Star Power
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"Nobody knows anything" is the characteristic attributed to Hollywood by screenwriter William Goldman in his classic behind-the-scenes book Adventures in the Screen Trade (39). However, if that were the perceived state-of-the-art, there would be no studio executives. They have to explain their reason for existence somehow, don't they? Once upon a time, or so the legend goes, Hollywood valued "Talent" as much as it valued "Star Power" - hence the hiring of such "artistes" as William Faulkner, Jean Renoir and the occasional dash of Igor Stravinsky. Today that equation has pretty much been reduced to a factor of one - and that factor reduced to only one aspect of its previous quality: Star Power has become "Name". A picture's got to have a Name to sell. And so the conventional wisdom among Hollywood executives reasons. And they are even, sometimes, right. As several of our guest lecturers have explained, perception makes for reality in the movie industry - and when the studios perceive a Name is necessary, then it is necessary. There are even the box office stats to prove it. This year's flavor for the action crowd is Jean-Claude Van Damme: his director/star vehicle The Quest opened the weekend of April 26th to rake in $7 million and place Number One for the week (Cels 10). Name. Nobody is saying that The Quest is a good film. Indeed, many have likened it to early Van Damme low-budgeters in terms of low-level storyline and character
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Name: Ben Chaplin. Mr. Chaplin's appearances in British television and films - though not receiving wide distribution in the United States - covered another part of the international market in terms of "recognizability".
Still, there was a central gap missing vis-a-vis lead character and U.S.-market name. It was filled by Janeane Garafolo.
As noted earlier, perception is the name of the game among film industry executives. Janeane Garafolo has been a "potential" Name for quite a few years now, a perception built up through a small body of impressive work in smaller, character, roles - most notably on less-than-successful feature comedies and the well-respected HBO cable series The Larry Sanders Show. Ms. Garafolo fits in somewhere between Roseanne, Brett Butler and Shirley MacLaine: a comedienne of far from picture-perfect features who is, nevertheless, sexy and appealing in her own "quirky" way.
It sounds like a formula for a television sitcom. Truthfully, the plot of The Truth About Cats & Dogs could easily be transferred to the small screen. It is a reverse Cyrano de Bergerac plotline: a homely-but-witty girl uses her words and a pretty-but-dumb girl substitute to woo a handsome, soulful young man. Garafolo h
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Brad Pitt, Power Name, Cats Dogs, Mulholland Falls, Hollywood Reporter, Name Names, Janeane Garafolo, Matthew Reeve, Van Damme, Dogs TV/Friends-connection, cats dogs, box office, cels 10, truth cats, mulholland falls, truth cats dogs, uma thurman, television series friends, hit television, star power, van damme, series friends, hit television series, adventures screen trade, weekend april 26th,
Approximate Word count = 1700
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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