Big news-day in show-biz land . . . I won’t comment on Charlton Heston, as I intensely disklike him but not enough to take shots at someone with Alzheimer’s . . . As for Joe, I read his over-the-top mea culpa op-ed piece in today’s NYT and—as big an anti-terbaccer as I am—found myself rolling my eyes like dice in a Damon Runyon story. I agree with most of what he says, but yikes, the weepy self-flagellating!
From the Times: “Smoking was an integral part of many of my screenplays because I was a militant smoker. It was part of a bad boy image I’d cultivated for a long time - smoking, drinking, partying, rock ‘n’ roll . . . Smoking, I once believed, was every person’s right. I don’t think smoking is every person’s right anymore. I think smoking should be as illegal as heroin . . . I have been an accomplice to the murders of untold numbers of human beings. I am admitting this only because I have made a deal with God. Spare me, I said, and I will try to stop others from committing the same crimes I did . . . My hands are bloody; so are Hollywood’s. My cancer has caused me to attempt to cleanse mine.”
I worked on a show with Charlton Heston and although I detest his politics and his idiotic views on guns, the man is really very nice, very polite to all his fans, low key and a really good guy to be around. While other lesser stars would arrive with an entourage of makeup artists/hairstylists/agents/mgrs and the like, Chuck showed up alone with his tackle box of base makeup and a framed copy of the yellowed-with-age telegram letting him know he got the role of Spartacus. He also has a wicked sense of humor!
I was also lucky enough to get to meet “Dear Abby” a couple of times - a gracious lady and I’m sorry to hear about her as well.
I saw Joe Ezterhas’s weepy rant in the Times today, and it was pathetic.
Look, I don’t smoke, and I find cigarette smoke annoying. But let’s not mince words: the idea that “Basic Instinct” or anything else Ezterhas ever wrote encouraged people to smoke is asinine.
“Basic Instinct” never inspired any kid to do anything except maybe learn to use the fast forward and freeze-frame buttons on the VCR remote.
Oh sure, things were different 50 or 60 years ago. Back then, John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart made smoking look cool. But for as long as I can remember now, movie characters who smoke might as well have “I’M EVIL” tattooed on their foreheads! The minute Sharon Stone lit up a cigarette in “Basic Instinct,” it was obvious she was the killer, because innocent people never smoke in movies or on TV!
Even if you never found out ANYTHING about that old dude on the X-Files, you could tell he was supposed to be evil, the instant he lit up a Morley. ONLY evil people smoke, on TV!.
My girlfriend has informed me that I have symptoms similar to those that may be experienced by future flu sufferers. I’m still debating whether or not to call a press conference.
RTA, you forgot Esterhaus’s worst film (or so I’m told, I’ve only seen Basic Instinct and that cured me of any desire to see another Esterhaus piece): Alan Smithee’s Burn, Hollywood, Burn!
Heston, I really feel sorry for. I don’t agree with many of the man’s politics, but to slowly lose one’s mind is the worst horror I can think of.
Oh, geez… Esterhas’ piece is just so glurgy. I wish him well, but the martyr role does not fit him at all… even if indeed he were being smote for the immoral behaviors he glamorized, why should he just be atoning for doing so to smoking?
As for Heston, while politically and socially I stand pretty much for the opposite of most that he does, I have great respect for the person and artist and I feel it’s terrible, couldn’t have happened to a nicer rabid right-winger.
So, is Heston really a “rabid right-winger”? I know he supports the Second Amendment, and some people don’t agree with the NRA’s position, but let’s look at the rest of Heston’s record:
–firmly supported the National Endowment of the Arts, even when it was being pilloried by conservatives
–marched with the Civil Rights supporters in Selma, Ala
–supported Ronald Reagan for president
–supported John F. Kennedy for president.
–union president (SAG)
–worked with Martin L. King to integrate Hollywood’s trade unions.
Sure, there’s conservatism in there (moreso lately) but not of the rabid type. Seems to me he has done a lot of good things, on AND off the screen.
Regarding Eszterhas; well, there’s not much worse than a reformed smoker.