Newmark's Door

"How the stylist became the most powerful person in Hollywood"

I've wondered why so many Holly wood women--with ample funds--dress so, seemingly, poorly. The answer may be a principal-agent problem.

"The Math Problem in Good Will Hunting Is Easy"

Or so a math professor says. 

If you've seen Sigourney Weaver in Alien Resurrection . . .

. . . permit me to recommend this. It's a look at Sigourney's basketball shot. There were no tricks, no special effects, and just one take. 

"Leading actresses who win award [an Oscar] 63% more likely to get divorce (just ask Kate and Reese)"

"Of the 266 married women who have been nominated for the Best Actress award from the beginning of the modern Oscars in 1936 to the present, 159 of them got divorced, or 60 per cent."

Fast & Furious 6 is coming in May

And Bill Simmons is very excited. 

Bonus: SNL satire of revenge-action movies: "Give Us All Our Daughters Back".

Funny, skeptical review of screenwriting books

"A Three Act Journey in the Land of the Screenwriting Gurus by Jonathan Zimmerman".

I now own about 25 screenwriting books, a drop in the bucket of the over 1,500 Amazon claims to carry, but a substantial part of my modest library. While their titles line my bookcase, I wouldn’t be caught dead reading any of these books in public. Perhaps if it were a digital copy, and maybe if I lived in another city, like Seattle or better yet, Sheboygan, and then only if I could sit facing the door with my back to a corner like a mafia don. But here, in Hollywood: no chance. Something about my relationship with the gurus shames me enough that I dare not let them outside the discreet confines of my apartment.

". . . ideology is the enemy of problem-solving"

From an interesting interview with Steven Soderbergh:

One thing I do know from making art is that ideology is the enemy of problem-solving. Nobody sits on a film set and says, “No, you can’t use green-screen VFX to solve that because I’m Catholic.” There’s no place for that, and that’s why I’ve stopped being embarrassed about being in the entertainment industry, because I’m surrounded by intelligent people who solve problems quickly and efficiently, primarily because issues of ideology don’t enter into the conversation.

Given the chance I'd ask Mr. Soderbergh this: So why are so many of your entertainment industry colleagues such jerks about natioinal politics?

"Pain & Gain"

The "unbelievable true story" that forms the basis for the movie featuring Mark Wahlberg opening in April. 

This needed to be said

"Jodie Foster's Self-Defeating Plea for Privacy".

"The Sheer Gall of Celebrities Demanding Privacy".

"Woody Allen answers 12 unusual questions"

Excellent. We need more celebrity interviews like this. 

Q: Name a dead person who you did not know in real life that you'd like to have dinner with. 

A: The truth is, there's nobody I'd like to have dinner with.