Jamie Kennedy Grinds His Axe

Jamie Kennedy dislikes criticism so much, he's made a documentary called Heckler all about audience members and online critics who dare admit they don't like something.

The trailer is quite upsetting. It shows a whole heap of people bitterly resisting any kind of knock back at all. What's their point? That people who aren't informed have and share opinions and that this is wrong? Admittedly, most hecklers have nothing in mind other than trying to look smart (at which they most regularly fail) and many online critics don't have the first idea what they even mean to say (much like similar numbers of offline critics) but that's not exactly the point, is it? Either you believe all criticism is subjective and there's no hope of attaining an objective point of view to relate or share - in which case everybody is entitled to their opinion; or you believe that there are objective truths we can agree on about a work of art or piece of media - in which case the wrong points of view can be discredited and the right ones defended with evidence.

For the record, I think Kennedy was very well cast in the Scream films, mildly annoying in Three Kings and shockingly weak in everything else of his I've ever seen. The Jamie Kennedy Experiment was perhaps the low point of his career, but Heckler isn't looking much better. Lumping online critics in with the fools who shout out in comedy clubs is perhaps his biggest single mistake - one of them is an opinion that needs to be sought out, the other can be described as an abrupt, rude interruption. The interruption factor makes heckling in a live environment a completely different animal to any other way of sharing your dislike of somebody or their work.

I was surprised for a second that Kevin Smith wasn't in the trailer someplace, venting against the myriad Talkbackers and bloggers who have dragged him through the dirt in every direction, but then I realised a likely reason why he wasn't. Smith is probably as depressed by Jamie Kennedy as the rest of us.

I'd like to collect opinions on Jamie Kennedy, the Heckler trailer and the premise of the film in the comments section below, no matter if you agree or disagree with me. Please leave a few words, taking his side or against it, because you just know Jamie's going to find his way here someway or another.

A Clooney Campaign Against David O Russell?

Radar are reporting that George Clooney is the prime suspect for circulating the infamous Lily Tomlin/David O Russell squabble clips.

Clooney also went toe to toe with Russell, during the filming of Three Kings, and it apparently came to blows on that occasion. Has he been harbouring a grudge all this while? And if so, why strike now? Is Edward Tise, Huckabees sound man, now working on Clooney's Leatherheads, the missing piece of the puzzle?

Russell's I Am the Morning DJ is now caught in a narrow circle of development hell, perhaps due to rumoured antagonism between Vince Vaughn and Russell. Indeed, it looks like Vaughn will no longer be appearing, and that alone may cost the film any hope it had of a greenlight. Personally, I want to see this one go into production soon. I might not endorse Russell's tantrums, but it can't be denied that he gets results.

Here's an excerpt from an old Playboy interview in which Clooney discusses his beef with Russell:

PLAYBOY: What made you want to do that movie?

CLOONEY: David Russell wrote as good a script as I've ever read. I fought to get it. He wanted a lot of other actors before me. They went to Mel and to Nic Cage. I wanted to work on this movie. David is in many ways a genius, though I learned that he's not a genius when it comes to people skills.

PLAYBOY: Did you learn about that the hard way?

CLOONEY: I did. He yelled and screamed at people all day, from day one.

PLAYBOY: Did he yell at you?

CLOONEY: At me often --- and at someone daily. He'd throw off his headset and scream, "Today the sound department flicked me!" For me, it came to a head a couple of times. Once, he went after a camera-car driver who I knew from high school. I had nothing to do with his getting his job, but David began yelling and screaming at him and embarrassing him in front of everybody. I told him, "You can yell and scream and even fire him, but what you can't do is humiliate him in front of people. Not on my set, if I have any say about it." Another time he screamed at the script supervisor and made her cry. I wrote him a letter and said, "Look, I don't know why you do this. You've written a brilliant script, and I think you're a good director. Let's not have a set like this. I don't like it and I don't work well like this." I'm not one of those actors who likes things in disarray. He read the letter and we started all over again. But later, we were three weeks behind schedule, which puts some pressure on you, and he was in a bad mood. These army kids, who were working as extras, were supposed to tackle us. There were three helicopters in the air and 300 extras on the set. It was a tense time, and a little dangerous, too. David wanted one of the extras to grab me and throw me down. This kid was a little nervous about it, and David walked up to him and grabbed him. He pushed him onto the ground. He kicked him and screamed, "Do you want to be in this *beep* movie? Then throw him to the *beep* ground!" The second assistant director came up and said, "You don't do that, David. You want them to do something, you tell me." David grabbed his walkie-talkie and threw it on the ground. He screamed, "Shut the *beep* up! *beep* you," and the AD goes, *beep* you! I quit." He walked off.

It was a dangerous time. I'd sent him this letter. I was trying to make things work, so I went over and put my arm around him. I said, "David, it's a big day. But you can't shove, push or humiliate people who aren't allowed to defend themselves." He turned on me and said, "Why don't you just worry about your *beep* act? You're being a dick. You want to hit me? You want to hit me? Come on, pussy, hit me." I'm looking at him like he's out of his mind. Then he started banging me on the head with his head. He goes, "Hit me, you pussy. Hit me." Then he got me by the throat and I went nuts. Waldo, my buddy, one of the boys, grabbed me by the waist to get me to let go of him. I had him by the throat. I was going to kill him. Kill him. Finally, he apologized, but I walked away. By then the Warner Bros. guys were freaking out. David sort of pouted through the rest of the shoot and we finished the movie, but it was truly, without exception, the worst experience of my life.

PLAYBOY: Did you resolve things? Would you ever work with him again?

CLOONEY: Life's too short.