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March 23, 2009
The Gossip Wars: Episode 32309
The “Scoop” - The Wrap's EXCLUSIVE piece on Zac Efron apparently leaving the Footloose remake.
Headline – “After three "High School Musicals" and "Hairspray," he's afraid of being typecast as the cute song-and-dance man.”
Tamer Analysis In Story – “Efron told the studio last week that he did not want to do another musical at this point in his career, according to a senior member of the production team.”
Editor’s Notes - Zac Efron's lead role in Me & Orson Welles was never scheduled to be released in 2008, though it is listed as 2008 by IMDb, which is likely where this “information” came from. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September, looking for a US distributor, which it never got. But even if it had gotten one at TIFF, the odds of a 2008 release after a September debut were very low. The Wrestler was the only TIFF 2008 buy rushed into 2008 release... and only because of Mickey Rourke's lock on an Oscar nod... and the rush probably cost Searchlight some box office dollars.
The “Hugh Jackson,” host of the Oscars mistake has been corrected as of this afternoon.
The Elephant – What is the real reason for Efron jumping ship, assuming that this is the case? Is 17 Again looking huge, making the price on Efron higher for a musical or non-musical film (recall that it was Kevin Bacon, not known as a dancer or singer, in the original film, in which his character did not sing) and leading to a failed renegotiation with cash-poor Paramount? Did the failure to find the right female lead become a problem? Is this a way for Efron to get cleanly away before a bigger name looking for a change of pace, say Shia LeBeouf, fills in heroically at the last minute.
Likely Source For The “Scoop” – Efron’s people, afraid of Nikki and looking for an outlet that would spin it his way, as The Wrap did.
The War Story – The Wrap, so anxious to beat others to the pass, posted the story late last night without waiting for confirmation or denial from Paramount.
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The “Scoop” – Kim Masters decides that Variety and The Los Angeles Times are attacking Nikki Finke primarily because they are threatened.
Headline – “Hollywood's Most Threatening Blog”
Tamer Analysis In Story – “There may be a great deal of validity in Variety’s discussion of blogging in general and Finke in particular.”
Editor’s Notes – Why is the focus of the piece the alleged foibles of Variety and no serious exploration of whether the allegations are legitimate?
When blasting Bart for referring to “Miss Hewitt's classes in New York, which taught upscale girls how to be warm and cuddly,” is the author conscious that Ms. Finke was the one who made these classes public, self-promoting in the New York Times?
Does the author know, factually, that “both well-staffed institutions
This editor has been told stories about how they were misled, verbally assaulted by, and lied about by Finke by no fewer than 4 studios and a variety of others in Hollywood. Has the author heard none of this?
The Elephant - Paragraph 9 is probably a little late to acknowledge that the author carries a long-standing distaste for Variety editor Peter Bart.
Likely Source For “The Scoop” – There is no scoop. Only opinion.
The War Story - Masters , like Finke before her blog, is without full employment as a journalist and is writing this piece as a freelancer for another blog that aspires to trafficking in gossip as “breaking news.” Slamming Variety instead of reporting on whether the accusations are factual fits the profile of the person she is defending.
Posted by dpoland at March 23, 2009 08:47 AM
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