Stardate 10032003
WE INTERRUPT THIS EMPIRE to bring you an important news bulletin. The forces on the front of Oceania have won a glorious victory. The end of the war is near. A double-plus good documentary by the Video Activists Network will be screening at the Egyptian Theatre on October 9 in a program called WAR RESISTANCE NIGHT,, edits footage of the Peace Marches in San Francisco as America marched off to war in Iraq with interviews with activists and other concerned citizens. It is screening with the feature BECOME THE SKY and the shorts, DAMN YOU, MR. BUSH and HOMELAND.
The Video Activists Network “is an informal association of activists and politically conscious artists using video to support social, economic and environmental justice campaigns.”
LUTHER starring Joseph Fiennes and Sir Peter Ustinov opens this weekend. I love the tag line “Rebel. Genius. Liberator.” The film could have been more epic but the tight focus on Martin Luther’s relationship to Rome and the conspirators that were working for him and against him is a thrilling story. It reminded me of ELIZABETH with all it’s dramatic, history making intrigue.
The Silverlake Film Festival, which is the most underground/alternative, yet totally “industry” film festival anywhere, had a series of films called LEFT OF CENTER featuring six films which highlighted the concerns of progressives such as THIRD PARTY – POLITICAL ALTERNATIVES IN THE AGE OF DUOPOLY and an exposé on Iraq’s quest for nuclear technology and the ease of which nuclear information and technology can be obtained called STEALING THE FIRE.
John C. Reilly won this years Spirit of Silverlake Award. Reilly, a long time Silverlake resident, was on hand to receive the award which was presented to him by his friend, Jennifer Jason Leigh. Paul Thomas Anderson’s HARD EIGHT, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow, was then shown. Gwyenth Paltrow is on the cover of this months VOGUE. Just when I was beginning to wonder what happened to her. I kept thinking, “hmm. There has been a noticeable lack of Gwyneth Paltrow in the celebrity media.” And then POW! There she was, right there, in a wire rack in the check-out line at a grocery store.
Whew.
While in line noticing that Ms. Paltrow is indeed, still alive, the guy behind me picked up one of 15 magazines that reported on the Jennnifer Lopez and Ben Affleck “breakup” and he asked me, “Do you think that’s real?”
“How would I know?” I tell him. And then, a couple days later, in another grocery store check-out line, a woman and her daughter start talking about whether Jennifer Lopez really broke up with Ben Affleck. This is the stuff that some people are very concerned about right now. As if their world is somehow altered and affected by the relationships of celebrities.
Maybe it’s like being a sports fan. You identify with that person or thing so strongly that it’s almost like you take that person or thing to be you and its actions are your actions.
It’s just like I’m having a relationship with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez and I’ve just been dumped! But that’s okay, because I’m hooking up with Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz, so don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay, I’ll be strong, I can move on.
But who knows, maybe they are just playing a game with the media and the world. Because if they take a crap, it’s news. BEN AFFLECK TAKES A DUMP AND IT’S WELL-FORMED AND FLOATS. Eye witnesses on the scene discovered the turd after Mr. Affleck failed to flush the toilet during an intimate dinner party. His fiancée, Jennifer Lopez, was curiously absent from the bathroom at the time of the shit-taking incident. We don’t want to speculate, but we think that Ben Affleck shits alone! Why he didn’t flush, is anybody’s guess. Let’s take it to the streets.
“We are here at Universal City Walk at Universal Studios asking people why they think Ben Affleck didn’t flush.”
“Maybe he just thought, ‘If you are going to get all up in my shit, I may as well just leave it out for you to examine.’”
The Gay Erotic Expo came and went (just like a man) this weekend. The usual porn, dildoes, lube and handy-wipes competed for the attention of the crowd. At the premier of Disney’s UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, I stood next to the young reporter from CELEBRITY JUSTICE and when I told him I was also covering the Gay Erotic Expo he got a very “huh?” look in his face as if to say, “Gay Erotic Expo isn’t family entertainment.”
There is a video rental place in San Francisco near the Castro district that has a neon sign in the window that reads, “FAMILY AND ADULT” so everyone calls it the Family and Adult Video Store. I don’t know what its actual name is.
While on the red carpet, I had a little chat with Dan Bucatinsky who has launched a production company with long time friend Lisa Kudrow called “Is or Isn’t Entertainment.” Bucatinsky, who wrote and starred in the film ALL OVER THE GUY alongside Richard Ruccolo, which is one of the best gay romantic comedies ever made because it sticks to the genre and doesn’t play up stereotypes, is writing two pilots and producing one. As he walked away he crossed his fingers.
Lisa Kudrow is currently starring opposite Val Kilmer in WONDERLAND. I remember the first season of FRIENDS and I really liked Kudrow’s character Phoebe, because I thought she was a lesbian. But then they un-lesbianified her and everyone started getting FRIENDS haircuts and I had to stop watching the show.
So here is a catalog of all my FRIENDS cast encounters.
- Walked past the Cox/Arquette Wedding in San Francisco but didn’t stick around to watch the Bride and Groom arrive, because, well, who cares.
- Interviewed Matt LeBlanc for ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN, starring opposite Eddie Izzard. A fabulous movie about World War 2 that was sadly overlooked by film goers and the press.
- photographed Courtney Cox Arquette with her husband, David Arquette at the premiere of THE GREY ZONE, where he starred opposite Mira Sorvino, who starred opposite Lisa Kudrow in one my favorite movies of all time, art-houses be damned, ROMY AND MICHELLE’S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION.
Wherefore art thou, FRIENDS?
It seems to me that there are so many opportunities for intersecting with the cast of FRIENDS in Los Angeles, that I must be the most unmotivated celebrity journalist ever if I have only documented their off-screen existence twice. The first time was a fluke. They were in my neighborhood. Someone with a clipboard asked me if I was a member of the wedding party. I should have said, “Yes.” And then I’d have a much more interesting story to tell about how I inadvertently crashed the Cox/Arquette wedding.
Much like the screening I inadvertently crashed this week. I was supposed to go see WONDERLAND and instead I end up in the right screening room at the wrong time while clips of a film I was not supposed to see were being screened and the director, producer, f/x guys and other studio honchos were discussing what will be an important choice for a high-profile film. WHOOPS!
After ten minutes and realizing that I wasn’t watching previews, I got up to leave and two people chased me down and nervously asked me who I was and who I work for and if I was going to write about what I saw. “I don’t know what I was looking at to write about it,” I tell him. He was pretty freaked out that an entertainment journalist had gotten into the screening room.
So there you have it folks. You just never know what will happen.
Vegan Bondage Porn
In other news, Vegans Get Hip. The hipster vegan rag HERBIVORE threw a party to celebrate its second issue at the Unhappy Hour, the monthly alterna-literati gathering at The Parlour Club in West Hollywood. I was surprised to see an old friend, Steve (aka S5) in the magazine talking about his porn business, / alt-zine suicidegirls.com. I ran into Steve at Burning Man, while I was not wearing much of anything and he says to me, “Nice to you see … all of you.” Eye candy AND mind candy, such as this tasty editorial titled “Geurilla Media and The Cutting Edge” by Glenn Reynolds. Also an interview with newer wave rockers (I love generic promo copy) Interpol. I’m really impressed but not surprised at where the overachievers of the San Francisco alt.tech.underground scene have wound up.
Josh Hooten, editorial maverick behind HERBIVORE, told me that he met Steve and his wife, Olivia at a few peace marches and they discovered their mutual veganism and the magazine thrives off stories about what vegans do when they aren’t not eating meat or wearing leather. This issue features an article on thrifting and finding the big score and an interview with Ian MacKaye of punk staple Minor Threat and politi-punk band Fugazi. There are also recipes from a soon-to-exist-in-the-real world book by Shawna Kenney, co-hostess of the Unhappy Hour, called WHITE TRASH VEGETARIANISM. The buffet featured white trash vegan food, like soy dogs in a blanket and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
There are also lots of ads for leather substitutes, but I supposed you have to take into consideration the environmental damage caused through the creation and disposal of plastics as a side effect of not wanting to consume animal products. There are complex trade offs there. I was vegan for two years, now I have a “modified vegetarian” diet. And I wear leather shoes, but I buy recycled clothes. Yay for thrift stores and recycled clothing stores like Buffalo Exchange and Crossroads Trading company. I also learned how to sew – taking a tip from PRETTY IN PINK. Homegrown style. They did it in ROMY AND MICHELLE, too. I’m starting to notice a pattern here in the things that inspire me and how I marry my ideals to the practical day-to-day living of my life.
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