David Thomson: "Liar . . . Liar"?

[tony]

OK: so now I'm seriously jealous about all the hijlinks you Fransiscans are up to...
:p

Glenn: thanks for holding me responsible, but you are at least 50% to blame for all this chaos, as you are such an unabashed fan of Mr. Thomson, and do go on about him, ad infinitum...
:;):

[Glenn Anders]

Thank goodness for your news, Todd! Perhaps, I was unduly concerned about the French film buffs. Some good may come of all this yet!

Tony: I am not un-a-bashedly a defender of David Thomson. I get bashed around here a lot.

And I should never want you to think I hold you entirely responsible for Larry French's safety, and "the chaos," as you put it.

Was it not I who called the attention of you and Todd to Mr. Thomson's super-heated references to ice-cool Miss Kidman?

Given my wonderful experience since Larry French left the U.S., I have begun to worry that the HORROR of it all has not affected my mind!

You will understand, no doubt.

Glenn

[RayKelly]

or his dream — recounted over three excruciating pages — about stumbling across his beloved in a Paris brothel. (She’s wearing “a very revealing white brassiere, a size or two too small,” as she cavorts with a Gestapo officer and an “elderly Chinaman.”)

Re: NY Times review of Thomson's NICOLE KIDMAN.

The New York Times is so out of touch with mainstream America.
Isn't watching a scantily clad Nicole Kidman in a brothel cavorting with a Gestapo officer and an elderly Chinaman the dream of every man? <g>
Seriously, how many undercooked Pu Pu Platters or greasy anchovie pizzas would I have to devour before bedtime to have dreams like that.

[RayKelly]

Slightly off topic:
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Nicole Kidman is the queen of Hollywood when it comes to money. The Oscar winner, who earns as much as $17 million per movie, tops the fifth annual list of highest-paid actresses released Wednesday by The Hollywood Reporter.
Kidman, 39, ranked second on last year’s list behind four-time top-earner Julia Roberts, who didn’t make the list this year. She spent time with her 2-year-old twins.
In second place, with $15 million per movie, was Reese Witherspoon, 30, who won the best-actress Oscar this year for her performance in “Walk the Line.”
Renee Zellweger, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively. They also get $15 million for each film.
Rounding out the top 10 are Halle Berry ($14 million), Charlize Theron ($10 million), Angelina Jolie ($10 million), Kirsten Dunst ($8 million to $10 million) and Jennifer Aniston ($8 million).
The list will appear in the Women in Entertainment Power 100 issue to be published by The Hollywood Reporter on Dec. 5.

[Glenn Anders]

Ray: Far from being off topic, you scored a direct hit. We shall have to call you "Colin P. Kelly, Jr." around here, from now on.

I read that item, too, but as the instigator of this thread, I did not want to embarrass Larry French on the matter further. But now that you have splayed it all out there on the Wellesnet stage, there is not much more damage to be done.

For some reason, the fateful night of Thomson's Haightful book-signing, before the Frenchmen sent Larry French on his "Mission to Ronda," Todd Baesen seized on Evil Dave's observation that Nicole Kidman was the highest paid female star in Hollywood, commanding, he said, up to $20,000,000 a picture. Baesen (who was seen smoking earlier with friends in an alley off Haight and Ashbury) cried: "But that's not true. That's absurd!"

Thomson looked a little startled at the three of us, who had just stumbled in from the Zam-Zam across the street, almost twenty minutes late (my fault and that of those mysterious Frenchmen), and said mildly that he had seen the statistics. [Turns out one of Thomson's main points in his fanciful critical biography is that Miss Simpson generously will work for relatively next to nothing, if she believes in a project.] But the issue was joined, I'm afraid.

Baesen almost jumped up and down, frightening a bucolic group of outlanders clutching their ice-blue first editions, "But what about Julia Roberts? Julia Roberts is the highest paid star in Hollywood!"

"Not any more. I'm afraid the figures will bear me out," persisted Thomson.

Then, Larry (perhaps under the influence of some sinister substance slipped into his Zam-Zam drink) loyally came to our Wellsian colleague's defense. "Julia Roberts is surely a bigger star than Nicole Kidman."

I kept whispering to Larry (to no avail): "Larry, Evil Dave has written two books on Hollywood finance. He's an expert."

"We shall have to see," Thomson sneered with the kind of twisted lip, side-eyed delivery Lionel Atwill might have admired.

And now Thomson has had his minions in Hollywood manipulate the accounting to make it appear that he was correct. Hmm, almost correct. Not quite twenty million a picture. Perhaps the extra several million had to be used to grease a few calculators. There is still hope for us, chaps. Where is Tony when we need him? Shall we regroup and force a taste of our steel on Thomson? Yes, I say!

Glenn

[ToddBaesen]

Well, as some of our Presidents might say, it depends on what you mean by the word "sex" or in this case "highest paid."

According to the above report, Nicole Kidman only made $17 million, which is still below Julia Roberts, who makes $20 million. It's just that Julia didn't make a movie this year. But that still makes Julia Roberts the highest paid actress in Hollywood, when she does make a movie, and I don't think she will be retiring from the screen anytime soon, the way Greta Garbo did.

[Glenn Anders]

Baesen, you old hornswoggler!

What you say is like claiming Elizabeth Taylor might make 20 million, if she found the right script, and made a come-back. It could happen . . . .

But Julia Roberts is enjoying being a mom too much to test your theory.

Meanwhile, a certain dangerous man, known to Wellesnetters as "The Neopolitan of Grime," may well be giving capsules in lead-lined boxes to out of work Soviet secret agents, in order to punish us all for what you've said and written.

I suggest that you either phone the gentleman, and tell him you will meet him at 3 a.m., in the Tenderloin, or buy a one-way ticket to London.

Glenn

[RayKelly]

I didn't post it to embarass Larry French, rather I thought it supported what he said.
Julia Roberts was considered the highest paid actress at the time he made his comments and Nicole was No. 2. Julia commanded $20 million in 2005, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Either way, nobody is worth that much money.

[Glenn Anders]

You are, as always, Ray, a voice of reason.

I'm sure we would all agree that your motives were pure for posting the article. I was only pressing the fact that, in this one instance, Mr. Thomson seems to have been substantially correct in his assessment of Nicole Kidman's power to command top salary.

I hope that we would all agree, too, that you are right that neither Miss Kidman nor Miss Roberts deserves that kind of money in a sane world.

But have you looked at our World lately?

Glenn