Real Reason

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So the Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye went to the Vanity Fair party at the Hotel du Cap last Saturday night, and learned from an "executive" that Vicky Cristina Barcelona costar Scarlett Johansson didn't make it to Cannes because of "scheduling issues," as Woody Allen put it the other day in a press confernce, but because she was being an ego-monster in terms of perks. She demanded an out-of-town villa ("way out in the sticks, some 25 to 30 miles away") and insisted on a 5,000 euro-per-day makeup consultant, Bamigboye reports.

comment #1

erniesouchak says ...

If she'd insisted on acting lessons, I hope they would've relented.

comment #2

Jimmycrackcorn says ...

Have you heard Scarlett's new album of Tom Waits songs? Hoo boy.

comment #3

Wrecktum says ...

Hey, I like the Scarlett Waits video.

Also, never conflate a star's "demands" with their actual needs. How many times has a manager or agent made crazy, unreasonable demands simply because they know they can get them?

Of course, I'm a Scarlett apologist, so you can ignore me.

comment #4

Krazy Eyes says ...

While you can certainly argue that the concept of ScarJo covering Tom Waits was a woefully misguided idea to begin with, the actual album is a lot better than it had any right to be. She may not have a good voice (though I find her husky voice fairly unique) or even much chops in the singing department but that's never held Waits back. It could have been *a lot* worse and you have to respect her for not doing a straight up pop album which would have been a disaster.

I think she's also do well with some sultry old-school burlesque-style tunes.

comment #5

Richardson says ...

"While you can certainly argue that the concept of ScarJo covering Tom Waits was a woefully misguided idea to begin with, the actual album is a lot better than it had any right to be."

You know, once you get kicked in the balls once, the later hits don't hurt so bad. So one might say that getting kicked in the balls multiple times is better than it has any right to be, because it doesn't hurt as exponentially as it should based on how much the first kick hurts.

... Come to think of it, even by those standards, this album is still not better than it has a right to be.

comment #6

Ogami Itto says ...

You know, once you get kicked in the balls once, the later hits don't hurt so bad. So one might say that getting kicked in the balls multiple times is better than it has any right to be, because it doesn't hurt as exponentially as it should based on how much the first kick hurts.

Eloquently expressed, sir.

So is Scarlett a worse singer or actor?

comment #7

Rich S. says ...

My favorite crazy star demand was Van Halen's venue contract that specified that their dressing room was to have a bowl of M&M's with all the brown ones removed. When asked why, I think David Lee Roth explained, "because brown M&M's are bullsh*t. You eat M&M's for the flavor, the crunch and the color. It's like brown M&Ms have a clear shell. You get cheated out of 1/3 the experience!"

Years later, Roth explained the real reason. It was to insure that the venue had actually read the contract. They didn't really want the M&Ms removed; it was enough if the venue reps just asked, "do you really want us to do that?"

That doesn't sound like ScarJo's problem, though.

comment #8

bfm says ...

The articles also says that it's a sparkling return to form for Woody. So is anything in it credible?

comment #9

fielding says ...

Actually, bfm, if you actually relied on more than just Wells' columns for info, you'd know that Vicky Cristina Barcelona will probably end up being the best-received film at Cannes. By the way, Jeff, when you were mentioning the scattered boos you heard at the end of the screening of VCB, why didn't you also mention the huge STANDING OVATION it got?

comment #10

nemo says ...

"Years later, Roth explained the real reason. It was to insure that the venue had actually read the contract. They didn't really want the M&Ms removed; it was enough if the venue reps just asked, "do you really want us to do that?""

Very clever! I heard a similar story about John McCarthy, a computer science pioneer at Stanford who was famous for never reading any doctoral thesis by his students. To test this, one of his students put in the middle of his thesis a paragraph reading: "50 bucks if you read this, John." McCarthy never collected.

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