IT IS WHAT IT IS or HOLLYWOOD PMS

One of the sayings of my favorite private eyes, Spenser, happens to be "It is what it is." Unstated is the follow-up : "And not what you would wish it to be."

As it turns out, it is also how screenwriters talk of Hollywood : "It is what it is." Unstated is the follow-up : "So deal with it."

Jo Schaffer http://jostorm.blogspot.com/ , whose husband is in "The Biz," commented yesterday that it isn't always about the money. It's also about "Politics."

And sadly, Jo is right. Studios, like heat-seeking missiles, tend to follow the popularity of an actor or a director, whether or not is based on anything close to quality. Funny enough, it is called following the "heat." At least that was the phrase several years ago.

Politics is more than following the heat however. It is about personalities, their flaws, their prejudices, their ego's. Studio politics is office politics on steroids.

Which brings us to "Hollywood PMS : Politics, Money, and Sex {behind as well as in front of the cameras -- and for a fascinating view of that topic read MARLENE (Dietrich) written by her daughter, Riva -- As Marlene, the German-born Maria Magdalena Dietrich (1901-92) was a charismatic movie actress of the 1930s and 1940s. Like Greta Garbo, Dietrich symbolizes glamour and mystery.

Riva's perspective is unique and affecting. Using her mother's diary, radiograms, and letters, she gives proper weight to Dietrich's youth, her experience on the Berlin stage, her collaboration with director Josef Von Sternberg (e.g., The Blue Angel , 1930; Morocco , 1930), and her latter-day triumphs on stage and as a chanteuse.

There are arresting tales here (father and stepfather killed in World War I; a stint entertaining U.S. troops during the Battle of the Bulge; affairs with legends of the screen and other arts) that give the reader a true grasp of both biographer and subject.} You can get a used hardcover from Amazon for just a penny. How cool is that? http://www.amazon.com/Marlene-Dietrich-Maria-Riva/dp/0394586921/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0

And no, I haven't monetized my blog. My only reward will be the smile I get when you write me how much you enjoyed reading this amazing peek into a world strange and wonderful and sad.

Speaking of sad, let's get back to present-day Hollywood, where sequel no longer means an unexpected twist as in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK but more explosions and a lead actor phoning in his performance as in IRON MAN 2 {a likable but basically the first movie without the hero growing as much as in the first one.}

What is missing? Not much. Just something called craftsmanship. You know, what agents rake us over the coals for lousing up.

How does a writer make science fiction {or fantasy for that matter} real? Especially writers for movies and TV, for without the script all you would have are good-looking actors gazing at one another -- or into mirrors.

More likely the last.

Well, for one thing, you have to make the science plausible. And let's face it, some writers are better sellers of the impossible than others. It's why we have gotten the presidents we have in the past. Let's nail those amoral speech-writers with rotten tomatoes, shall we?

But all joking aside, the science in the tales has to be internally consistent, not change from page to page. Still more importantly, life must be seen taking its toll. Heads must rock back by the thrust of the rockets. Nausea must make stomachs feel like high-tide in zero gravity spins.

Life must hurt. It does for all of us. It must for the characters we watch or we will not believe in them.

We will not buy a story where there is cause without effect. That is why STAR WARS seems more real {despite its space opera elements} than STAR TREK. The blast doors have scorch marks. The Millenium Falcon has dings and dents.

Solo must whallop the door facing of the cockpit to jar the tangled wiring loose enough to fire up the engines. The good guys lose, die, and the survivors feel it in their guts. A father cuts off the right hand of his son. Children, a whole school of them, are cut down by one evil man with a light saber. The evil emperor wipes out the Jedi and rules the galaxy for a generation of terror and oppression.

In life, the bad guys sometimes win. If science fiction or fantasy is to be experienced as "real," then night must fall as it does in the day of each of us. Isn't the true thrill of the dawn based on the depth of darkness to the night preceeding it?

That is why, in a strange way, science fiction can be more "real" than literary fiction. Gene Roddenberry tackled subjects like prejudice, duplicity in war with its betrayed trust of innocents, pacifism in the face of threat, and religious intolerance at a time in the sixties that no other TV show could have done.

And because Gene tackled those subjects that were all too real to his audience, the crew of the Enterprise became real to the viewers as well.

VOYAGER lost sight of that fact. One episode whole shuttles would be destroyed, the ship itself broadsided by raking lasers. And the next week, the ship would be spotless and a new shuttle would be gleaming in the bay.

BATTLESTAR GALATICA showed us wires hanging from the ceiling of the battered starship episode after episode. Mistakes of crewmen would hound them from show to show. Just like our own mistakes follow at our heels for years. Even more, it showed Mankind's arrogance and callousness coming back in the form of his children, the Cylons, to teach humanity that payback is a terrible thing to waste.

Each of us are heading to that last great Exit. Some of us are closer than we realize. As we walk, are we awake or asleep? THE MATRIX and TOTAL RECALL, to mention two Sci-Fi movies, ask that question of us. It is a question that only we can answer. Good science fiction can broaden our perspective to answer it more truthfully.

Again, I am musing in preparation for my two talks at the CON DU LAC Sci-Fi convention here in Lake Charles in June. Come check out its website, will you? http://www.condulac.net/.

Well, that's it for my thoughts on Hollywood's deficiencies. It's easier than looking at my own! And for all of us dreamers out there who refuse to quit, here's Diana Krall :
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I entered the Summer Bucket List of 10 items I would want to do this summer :

1) Finally go out with Angelina Jolie. She's been calling me and calling me. I usually wake before I answer yes to her demands to go out with me. But darn it, this summer I'm gonna stay asleep long enough to say yes.
2) Which leads into my next beloved plan : to get enough sleep. Yeah, me actually going out with Angelina is more likely.
3) Do two excellent presentations at the Sci_Fi convention this June. That is something I actually have a shot at doing.
4)Have a reputable agent offer me representation. Hey, a guy can dream.
5) Have a reputable publisher buy the rights to my novel.
6) Have a studio buy the movie rights to my novel. It's a goal. And goals are good to have.
7) Have the publisher push my release up by a whole year because they're so impressed with my novel.
8) Actually take a vacation this year.
9) Take that vacation in New Zealand.
10) Go out with Angelina Jolie. I know. I know. I already said that. But some things are worth doing twice.