Archive for January, 2009

Teddy Bares All

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Tonight, HBO premieres a new documentary about the fall of disgraced evangelist and former White House friend during the George W. Bush administration, Ted Haggard.

Yesterday, he was Oprah’s guest for the full hour. Haggard was a highly visible and influential evangelical who lost his career and home when a muscleman former male prostitute revealed that Haggard not only was a client, but was buying crystal meth. Lord, have mercy. Ted has a wife and two grown kids. They were on the show too. I thought Ted was good with Oprah yesterday. He admitted his mistakes and he apologized. Clips were shown from the HBO feature. It was not a dull hour. Haggard said that, at one point, he went to a shrink to try to figure out his sexuality. The therapist told Ted that he’s not gay. He’s a heterosexual with homosexual attachments.

My question is — where can you get those attachments? Loews? K-Mart? Homo Depot?

I want to see that HBO documentary. I got a day of work for today! Wish me luck. The same to you.

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The Things We Learn

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

I’ve been through hard times but this current economic drama is brutal. I had two jobs last year. There were lay-offs at both. So, around Christmastime last year, I swallowed my sizable pride and filed for unemployment. I’ve been lucky enough to get a few auditions for work since then. Not many, so I swallowed my pride again and began applying for administrative assistant work. Every time I go out, the news reports that thousands more are being laid off.

Back in the 70s, my divorced working mother decided to leave Los Angeles and move to the Midwest. Back in the 80s, when I got my first New York City TV job and my career was in a groove, I took over the mortgage on her new house. Paying that off for 20 years was not easy — especially when I had my own bumps in the road of life to deal with. There were times when I took better care of her than I did of myself. I often wondered if that’s why I didn’t become a big TV star like Rosie O’Donnell or Tom Bergeron. Maybe I lacked that necessary amount of selfishness to make it big. Not that I haven’t been selfish..but maybe I wasn’t selfish enough. In these hard times, I’m glad I took care of Mom and paid off her mortgage. Her house is fine.

I called her last night and told her I’ve been sending resumés to the Midwest. I love New York. Always will. But my affordable rent is no longer really affordable. Even though I’d love to have one, I don’t have an agent. Consequently, I don’t hear about as many auditions as I’d like. Honestly, I kind of felt like a flop. I started to cry during the conversation. I tried to hide it, but I couldn’t fool my mom. At my age, I felt like a gradeschooler with a bruise. My mother became instantly supportive and comforting. She told me not to give up. I told her that I could move back there and help her out. She told me not to worry about her because my sister is nearby. Instead of hiding the reality of my situation behind a “I’m fine. Really,” I told her the truth. I told her I’ve been hurting and that I’m barely getting by — like thousands of others. Mom’s gentle and focused words of support were like a big hug. A hug that I so needed.

Without this financial crisis, I would not have called her like that. If times were good, I would not have exposed my fragility, I would not have heard her say, “Don’t give up, son. Don’t worry about me. We’re family. We can pull together and help each other out.” My mother made me feel like I am a star and New York City has yet to realize it. I thought of one of the survivors from that crippled US Airways flight a couple of weeks ago. A reporter asked a 60-something woman what went through her mind. She smiled slightly and said, “I was thinking that I didn’t get a chance to tell my family I loved them.” Last night, because of this bleak economy, two family members reminded each other that they are loved — loved despite and above all the times they’ve worked each other’s last good nerve.

I know it sounds corny, but maybe that’s why these hard times came into my life — so I could rediscover how important my family is to me. So I could finally let some of the old hurts from the past stay in the past. You know what I mean?

Wouldn’t it be too funny if, after I was so humble on the phone with my mom, that now my career would resurrect? Anyway, I truly wish you the best today. If you hear of any job openings, let me know.

Posted in Friends & Family | 2 Comments »

Oscar® Oversights

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

I read a statement from an agent who said that Leonardo DiCaprio should have gotten an Oscar nomination for his performance in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. The agent went on to express his feeling that Richard Jenkins didn’t deserve a Best Actor nomination for THE VISITOR simply because his work was not as long and explosive as DiCaprio’s. I disagree. Just because an actor or actress gets a juicy scene in which he or she can shout and throw things doesn’t make the performance better. Meryl Streep’s nun in DOUBT loses her New York temper and yells at a priest. To me, that does not make Meryl’s work better than Audrey Hepburn’s feminist nun at odds with the Church’s archaic attitudes as the Nazis take over Europe in THE NUN’S STORY. Hepburn’s nun didn’t yell. The actress didn’t get to chew up the scenery. But I think Sister Luke is her best screen performance and she totally deserved the Best Actress Oscar nomination she got for her work in that Fred Zinnemann film.

Some entertainment correspondents on TV and in print will comment that so-and-so has only one Academy Award nomination for acting or has only one Oscar. What’s that all about? Oscars are not easy to get. Oscar nominations are not easy to get. Any nomination is a major achievement. Heck, I’ve done TV work since 1980 and I’d be thrilled one day hear that I got an Emmy nomination for my work — either local or national.

Just because a performer has worked memorably in some classic films through the years does not assure one an Oscar nomination and a win. I bet host and film historian Robert Osborne on Turner Classic Movies would back me up on that too. Oscar winner Marisa Tomei got another nomination. She’s up for Best Supporting Actress thanks to her work as an aging lap dancer in THE WRESTLER. Using Tomei as an example of luck, here’s my short tally of Academy Award nominee hits and misses:

Marisa Tomei: 3 Oscar nominations.

Edward G. Robinson, Myrna Loy, Joel McCrea, Ida Lupino, Tyrone Power, supporting actors Jack Carson and Ward Bond, Glenn Ford, Anthony Perkins, Donald Sutherland, Mia Farrow, John Turturro, Dennis Quaid, Kevin Bacon, Richard Gere: 0

There you have it. That’s Hollywood.

PS If you listed 20 Hollywood classics released from 1939 to 1959, Ward Bond would probably be in half of them.

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Oscar Time: The Hollywood Hills Are Alive

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Twenty actors and actresses have a chance to go home with 13 inches of hard man called “Oscar.” The Hollywood gold rush has begun. The Oscar® nominations were announced early this morning in Los Angeles. Again, racial history was made here in America. This week, millions of us watched with great pride as the first African-American was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Amazing! In the past, whenever you mentioned 44 in connection with a black man, you were hearing the calibre of gun he was carrying when handcuffed on “Cops.” Today, as we continue the celebrate the achievement of Barack Obama, two African-American women were nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for playing a white man playing a black man in the Hollywood satire, TROPIC THUNDER, which Whoopi Goldberg kept calling TROPICAL THUNDER today on “The View.” I am overjoyed that Viola Davis got nominated for her stirring work as the black Catholic mother in DOUBT. To me, Brad Pitt’s new movie is pretty much THE CURIOUS CASE OF BRAD PITT AS FORREST GUMP. Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson are a tender new version of Tom Hanks and Sally Field in the sweetened 1994 film version of the Winston Groom novel. You can scroll down to read my comments on Brad as Button in an earlier blog.

Oscar winner Marisa Tomei got her third Academy Award nomination. She has one Oscar and three more nominations than Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, Christopher Plummer, Donald Sutherland and Mia Farrow ever received in their film careers. Like Ms. Henson and Ms. Davis, she’s in the Best Supporting Actress category. Personally, I would have liked to see Hiam Abbass nominated for her beautiful work as the illegal immigrant’s mother connecting to an American widower moving out of an embalmed emotional state in THE VISITOR. Add to that Tilda Swinton for her creamy work as the plain but passionate British wife in THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. As expected, Mickey Rourke got a very well-deserved Best Actor nomination for his searing performance as THE WRESTLER. I did know if many folks know this, but that original script was written by a former writer for the satirical newspaper, The Onion.

Meryl Streep got her 85th Oscar nomination for DOUBT. I think she’ll win the Best Actress Oscar this year. The performer who was like a young male Meryl Streep with his awesome immersion into character and skill with accents, the late Heath Ledger, was nominated for THE DARK KNIGHT. I think he’ll win for that brilliant performance and the solid body of work he leaves behind in his too-brief lifetime. Entertainment reporters will implode this year trying to get soundbites from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. They’re both Oscar nominees. Richard Jenkins, an actor with a non-recognizable name but a familiar face as the dead father on HBO’s “Six Feet Under” got the Best Actor nomination I hoped he would for THE VISITOR. That 90-minute indie drama is a must-rent DVD.

Within five minutes after nominations in the top categories were announced, E! Entertainment’s Ben Lyons, also one of the new movie critics on “At The Movies,” said that THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON would win Best Picture because “…it made so much money.” Way to go, Ben! That would place it in the same realm with those other Best Picture box office champs THREE MEN AND A BABY, DIE HARD, HOME ALONE, ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE, THE WATERBOY, MRS. DOUBTFIRE and SHREK. Someone please tell Ben that the blockbuster STAR WARS lost the Best Picture Oscar to ANNIE HALL and JAWS lost to ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST. Also, I doubt that Best Picture loser LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING made less money than the winner, Ron Howard’s A BEAUTIFUL MIND starring Russell Crowe as a schizophrenic. Best Picture Academy Award winners are not chosen because they made the most money at the box office. If so, one of the past nominees would’ve been THE SANTA CLAUSE starring Tim Allen.

Today on “The View,” Joy Behar defended Marisa Tomei’s Oscar win for MY COUSIN VINNY, a comedy performance that put her in competition with some veteran British actresses in dramatic roles one year. In discussing funny work, Joy remarked that Woody Allen comedies never win. Wrong. ANNIE HALL was Best Picture, Diane Keaton was Best Actress and Woody took Oscars that year for Directing and Writing. Dianne Wiest scored two Oscars for Woody Allen comedies, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS and BULLETS OVER BROADWAY and Michael Caine won his first Oscar for HANNAH AND HER SISTERS.

The surprise nomination today was Michael Shannon as the retarded, blunt neighbor in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. He’s like a bolt of lightning out of the blue in that role. If David Letterman in the 1980s had played Boo Radley in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, he would’ve looked like Michael Shannon in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. Shannon’s got a face that can register a tormented soul, comic befuddlement, something to fear and an object of security within seconds. I hope this nomination does great things for Shannon’s career. In fact, he and Viola Davis share a film in their past. I wrote earlier than I found Ms. Davis’ brief role as a grieving mother in WORLD TRADE CENTER to be the most heartbreaking highlight of that Oliver Stone film. Shannon also has a brief role in it as a heroic Marine. The REVOLUTIONARY ROAD stars, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, were also excellent but I think they were up against material that many of us may feel like we’ve seen before. A young married couple melts down in the 1950s suburbia when it realizes that an upscale Caucasian life in the ‘burbs with a fine job and a nice home isn’t all there is to life. My parents married in that same era and lived in a “nice” South Central Los Angeles suburb. But the marriage started to fracture when my restless mother wanted to live like a white woman in a better neighborhood. Sometimes, she spent money like she was one. The house that the couple on REVOLUTIONARY ROAD had was the kind of house my mother wanted. Her wants eclipsed and dwarfed my dad’s. His dream of traveling to South America and taking photographs was never realized. Both of my educated and sophisticated parents were limited in social, artistic and occupational upward mobility primarily because of their color. The responsibilities of Catholic parenthood added to their frustrations. THAT look at the 1950s could have been more interesting.

I love the Oscars. I’ll be watching next month. Oh! Here’s one last bit of entertainment news — Condoleezza Rice signed with the William Morris Agency. Well, I guess that’s the last we’ll be hearing from her. Have a good afternoon.

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“Slumdog Millionaire”: Dickens Goes to India

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

Man will never create a computer to surpass the magnificence of the human mind and soul in each one of us. What we can store, the information that is imprinted within us, the pain we can endure and the love of which we are capable is astounding. You’ll see what I mean if you see Slumdog Millionaire. I didn’t read reviews of it because I wanted the story to surprise me. I think critics give away too much in their reviews nowadays. That doesn’t allow us moviegoers to be swept away. I did read quotes from many critics who called it “the feel-good film of the year” (2008). It’s a “feel-good” movie in the same league with Boyz n the Hood. It’s wonderful but what were those critics thinking to describe a film with child abuse, abject poverty, corrupt police and a man set on fire the same what they did My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

If Charles Dickens was alive and in his artistic prime, he would have written the screenplay that is “Slumdog Millionaire.” A poor boy who grew up in the slums of Mumbai becomes a sensation as a contestant on India’s version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”? In flashbacks starting with his early life, we see how he came to learn the answers to the questions posed. It’s a brilliant way to tell his tale. When we’re taken back to his hellish youth, you can practically smell the stench and the saffron and you wonder who did he survives those slums to become a top TV game show contestant. Scottish director Danny Boyle did a masterful job with this feature. It’s one that could have been an American story. A poor Mexican-or-African-American kid, a survivor of crime-and-poverty infested neighborhoods, growing up to be a contestant on a network game show like that could have worked as well as “Slumdog Millionaire.” That’s the beauty of the story. It’s universal. Like the works of Dickens.

One of my favorite classics films is Sullivan’s Travels, written and directed by Preston Sturges. In it, a handsome and rich Hollywood film producer has tired of making comedies and wants to produce a film reflecting the bleak aspect of life. He decides to don a disguise as a homeless man and set forth into society. His faithful butler warns him that poverty is a plague, an evil disease not to be mocked or taken lightly. Sullivan, the director, learns that the hard way. Only Sturges in the 1940s could put poverty, greed, violence and a gruesome death in an original movie that, overall, remains a top screwball comedy. When I first got to New York City in the 1980s, there was a revival movie theater on the upper West Side called The Regency. It always showed a double feature. If The Regency was still in operation, “Sullivan’s Travels” and “Slumdog Millionaire” would make a sweet double feature.

I grew up in South Central Los Angeles. My first TV appearance was during my high school years when I got myself onto “The Movie Game,” a syndicated film trivia show shot on the old Goldwyn Studios in Hollywood. The show was co-hosted by Sonny Fox and Army Archerd. (I heard they didn’t get along.) My parents had just divorced and I was passionate to prove to my mother, a registered nurse, that my love of film was not just a lot of adolescent pastime. With some clever teen manipulation, I got her permission to answer and ad in the L.A. Times for film buffs on a new game show. I answered the ad, went to Hollywood to take the tests, aced the movie trivia tests and was soon tapped to be the youngest and only black contestant on that game show. I was saved for a special “teen edition.” My opponent, a middle class white kid from the L.A. suburbs, was a year older than I. He was sharp competition. We had celebrity teammates. We gave that show its first tied score near the end. A special 50-point tie-breaker was read. We had to name a famous actor after hearing some tough clues. One host dramatically read that “this Oscar-winning, epic star” would soon be seen in a new version of “Julius Caesar.”

That very morning, as usual, I went to a neighborhood liquor store to get the morning paper. I wasn’t a kid who usually read the sports section. That day, before my mother and I drove to Hollywood for my game show debut, I did. Melvin Durslag was the sports columnist. He had a lovable “Guys and Dolls” character look about him, with his horn-rimmed glasses and cigar. On the front page of the sports section was a photo of Durslag wearing a toga — and his horn-rimmed glasses. It was funny picture and the copy underneath read that he was dressed to be an extra in a new version of “Julius Caesar”…starring Charlton Heston.

I punched the buzzer. I answered the question. I won. My classmates and teachers at my high school in Watts, my family and neighbors there in Southern California — even my grandfather in New Jersey got to see the show. That night, I felt like a millionaire.

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No “Doubt” — Viola Davis Can Act!

Monday, January 5th, 2009

Happy New Year, everyone and thanks for coming back to my blog for another season.

For a lot of us babyboomers, a new movie starring Meryl Streep is a must-see, especially if it’s been adapted from strong previous material. Such is the case with Doubt, based on the economical Broadway drama of the same name. I write “economical” because the play (which I did not have the privilege to see) was only about 90 minutes long. La Streep kicked off her 2008 face time with the starring role in the film version of the Broadway musical comedy “Mamma Mia!” and closed it by playing the stern Mother Superior with steely convictions in “Doubt.” This nun role gives Meryl Streep the chance to prove, yet again, that she is the Bette Davis of our generation. She tears into it like it’s a hearty blue plate special. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as the warm, friendly, outgoing Irish priest — the kind of New York priest who seems to be a relative of Bing Crosby’s Father O’Malley from “Going My Way” and its sequel, “The Bells of St. Mary’s” in the 1940s. Like in the latter, co-starring Ingrid Bergman, a priest and nun disagree but the disagreement in “Doubt” stems from dark tension. It’s the 1960s and Sister Aloysius is positive that Father Flynn has been improper with an 8th grade altar boy, a boy who happens to be the only black student in a predominantly Irish and Italian-American school in New York. You may think this reflects the sexual abuse scandals that the Vatican had to deal with but the material reflects, to me, more about the Bush Administration years that are quickly coming to an end. That nun is as positive of the priest’s sexual misconduct as President Bush was of weapons of mass destruction being in existence and a reason to declare war in Iraq. Streep is in top form in “Doubt.” She is a wise old cat trying to outwit the smart, formidable priest. What makes it work is that, for a lot of us Catholics who went through years of parochial school, she is so recognizable. She’s got the nun walk and the nun facial expression down. She’s that nun who was at once tough drill sergeant and gruff-but-likable boss overseeing a group of misfits like Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” There is compassion behind her eyes. There’s also humor. Watch Streep’s face when one of the ancient sisters tells her, yet again, how much likes the Christmas song, “The First Noël.” Watch the terrific emotional chess game of a tea scene with the Mother Superior, a young nun (played by a once-again wide-eyed Amy Adams) and the priest. Sister Aloysisus has called Father Flynn to her office for a “friendly” meeting. He enters and sits in her chair, her seat of power. How will the cat get the potential mouse out of her chair? It’s fabulous and funny to see.

For me, the scene that made me gasp is one with Meryl Streep and actress Viola Davis as the mother of the altar boy in question. It’s magnificent. You must see Ms. Davis do that brief yet very complicated role. Viola Davis should be in the running for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. You get that feeling that after the director yelled “Cut” (and the director was also wrote the play), Ms. Davis got a big round of applause led by Ms. Streep. That scene with the two actresses gives the whole drama its weight. In 2006, Davis gave the strongest, most affecting performance in Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center,” a thank you to the firefighters and other first responders on September 11th here in Manhattan. She took us to that place that many Americans don’t want to think about, especially here in New York. We hear heartbreaking stories from survivors of loved ones lost in the World Trade Center that day. Davis plays the mother of an adult son who perished in the buildings. That Tuesday morning began as an ordinary day. She was an ordinary mother who got irritated with her good son over something insignificant and basically sent him off the work with an “I’m sick of looking at you” sentiment. He never came home. How many good people who perished that day went off to work knowing that they were truly loved and appreciated by the friends and family in their lives? Human nature will tell us, “Not all.” Davis was devastating in a short role.

One of the reason why I so strongly appreciate “Doubt” is that I rarely see reflections of us black Catholics on the big or small screen. I went to Catholic schools in South Los Angeles where the white kids were the minorities, outnumbered by African and Mexican-American Catholics. I was an altar boy for two very Irish priests. On television, I rarely black Catholics portrayed. In the 1960s, if you saw a black nun on TV, it was a sight gag — as if to say, “There’s no such thing as a black nun.” Shows like “The Sopranos” were more in touch with real life. That show had an episode with a black priest. “The Bernie Mac Show” had Uncle Bernie’s nerdy nephew, Jordan, in Catholic school. THAT was right-on for me. Not only did it vividly, comically reflect my parochial school experience, but I was just like Jordy.

Black Catholics are a section of America often ignored by network and local news. Here in New York City, whenever a news anchor says that the news team sought comments from spiritual leaders in the black community, we never see a priest or a cardinal giving a soundbite. Newscasters and network TV producers seems to think that ALL black Americans have deacons and none of us can sing the “Ave Maria.” Wrong. I saw myself in “Doubt” and that was a good thing.

If you love older foreign indie films, try to find one called The Mark starring Stuart Whitman. Whitman was one of the 1950s/60s big beefcake movie stars who could really act and this fine psychological drama earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination for 1961. I saw on local L.A. television when I was a kid. The material was, honestly, too mature for me but one scene seared itself into my memory. Whitman, an emotionally crippled man, tries to keep a little girl from harm. Grateful, she innocently kisses him. People who see the kiss without seeing the reason for the kiss accuse him of being improper. I think “The Mark” has finally made it to DVD. I’m not sure. The film also stars Rod Steiger. Some of “Doubt” reminded me of “The Mark.”

In the meantime, Brava Viola!

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