Tabloid Menace for Classic Hollywood

by Lacey Warren

Published on this site: August 4th, 2005 - See more articles from this month

Where are the days of the red carpet? Those stars walking out of their limousines and waving at an ocean of fans, reeling them in to see the films. Today's Hollywood has a different method for movie distribution and box office sales: tabloids.

Lately, it seems that the actor's talent and the strength of the story is not enough anymore to increase ticket sales. Studios push the stars into situations that will attract paparazzi which means but one thing: free publicity.

More recently, the TomKat brought in huge ticket sales for Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, despite some complains from the studio executives that the relationship was taking too much attention away from the actual film.

Tom Cruise was the center of controversies that all began strategically a few months before the premiere of the film. He began a much publicized relationship with Katie Holmes, then made a very vocal appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show and was later criticized for his rough interview with Matt Lauer.

This may or may not have hurt the box office success of Spielberg's War of the Worlds, but it seemed a second nature to a big budget extravaganza like Spielberg's latest.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's recent relationship seemed develop around the same time their film Mr. and Mrs. Smith came out. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner's relationship seemed to spark off before Garner's Elektra opened.

Of course, there are some rare cases where all the attention hurts the film. Gigli was one of those situations where the film was completely overshadowed by the Bennifer Factor. The media focused so much on the glam-lifestyle of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez that moviegoers went to see this movie with tomatoes in hand and somewhat of a chip on their shoulders. The film completely bombed at the box-office but it might have stood a slight chance if it was made on a more low-budget and low-key environment with less flashy stars.

When there is less scrutiny from the media and more focus on the actual story of the film, audiences go in with neutral expectations and leave more space to be pleasantly surprised. This was the case with a film like Napoleon Dynamite that did not have any major stars or gossip attached. Moviegoers went into the theatre with a clear mind and no biases. Another film that will offer that gossip-tabloid-free environment is Machiavelli Hangman that is predicted to be a major hit in 2006, despite an incredibly low-budget.

Audiences need to get back in the mode of classic Hollywood where film are valued based on how its stars deliver the story, not the gossip.

Lacey Warren is a freelance reporter for Hollywood gossip columns. While the gossip columns may be light on information about Machiavelli Hangman (http://www.hangmanmovie.com), many people including Lacey believe that it will be a film worth seeing.