Out of Focus

I know. You don’t really want to read my bitching and moaning every day about how hard it’s been to do this week’s series of interviews or how ridiculously busy I am at work. I’m sure you’re waiting anxiously to read what I thought about Sin City, the one movie I’ve actually managed to see in the past month. And you know what? I want to tell you all about what I thought of it. (Short version: I liked it. A lot. But distinguish between why I enjoyed it and whether or not it’s really a great movie. Oh yeah, and also? Carla Gugino. Wow!)

But really, I don’t have time for that right now. As it is, I’ve been struggling to get these Gothamist Interviews done this week, especially since I don’t have my trusted partner in crime helping me with this month’s endeavor. Then there’s the fact that as of Noon yesterday, I was still short one interview subject. I didn’t know what to do. I thought about just leaving Anna’s interview as the featured one for two days, but I know the Gothamist bosses prefer otherwise. But these interviews take time, and as it is, I’m still working on transcribing my conversation with the two lovely women who I’m profiling for Friday.

Then, who could have guessed it, but out of the blue, a publicist came to my rescue. We had done an interview with another one of her clients, and with Lily checking out the early days of Western civilization, this publicist contacted me to see if we might ever be interested in interviewing another client of hers: Jon Bloostein is the owner of Heartland Brewery and the newly opened Spanky’s BBQ. I asked her if Jon might be able to turn around the interview in 24 hours if I could get him the questions by the end of the day, and the scramble began.

I foolishly took about an hour out of my day yesterday to brainstorm the questions. Thankfully, my friend Sean is a big beer (read: all kinds of alcohol!) drinker, so he helped get my creative juices flowing with a couple starter questions. I sent off the list with the belief that I would receive the responses by 8 PM last night. Next thing you know, it’s 11:45 PM Wednesday and no answers. Actually, this wasn’t a huge problem because I was stuck at work, once again redesigning the entry scheme for the Regal Cinemas at Tribeca. But it did mean I had to call the poor publicist at just about midnight and ask her to get on her client.

But look: everything turned out well, and what we got was an interesting chat with one of the city’s most successful restaurant owners. And most importantly, no interview holes, and I’ve only got one left. It’s just enough to make a guy really, really, REALLY thirsty. I wonder if Jon can help me out with that?

One of the more interesting (that’s not really the right word, but I’m going to go with it) things about working at a film festival, especially Tribeca and especially in the kind of logistical position I occupy, is that you can spend weeks planning and preparing certain scenarios only to have it all go poof in one day and find yourself back at square one and scrambling to make things work. So of course when does such a thing happen this year? How about during the week that Lily and I are responsible for our Gothamist Interviews, and add to that the one time that Lily has traveled to the birthplace of Western civilization and left everything to me.

If you’ve been to the Tribeca Film Festival at the Regal Battery Park 11 Cinemas, you’ll know that the plaza in front of the theaters gets very crowded, to put it mildly. We are constantly looking for ways to make the situation more comfortable and less confusing for our customers. Without boring you, let’s just say that this week, about four weeks of planning mostly went away in less than a day. And we’re basically just over two weeks out from the start of screenings and the constant in and out flow or approximately 2000 people every two hours. The festival is still going to be amazing, with the best selection of films yet, and the situation outside the Regal will still be better than it has ever been before. It just means we have a lot more work to do in a very compressed time period. And of course, all of this is happening while I’m prepping these interviews.

Luckily, some of this week’s interviews were easy, and today’s with Anna Housley Juster was one of them. Anna is actually one of my girlfriend’s very close friends, and months ago my girlfriend, while brainstorming interview subject ideas, thought of Anna first. The two of them met while in grad school at Columbia Teacher’s College, but neither of them went on to teach in the traditional fashion. In fact, Anna works for Sesame Workshop, the organization who makes Sesame Street. I never really had a grasp, though, on what Anna did for the organization and the show. I also had never taken the time to ask her.

Who knew Anna was so fascinating? Well, I guess most people who meet her do. But really, I had never discussed with Anna in any sort of detail what she did at her job. Anna is a playful, funny, easygoing woman. I think that comes across in the her interview. What you wouldn’t necessarily realize simply by meeting Anna is that she’s also an incredibly accomplished professional who has an enormous impact on the growth and education of this country’s children through her work on what is the most popular children’s television show of all time. Sesame Street began its 36th season on Monday, and if you turn on the show, you’ll see content that was designed to incorporate the educational curriculum designed by none other than Anna.

If you regularly read this site, you might wonder why it is that having the opportunity to talk to someone at Sesame Street, I didn’t ask about the show’s reaction to my favorite Broadway musical Avenue Q. Well, I did actually, but as is the case with all these interviews, believe it or not, a lot of editing is involved. Anna’s answer to my question was very basic: “Saw it. Loved it. Genius.” Considering that her other answers were a bit more interesting and detailed, and she didn’t really talk about a general Sesame Street reaction to the show, I figured it wasn’t a big deal.

Two more days. Somehow, I’m making it through.

Famous last words.

Wow. I’m just really getting no sleep. Not good, you know? I was up until about 3 AM again last night transcribing the Gothamist Interview that will run on Thursday, and I still have more editing on the one that will run tomorrow. Oh, and how about the fact that Friday’s interview, as of now, doesn’t actually exist. Ooops.

But today is a little chat with David Haskell. Does David qualify as a wunderkind? Maybe. At 25 years old, he’s manager to start and edit his own magazine: Topic. And I don’t mean some 20 page fanzine photocopied and stapled at Kinko’s. No, an actual magazine that gets distributed through professional channels, has real subscriptions and can even be found on newsstands. Topic is nine issues in, and hopefully it will continue for a while. It’s a great idea which seems to find the middle between what people would normally distinguish a magazine from a journal: each issue focuses on one specific “topic,” and all the pieces focus on various looks at that one subject. Family, War, Prison, Food … these are just a few of the topics which Topic has already tackled.

Once again, the vast majority of the work on this one was done by Lily. (The opposite will be true for the next two days.) So David and I haven’t really talked. I hope to remedy that because I have a few ideas … depending on the topic, of course.

You know what’s a really dumb idea? Thinking that less than three weeks before the start of the Tribeca Film Festival that I would have time to properly do a week of Gothamist Interviews. Even dumber? To think that I can accomplish this while my trusted partner (and more importantly, big time editor) is off galavanting in Greece covering the 7th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival for indieWIRE.

Oh, we’re in some trouble now, I dare say. I mean look: it was only a week ago when I said how I was going to try really hard to at least come here and spit out some sort of content on a regular basis, and suddenly, here we are a whole week later already.

Well, the fact is that aside from the fact that my brilliant fifth interview subject (a real coup, in fact) seems to have fallen through (so I will be scrambling for someone interesting), we actually have a great week of interviews for you starting today with photographer Vincent Skeltis. I actually had less-than-normal to do with this one; Lily had the contact and went to see his exhibition in Williamsburg a few weeks ago. But wow! What a fascinating guy with some — shall we say gripping? — experiences, and an interesting perspective on life, the world around him, and his own experiences. It would be easy to dismiss Vincent as one with the stereotypical story of the tortured, tragic artist, but there’s something about him that comes out in his responses which to me seems, for lack of a better term, very real, and again, to me, it’s a reality with which I’m quite unfamiliar, but certainly curious.

This week, I actually will be here every day providing the links to the interviews. Hopefully, I’ll get them all done. Hopefully, I’ll do so while also getting some sleep. Hopefully, this week will move at a slightly slower pace than the last two.

See, that’s an example of not being “very real.” That was being full of hope. Really … oh, am I in trouble!

It certainly wasn’t intentional. And I by no means want to pop my head in here every now and then to talk about how busy I am. That wouldn’t just bore you; it bores me too. Yet right now, it’s the truth.

And it’s hard, you know? Because I have all this crap hopping around in my head. I mean, there has been enough major film industry news in the past two weeks to cover many months. Take Bob Iger being named Michael Eisner’s successor thereby heralding in the pending doom of Disney. No, I’m not kidding. You own Disney stock? I beg you to sell, and sell quickly. If you really examine things, you can basically blame Iger for the entire downward slide of ABC. He was its head when that slide started. And now? The people responsible for this current resurgent slate of programming? Oh they were fired last year because he’s an idiot and didn’t give any of his executives time to fix what he had personally broken. But failing up isn’t new in this industry.

Then Gail Berman announces she’s leaving Fox, and the rumors are she’ll be joining Brad Grey at Paramount. And Peter Ligouri, the head of FX Network, is taking her place and has already started shuffling the decks. All of you are probably saying, “Who the hell cares?” Well this Arrested Development fan cares deeply, and I don’t know how to react. Ligouri deserves major credit for taking FX from being yet another rerun network and creating some of the riskiest shows anywhere on TV. FX has often, justly, been called the HBO of basic cable, and with series like The Shield, Nip/Tuck and Rescue Me, it’s easy to see why.

But Berman had, at least publicly, been a supporter of Arrested Development, and I had hope that she would give her Emmy winning best show some more time to grab an audience next season. Now with Ligouri, I’m not to sure. For one thing, I was disturbed by the end of the lede in a Variety story earlier today stating that he sent Fox staffers “an email over the weekend offering up kudos for the launch of laffer Life on a Stick.” Uhm, has he seen the show? Life on a Stick may have received tons of promotion and received some promising premiere numbers, and I guess the marketing team does deserve some major props because this has to be one of the worst shows I’ve seen in a very long time. By far the worst of this television season. How it got to pilot, let alone to air, is beyond me. There wasn’t one (uncanned) laugh in the entire show. It is the very worst example of everything that is wrong with television, especially the TV sitcom. I actually sat through the whole thing, even though it gave me a headache within its first 10 minutes. It is seriously, seriously, SERIOUSLY awful. Small Wonder awful.

In fact, how’s this: it’s as bad, maybe even worse, than The Benefactor, my previous nominee for worst new show of the year. Maybe that’s why Ligouri is emailing out congrats! It sure as hell shouldn’t have been to Fox’s development staff.

And that’s just some of the business news. Oy, what am I to do? Well, I’m going to try really hard to come and give brief spurts of content over the next couple days. Like, why is The Contender doing so bad when the show itself is pretty good, especially for non-boxing fans? (Although what exec producer did last week with the episode feature Najai Turpin who since taping but before the show premiered committed suicide was shameful. More on that later.) Or why you really must watch the season (hopefully not “series”) finale of American Dreams this Wednesday.

And then there are the movies. Oh all the movies I haven’t seen for the last month. There goes my New Year’s Resolution, at least temporarily. And I was close to on-track through February! Personally, I am beyond excited for Sin City opening this weekend. I haven’t been to a new movie in the theater since January — tons of screenings in February is why — but I will be somewhere watching Robert Rodriguez’s and Frank Miller’s extravaganza.

For now, though, it’s time for bed. Please bear with me. I will be back with more regularity, and soon.

Oy, a whole week between posts. I’m sorry. The fact is, I’ve been so busy for the past month, that I simply haven’t had the time to write the usual drivel that often occupies this space. Even worse, I’ve had absolutely no time to read all the other great writers I like to spend time with every day.

What’s the deal, you ask? I know I keep mentioning these big changes and a new job, and if you’ve actually been paying any sort of attention, you can probably put together the pieces. The short version involves leaving a major cable network for a local film festival; saying goodbye the stability of a corporate paycheck plus benefits for a short-term/seasonal gig and potentially a life of freelance .

The slightly longer story starts over a decade ago when UCLA and I decided to part ways with each other, just short of proof that our relationship had been consummated. I found myself working briefly as an entertainment journalist, writing and producing a daily entertainment news wire fax and show for radio stations around the country. The problem was, I didn’t really want to be an entertainment journalist or a fixture on the junket circuit at the time.

Continue reading “WHERE IN THE WORLD IS AARON OUT OF FOCUS (A/K/A THE STORY OF ME)”

OK, look, I’m never going to criticize anybody for going to the movies, even bad ones, but if people are willing to spend $30-Million on tickets to The Pacifier, they have way too much free time on their hands. First of all, we’ve seen this movie before. It was called Suburban Commando. Talk about recycling. I have (unfortunate) vivid memories of this movie (or at least its existence) because I was writing for the UCLA Daily Bruin at the time, and the studios could make us interview whomever they wished. Hence, somewhere, I have my tape of my little chat with Hulk Hogan, whereing the bald, blonde, bronze, buff one told me who much he looked forward to his new career doing this action-comedy thing.

Anyway, that was a tangent, and not too important of one. I previously announced two volunteer events for this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, and they both went really well. Tonight at 6:30 is (I believe) what will be the last get-some-info event before this year’s festival. This year’s festival is the biggest one yet, running from April 19-May 1 (with the bulk of the screenings starting on 4/22), and the fest needs more volunteers. Tonight from 6:30-8 PM at Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick St @ Laight, just south of Canal) is a little meet-and-greet for prospective volunteers with festival staff. If you have any questions or want more information about volunteering, you can just show up. This one is a little less formal than the previous two info session. It will take place in the bar area (cash bar will be open.)

You don’t need to attend tonight to volunteer, however. All you need to do is visit the TFF Volunteers web page and download the application. The contact info for the volunteer coordinators is on that page too.

There is a special volunteer position that film lovers might appreciate; it’s called a CORE volunteer. These are volunteers who sit in the theaters during the films with a headset so that if anything goes wrong with the actual screening, they can contact the booth and/or house managers. These are very important positions that require a lot of availability and dedication. There aren’t that many of them, so the festival is very selective. But if you have a lot of availability and would like to be considered, you should mention that on your application.

Even if you don’t have a ton of availability but would like to help at the festival as much as you can, come on down tonight or submit an application. You’ll meet a ton of great people, have the chance to see some good films, and hopefully have a really good time.

So I’ve been missing for a couple days, for reasons due to this big life/career/job change thing I’ve been alluding to for a few months. Hopefully, at some point in the next week or two I can find time to actually talk about it, but right now I’m working 12-15 hour days (20 hours on Tuesday: left Wednesday at 5:10 AM, returned at 9:45 AM), and there just isn’t time.

But I did want to bring everyone’s attention to some fantastic programming this weekend on the cable network Trio. You’ve heard of Trio, right? Come on, Trio!!! Hmmm, no? Well, maybe that’s why it doesn’t have too many viewers and NBC is considering shutting it down. But they shouldn’t because it’s actually a great channel, which I happened to be watching Tuesday night while putting together this big scheduling board at work. I was watching this documentary about how “New Coke” was the biggest marketing mistake ever, and suddenly I see this commercial saying that this weekend Trio will be running a marathon of films from “The American Film Theatre.”

What is The American Film Theatre? Or rather, what was it? The Walter Reade ran a retrospective a couple years ago, which is when I first heard of it. Trio has been running the films since January.

Oh yeah, but what is it? Well, in 1973, producer Ely Landau thought it would be a good idea to take some of the great works in the history of theater and film them. He wasn’t looking to just record theater performances with cameras facing a proscenium stage, but he also wasn’t looking to make traditional movie out of these plays either. He wanted to give the audience a sense of seeing the play and not necessarily as movie adaptation of the play. Basically, these films were shot on theater-style sets, but because the camera isn’t simply shooting a stage, it’s as if the audience is constantly moving through the action.

These films utilized top directors and actors of the time. Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, for instance, was directed by John Frankenheimer and starred Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Frederic March and a very young Jeff Bridges, and Tony Richardson directed a version of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance with Katharine Hepburn.

Starting at 8 AM tomorrow morning with a pre-official American Film Theatre production of Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters and running through a Sunday night/Monday morning 1 AM showing of Lost in the Stars, Trio will show 14 Ely Landau/American Film Theatere movies. The films are also on DVD — you can buy them in three box set collections. Whether this weekend on Trio (sigh — with commercial interruptions) or on DVD, give some of these films a try. I’m sure they’re not all great, (but Iceman Cometh definitely is), but they’re an interesting approach to adapting theatre to the screen; a simple and relatively inexpensive way that I wish someone would consider returning to.

Tonight from 9-11 PM, television brings us all a perfect example of out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new. One of the most important series in TV history will go off the air after a one hour retrospective at 9 followed by its series finale at 10, while on a competing network, the best show of its genre starts its seventh go-round with a special two hour premiere.

I’m talking, of course, of NYPD Blue and The Amazing Race. 12 years ago, producers Stephen Bochco and David Milch changed the face of the nighttime drama with NYPD Blue, at the time, the grittiest and most adult drama on the air. Certain previously unlawful words and plenty of bare-ass started appearing on ABC after 10 PM. And to top it off, the show was good!

Still, after its first year, David Caruso decided that he was a big movie star and left the show, a stupid move that eventually led him to one failed TV series before bringing his bright red hair and whispering cocked-head acting style to a CSI show. After catching stride with Jimmy Smits, he too decided to leave, and then suddenly the series became a rehab center for former child TV stars. Shockingly enough, both Rick Schroeder and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, of Silver Spoons and Saved By the Bell, respectively, proved to be not just capable but really pretty damn good in their roles.

But this show was never as good as during the Smits years, and it was never really about anybody else other than Dennis Franz’s Andy Sipowicz. I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen every episode of NYPD Blue. I probably stopped really liking it a couple seasons ago, and since then it’s been up and down. But my stupid loyalty (and the lack of anything else worthwhile Tuesdays at 10) kept me watching. NYPD Blue is a perfect example of a show simply running out of steam, even when the actual quality doesn’t necessarily diminish. ER is suffering from the same old-age disease right now, but sadly its final episode is nowhere in sight (and I believe at least two seasons away).

Maybe it’s not such a bad thing to put some sort of limit on how long a show can stay on the air. With the exception of the original Law & Order, which places its characters and stories second to its format and because of that is basically the same show now it was when it first started, I can’t think of any series that has lasted more than probably seven or eight years and remained half as interesting or exciting in its last seasons as it was in its first ones. That’s not really surprising. It’s hard to keep thinking of interesting stories and new directions for characters. When you have a character like Sipowicz, who’s been there since the beginning, how many different things can you do to him? How many different stories can you write before you repeat yourself not once or even twice, but three, four, even five times. The Sipowicz of NYPD Blue in 2005 is a completely different person than the one who first appeared in 1993. He’s undergone a complete transformation; one that may not even be believable (especially considering the attractiveness and youth factor of the two women – played by Sharon Lawrence and Charlotte Ross — who became his wives). But where could he go from here? They’ve taken him to really the only place left – to lead the squad, and after that, who really cares. Sipowicz has been redeemed. 12 seasons and over 250 episodes later, the story is complete. It just took longer to get there than necessary.

Meanwhile, over on CBS, a new edition of The Amazing Race begins. Thank you DiVo: two tuners means recording both programs is a possibility, and it’s no surprise that I’m very excited for the new season of the best reality show to ever be on television. I know some people were disappointed with last season, the race that just ended a few weeks ago. I wasn’t, even though it included a character who was so annoying it was actually more painful than entertaining to watch him.

This time around, the execs at CBS who don’t have faith in their best shows succeeding without stupid stunts that simply hurt the actual quality of the series seem to have forced Survivor’s own little love-couple, Rob and Amber, and TAR. Here’s hoping they make an early exit. The last thing I want to see is the two of them, especially Rob, strutting around about their reality-superiority. They’ve each had far more than 15 minutes in the sun, and I know I’m tired of them. I really can’t imagine that they’re popular enough to actually attract an audience that doesn’t already watch the show.

Regardless of their annoying presence, I encourage anyone who hasn’t watched the show to give it a shot. I only push because I love, and TAR makes me happy, so I want it to stay on the air. While it has been successful recently, it is by no means a huge hit, and no matter how critically acclaimed it remains, if the audience doesn’t grow a little bit, it probably won’t stick around for that much longer. Come on, the theme music itself should get you just a little jazzed, and go with it from there. You won’t be sorry. BOMP!

I intended to write a bigger recap of both the IFP Spirit Awards and the Razzies, but then I realized, you don’t care, do you? Why should you. The Spirits were a bit too safe and predictable this year, and the Razzies deserve a Razzie of their own. Still, I’ve got these notes, and they’ll drive me crazy if I don’t put them somewhere, so here are just a few thoughts:

• The one good thing about the Razzies? I have to give Halle Berry major props for becoming only the second “winner” in history to attend the ceremony and accept her “award.” (Tom Green was the first to do so for Freddy Got Fingered, but you kind of expect that from him anyway.)_I think it’s really awesome that she was such a good sport.

• With that said, she really shouldn’t have won. It wasn’t her performance which was so awful, but the role and the movie. I didn’t vote for Catwoman, but I don’t have a problem with its winning. But Berry winning as well as all the awards given to Bush and Rumsfeld for their “performances” in Fahrenheit 9/11 just show how stupid the Razzies often are. You can have fun, still satirize awards shows and ridicule bad filmmaking without making stupid choices that aren’t really “the worst.” I know, this in many ways is even a dumb comment – to ridicule the Razzies which are basically a joke anyway. Still, I think that it should have, well, some standards.

• Enough with the Razzies, onto the Spirits which I watched live on IFC. I’m sure I was part of a vast audience of two, maybe even three hundred people who actually sat through that broadcast. This show kind of annoys me now because they try to pretend that they’re all low-budget and indie, and obviously compared to the Oscars they are, but they then give the show stupid-ass production value and regular awards-show bullshit. The Oscars did a good job satirizing the usual awards show crap, namely useless unfunny banter, while the Spirits continue to perpetuate the lame scripted material. With that said, the one thing the Spirits do (which is also a rip-off of the Oscars, albeit specifically Billy Crystal-hosted shows) which can be quite funny are the song parodies of the “Best Feature” nominees. The songs are written by Jack Lechner, a development exec and author, and this year’s were a bit uneven, although I think that may have been due more to the performers than the songs themselves. The songs for Maria Full of Grace (a very funny spoof of the famous Coca Cola “It’s the real thing” song, performed by Megan Mullaly), Kinsey (performed by Michael McKeane, Annette O’Toole and Jane Lynch) and Baadasssss! (sung by David Allen Grier to the tune of “That’s Entertainment”) were great. But the spoofs of Primer and Sideways were bizarre at best and completely lacking at worst. They were performed, respectively, by Michelle Trachtenberg (why?!?) and a manic Tom Arnold.

• The Sideways sweep was both expected and unfortunate, for reasons I’ve already discussed elsewhere. I was a bit surprised it beat Before Sunset in the script category.

• As disappointed as I was that The Sea Inside won the “Best Foreign Language Film” Oscar last night, I’m utterly appalled that it also won the “Best Foreign Feature” Spirit Award. Regardless of how good it may be, it was absolutely the worst film in that field of five. In fact, I think that its Spirit win is the worst mistake of any prize given out this weekend. Do yourselves a favor, and when you have the opportunity (because not all have been released theatrically and/or on DVD yet), if you have the opportunity to see Bad Education, Yesterday, Oasis or Red Lights, do so, and soon. I can’t believe that anybody who has seen those films could actually like The Sea Inside better, Bardem’s brilliant performance not withstanding.

• You know what was weird about the show? Generally, like the Oscars, the Spirits award the “Best Feature” prize last preceded by the “Best Director” award. This year, however, Alexander Payne picked-up his director prize before they announced the winner of “Best Lead Actor.” Of course, everyone in the tent or anywhere knew that it was going to go to Paul Giamatti and reference would be made to his Oscar “snub,” but talk about some cheap reorganization to make the award a more “special” moment. It was almost as conspicuous as it was dumb.

• Even though Sideways deserved most of its awards, the win that made me happiest was Mean Creek taking home the “John Cassavetes Award,” given to the best feature made for under $500K. If you watched the show, you also got to see the special award given to the ensemble cast of kids. If you watched the show and had seen the film, I imagine you would have noticed the same irony I did in seeing Josh Peck, the lonely but annoying bully in the film, take command of the stage, throw-out one-liners and speak for the entire cast. I’m not sure whether or not his awards show performance was a good or bad thing because he seemed almost just like the kid in the film. I imagine they had decided ahead of time that he would speak – none of the other kids made any move toward the mic – but it was still kind of eerie.

• Also if you watched the show, you might be able to answer me this: why does anyone anywhere ever allow Quentin Tarantino to speak in public to a crowd? He’s really, really, REALLY awful.

• I was happy that Zach Braff won “Best First Feature” for Garden State, but he seems to be putting a lot more value into the award than he should. He mentioned that thanks to this prize, he’ll now be able to keep making movies. I have just six words for Zach Braff: Matty Rich, Straight Out of Brooklyn.

• You know, I actually like Robin Williams, but again, if you saw the show (and yes, I know probably none of you did!), his appearance was kind of freaky. He announced the “Best Feature” winner, and then when Sideways producer tried to speak, Williams couldn’t stop cracking jokes. It got to the point where Williams obviously knew that if he stayed on the stage, he simply wouldn’t be able to control himself. He had been holding London’s statuette while the producer gave his speech. Finally, he put it down on the stage and said, “I’m going to leave this here and fuck off,” before running off the stage and letting London finish his speech.

OK, now I’m really done. No more film awards talk … for at least the next eight months or so!