Author: matt

Drew Friedman‘s Observer illustration… Vanity Fair, 1998.
Please stop depicting him as such. Thank you.

“[Dimension] broke the glass ceiling. Instead of looking up at it and wondering, What goes on up there? they found out. [The Weinstein brothers] love money. It was, Oh my god, isn’t this wonderful. And it came in so fast it was mind-altering.”— Jack Foley, former VP of Distribution, Miramax as quoted by Peter Biskind in Down and Dirty Pictures, page 173)
They apparently also found the rock-bottom, and went right through it:
Title: Girls Gone Wild
Log line: A thirtysomething woman endures a horrible breakup with her boyfriend and decides to go a little wild on a vacation with two best friends.
Writer: Anya Kochoff
Agent: Endeavor
Buyer: Dimension Films
Price: n/a
Genre: Comedy
Logged: 2/2/04
More: Pitch. Anya Kochoff and Josie Rosen will produce.
(From Done Deal, Feb. 3, 2004)
Anyone care to guess the cast? Debra Messing, perhaps? Maybe Lea Remini? Or maybe Kari Wuhrer.

Mad woman Courtney Love…. and MAD‘s Alfred E. Neuman.
Related: Check out how much MAD has changed (under editor John Ficarra) since you were ten. The ‘usual gang of idiots’ are carrying switchblades:
“A Variety Ad We’d Like to See…”
“If Norman Rockwell Depicted the 21st Century”
COPPA be damned: this isn’t your kid’s MAD.

From Roger Friedman’s FOX 411 column, Feb. 3, 2004:

Of all the Super Bowl ads on Sunday, my favorite was the one for Monster.com. Kudos to the creators of it who used a little known piece of music from the early ’80s called “I Dig You” by a group called Cult Hero. Until I heard it on Sunday I thought I was the only person in the world who knew this record ever existed. I don’t know what Monster.com is, but it must be smart…

Sidebar: Can any superfans confirm this Cult Hero/The Cure thing?

Sir Mick: “Let me help you with that, Tina, darling.”
This is for all you kids who are excited about the fact that Justin Timberlake “accidentally” tore off Janet Jackson’s costume during the half-time show at the Superbowl. I want to tell you it’s already been done way the fuck back in 1985 by Mick Jagger and Tina Turner at Live Aid. Oh, and they pretended it was an accident, too.
But they did for all those starving kids in Africa, not for Viacom.

I gotta admit, I’m a total sucker for feature articles about nobodies who are on the cusp of becoming somebodies or just don’t quite make it and remain, well, nobodies.
I could live a long and happy life If I never read another Vanity Fair cover story on Gwyneth Paltrow again, but it would be a depressing life if I could never read another article like Dave Gardetta’s Desperately Seeking Spicoli in the new Los Angeles Magazine.
The story of aspiring actor Zakk Moore‘s journey from John Deere country (Quad Cities, Illinois) to minor “surfer dude” character actor in the town known for its love of John Deere trucker hats (Hollywood), Zakk’s saga is the same one we’ve heard a million times before.
Will he wind up on VH1‘s Driven like Iowa’s own Ashton Kutcher, or will he be the next Courtney Gains doing regional theater and straight-to-video? Only time will tell.

Hansel contemplates: So what if the The Big Bounce Dere-licked balls?
“Owen Wilson’s comic crime caper ‘The Big Bounce’ bombed with $3.3 million, finishing at No. 12 and averaging just $1,439 in 2,304 cinemas.”— You Got Served wins box office
I guess he really is the minus man.

From The New York Post‘s On The Newsstand column:
“The fab four of the cover of Spin won’t be playing Ed Sullivan anytime soon, or probably any talk show you know.”
From Matador Records’ Interpol Web site:
02/03/03 — The latest
In the wake of appearances on ‘Late Nite With David Letterman’ and ‘Carson Daly Is On Daily’ (ed note: Nils, please fact-check this program name, I don’t want any of those TV booking people blackballing our bands for another 5 years again. I swear I’ll kill myself if that happens), Interpol have another round of US touring scheduled to start in mid February. [ironic ‘ed note,’ theirs.]
From BBC News, Jan. 9, 2004:
“The Darkness‘ jump comes as they begin to promote the album in the US, with an appearance on David Letterman’s chat show on CBS lined up for Friday.”

Actually, more like 15 years ago…

SPY, Nov. 1988…. U.S. News, Feb. 2, 2004