Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Today's Blind Items - They Could Make A Movie About This - Part Two

Drinks had arrived and as they were being placed on the table, RG came back from the bathroom and sat down in an empty chair next to JG. Up until that minute I had never met RG. I knew who she was of course. I knew she partied, but didn’t realize she was up to the point where she was grabbing vials of coke from fellow actors to snort in a restaurant bathroom. I hadn’t seen what JG had handed her when she went in, but when RG set the empty one down on the table, I got a good look. So did the tables next to us. Even though she was A- list at the time, her latest movie had bombed and was the first theatre released movie she had done in about a year. Looking at her up close, I could see she was doing a lot more than a little partying. From a distance she looked decent but when you got a good look at her you saw her hair had not been washed in a while and her fingers were stained, probably from crack. She was bone thin and her skin was so pale that it made the bright red lipstick on her lips look even more stark.

Her hair was a variety of blonde shades that probably changed with each mood shift. I remember she was wearing a white dress covered with large flowers and a v neck opening. More white is not what she needed. Every few seconds she would lean over to JG and invariably her bare breast would fall out and a little over half the time she would place it back inside her dress when she sat back up.

She was falling apart. It was probably two years earlier that she could have booked a bunch of nice 100M movies. Instead, she was more interested in having fun and her career spiraled. Down.

It occurred to me at some point in the first ten minutes of her joining us that this table where I was seated included a lot of could have beens and should have beens. I’m not leaving myself out of that conversation, but at the table were three people who all at one point had been tipped as the next big thing. They each had a shot at fame and at that point of time, by their own actions, whether it be being difficult or being too involved in partying, they had sent their careers in a tailspin.

JG and DD were both living off the fame from a movie, while good, had not made a ton of money when it was released three years earlier. JG’s last movie had been two years earlier and sucked.  I say that despite the fact I had a half dozen friends who were in it. JG was living off fame he achieved as a kid. ON his own, as an adult actor, he was not making it. If he didn’t change something in his life, he was going to keep landing independent movies with budgets that progressively got smaller until he finally ended up doing a regular job and would probably tell stories at work about what a big shot he used to be and how he once hooked up with LT.

  1. What to say about her. Unlike most people who came into contact with her, I actually liked her. As I said before we shared a love of Hollywood history. She was smart and sarcastic and was good at talking smack. Her last movie had been released a month or so earlier and it did manage to crack the $1M barrier. Barely. So, yeah, a big bomb. That was her first movie in three years. She too was living off that movie from three years earlier which is talked about a lot even to this day, but didn’t make much money. When she was a kid she was involved in some good, money making movies. All the way through her tween and late teen years it was a nice and steady career. Then, out of nowhere came the movie that made her career. Suddenly everyone knew her. She didn’t enjoy that. It did allow her to pick what movies she wanted to do and she made a few bad choices in a row. To her credit, one of the movies she made was supposed to be huge and flopped. A three movie losing streak for someone in her position combined with a perception of being difficult iced her out. Because I actually liked her, I felt sorry for her. She is a good actress. Over the years though, that perception has ruled the day to the point where she is probably C+ list and is only that high because of her history. Her history also is her curse. I think if she could go back in time she would not have been in the movie that made her a household name. Even just a few years removed from it at that table, I think she would have made that choice.


Her choice that night was to drink. A lot. We were 20 minutes in and she was on drink 3 and had brought one from the bar to the table. I was actually interested to see if she was going to be a sweet drunk or angry drunk and what she was thinking. DD and I were seated next to each other. She was on my left and I was turned towards her talking when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Just a flash.

That flash turned into a chair hitting the floor and JG yelling out, “What the f**k is your problem?”

“You shoving your tongue down my girlfriend’s throat is my problem a**hole.” Those words were spoken by a guy all of you know. He is actually the one who is really an a-hole, but in that situation at that time, I will admit that JG was being the a-hole. I hadn’t even noticed JG groping and making out with RG. Honestly, even though the blind is long, from the time that RG grabbed the coke from JG’s hand to the chair on the floor was maybe 20 minutes. It could have been a touch longer but I doubt it because the appetizers we had ordered hadn’t arrived.

Side note. To this day, I’m not sure if RG had been in the bar when we arrived and saw JG on the way to the bathroom or if she had been seated at a table, gone to the restroom and been gone 20 minutes which is why the boyfriend came looking for her.

In any event, what was in front of me now was JG on the floor looking up at a guy we shall call LB. Finally, someone not an actor. As he is standing over JG and RG is yelling at him for embarrassing her, LB looks over at the table and seems to kind of recognize DD and sees me and asks me what the f**k I’m doing there. He was in a band. A popular band. We knew each other in a say hi kind of way. Before I could answer he kicked JG and grabbed RG by the arm and told her they were leaving. RG then began telling him that she wasn’t his girlfriend and that tonight was about finalizing that. She also said she wasn’t going anywhere. LB looked down at JG and then at RG and told JG that he and the crack wh**e deserved each other. He then walked out.

While it was all happening, you don’t really notice anything else. After LB left, you could feel the eyes of every single person in that restaurant on us. Just burning a hole in you. You also realized that the noise hum that had been surrounding us all night was replaced by dead silence. As JG got up and placed his chair upright, RG grabbed him by the arm and said she was sorry it happened and maybe they should go to the bathroom to take the edge off. Yeah, good thinking. Off they went though.

Tomorrow, I will tell you about getting kicked out, having an A lister puke right next to you and then ask you for a smoke and watching someone get their head smashed in by a baseball bat and left for dead. Good times.

 


34 comments:

  1. sandybrook2:19 AM

    Meh sounds like a blast

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  2. JustReading2:33 AM

    I must be too old to process all the letters interacting.

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  3. Guesser2:41 AM

    @Just Reading ,me too. It helps if you put in the names that people figured out, so you are left to guess the rest.

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  4. Obviously, this is way before camera phones. Otherwise...

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  5. The Troublemaker2:59 AM

    I'll wait for the guesses and see if the people interest me enough to actually read this.

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  6. TheDude3:01 AM

    This is around late 2004/early 2005. As was correctly guessed yesterday, DD = Thora Birch, JG = Brad Renfro, and LT = Scarlett Johannson. RG = Brittany Murphy and LB is the awful Fred Durst.

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  7. Stephe963:02 AM

    LB = Jack Antonoff from fun (dated ScarJo, according to Wikipedia)

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  8. TheDude3:07 AM

    LB means Limp Bizkit. It's Fred Durst who was hooking up with Brittany Murphy, amongst others in the 03-04 time frame.

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  9. Stephe963:16 AM

    Ah, Makes sense. I thought RJ was ScarJo.

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  10. Teddy4:27 AM

    There's no way LT is Scarlett Johanson - C+?!?! She's an Avenger, she headlines movies - no, just no. Plus what would be the big movie that put her on the map that she regrets? Lost in Translation was her big breakthrough to being an actress people took more seriously rather than just another pretty face. Not her.

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  11. Cherry4:55 AM

    Who the fuck has time to read that?

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  12. It was 12 or 13 years ago.

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  13. Guesser5:34 AM

    Scar Jo isn't in this one. LT is a has-been, but everyone knows her name. Is that the one that's Domique Swain? She's still youngish, so she could make a comeback. The Dude has most of the rest right, definitely Brittany Murphy, and Brad Renfro, and probably Fred Durst.

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  14. Guesser5:38 AM

    Brittany Murphy was A list at the time, but going downhill with drugs and lovers.

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  15. lemon swizzle5:41 AM

    I think your right about Thora Birch. In 2004, she was in SILVER CITY, which grossed just over $1 million (and had a $5 million budget).

    Jenna Malone was in the Hunger Games franchise, and has worked quite a bit since. I'd say her career is humming right along.

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  16. lemon swizzle5:43 AM

    *you're

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  17. lalalla5:58 AM

    By the way is written JG seems to be still alive and kickin' : can't be Brad...my guess is ben Foster: he was and still is deep into heavy drugs, actually that's how Scientology and the Mastersons have him hooked by the balls with their Narconon program.

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  18. mercat6:09 AM

    I'm pretty sure the C+ is supposed to be DD and not LT. In Part 1, Enty said it as DD who he talked about Hollywood with. I think at the "1." that switches to a description of DD.

    Still works with Thora Birch. Fun fact - Thora was in a Limp Bizkit music video around 2003.

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  19. Dave S.6:20 AM

    Here's the problem--1st part says that LT was B+ then, A+ now, so that definitely works for Scarlette J. This part SEEMS to say LT is C+ now, which is definitely NOT Scarlette J. I think the only way to make this make sense is if Enty means the section about the now-C+ lister to refer to Thora Birch, who definitely got a reputation for being difficult and had a lot of failed movies.

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  20. Guesser6:20 AM

    Enty should put a link to the other part. It's hard to tell which one he is talking about,LT or DD. I think Brittany, Brad, and Fred are here for sure.lol

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  21. Dave S.6:21 AM

    Sorry, Mercat--didn't see yours when I commented. I think you've got it right.

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  22. Bookjacket6:44 AM

    Was Thora the one who had a crazy dad disrupting her movie sets?

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  23. Enty said yesterday that LT is a star now, but she wasn't back in the day. Lost in Translation was only released in 2003, but even with that she didn't start getting any real traction until 2007 with Nanny Diaries. This is totally her.

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  24. Innominate Dude9:23 AM

    Yup - Limp Bisket and that cranky loser pudknocker Fred Durst makes sense for LB.

    The barely broke a million movie was Silver City, found here
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376890/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt
    so that confirms the Thora Birch for DD part.

    I argue that RG is more likely Jena Malone whose lead character "RG" matches Renfro's character "JG" in American Girl. See here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329297/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

    Have a look a Jena Malone's portrait here http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0540441/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t1
    and the person described as RG in the blind fits her very well.

    Jena Malone shows up in Hunger Games franchise for recent work among things, but not all that big, She was lead in Saved! but drops to supporting in Pride and Prejudice, and generally her career takes on a steady 'working but not top of the heap' status after that particular leading role point. It was rising strength in trend, a bigshot in the making, then kind of faded to good but not stellar career, consistent with RG in this blind.

    Google "Jena Malone and Fred Durst" to arrive at http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/5965/
    to see if Fred Durst, Jena Malone, and another in this blind, can be linked together. DD and Jena Malone clearly kicked around together, as they do in this blind.

    So:
    DD = Thora Birch
    JG = Brad Renfro
    RG = Jena Malone
    LT = ScarJo
    LB = Fred Durst

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  25. Innominate Dude9:29 AM

    P.S. Let's close out February Festival of Kardashian references with a mighty shout out to

    DREAM Kardashian!

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  26. Thora birch did have blonde hair around then, and did have a panchant for red lippie but was never "Bone thin" that I recall?!?! always buxom

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  27. Shortie9:35 AM

    It is so hard to stay interested/focused on something this long and way too many details that are hard to make sense of and make me wonder, why am I reading this?

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  28. Color Me Confused10:33 AM

    While we're writing 'stories' here's one: NYC, Pastis in the Meat District area. Waiting for friend. Table next to mine: 1. Nasal, dark-haired agent type. Tres butch. 2. Thin, balding man with glasses intently reading menu and ignoring the woman. 3. Another agent/producer type. They order. Man 3 asks if there's any interesting news in her business. She looks around, looks at me (pretending to read menu) and leans across the table. "___ ____ is ill." Man 2 gives her a dirty look. Man 3. What do you mean ill? Woman: I mean he's siiiiick. Know what I mean? Man 2 rolls his eyes and says, "You know better than to even discuss this. His career is at stake." She says, "He's had his career. He's just wasting time now enjoying himself and playing at gigs he wants to do." Man 3 just looks bewildered. "OMG! I'm not shocked because he has been burning the candle at both ends for years. Men, women, drugs, you name it. But OMG!" She looks over and sees me looking at her with a disgusted look on my face. She says, "The tables are too close here. Let's order." I did email Michael Musto about the conversation and he replied, "I hope this isn't true!" The guy is still alive but you don't hear about him at all. No women. No music venues. Glad he's still here at least.

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  29. Patrick9:46 PM

    She had a bone thin, for her, period around this time. Still relatively large breasts, but much smaller than usual (when she's still plenty thin). Comparatively, she was bone thin.

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  30. addrvgh10:45 PM

    scarlett, thora, renfro were all in ghost world

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  31. lemon swizzle12:32 AM

    I thought it was Brittany Murphy (RG) who was thin and blonde?

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  32. Bob Dylan

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  33. Putzywutzy4:44 AM

    Von: I know the answer to this one because it has been floating around the Village for years. Lenny Kravitz. Don't know how accurate it is, but this rumor has been out there almost 10 years.

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  34. Scandi Sanskrit3:45 PM

    T2: Trainspotting.

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