Friday, November 28, 2003

While I was relaxing baking the pie yesterday, I tuned in to the Dinner for Five marathon on IFC. I love that show - it’s hosted by Jon Favreau, who invites four friends from the movie industry to dine with him and they discuss movie-making.

A couple things struck me, so I grabbed a notepad to jot things down.

1. Peter Bogdanovich was on one episode (I can’t remember who else was in that group, except for Liev Schreiber), and he talked quite a bit about Orson Welles. I didn’t know that Orson Welles lived with Bogdanovich for a couple of years before he died. So they were talking about how Welles turned down tons of contracts from the studios back in the day because he wanted to make Citizen Kane HIS way and he knew that the studios would kill or ruin it if they got the least bit of control. So he held out and eventually got what he wanted - 150% control - the result of which is that even today no one can alter the film in anyway (colorizing was brought up).

And then Bogdanovich said, “He was a rebuke to mediocrity.” That was the line that made me get up to get the notepad. I’ve added that quote to the rotating quotes on the right.

2. Carrie Fisher is without a doubt one of the funniest people - she’s just naturally hilarious in a normal conversation. With her was Ed Asner, Ed Begley, and someone else that I can’t remember. She and Ed were great friends with John Belushi - they talked a lot about him, drug use, and his death. And then they spent a lot of time talking to her about her role as “script doctor” in Hollowood. She “fixes” countless scripts - so when you’re watching a movie and you think the dialogue is especially good, check for her name in the credits.

3. Dave Eggers was on with David Byrne, Janeane Garofalo, and Joey “Pants” Pantoliano. That was a great group - good discussions about the waning of the roles for good character actors like Joe (who is in a lot of things lately) - actually, they said the roles are there, but the pay is significantly lower and that some directors/producers are trying to cast “named” stars to even the minor character roles these days.

What amused me was that Joe had no clue who Dave Eggers is or about Dave’s book (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which is brilliant). There was a little tension when Joe asked him about his book after Garofalo mentioned it.

Jared, you would love the show, but I know you don’t have cable. And for anyone who think they might check it out, be aware that there is profanity and adult discussions. It gets a little squirelly if they’ve imbibed large quantities of alcohol with dinner.