Ray of Sunlight
Columbia Journalism Review reporter Joel Meares has written a reasonable, fair-minded, occasionally amusing profile of Hollywood Elsewhere (and myself, of course). I don’t know what else to say except I’m glad that it’s balanced and kind and accurate and respectful. And not caustic or snippy. Thanks much to Awards Daily‘s Sasha Stone for saying all those nice, perceptive things.
I asked Meares to make two minor changes and he refused. I asked him to list a couple of other big names who read HE and he said “naahh.” Then I said it sounds more natural and conversational when you say “over and over again” instead of “over again,” which is how he quotes me in the piece: “[ComicCon is] catering to fanboys who want the same stories told over again.” He replied that “while I agree ‘over and over’ reads better, it’s not what you said when we spoke.” To which I responded, “I only used one ‘over’ in that portion of our chat and that‘s why you’re sticking with it? Seriously? Okay.”
This is what some hardcore journalists are like. If you’re talking to an interviewer about Sarah Palin and you mistakenly call her Sarah Kalin, they’ll write in the piece “he called her Sarah Kalin, although he was obviously referring to the Alaskan rightwing celebrity-politician.”
Favorite passage: “The stories about bad WiFi service, split pants, and appropriate modulation may turn some off, but if you stick with him, Wells’s Hollywood Elsewhere is a brash, fun read. You might even come to like the man grinning at the top of the page. ‘I really think the personal stuff is what makes his blog so compelling,’ argues Stone. ‘He puts out a good picture of his world — he comes off as an imperfect person –his readers feel protective of him and can relate to him. When they click on the page they are stepping into his virtual world. No one else in our field really offers that.”
There are no comments here right now because everybody’s perusing the article to see if they’re mentioned.
(“He doesn’t mention LexG once! And I’m a legend around here! Whatthefuck?”)
The article could have been a lot longer, obviously. A lot of hilarious stuff that could have gone into it, and I’m particularly referring, of course, to the LexG factor. But Meares did a good professional job. It is what it is and that’s fine.
A nice piece. I wish he had more time to delve into HE history. The longer you’ve been reading, the better some of these pieces are. The best HE commenters speak in a kind of shorthand that only other HE faithful understand. But at least he got the flavor right.
Jeff did New Line Home Video ask your permission to use vintage footage of you?
Did this guy do any research?
Not one word–NOTHING–on the infamous Dean and Deluca/tin foil cake incident.
Best. Thread. Ever.
I thought it was a nice piece, and Meares and the quotes from Sasha really get at why we come back, day in and day out, especially that line about “his readers feel protective of him and can relate to him. When they click on the page they are stepping into his virtual world.” The affection we all have for Jeff and his travails, and his own goofy humor and open-book honesty, often get back-burnered in favor of the whole “baiting curmudgeon” angle when people write about HE or Wells. This did a nice job of presenting him more as the witty, old-school half hard-ass cynic, half-gentlemanly world traveler who we come back reading every day just to see what madness he’ll be up to next. Knowing damn well it’ll probably end in some form of disappointment or dejected tirade, but maybe the occasional moment of vindication or solace… It’s the kind of “writer AS the story” reportage and riffing that keeps people coming back, weaving everyone’s love of movies in with a funny/relatable/frustrating/indelible worldview.
Well, he gets the Joe Popcorn thing wrong. I’m sure Jeff must have said it in the interview, but we all know it’s far more likely to be “Eloi” than “Joe Popcorn.”
Oh, come on. It’s long enough, honestly, and he did get a lot of classics in there (Barry Lyndon, Hispanic Party Elephants, flip-flops, Vinessa Shaw — did you ask him to take that one out?). I’m not sure I really remember the washing machine incident in Frances, though…what was that about?? I certainly doubt it’s any “emotionally vivid cowboy hat.”
Why are you taking him to task for quoting you correctly, though?
I, too, was sad about the dearth of Eloi. But good article. (And fine subject.)
No mention of the Emotionally Vivid Cowboy Hat or pocketfuls of pear cake?
I’ve been reading since the days of Mr. Showbiz. Can’t let a day go by without my HE hit. Thanks Jeffrey and everyone.
Been following since an EW piece in ’94. Very nice write-up.
One thing this article does is put in perspective the H-E trolls… how life- and friend-free must one be to hang on this blog’s every entry 24/7 JUST in order to try to needle & aggravate the host, in ‘revenge’ for some slight or repeated banning? How does one look at yourself in the mirror?
Glad to see you finally made it, Jeff!
This is one of only two movie sites I come to more for the host and the commentors than for information. I couldn’t really care less about the aspect ratio of Barry Lydon (and the epic series of posts that followed), but together it forms a hilarious, affection-inducing portrait of a strange, insightful, imperfect man clattering away all day at his keyboard and tossing off classic riffs straight from his id. LOVE IT.
And the people commenting here are just as brilliant as the host.
Nice work, Mr. Meares!
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