I am reading Olivia Munn’s book (don’t judge me!) and she tells a story without giving any names but I think there are enough clues to figure out who is who.
She tells a story that happened early in her career (so the mid 2000s I would guess) and she was on a movie set where the director was famous. Specifically she describes him as “slobby”, “fat”, and rich and famous. She also says if you have seen any “Billion Dollar popcorn flick” in the last ten years you have heard of him.
She describes the female lead as “small, busty, A list Paparazzi bait.” And she describes the male lead as “a guy who had parlayed an incredibly successful TV career as a bumbling charmer into a film career playing bumbling charmers.”
She says the set she was at was made up to look like a gorgeous beach house. She implies the movie is a romantic comedy but it may not be.
So anyone have any ideas? She could, of course, changed the details but I don’t think so. BTW her story is that the director in question rubbed one out in front of her when she brought him his lunch to his trailer so I will just end this with ewwwwww.
First thought it might have been Transformers but apparently Michael Bay isn’t fat (I had no idea what he looks like). Other thought would’ve been Iron Man but I don’t think RDJ is that “bumbling” or had a successful TV career.
Another director I thought was fat and would be a perfect fit if he was: Judd Apatow. “A list paparazzi bait + bumbling charmer” describes most of his movies.
Judd Apatow directed The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Steve Carell could fairly be described as “a guy who had parlayed an incredibly successful TV career as a bumbling charmer into a film career playing bumbling charmers.” Could the “small, busty, A list Paparazzi bait” be Catherine Keener? Doesn’t seem a likely description. But Elizabeth Banks had a minor role in that movie. Is she considered paparazzi bait? That came out in 2005, which sounds right for early in Olivia Munn’s career.
I just want you to know that I hate you. I don’t know why but I got absorbed in trying to figure this out for the last hour!
I can’t make the pieces fit all in the right time frame:
Munn moved to LA in 2004, so the film would have been in production in 04/05, since she started working as an actress herself in 05 and wouldn’t have been fetching meals for directors.
Director: known name, fat, big grossing popcorn movies
Actress: busty A-list papparazzi bait
Actor: successful on TV as bumbling charmer, has made films as bumbling charmer
So what film that had a beach house in it came out in 2005 or 2006 featuring people who fit those descriptions? hell, I can’t even identify an A-list actress who is also busty and also a big parparazzi target!
LOL @ Stoid, sorry. I also gave up that was why I presented it here
The best I came up with was Peter Jackson with the set being King Kong. You have Jack Black and Naomi Watts but discounted it because they did not have a love scene together and she says the scene was a love scene plus I don’t think Peter Jackson was fat then and I cant see him doing what she says the director did. Also Jack Black doesn’t really fit that description.
FWIW, she was not on the set in an official capacity. She was there as a guest of her friend “Jim” (I just assumed she changed his name) who was the assistant to the director in question. People started to give her things to do so she did them, including bringing the infamous lunch to the director’s trailer.
Jeff Chase wasn’t the star or co-star. As far as I can tell, he had some minor role (I don’t even remember him). And Kevin Heffernan doesn’t direct big expensive “popcorn” flicks.
I feel like the director is a big sticking point. There’s not a lot of famous fat directors out there.
Here’s the few I could think of:
Michael Moore
Kevin Smith
George Lucas
Jon Favreau (although he’s more of a just a big guy than fat)
Peter Jackson
Smith and Moore are really the only ones that I immediately think of when I hear “fat director,” but neither of them direct “Billion Dollar popcorn flicks”
Okay, so I read on IMDB that there’s a rumor it’s Brett Ratner. He’s always seemed like the kinda guy who would do something like that.
Let’s break it down with: After The Sunset came out in 2004 and was set on a beach.
Brett Ratner - Fat-ish. No super super famous, but he’s directed the Rush Hour movies, X-Men 3, and produced Skyline and 21.
Selma Hayak - Busty A-Lister
Pierce Brosnan - A successful TV career as Remington Steele led to a successful movie career. Now the kicker, he certainly plays charming characters, but would you call them “bumblers?”
Remington Steele was definitely a charming bumbler. The whole premise of the show Remington Steele is that Remington Steele was a two-bit con man with good looks and charm who had no idea what he was doing as the head of a detective agency, which was really Laura Holt’s agency anyway. (She made up the name and persona of “Remington Steele” in order to get around people’s reluctance to hire a girl for detective work.) I seem to recall that he also got knocked unconscious at least once an episode.
His stint on that show was certainly successful. It got him an offer to replace Roger Moore as James Bond in 1985, but he couldn’t get out of his TV contract.
I thought Bosom Buddies launched his career? Maybe the “incredibly successful” comment was just an exaggeration?