Word: thalberg
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...Weinsteins have long been king of the indies. "They're artists, entrepreneurs and passionate maniacs," says DreamWorks exec Jeffrey Katzenberg. "They have extraordinary gut meters for what's good, they're unbelievable salesmen, and they're equally painful to have to deal with. Together they are the Irving Thalberg of our time...
Primogeniture must go. To paraphrase Bob Dole: Wake up, Republicans, and join the rush to meritocracy. To make room for younger, stronger candidates without dissing your elder statesmen, consider something like the Oscars' Irving Thalberg Lifetime Achievement Award. Snag some headline entertainer like Jay Leno sufficient to attract network coverage, and air the same hagiographic film that would otherwise be shown at the convention. Better that the candidate end his career in prime time, droning on about his second-grade teacher, than at sparsely attended airport rallies, shouting epithets into the wind...
...Prawer Jhabvala. With films like Howards End and Remains of the Day, they have, almost alone, kept alive what in Cohn's day was one of Hollywood's more agreeable genres: the handsomely made, well-acted literary-historical drama. These movies reflected the cultural aspirations of producers like Irving Thalberg and David O. Selznick while serving the needs of that portion of the audience not enamored of car chases and tommy-gun fire...
...just the beginning. Ensconced in their lavish Thalberg Building suites, Guber and Peters continued on their spree, authorizing millions for antique furniture and fabulous parties. In 1991 Peters departed, but Guber kept signing checks. By 1993, though, the box-office picture was not pretty. The Sony studios scored a few hits during Guber's tenure, but nearly every one of their big-budget films was a failure, including Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero (which is said to have lost at least $23 million...
...slick salesmen. They scrounge for five, six, seven years to get funding -- because it's harder to raise money for a $90,000 no-star feature than it is for a $90 million Schwarzenepic -- and then scrape at the doors of independent distributors. They should win an Irving Thalberg award just for persistence...