steered the music away from the expected. "There's no point in doing something I've already done. I've reached a stage where I've to do new things. There're so many avenues to be explored. So 'Couples Retreat' will be their kind of music with my touch, done in my way," Rahman, who is looking at "Couples Retreat" as his real launch into the West, told IANS in an interview. Directed by Peter Billingsley, the comedy revolves around four couples who settle into a tropical-island resort for a vacation. While one of the couples is there to work on the marriage, the others fail to realise that participation in the resort's therapy sessions is not optional. It stars actors like Jason Bateman, Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman and Kristen Bell. Rahman, who won two Oscars for his compositions in "Slumdog Millionaire", said he would now make music to suit a typical American romantic comedy. "'Couples Retreat' will have music that suits an American rom-com. There're no real Indian sound in it," said Rahman. "But, yes, there will be a touch of Indianness in the sound. Otherwise, what is the point of bringing me into the picture?" At one level, Rahman also agrees with his admirers and fans who feel Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" is not among his best work. "He has done far superior work in films like 'Lagaan', 'Dil Se', 'Roja', 'Zubeida' and the forthcoming 'Ravan' and 'Blue'. Friends keep telling him that. 'Slumdog...' was done in a hurry...in about 20 days flat. Rahman feels he could've done a lot better. He now wants the West to see some of his best," said a source close to the composer. |
YS JAGAN PAYS RS 4 CR TO PURI JAGAN?
It is known news that the crazy director Puri Jagannadh is all set to commence a new project and this has been titled ‘Rajasekhar Reddy’, based on the life of the departed Congress leader YSR. The film will have angry man Rajasekhar in the title role.Now, there is news that though this movie is being made under the Vaishno arts academy banner, owned by Puri himself, sources reveal that Y S Jagan is likely to give Rs 4 crores to Puri which is the usual remuneration he would charge when he does movies for other banners.More details are yet to be revealed on this one but then the association of Jagan with Puri and the film as such has been sparking various debates. Many say that such movies don’t really appeal to the audience though there is a hype and publicity involved with it.
PLIGHT OF HADIPPA
The famous banner of Bollywood Yashraj films has been known for its colorful and fairytale romances. Now, they have come up with something similar and this time, it is based on the gameof cricket along the India – Pakistan border
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The film ‘Dil Bole Hadippa’ has the selective hunk Shahid Kapoor along with the ravishing Rani Mukherjee in the lead. The story goes around a girl who is crazy about cricket and how she disguises herself as a boy and joins the local cricket team to win a prestigious cup
GAYISM IN TOLLYWOOD
The gay culture which has been lying low from a long time in our country got some oxygen due to the recent ruling by the High Court in Delhi. Though the issue is yet to be resolved, this has prompted many gays to come out into the open.
Meanwhile, this buzz has caught up with the Telugu film industry and many have been wondering if there are any homosexuals in our very own Tollywood. Since long, many things are said to happen in the entertainment industry but not many know about it.
However, the gay culture is something which is said to be causing a bit of concern to the conventional south Indian film folk. While some say that there could be a few but don’t come out into the open, there are those who have quashed this as junk. Only time will tell the real stories.
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