He wasn't all bad, that Harvey Weinstein!

A delicious piece in The Telegraph today which left me unsure whether to laugh or cry.  Well, not really, because laughing won hands down!  It concerned that fat, whiskery slob, Harvey Weinstein who is, 'as any fule do no', a very, very naughty boy.  Not satisfied, apparently, with running his hands over every female member of the Hollywood harem, he ran mega-rich marketing campaigns to push his own productions to the top of the Oscars competition combined with vindictive, underhand practices to denigrate any competitors. 'Whodathunkit?'

Apparently, his trickery/business acumen (you choose) reached its heights (or depths, you choose again) with the successful campaign he mounted to drive the Miramax film "Shakespeare in Love" to the Best Film award despite running against "Saving Private Ryan" - and in America, too!  Now seriously, 'Whodathunkthat?'  Of course, it is true (because I say so!) that "Shakespeare in Love" was the better film, not least because most of the script was written by the most brilliant playwright of the last 50-odd years, Tom Stoppard.  It is a witty romance of the highest quality.  Alas, "Saving Private Ryan", despite being made by arguably the greatest film-maker of recent decades, Steven Spielberg, lost its way after the first superb 20-odd minutes when the beach landing scenes ended.  After that, despite a heart-warming story line, it reverted to a typical Hollywood war movie.

However, these revelations showing the 'dirty tricks of the trade' practiced by Weinstein, serve a greater, if unintentional, benefit by demonstrating that all these so-called artistic prize award competitions are putrid rubbish.  I have ignored the Oscars for decades, they are, with a hat-tip to Shakespeare, tales told by idiots, for idiots, and which signify nothing!

 

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

I have a problem with Hollywood "men" who were friends of, co stars with and even romantically involved with some of the women Harvey abused. A man worth the name would have intervened one on one or a least two on one against Harvey. Maybe Hollywood "men" only are men with a script and a director yelling 'action'.

[Peter Whale]

And I thought sarcasm was the highest (lowest) form of wit, whereby cynicism leaves it standing. Way to go Duffers as our Yankee friends say.

[missred]

When I lived in LA, I watched the Oscars. I knew people in the business. Since I left 30 years ago I watched it one or two times, but realized it was no longer part of any conversations I have here on the East Coast. I may tune in to see a dress or two.

[Whitewall]

Missred..."I may tune in to see a dress or two." (Me too).

[jimmy glesga]

Whitewall, the Holywood elite know what is going on in their circles and their plastic face jobs show this. The real working people are entitled to watch the movies with some enjoyment but have the right to ignore the plastic faces.

[Backofanenvelope]

I thought everybody knew that aspiring actresses had to perform on “the casting couch”.

[Hyam Phokdefarneaux]

I have always thought that the Oscars and other self pleasuring award shows was largely based upon 'Buggin's turn'.
I agree with your comment re Private Ryan, just another war movie and although the opening 20 minutes was good entertainment, most of us have never been under fire like that so would have no idea how realistic it was.
The only man I met who was on the beaches said the overwhelming sensation was the terrible mix of noise and terror of being hit, he said he didn't have time to do much except hope it would be over!!

[David Duff]

Hyam, I take your point but when the film was released I happened to catch an interview with a couple of old Normandy veterans and they both agreed that the opening sequences were about as realistic as you could get. Also, Spielberg was canny enough to use extras in those scenes who were already limbless which added considerably to the realism.