As new cutbacks and layoffs are being announced each day by the major and minor movie studios, Hollywood is forced to make important financial decisions in order to ensure the stability of their industry; an industry whose product is entirely dependent on investment in creativity and an environment in which the best creative minds may flourish.
Now that the Oscar season is upon us, Paramount took out 7 pages of full-page ads in The New York Times today for Revolutionary Road and they commissioned a full frills "making of" The Curious Case OfBenjamin Buttoncoffee table, selling for $45, which the studio bigwigs are sending out as Xmas gifts all around Hollywood.Disney inserted a book on Wall-E -- that's right, a book -- into the Los Angeles Times. A promotion worth $675,000 -- all to reach only a few thousand Academy voters since the pic was already out on video.
Said one Hollywood insider: "So a $675,000 insert is falling out of newspapers sent to 1 in 10 homes in foreclosure".
David Mamet's play "Speed-The-Plow" has been running on Broadway with Entourage star Jeremy Piven in the leading role. Piven just announced he will be dropping out completely after missing a few performances. The actor said he hasn't been feeling well and attributed his condition to a high mercury count.When asked to comment, Mamet had this to say:
“I talked to Jeremy on the phone, and he told me that he discovered that he had a very high level of mercury. So my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer.”
(Photos: On the left, the star of HBO's Entourage; On the right, a transparent instrument for measuring temperature by insertion into the rectum)
Daily Routines is a blog dedicated to examining how writers, artists and other interesting people organize their days. It gives insight into the difficult process of self-discipline required of all artists. A valuable resource for procrastination justification.
The words moron, idiot, imbecile are not interchangeable. Moron indicates the highest level of intelligence followed by an idiot, and then an imbecile.
Ernest Hemingway once claimed he could write a great story in six words or less. (Some say it was a bar bet put to him). He followed that braggadocio up by keeping his word with what he felt was his best prose ever. His story:
