Five stars who made a terrible mistake
Television has a long standing tradition of making its stars feel more popular than they really are. As somebody who used to be on TV, five nights a a week, I know what that feeling is like. Generally when that person leaves television, they go on to do movies or change professions and they often become even more popular. However, there is always that TV celebrity who overestimates how much people want to see them and when they leave their hit TV show, it ends up being the biggest mistake of their career.
David Caruso
Before Caruso became the star of the weakest part of the CSI franchise, he was the star of NYPD Blue. After playing numerous bit parts on TV and in film, he finally hit the big time. The critics and the public both agreed that he was a breath of fresh air in what had become a stale world of TV dramas. He was sexy and tough, just like his show and he fit in perfectly with his supporting characters. Then suddenly, Caruso decided he was too talented for the small screen and bailed on the show. His much talked-about departure allowed him to make unwatchable films like Jade and the remake of Kiss of Death that nobody asked for. Luckily, the ginger-haired tough guy was able to revive his career, but one can’t help but wonder how different things would have been had he continued to be Detective John Kelly.
David Hartman
Most of you probably don’t remember David Hartman but a quick Google search will reveal that he played a number of roles on TV and in movies. However, his career reached its peak when he was chosen as the host of a new AM news program called Good Morning America. With his affable style and natural charm he was the perfect choice to interview newsmakers and introduce the news. In fact, at one point, David Hartman was the highest-paid man on television. It would seem, however, that fame and riches were not Hartman’s cup of tea. I really hope that he invested wisely because Hartman has been more or less MIA since he left the show.
Shelly Long
What can be said about Ms. Long’s ill-advised decision to leave one of the highest-rated shows on TV to do films like Camp Beverly Hills and Irreconcilable Differences that hasn’t already been said? The only mistake she hasn’t made is trying to return to television in a serious role. Would it even be humanly possible to take her seriously after seeing The Money Pit?
McLean Stevenson
Most fans of classic television only remember McLean as Henry Blake on M*A*S*H. What few people know is that he left what would become one the most popular TV shows in history because CBS offered him a chance to star in his own show. He then succeeded in starring in a string of failures in between making appearances on various game shows. In fact, his sitcom Hello Larry is often referenced as one of the worst TV shows ever produced. The ultimate insult came right before his death when he was cast as Baby’s father in the TV version of Dirty Dancing.
Suzanne Somers
Most people are well aware of what happened to Suzanne Somers when she overestimated her own personal worth to the success of Three’s Company. The mistakes made by her and her husband/manager are legendary. Amazingly, Somers was able to rise above her embarrassing appearances on talk shows where she sang and read poetry to star in another successful sitcom. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that she never decided to star in a string of terrible movies.
Trivia: Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men From Mars
In the mid-90’s, George Lucas proposed an a fourth Indy film called “Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men From Mars.” Jeb Stuart, screenwriter of Die Hard and The Fugitive, was hired to pen the script. An unconfirmed 1995 draft showed up online ten years later, and the story involved an alien artifact which continuously changes possession between Indy, Russian badguys, and aliens from another planet.
IndyFan.com described the story as “convoluted and unbelievable,” and the script ends with an indulgent sappy sequence with Indy marrying the lady linguist who accompanied him throughout the adventure, with a ceremony witnessed by all the living characters from the films including Short Round and Henry Jones, Sr. If that doesn’t sound bad enough, let me say that Indy also encounters crocodiles and pirates on this adventure. You can still find that draft by doing a quick google search.
Ford told EW “No way am I being in a Steve Spielberg movie like that.” Steven Spielberg was also not happy with that idea, and admitted publicly that “There was a point where I thought George and I would never agree on the story.” It took more than a decade to come up with a screenplay that Ford, Spielberg and Lucas were all willing to settle on.
On What has changed from Then to Now:
“It was the three of us, Steven, George and I, coming to agreement on the central notion of it all,” Ford explained. “I think the original idea is still a large piece of it in the movie, but it’s been developed and worked on in ways that made it a lot more palatable to Steven and I.”
Lucas told the AP: “The MacGuffin of it slowed down a little bit from what my original enthusiastic version was. Again, that’s the way it works with Steven and Harrison and I. We’re not going to do anything anyone’s uncomfortable with. We want to do something everybody likes, we in the group, the three of us. They wanted to go off on some other tangent. I said, ‘I’m not going to do that. I’m going to stick with this no matter what, so we either do this or we don’t. That’s it.’ Finally, we got something that we could all compromise on and all be happy with. It wasn’t quite as wacky as I wanted it to be, but it still is subtle and nice and works really well and has the same idea behind it.”
Katie Holmes in talks to play Wonder Woman?!
Oh No. I can hear the collective sigh of fanboys from around the world as I type the following bit of news: Katie Holmes is in talks to star in a big screen adaptation of Wonder Woman.
In the past I’ve been very fair to Tom and Katie (unlike most of this country), and I even think Holmes is a good actress. BUT, yes there is a BUT - isn’t Katie just a little too small for the role? The superhero is probably best known for her curvaceous long legs, but Katie is only 5′9” and that’s according to her publicity materials (read: probably shorter). I did a google search to find out exactly how tall Wonder Woman is, and the consensus seems to be that the modern day character is 6′3″while the older version was much shorter (5′11″ was “amazonian” height for a woman in the 1960’s). Plus, let’s be honest, with the Tom Cruise backlash, she just doesn’t have the star/name value to carry a superhero movie.
The good news is that the movie is only in the discussion state. I honestly don’t see the appeal of a Wonder Woman movie at all. Sure, you’ll have a good looking woman kicking ass and taking names in small tight latex/spandex. There is no way Hollywood will be able to put a woman in superhero gear flying an invisible plane on the big screen and make it remotely believable (even in the on screen fantasy world). And besides, how lame of a weapon is the Lasso of Truth? But that’s just my opinion.
source: StarPulse
Sleuth Movie Trailer
I’ve never seen the original 1972 mystery film Sleuth which featured a young Michael Caine up against an older Laurence Olivier, but I know it’s consider a classic. The movie was nominated for 4 Oscars and users have rated the film at an 8.2 (#204 of all time) on the Internet Movie Database. Michael Caine even returns for Kenneth Branagh’s (Henry V) updated version which stars Jude Law. Sleuth tells the story of an out-of-work actor who becomes embroiled in an affair with the wife of a wealthy writer, who in turn is having an affair with a much younger woman.
Watching the trailer, I wondered to myself - why wasn’t this ever turned into a play. The interaction between the two characters and the minimal set location set-up seemed perfect for the stage. One google search later and I had my answer: The original 1972 thriller was actually based on Anthony Shaffer’s Tony award-winning play. Check out the new trailer after the jump.