Wednesday, January 03, 2018

Blind Item #7

I am just going to leave this tip as is from the source, just because it seems perfect as is.

I had just moved to L.A. for a new advertising gig. This was back in 2010 or so. I was put on a  packaged food account and sold a fun campaign that was basically one big snark on the Harriet Homemaker type. I figured it was going to be a fun shoot since shooting comedy always is, right?

It got even more fun when we managed to snag a very kind and down to earth actress/comedian as the star of the spots. She'd been on a show on a cable show that I found hilarious but the reason people were really excited was she'd just been in an girl-ensemble comedy film that was a box office success so it was a big deal.

What was even a bigger deal was who we got to direct it. Now this person was a big deal in that A, he makes great movies and B, is a seriously loose cannon. We know this because of some leaked audio of him yelling at a comedian during a filming of one of his other films. Somehow we decided to roll the dice and ride the crazy train.

The first thing I noticed that was off about him was the fact he wore the same seersucker suit every day. For weeks. From the pre-production to the day of shoot. It got more bedraggled as it went along. He had seriously manic energy and the crazy vibe was so strong. He cost his production company about ten grand during one day because he sat in his SUV talking on his cell phone and eating a bowl of cereal an hour into our shoot time. Our producer just about blew out a lung yelling at the production company's producer.

During the shoot the only person he treated with respect was the actress/comedian. The other people who were in the spot were "regular actors." He belittled them, would rhetorically ask them if they really wanted to act for a living and he wasn't getting what they wanted. The vibe was just negative all around and everyone was walking on eggshells.

Now so far it's child's play. Here's the interesting part.

At one point on a break, we've almost wrapped the shoot. He goes over to where our clients are sitting, to chat with them. At one point, he asks the woman if he can speak to her in private. Before we know it, he's pulled her up from her chair and pushed her into a closet. I remember his producer trying to go in with them but he was having none of it. A few minutes later, they come out, she's flustered and he's back on set. The client is so flustered she's wanting a drink and demands one. She insists and doesn't care about rules of drinking on set and a runner is sent out for wine.

What we discovered later-- and this is where it's really disturbing, is that he violated her. But not in the way you'd think. What he did was, he apparently had a pair of tweezers in his pocket, pulled them out and plucked out one of her nose hairs. Apparently, it had been bugging him.

What's even more surprising I remember, is that when we told his long-time editor who was cutting our spots what had happened, she looked at us in disbelief for a moment and then said "That's all that happened? Man he must have really been trying to behave himself."

Oh yeah, and in what came as a shock to no one, shortly after the campaign ran we lost the account. The client was unhappy with us already; the experience with the director just put the final nail in the coffin. 

35 comments:

Tricia13 said...

Melissa mcArthy for the female comedian/film Bridesmaids?

Tricia13 said...

Director-Wes Anderson?

filmfanb said...

David O Russell for the director?

Laurita said...

@filmfanb +1

Tricia13 said...

He directed an American Expeess Commercial/Camoaign around this time I think

Glue said...

Drats Tricia is fast. I guessed Melissa McCarthy, but have no clue who the rest are in this blind.

Barbara RiceHand said...

That’s not really revealing much. He plucked out a nose hair. Weird yeah but... I enjoyed thinking about this guy eating cereal in a car more then anything else here.

Khaleesi said...

Bridesmaids was 2011.

MollyGolly said...

The director has to be David O Russell.

spacecowboy78 said...

The ensemble film was Bridesmaids, but I think the actress from that film who was in a cable show and who was in a packaged food commercial, not an American Express commercial, was Wendy McClendon-Covey from Reno 911. She did a Hillshire Farms commercial. No idea on the director yet.

filmfanb said...

Found the advert.

https://vimeo.com/75792529

Khaleesi said...

Yep, it's David.

Randaleese said...

Seems every BI is about someone being "violated"..

Peace. So out of this crap.

FourthTurning said...

@filmfanb - great find! Yeah, the actress/comedian O'Russel was caught on tap trashing was legendary Lily Tomlin.

And, wow on the nose hair patrol.

Glue said...

OFF TOPIC: Just read that Ratner's lawyers are trying to prohibit the media from writing ANY allegations against Brett Ratner. This fucker is trying to buy and bully the media. No wonder we haven't see ANY article about him lately. Stand strong Enty!

Ratner's lawyers trying to prevent media from reporting alleged sexual misconduct

Quickread said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Glue said...

To clarify re: Ratner - that it's geared more towards those who are accusing Ratner, but the message is the same: Stop discussing Ratner or else.

FourthTurning said...

Good luck to Ratner. This is prior restraint and he's going to lose.

Joel Theriot said...

I wonder if that Russell clipped some of Jennifer Lawrence's nose hairs?

Unknown said...

I'd quibble with one word in that headline about Ratner: he and his ilk aren't just trying to keep the media from writing about their allegations. So far, they're succeeding, with very few exceptions.

On this blind: maybe no one got raped or murdered here, but that would be assault if it happened in a normal business where people don't have millions of dollars to buy lawyers and muscle. Heck, just commenting on someone's offensive nose hair would get most people a trip to HR.

Glue said...

LOL @ Cail - so true. I'm trying to imagine someone going to HR in a normal corporate office claiming a manager tried to pluck their nose hair, but then again, I've seen people get blasted by HR for less.

Unknown said...

Funny coincidence: there's a man in prison right now for offering $5000 to anyone who could get him a strand of hair from Hillary Clinton. He claimed on his blog that he was going to clone her. That's not what he originally went to prison for, but he was out on bail at the time and his bail was revoked for that act.

So apparently taking a hair from someone without permission is serious business.

BoyWander said...

This is fun-scroll to the pic near the bottom of the page to see him getting those hairs just right ;) https://dzurilgen.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/hillshire-farm-so-good/

BayAreaGirl said...

@Glue, it's physical assault/battery. He didn't just pluck her nose hair, he yanked her into a closet, that's false imprisonment. HR would recommend firing his ass, 100%, especially if you look at O'Russell's history.

Bikey said...

All I could think reading this was: Ouch!!

And yes, the eating cereal in the car part of course.

Phelps said...

Commercial has already been pulled down on vimeo AND youtube. Someone doesn't like the CDN attention.

beebopcowboy said...

I really hate DOR

JLaw sure has benefited getting cozy w/monsters and assaulters. when she denied knowing about harvey weinstein i rolled my head so hard. girl, you went along w/it cause you thought YOU were in charge thus he wasnt assaulting you.

I really hope Jlaw's career ends. She's acheived so much fucking predators.

AKA said...

What was the commercial for? I know David O. Russell directed some KFC spots.

Maude Lebowski said...

Fuck David O Russell

And if any human tried to do that to me, I would land an assault charge. Good for her for dropping him like the bad habit he is

chickensashimi said...

Quick before it goes down: https://dzurilgen.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/hillshire-farm-so-good/

dave peters said...

Wes Anderson is a fan of seersucker suits, according to articles on the internet.

dave peters said...

Wes Anderson Amex commercial:

https://youtu.be/ZYbg34tLTmk

Rinky said...

Anyone tried that shit with me, I'd assault them back, with the nearest heavy object. By instinct. There would at the very least, be blood, and not mine, on the floor. What a terrible profession that trains people to allow themselves to be manhandled by degenerates and not only not complain to the police immediately, but seek yet more work under such creeps.

The more I learn about the industry, the more I question the psychological make-up of anyone who decides to work in it, especially after experiencing shit like this.

Hermes Trismegistus said...

Nobody is asking it so I will. Why did he have a pair of tweezers on him in th first place? Did he pre-plan it or does he just carry tweezers on him at all times?

By the way, this is definitely David O Russell. The bit about the audio leaking of the director yelling at a comedian is most likely the bit that leaked of O Russell yelling at Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees.

crackity-Mcgee said...

i love david o.R and Wes but they are assholes nd usually evryone i love who loves working wit them are giant assholestoo it turns out,.

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