Can Hollyweird Handle the Truth?
Jan. 8th, 2002 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpSo asked today's USA Today headline (though admittedly, I've changed the wording just slightly :^).
In a front-page story, the paper reported that the wife of Frank "Billy" Tyne, Jr. has sued the producers of the film The Perfect Storm for libeling her late husband, who apparently was portrayed (by George Clooney) as a reckless, incompetent ship's captain in the film.
I recall the article said the suit flew in the face of well-established precedents, which hold that the dead cannot be libeled, and that artists have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to rearranging the portrayal of real people in works of fiction.
That Hollyweird has an extensive track record in stretching the truth in most "based on a true story" films is no surprise (and the subject of one of my early LJ posts).
That someone would sue over the misdepiction of a loved one is also no surprise.
* * * Today I grabbed the bull by the tail and squarely faced the situation regarding what I have come to think of as "the advertising scammers." I responded to their "collection agency" by telling them they were collecting on a bum "order" and to go ahead and try to demonstrate the validity of said "order." As a contract postal station, it is not a problem - having written the letter - to expeditiously send it off as certified mail with a return receipt attached.
* * * Speaking of George Clooney, I got good and sick and tired of my longish hair today and went off to get it cut at the beauty salon across the parking lot. In a quandary as to what instructions to relay to the young lady who was about to cut my hair, I asked her about the cut the fellow in front of me had gotten.
She called it a "Caesar," and proceeded to administer the same style to my unruly mop. At one point, she noted that it was a cut made popular by George Clooney. Unfortunately, I am afraid that the only way I will ever be mistaken for George Clooney is if I am placed in a room with a blanket over my head, the lights are turned out, and a blind woman is let into the room and asked to identify me. Under those circumstances, I stand as good a chance of being mistaken for Clooney as I do for Rodney Dangerfield.
Ah, well... at least Galina did not scream when I came back to the store.
Cheers...
In a front-page story, the paper reported that the wife of Frank "Billy" Tyne, Jr. has sued the producers of the film The Perfect Storm for libeling her late husband, who apparently was portrayed (by George Clooney) as a reckless, incompetent ship's captain in the film.
I recall the article said the suit flew in the face of well-established precedents, which hold that the dead cannot be libeled, and that artists have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to rearranging the portrayal of real people in works of fiction.
That Hollyweird has an extensive track record in stretching the truth in most "based on a true story" films is no surprise (and the subject of one of my early LJ posts).
That someone would sue over the misdepiction of a loved one is also no surprise.
She called it a "Caesar," and proceeded to administer the same style to my unruly mop. At one point, she noted that it was a cut made popular by George Clooney. Unfortunately, I am afraid that the only way I will ever be mistaken for George Clooney is if I am placed in a room with a blanket over my head, the lights are turned out, and a blind woman is let into the room and asked to identify me. Under those circumstances, I stand as good a chance of being mistaken for Clooney as I do for Rodney Dangerfield.
Ah, well... at least Galina did not scream when I came back to the store.
Cheers...
