He's Just Not That Into You

I decided to take a little freelance action while friends were off at Sundance (oh Sundance, one day I shall get to you), so I covered a couple of junkets. Amongst them were He's Just Not That Into You, the ensemble romantic comedy born of the book born of the Sex & the City episode of the same name. The movie was surprisingly better than I expected. Not, you know, tell-everyone-you-ever-met amazing or anything, but cute enough. 

It felt good to be back in the saddle, marching to the check-in table at the theater, getting my pass and my popcorn voucher. I think it made Josh happy, too--even if it was just knowing that getting to do stuff like that makes me happy. But it felt like the LA I know--old and comfortable. That, and there was a small earthquake during the screening that we could feel. No one moved or panicked. Oh, LA.

The junket was the next day, at a hotel where I have not junketed before, so I did have to manage to get my bearings. But after a brief incident in which the Latino housekeepers/repairmen had to direct me around, I made it to where I was headed. 

The junket was press conference style. The first press conference was Justin Long (Ed), Ginnifer Goodwin (Margene from Big Love), Bradley Cooper (Wedding Crashers), Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, and Kevin Connolly (E from Entourage), and it was an interesting one mostly because there was foreign press there and foreign press + a romantic comedy movie = the opportunity for nearly every question for the talent to be a personal one. 

You see, if you are going to ask more spunky personal questions of the talent other than the 'why did you decide to do this project' variety, the go-to channel is ones that roughly relate to the movie. So, in the instance of Bride Wars, say, someone will ask Anne Hathaway & Kate Hudson questions about marriage, wanting to get married, what makes a good wedding, etc. If you play a mother in the movie, press will ask how you feel about motherhood. Questions that would normally make the publicists freak out and the talent squirm in these instances become legit game.

So, He's Just Not That Into You is all about romantic foibles, cheating, breaking up, falling in love, etc., which means that the press now essentially has carte blanche to ask questions about how the talent has broken up with people, etc.--the things gossip rags die for and the things that the talent, like all normal people, would likely prefer play closer to the vest. And since the foreign press is notorious for just asking totally inappropriate personal questions, this was an interesting set up.

Interestingly, of everyone on that panel, I would say the ones with the biggest reason to be uncomfortable/nervous would easily be Justin Long & Drew Barrymore--being that they dated and have since broken up (all in the press). But the saltiest was easily Scarlett Johansson who had a puss on her like we'd all just rolled in elephant turd. Obviously she is amazing and all of us should realize how fortunate we even are to be in the same room with her.

The first personal question, I believe, came from one of my American counterparts, but he did a lovely job asking it with a bit of self-deprecating humor. A soft touch that conveyed the, 'oh yes, I am being a bit cheeky here, but I have to ask,' which resulted in at least one or two of the talent and ponying up a story or two of being dumped.

As the press conference went on, however, the creeps kept piping up. It never ceases to amaze me how inappropriate the journalists who cover this beat can be. Some of them seem super weird, and are able to ask things sweetly, appropriately despite the fact that they are wearing pants that look like they have them left over from a part-time job as a Footlocker sales associate and displaying several inches of gut hanging out from beneath their shirt. Others look normal, dull even, and then essentially wind up in a wrestling match with the publicists so they can ask their pushy, rude questions.

This particular press conference featured some of my favorite characters: The crazy nutjob radio woman with obvious plastic surgery who usually butts in when someone else is talking to ask a question "I know my listeners are dying to know," the rude abrupt guy who got into an argument with Sean Penn last year at the Into the Wild junket, and the crazy Italian woman who looks like Ozzy Osbourne. All of them of course asked questions. 

However, they were not outdone by a French woman who cobbled together an obnoxious question for Scarlett Johansson, which she tried to veil with her beautiful accent. The question was along the lines of this: "I loved one of the other couples in the movie--not the one you played. They were discussing marriage. Now tell me about your marriage." To which Scarlett basically deigned to speak for the first time, spitting snottily, "Ask me in 25 years." Given, I wouldn't necessarily want to answer, either, but you can be nice about shooting that question down. Honestly. It is possible.

She was outdone, however, by a guy I've never seen before who asked a completely unrelated two part question. The first part was requesting a comment on the more male-oriented Judd Apatow movies. Fine. Whatever. The second part, actually baffles the mind. He was clearly trying to ask a very very personal question, but constructed it in such a way as it actually made zero sense. The question came out to mean something like this, "Considering the public knows about your personal lives, how does the public's knowledge of your personal lives impact your performance in this movie." It took him a lot longer to spit this out, but in short, it was just a physically and theologically impossible question. A sentence constructed of words that fit together but made zero sense. Drew Barrymore appropriately responded, "HUH?"

He rephrased, "Julia Roberts famously does not like answering questions about her personal life. If you want to get her to get up and walk out of an interview, you ask her about that, So blah blah blah now I am asking the same ontological impossibility again." Justin Long fielded it this time with a "Well, too bad she's not here," which was amusing. At this point Ginnifer Goodwin tried to be game and come up with some sort of answer, the panicking publicist literally wrestled the microphone out of the journalist's hand, and then Scarlett Johansson was moved enough to basically say, "How dare you ask me about what I draw from for my work. If I were giving a class at the Actor's Studio, maybe I would explain that, but you couldn't possibly understand." Those weren't exactly her words, mind you, but that was essentially the tone. Obviously only the very very elite and special can understand the concepts behind acting. I didn't know.

In short: this is why I usually stay quiet and don't ask questions at press conferences, preferring to save them for 1:1s.

Please note, my impressions of the rest of the talent are this:

Justin Long - affable, humble, funny. Bradley Cooper - pretty much the same. I hadn't realized he's also hosted Globe Trekker although I've watched the episodes he did. That blew my mind. He is also quite hot, if piercing blue eyes are your thing. Kevin Connolly was rather petite, but also extremely good natured--basically just what I expected. Ginnifer Goodwin was lovely, and much more done up, sexier in person than she usually gets to play on screen. She also is evidently Southern, if the periodic "y'all"s are anything to go by. And Drew Barrymore was goddamn lovely, nice, chatty, open, fun, not snobby, generous, shared stories about herself, and basically I would probably be friends with her. You know, if she wanted to.

There was a second round of writers and directors and whatnot, but honestly, are you really interested in them? I didn't think so.

I've been a bad, bad girl

Okay, so it was December. It was Christmas. It was New Year's. We had friends visiting. I had a cold. I went AWOL. I am now un-AWOL. And I have returned bearing apologies for my absence. I'm sure you were inconsolable.

This weekend I dragged my sinus-laden self out to catch up on some of the Oscar contenders I have yet to see. I wanted to see Revolutionary Road. Josh wanted to see Slumdog Millionaire. We compromised on Frost/Nixon.

As anticipated: it was vg, and predictably I left the theater asking Josh to explain details of Watergate to me and have since loaded up my Netflix queue with other Nixon-themed movies (Nixon, All the President's Men) to complete my movie-education of history (is there any other way?). 

Obviously Frank Langella was vg as Nixon (although I still think no one deserves this year's Best Actor Oscar more than Sean Penn for Milk and you are not going to change my mind, no way, no how). I was delighted with myself that I had actually interviewed several of the main players in Frost/Nixon for other movies, including Langella himself.

I had a 1:1 with him last year for Starting Out in the Evening, yet another littttttle indie, in which, he was, among other things, briefly naked, which I did not at all enjoy as he is not exactly a spring chicken. He even referred to his nudity in the film during our interview, saying it was harmless since it was just 'a bit of a little old man in a bathtub.' I felt otherwise, but I opted against sharing that with him.

The two most interesting things about interviewing Frank Langella were: 

1. My mother oddly creamed over the fact that I interviewed him, informing me how he was 'hot' back in his day. This did not help with the bathtub bit.

2. He informed me, out of the blue, that I should have children. I am not sure exactly what we were talking about (Starting Out in the Evening, duh) and in context he asked me how old I was, and I told him, and he asked me if I was married/had children and I answered (yes/no). And then he basically was like, 'Well, you should have children,' and followed it up with, 'You would be a good mother.' To which I responded (affably, if I do say so myself), 'Um, okay, well, I'll get right on that.' 

I'm not exactly certain what quality I exuded that made him so certain of my obvious maternal qualities. My buxom bosom? My gorgeousness of which the next generation should not be deprived? My ability to ask probing questions while not saying things like, 'I still have nightmares of seeing you naked'? I have no idea. But whatever the reason, he certainly felt it with conviction--when I left and was saying goodbye, he called after me, just in case I forgot, that I should indeed have children.

Obviously I went home and told Josh that Frank Langella commanded us to procreate. I'm sorry to tell you, Mr. Langella, that the jury is still out on whether I am going down that path. But should we choose it, we will clearly have to name all our children after you.

Tangling with Snape

Last week I covered a junket for Nobel Son, a little Guy Ritchie-esque black comedy/thriller by this husband and wife DIY indie writing/directing team. Seemed like it wouldn't be very exciting, but that was wrong.

#1 The junket was not at a hotel like usual, but instead in some sort of a soundstage/hanger at the Culver City Studios. It was an uncommonly cold/foggy day (hello! It's not January, people!), and since the giant warehouse doors and loading bays of the thing were open, it was basically freezing in there. There wasn't much food (normally they ply us with food), and one of the roundtables was in this trailer-like room with a washing machine in it. This was no Four Seasons, indeed.

#2 During one of the interviews (with Bill Pullman), the background noise was ridiculous. There were giant trucks rumbling around the lot, and they were basically pulling right up in front of us, parking, and then making an ungodly racket. Bill Pullman would have to yell to answer our questions. We were all laughing. RIDICULOUS.

#3 Interviewees: Randy Miller, Jody Savin, Danny DeVito, Bill Pullman, Eliza Dushku, Bryan Greenberg, and Alan Rickman.

A. (filmmakers) Randy Miller & wife Jody Savin: normal, boring except for the revelation that a lot of the evil father (Alan Rickman) character was based on his real-life dad. Now that was one for Freud.

B. Danny DeVito: everybit as miniscule-ly tiny as you think. He was wearing giant bifocals and was kitted out in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia wear (baseball cap, jacket). He was very sweet, kept forgetting what he was talking about, and reminded me of every youngish Italian grandpa I ever met.

C. Eliza Dushku & Bryan Greenberg: the stars. Dushku is kind of nuts. She is high energy/party girl/fun/scary and Greenberg looks so much like every Jewish TKE brother I ever met that I honestly felt like I must have seen him in something before, but upon checking his IMDB profile discovered that I haven't, but obviously did go to one too many frat parties in my day.

D. Bill Pullman and Alan Rickman: i.e., the men who are exactly how you would imagine them to be.

Pullman is the nicest, most pleasant man on earth. He was worried about us being cold, and was trying to get a fellow journo to borrow his jacket. He gave great, long answers, seemed happy to be there (even when telling us that his part was small enough that he wasn't sure why they really needed him at the junket), etc. Just a truly pleasant guy. He also started making up outlandish funny stories as to what the noises were going on in the background were. The truck sounded like it dropped a car and he started claiming it was transporting an elephant, etc.

Rickman, however, is just as eccentric as you'd expect. Wearing the perfectly in place theatreman scarf, purring in his upperclass accent, giving very terse answers (i.e., i have no interest in being here and am not going to go out of my way to help you by being chatty) and most of all, interestingly, LOVING putting people off kilter with his demeanor.

We asked him about playing bad characters (e.g. Snape, Sherrif of Nottingham, every one he has ever played) and he said that he doesn't always play bad characters. That in fact he plays way more nice ones and 'doesn't undertstand' that question. I decided I wasn't going to let him get away with that and pressed him. He said would you like me to list them? I said, No. He thought he'd be fun and try to trap me, 'Is Snape BAD?' but lo and behold I have read all the Harry Potters (SPOILER ALERT), so I was able to say well, ultimately he is not, but he sure as shit is unlikeable all the way. Now some of the others at my table are starting to titter nervously because they think Rickman is going to eat me alive and that I must be nervous, too. But I'm not nervous because I can see his little smirk and hear it in his voice and know that he is just having a ball trying to fuck with me, and probably having more of a ball because I'm not scared, so we're just playing slightly antagonistically.

I don't blink and he actually gives somewhat of a real answer, but now you know: If You Ask Alan Rickman About Playing Bad Guys, He Is Going To Give You Shit--probably because he gets that question constantly and probably because he might even bring more of an edge to a character than is even written into it because of just how he comes off/who he is. Or not. Welcome to my dime store psychology.

Adam Sandler is a human

Last year I covered Reign Over Me, which, if you don't know, is a really good, really heavy post 9/11 drama with Adam Sandler playing the lead role about a guy who lost his family and has severe PTSD. Indeed, not your standard Sandler flick.

The junket was a press conference with him, director Mike Binder (who I used to love in the HBO series Mind of the Married Man), Jada Pinkett Smith (Mrs. Will!), Liv Tyler, and Don Cheadle. What I remember most about this press conference was that Adam Sandler seemed painfully shy, which, needless to say, isn't what you expect from a professional comedian--let alone one whose bread and butter is really base meathead potty humor.

Regardless, he was very quiet, and seemed almost in pain when he had to answer at all. I have a friend who used to be an assistant in the Sandler posse and he says that is de rigeur. And also that Sandler isn't very into his more serious roles; he much prefers his goofy comedies.

Much more exciting was actually Don Cheadle, who, for some odd reason I thought was British, but is actually A. from Kansas City and B. hilarious. Also more exciting was when one of the other particularly crazy junketeers started yammering at Liv Tyler after the junket was over as we all waited for the elevator about how much she loved her dress, and then actually reached into Liv Tyler's dress to check out the label when Liv said she didn't know. Nice.

ANYHOW, so yesterday I covered the junket for Bedtime Stories, a giant new Disney schmaltz-fest that I do not recommend seeing unless you are five/have a five-year-old whom you enjoy watching have fun while you are bored shitless. Sandler headlined the movie, so I went in to the press conference prepared for the silent shy Sandler shtick.

Turns out he was chatty, happy, and jokey the whole time--nothing like the introverted, grave guy who was at the Reign Over Me junket last year. Given, insane British comedian Russell brand gave him a run for his money joke/attention-wise this time, but nonetheless, it was basically like Sandler was a whole different person.

Turns out celebrities have moods and lives and sometimes don't suck it up and tap dance even if they have to be in front of the press. Either that or he's on really good anti-depressants and he wasn't before. Who knew?

Back in the saddle again

You may have noticed that there are a great deal of 'last year I went to this junket posts' and not so many 'this week I covered' posts. This is because a few months ago I was laid off from my main dayjob in junketville as my poorly managed company started its long-predicted decline 2 years after starting up.

In the meantime, I have been on somewhat of a hiatus from the junket world--poorly timed, given I had just launched this blog. Mostly, I have been holing up in my basement and working on scripts of my own, and taking the odd piece of junkety work that fell my way without my having to do anything to track it down myself.

Well, like all good phoenixes, it is time I must rise again, hopefully this time in the guise of a full-time freelance junket-ite. We'll see how that goes; I'm still more threat than action on that front. There are just only so many hours in the day, and mine are still primarily devoted to purging my soul of all the pet projects that have been quietly simmering away on my neverending range of back burners. But still, you can (hopefully) expect to see a few more contemporary junket discussions cropping up from here on out.

To that end, I give you: The Reader. I was excited to take this one because I read the book (it was on Oprah's book club--Version 1.0--and I long ago realized I needed to get over my gut instinct to hate on her book club as I was forced to admit that she picks good books). The book was decent--not my favorite of her selections, but I am blaming that on the fact that it was translated from German and somehow I think I have trouble really connecting to the emotional content in translated books. Blah blah blah blah.

ANYHOOT. So, The Reader was adapted by David Hare and directed by Stephen Daldry, i.e., the same team that adapted and directed The Hours. Not surprisingly, it was beautiful and very well done. Lots of critics sniffling throughout the screening, although I was oddly stone cold--likely because I a. read the book and knew the story already (see above) b. am very familiar with the subject matter (post-Nazi German guilt, amongst other things) and am oddly desensitized to anything that has anything remotely to do with the Holocaust thanks to enough years of Hebrew school to break the spirit of a far more religious person than myself and c. am a heartless shrew.

The leads are played by Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, but very unfortunately neither of them did the junket. Instead, Daldry and the other lead, a new young German dude named David Kross (I know, I know, I wanted it to be Tobias Funke, too, but Kross is no anal-rapist, just a twee little German teen). They were late so they were paired instead of separate as they were supposed to be, which is probably just as well as Kross isn't confident enough in his English (it honestly was terrific, but he was I think nervous enough to only give short answers) so Daldry did most of the talking.

I then had a 1:1 with Daldry. He wanted to go out on the patio so he could smoke a cigarette. He's a prototypically cute mid-40s British director type, i.e. very not caught up with himself despite the fact that his main credits to date are Billy Elliot and The Hours and everyone thinks he is a king of emotional dramas. I probed him on his mentioning that he had debated which way he wanted to go with the ending, out of purely personal reasons because I am having issues deciding on which way to go with the ending of something I am writing right now. Mostly the interview was boring and fine and normal, the most exciting part being that he laughed when I told him that I had sympathy for a Nazi character--and I'm Jewish (always a killer punchline).

Also, for you Michael Chabon fans out there, there is still no movement on his adaptation of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Says Daldry: it's still in limbo due to bullshit studio politics. But one never knows what kind of boost it might get once this one comes out, as this one will surely get good reviews and maybe even some Oscar buzz (although for various more political reasons Winslet is likely going to get a bigger push for Revolutionary Road and obviously powers that be don't particularly want her up against herself. But perhaps her really spectacular performance will overwhelm. Also, he said Chabon did a great script for Kavalier & Clay, so cross your fingers. Not that I liked that book, because I didn't.

The most exciting part of this junket? Honestly, since it's been a few months since I've been there, I met new people. Two power-chicks in fact. Often there are some serious characters at the junket circuit, and these two women were pretty cool. So, I'm psyched. Now go see The Reader when it opens (limited) next week. The end.

Dark Week

Hey StarEffers,

I'm heading out for Thanksgiving, so we're going dark this week. That is, unless I get inspired to reminisce while I'm away. And, you never know with me, that may just well happen. In any event, have a happy Turkey time knowing that more celeb run-ins await you upon my return. Gobble Gobble.

My own personal Office episode

One of my early on-camera interviews was for The Last Mimzy, which was a whatever blah blah family sci-fi movie. Just fine, not amazing, not terrible. There was a lot of hullaballoo at work about whether or not we should do TV interviews (i.e. on camera interviews for the web) since the TV station did their own and we could theoretically repurpose them. The flip side is if you do an interview for TV you are looking for sound bites; if you are doing one for the web, you are looking for a solid 4-minute conversation with a thru line.

I can see both sides of it, but the truth is, I loved doing on-camera interviews. You go in to the little room (it's just a hotel room that they have set up), they announce you, the talent looks up at you from under the lights and the silly set up while they are probably getting their make up on, you say hi and shake their hand, you sit down and you make small talk for the 60 seconds it takes for them to set up your mic and tape.

Then you have (usually) 4 minutes to probe said talent with your amaazing questions. Either someone will tap you on the shoulder when you have, like, a minute left, or else someone will dance around and flash you signs behind the talent. Then you hit them with the desperate scoop questions and then you get tapped again/the production people dance around more and it's time to wrap up. The poor talent is stuck in this room doing this for hours on end. Every five minutes a new person, 'Hello, I'm Frank, Hot in here under these lights, heh heh, I'm a big fan, So, what made you decide to do this movie?' Usually the talent is pretty nice; I mean, it's not like you don't know you're signing up to do the press tour, so best to put on the best face and truck through. Also, I like to pretend I'm the only person to ever ask these probing questions though; otherwise I'd go nuts.

The best is when the talent is excited to talk about something or just doesn't shut up or tells you to ask them another question or something at the end of the 4 minute mark. Then the production people get all pissed, but seriously, if Joel Schumacher is telling me he wants to give me scoop on something, the production people can deal. Anyhoot.

So, on Mimzy I got to talk to Bob Shaye, who was the director (and also the head of the now absorbed into Warner Bros, New Line studio). He seemed mostly old and nice enough. Then I interviewed Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson together. It was hard not to coo all over Hutton because Ordinary People is one of my favorite movies ever and had a big impact on my life. Okay, so maybe I did coo all over him a little, and maybe he didn't mind that much.

During the on-camera part, however, I asked him about an upcoming project (the favorite last question for scoop) - IMDB said he was in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (the David Foster Wallace story that was adapted and directed by John Krasinski from The Office). He seemed happy enough to discuss it, but then when I asked if he was one of the Hideous Men he gave me a blank stare of horror. As the movie still hasn't been released, I still to this day do not know what the faux pas was. But so much for Timothy Hutton's and my burgeoning love affair.

Finally, and most exciting of all, I got to talk to Rainn Wilson--i.e. Dwight Schrute from The Office. Now THAT was fun. First, he's not precious at all, so the small talk was v easy. Plus, he'd grown up on the North Shore of Chicago. Translation: he went to New Trier (high school), where a lot of my friends went. So we covered that ground. And he liked my necklace, which he was very excited to discover my mother in law gave me (ah, the chance at a mother in law joke, thwarted because mine is awesome).

The interview went great; he totally dug me. And when I asked him how Dwight Schrute would have reacted in the Mimzy situation, he clearly got very excited and actually slipped into Dwight character for a second to dream up the answer to that. In short, Rainn was a cool dude. Not a bad day. Not at all.