EMMY REDUX I really don’t have much to say about the Emmy’s. They were pretty embarrassing – not funny, inarticulate, excruciatingly earnest, smugly left-wing. You know it’s a bad red carpet pre-show, when the best hosts have to be reckoned Miss Piggy and Kermit. Message to Star Jones(using the language style you adopted for your hosting duties): “Sistah, don’t you go and quit you alls day job, momma!” You know its a bad show, when you keep escaping to a... Read more

EMILY MONDAY 404 How many Flowers fail in Wood — Or perish from the Hill — Without the privilege to know That they are Beautiful — How many cast a nameless Pod Upon the nearest Breeze — Unconscious of the Scarlet Freight — It bear to Other Eyes — Read more

SILENT – NO MORE! I’m SOOOOOO excited. A friend just forwarded me the following release. It’s not the law suit that’s got me excited, but the project! Celebrated director Martin Scorsese is being sued for allegedly failing to have a medical examination for his new film Silence. Hollywood Gang Productions filed the breach of contract lawsuit against the Goodfellas creator in Manhattan Superior Court on September 3, claiming Scorsese agreed in February to “submit to a physical examination” but ignored... Read more

MOORE HYPE Michael Moore’s got the biz buzz again these days for his announcement that he will be foregoing submitting his Fahrenheit 9/11 for the Best Documentary Oscar this year, and, instead, will be going for the Best Picture nod. This might be a classic case of the devil biting his own tail, but, on the other hand, this is Hollywood… In more testimony to the weird weird extreme polarization of our times, Daily Variety reported a few weeks back... Read more

RATED D: FOR DECEIT Last October, Act One was contacted by an AMC film crew that was shooting a documentary on – according to the producer – “Religion in Hollywood.” We were in the middle of the Act Two Advanced Screenwriters Workshop for a group of our alumni, and the film crew asked me if they could come and shoot some of the sessions. The producer-director of the piece was Jesse Moss, and Act One gave him and his people... Read more

FELONY TWIST It’s really been a bad year for movies. Even here in L.A. where EVERYTHING has to play for seven days, there still is next to nothing my friends and I wanted to see at the theater this past weekend. We actually almost settled on watching a DVD at my place, but then somebody noted that the new caper film Criminal was getting strong reviews. I can never resist a good con/caper film. [sigh] I should learn to… Starring... Read more

EMILY MONDAY 712 Because I could not stop for Death — He kindly stopped for me — The Carriage held but just Ourselves — And Immortality. We slowly drove — He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility — We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess — in the Ring — We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain — We passed the Setting Sun — Or rather —... Read more

STILL WORKING OUT THE KINKS… …with the blog. Eventually, I know I’ll be glad I did this, but right now, I just want my plain ole boring looking blog back. (Clayton help! Sean help!) Anyway, sorry about the mess. But it could be worse. For example, I could imagine being part of the team behind the new NBC series LAX. I’m sitting here reading, playing a computer game, cooking dinner and still managing to be insulted by the crass easiness... Read more

LIKE CURING A HEADACHE BY DECAPITATION I couldn’t fix my wrap-around margin problem, so I just decided to go to a whole new template. I’m finally breaking out of the Mark Shea – Eve Tushnet model…which is as it should be, because this humble blog is not worthy to refresh one of their main pages. [demure, looking down through lowered eyelashes] Ahem… So, the new look here still isn’t quite right. It was nightmarish last night as I tried for... Read more

I’M READING ABOUT HELEN KELLER AGAIN Not sure why, but she has always been one of my fascinations. Actually, I find Anne Sullivan Macy and the relationship between the two women the main fascination. I find it extraordinary how Anne Sullivan, a young women barely out of her teens, was able to intuit a pedagogical method that most teachers would probably take a lifetime to put together. A decade or so after her initial breakthroughs with Helen, Annie sent her... Read more