Getaway Plan

In the early ’80s I pitched a monthly column idea to two or three publications called “Hollywood Weltschmerz: The Celebrity in Pain.” The idea was to interview Hollywood luminaries about hurtin’ stuff they’d recently gone through. I didn’t just love the idea because it was wholly original and would have gotten lots of attention, but because there would be endless amounts of material. I mean, actors, for God’s sake…are you kidding?

But the powers-that-be thought it was too strange, and suspected that actors plugging movies probably wouldn’t want to go there with a journalist, or that their publicist would object if they didn’t. (Weltschmerz is pronounced veltschmerz and defined by Websters as “sorrow that one feels and accepts as one’s necessary portion in life; sentimental pessimism.”)

Here it is nearly 30 years later and somebody — The Wrap‘s Eric Estrin — is finally having a go at a similar kind of thing, called “Hard Knocks.” Unless it’s not a column and just a stand-alone piece. (The layout art doesn’t convey the intent with 100% clarity.)

Estrin’s “artist in pain,” in any event, is comic Kevin Nealon , and he says something toward the end of the article that hit home.

“For me, I think, love has always been my biggest obstacle in this business,” Nealon writes. “I lost a considerable amount of weight after that. I was depressed, but I still went on and did standup no matter how gaunt I looked and sick I looked. People thought I had AIDS because I was so depressed.

“But I would get up on stage, and I found that being onstage was kind of an escapism type of a thing. It’s like going to Disneyland. You kind of forget about your troubles and you’re just onstage, doing your act. And then once you step offstage again you’re back into real life. But the more I performed, the more I would get over my distraction of being heartbroken. That was how I handled it.”

That’s precisely how I feel about writing this column. It’s hard work but living in it is also a kind of vacation. For eight or nine or ten hours daily I live in HE world as opposed to the one outside the window. There’s no ambiguity about which one I prefer.

14 thoughts on “Getaway Plan”

Jeff

we don’t agree about anything except that America has too many fatties, but your comment on the appeal of writing your column was one the most honest and straightforward expressions of the creative impulse I’ver read.

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Jeff, the problem with your idea isn’t that it was a bad idea. The problem is that the name was too literal. If you gave it some kind of ironically upbeat, clever title, you could have written about all the misery in the world. As long as an article (or movie, novel, etc.) looks appealing on the surface, you can get away with just about any amount of darkness.

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I’m surprised you haven’t posted about Criterion’s announcement of the release of The Friends of Eddie Coyle on DVD. Considering how earnestly insistent a proponent you’ve been of that particular film, I would have thought you’d be over the moon at it getting such a prestige release.

Or perhaps you made a post and I’ve missed it? I’ve tried searching through your site but found nothing.

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I ran an “Eddie Coyle on Criterion release date” piece on 2.13.09. It was called “All Right, Nuthin’”

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/02/all_right_nuthi.php

It’s listed on this HE search engine page, which you get to by typing “Eddie Coyle” into the search bar and then hitting return:

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/search.php?cx=009819358847864811734%3Amtosqohwooc&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=eddie+coyle&sa=Search

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Keep writing it Jeffrey and I’ll keep visiting. Thanks.

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I apologize, Jeffrey. I did a search for “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” and was shown a number of posts from ’06 and ’07. My eyes must’ve just missed the February ’09 post. Still, fairly exciting news and only a little while away! I’ve pre-ordered the film due to your posts on it in this very site, and I hope you’ll comment on it again once it’s out and you’ve seen the DVD.

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Hell, you ought to call this web site http://www.hollywood-weltschmerz.com. Or at least grab that URL and redirect it to hollywood-elsewhere.com.

While you’re at it, nail down http://www.hollywood-schadenfreude.com as well.

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Hollywood Schadenfreude has a great ring to it.

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See also – that William Shatner talk show on (Biography Channel?).

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So, is it better to be severely depressed and thin or happy and fat?

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I’ve been a fan since you were posting on moviepoopshoot, and I’ll keep coming back for as long as your blog is around. And this post was some honest, great stuff.

I hope that the HE never ends, my sort-of friend.

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Wells to Souchak: Severely depressed and thin is a somewhat better way to be, I think. Because you can always go through a positive change of fortune or take anti-depression medication and climb out of the pit, but people with weight problems almost never turn that tendency around. If you’re corpulently inclined you’re going to more or less stay that way the rest of your life. That said, I’d much rather be an unhappy Charles Laughton or Orson Welles than a mediocre thin person who goes around talking about how serene and content they are. I mean, if that was the choice…..

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