Wednesday, December 06, 2017
EP49: Celebrity Dish Part 2
More with entertainment reporter Arlen Peters who has interviewed hundreds of major Hollywood stars.This week they discuss Robin Williams, Meryl Streep, Richard Pryor, Miss Piggy (who has her own hair and make-up person), Quentin Tarantino, Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin who walked on the moon. Lots of good, bad, and strange behavior. But in Hollywood would you expect anything less?
Listen to the Hollywood & Levine podcast!
ReplyDeleteSam Rubin reference 😂😂😂😂
Why are these Japanese so infatuated with Hollywood and American celebrities? They don't have any entertainers or movies of their own?
No other nation behaves in this grovelling cringing manner.
ReplyDeleteArlen Peters, you should have asked Buzz Aldrin - "What was it to work with Stanley Kubrick?" 😜
ReplyDeleteMissing question: Did you ever interview Harvey Weinstein? How was it?
How could you miss that? Ever Hollywood hack would have interviewed him.
And also missing was the question whether he interviewed your favorite Spielberg :)
ReplyDeleteJust realized something.
So many people you thank at the end. They help you with this podcast with technical stuff, I guess.
So you pay so many, just to post free stuff for us the readers!!! Just Great Ken!!!
Thanks a lot.
I understand how Junket Day is a chore for the celebrities, but it's no great shakes for the reporters either (at least the ones who still have a shred of self-respect). Getting lined up like kindergartners, told what you can't ask, clock-watched by a publicist, and then shoved out the door after five minutes. Treated like a moron for asking the same questions everybody else asks, but yelled at by the PR machine if you ask something the celeb didn't like. It's mind-numbing for everybody involved.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, if it were after the fire, if Richard Pryor was just in pain, with limited legal ways to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the "what about" questions will be good ideas for the next time, but your interview was not meant to be exhaustive.
A few responses to your comments:
ReplyDeleteJack, funny thing about the Japanese. I once helped out a crew from Japan who were doing Hollywood stories, and they wanted to cover a premiere. Every time they saw a blond woman, they had to run over and shoot b-roll with them! ANY blond woman!
Lisa, I had some dealings with Harvey Weinstein over the years, but never did an interview with him. No appeal at all. No interest to me. And I had heard ALL the stories about him ...
Andy Rose, when you produce junkets you get to sample every entertainment reporter from every major market in the US and internationally. There were a few who were good, but was always amazed at the quality of interviews. Not very impressive. Wondered how they did it every week, flying around, staying in a hotel, eating skimpy buffet food. Basically treated like cattle. Sounds like you've spent your share of time at junkets too!
@Arlen: I think there's a good chicken-or-egg question here... Do publicists treat the junket interviewers condescendingly because so many are lousy, or are most junket interviews lousy because the good interviewers don't bother to do them anymore?
ReplyDeleteI have dealt with foreign TV stations looking for footage of American news stories, and there are two immutable rules: Japanese TV is ALWAYS looking for American pop culture stories, and French TV is ALWAYS looking for "dumb American" stories (guy accidentally shoots off foot, etc.)
Andy, I find that studio publicists treat junket interviewers well because they need those interviewers. As for the quality of interviews, all you really get are softball questions. The interviewers don't want to offend the stars and mostly all want that good two shot of them with Julie Roberts smiling and having fun that their viewers in Buffalo will enjoy on the 6pm news! Sitting through junket interviews is not exactly watching MEET THE PRESS!
ReplyDeleteI once covered the premiere of DRACULA and the feature I did was sent out internationally. I was able to get an air check of how it was used on various stations around the world. And I'm still laughing today about seeing my produced piece on EYEWITNESS NEWS MOSCOW!