Thursday, December 07, 2006
Sorry about not having photos but it is tough when there are not really specific themes or people.
JACKASS v KINDNESS
For
those of you who did not read the first of these, it basically is
something where I tell you about a jackass thing a celebrity did and
then an act of kindness a celebrity did.
So I called my friend
because I knew he had the phone number I needed and we started talking
about what is going to be the kindness part of the post. We then got
into a big discussion about sports which led somehow to publicists and
bad behavior by celebrities and then he reminded me of something that
had happened on his show which I had forgotten about.
For the
most part, television actors are much less divaesque and are much more
down to earth than an actor who only does films. This is caused by a
number of factors such as the life of a television show which may be
brief to the fact that television actors are paid much less than their
film counterparts, to the fact that they work generally half the year
with the same group of actors and crew and often commute to and from
work just like any other person. What is odd about this, is that
television actors are generally much more known by the general public
than film stars. If a movie grosses $100M and the average ticket costs
$8.00, then approximately 12 million tickets were sold. Contrast that
with say Grey’s Anatomy which last week had 24 million viewers and does
every week and you can see how television actors are generally more
recognized and well known. What makes film stars more divaesque is the
fact they are paid an incredible sum of money and that studios may have
$100M invested in that star’s ability to bring in an audience to recoup
their money. Because there are few stars that are capable of doing that,
their demands become greater and also more outrageous and they become
divas.
That is the background -
JACKASS -
In this
show there was an actor who was about fourth billed at most, but had a
very big head about his role on the show and how he thought viewers were
tuning into the show to see him and that he was the star. If he felt he
was not getting enough lines in a particular episode, he would act is
if everything was fine and then right before taping would "lose his
voice" or have some other ailment which would cause producers, writers
and the director to scramble around and try and save the show. Other
times he would improvise new lines as the taping was going on and refuse
to do the lines that were written because he felt he was a better
writer than the show’s writers and knew what the audience wanted. If the
writers just had him being in one scene with no dialogue which happens
sometimes, he would just not show up for the taping. He trashed his
dressing room more than once because he was not satisfied with its
appearance. He would park sideways in the lot taking up three spaces,
and even tried the "you cannot talk to him directly thing."
Now
you have to remember this guy is way down the list of people on the
show. His other problem was his agent who did not really have many
clients and so was devoting a great deal of time to this particular
client and making the head even more swollen. The agent did not want to
lose this money ticket and so kept telling our misguided actor how
wonderful he was and how he would get his own show soon, and movies,
etc..This actor just did not realize that nature of his appeal which was
limited and his acting skills which were even more limited. He really
had no range except in his mind. He just could not get over himself and
when his contract was running out, he thought he was going to get a big
raise, and instead he got written out of the last ten or so episodes of
the year and his contract was not renewed. Thought he was bigger than
the show. The reality is in television, you are rarely bigger than the
show.
KINDNESS -
Why is it that it is the women who are
always the subject of the kindness part? A list model/actress more model
than actress has been in and out of the office lately because she is
coming out with a new product and there are some details to be worked
out. Because she has been in so frequently, she learned that one of the
people in the office had both of her parents die in a car accident
during the summer and had really been devastated by this. She had been
in the car with her parents and did not even get a scratch and so was
feeling really guilty and really depressed.
Our model overheard the secretary discussing Dancing With The Stars
and how it was the one bright spot of the week for her where she really
just could let her troubles go. Without letting anyone know, model
arranged for Secretary to attend the final episode of the season and to
go backstage and meet the finalists. She also arranged for a makeover
and new clothes and a limo to the show. There were no cameras there to
record this and no publicity. This was just one person who overheard
someone who was in pain and used their celebrity for good with nothing
in return. Model called in a bunch of favors just because she is that
kind of person. No one asked her to do it, and no one knew she was doing
it until she sprung the surprise. You should have seen the look on
Secretary’s face when Model told her what she had done and the
excitement the day after the final show when Secretary could not stop
talking and sharing and you could see the sparkle back in her eyes. It
has been a few weeks now, and she is just 1,000% percent better from
what she was and you can see she is starting to live again.
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