Let this be a cautionary tale. Never sleep with a celebrity until you've determined he's important enough. Now this poor girl has to go through life with the shame of knowing she only slept with a bass player. Let the years of therapy begin.
My favorite related concerns a certain character from the '60s and '70s. He was in a series of commercials for a gasoline company. At the same time he was acting in dinner theater. One night he goes to bed with one of the ushers. They're in the throes of passion and she yells out, "I'm fucking Mr. Dirt!"
You gotta love show business!
I wonder what Paul McCartney would think of this story...
ReplyDeleteI just listened to the 'Less is More' podcast and it reminded me of a posting that you did years ago. Your daughter was preparing for an audition and the Neil Simon piece she selected ran over. After trying to speed it up you decided to try editing it down to the acceptable time. You were right, the second version of The Fugitive didn't seem to be missing anything I considered essential from the first version.
ReplyDeleteIs. This from The Onion?
ReplyDeleteI'll never think about Ronny Graham the same way again.
ReplyDeleteAt least he wasn't the drummer...
ReplyDeleteKen,
ReplyDeleteA Friday question on your Friday answer.
I was reading one of your Friday questions on MASH movie.
https://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2016/07/friday-questions.html
You said "we always had great respect for the movie". Did you like the script of Ring Lardner Jr.?
It is said that the poor guy was cheated out of proper praise, since Altman went around saying that he re-wrote the script and took all the praise - which seems to happen all the time in Hollywood.
And also in the same answer you have said that Richard Hooker earned just peanuts. Was he compensated later for the successful TV show, or just stiffed as usual by Hollywood.
Surely you too must have gotten lucky Ken. Especially in the 70s when girls were batshit crazy about Hollywood guys. Even if they were just writers.
ReplyDeleteIts almost enough to make me wish I had continued with my piano lessons when I was a little kid. I just HATED practicing. Little did I know back then how much "tail" musicians get. Maybe a keyboardist isn't as popular as a guitar player, (That's probably why they invented the keyboard that looks like a guitar) but I'd take it.
ReplyDeleteM.B.
Wow. "Oh! The humanity!" is right! Talk about sleeping your way to the middle! LMAO!
ReplyDeleteDon’t sell writers short. Arthur Miller?
ReplyDelete@ VincentS
ReplyDeleteRead Joe Eszterhas' books. That guy boasts on and on that he is the only writer in Hollywood who has slept with A list actresses, starlets etc... Sharon Stone is his biggest conquest.
Also snidely informs us that he banged Martin Scorcese's wife in his kitchen when Marty was away shooting. Wonder if it was Isabella Rossellini ........
Paddy Chayefsky did get lucky with Kim Novak.
So not all writers are schmucks.
Waiting for Ken to put out his list one day to rival Joe ;)
It was Issabella and Joe says something to the effect of "I fucked Rossellini while Marty was off being an auter".
DeleteThat reflects the side of show business which always struck me as kind of high school-ish. I learned early on I was better working with people in the trade than trying to socialize with them. I'd get excessive praise when I turned something in, but if they got me to go to parties I was inevitably standing around looking stupid because people had their cliques and were always judging whether I was one of the cool kids or not. It takes me a while to get warmed up in a conversation, and by that time anyone around had already moved on looking for someone with status. Since my work was anonymous, I had nothing to impress them with. Once I ran into a guy who had heard of me, but insisted I must only be claiming to be E. Yarber because Yarber wrote much better than I possibly could.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, if it came down to impressing strangers or being able to work long hours actually doing the work, I'd choose the latter, not that I seem to have a choice. I have a few close friends, but none of them are involved in "creative" work and find my stories about Hollywood dull and annoying. God help them, they insist they like me for myself. Don't ask me why.
Kids In The Hall... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQCGefdrjkc
ReplyDeleteYou realize some of us remember who was "Mr.Dirt"?
ReplyDelete