 Ring Ping!! |
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Posted on 11/06/2003 2:08:42 PM PST by maquiladora
As the head of the entertainment division of Sitrick and Co., a leading crisis-management public relations firm, Allan Mayer is an expert spinmeister on showbiz scandal and disaster. He's helped Rush Limbaugh deal with the fallout from revelations that he was addicted to painkillers allegedly obtained from his maid. He's been aiding R. Kelly, who is facing 21 felony counts of possessing child pornography. He also advised Paula Poundstone after the comedian's children were put into foster care following her pleading no contest to charges of child endangerment.
So what's Mayer doing working as an Oscar consultant for New Line Cinema's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"? Has a rival film studio been spreading malicious gossip about a Hobbit payola scandal? Is the National Enquirer at work on an expose about the movie's sexed-up special effects? Or, to be slightly more serious, have the Oscars become such a high-stakes face-off that studios need damage control experts to help their films navigate the often bumpy ride that leads to Academy Awards glory?
"Even though we're best known for crisis management, what we fundamentally sell is strategic counsel," says Mayer, a former magazine editor and political reporter. "I think our involvement shows that the Oscars have an importance beyond peer recognition of talent. For a lot of studios, Oscar nominations have a huge economic importance. And for New Line, it's a big issue of pride -- they bet the company on this movie."
New Line marketing chief Russell Schwartz says he learned of Mayer from the work he did for Universal Pictures as a troubleshooter for "A Beautiful Mind," the Russell Crowe-starring biopic that won best picture in 2002, despite being dogged by charges that it had sanitized the troubled life of mathematician John Forbes Nash.
But Schwartz insists he didn't hire Mayer because he was worried that "The Lord of the Rings" would be a target of the dirty tricks that have become an all-too-familiar occurrence in recent Oscar campaigns.
"We feel Allan is a terrific strategist who has the ability to get our movie off the entertainment pages and stimulate broader kinds of editorial coverage," says Schwartz, who signed Mayer to an exclusive yearlong contract this March. "It's an out-of-the-box choice, but we feel that because he's an outsider, he can help us try to find a unique way to position the movie."
What Schwartz is too cagey to say for public consumption is that New Line is under tremendous pressure to win an Oscar for the final installment in the Peter Jackson-directed "Rings" trilogy. The studio's huge gamble in bankrolling "Rings" has paid off at the box office. But Oscar plaudits have largely eluded the series, whose first film earned 13 nominations, but only had six nominations the second time around, with no major-category wins either time. Many Academy members gave short shrift to the second film in the series, perhaps deciding to reward the final installment.
The heat is on. New Line needs a victory, both as a vindication for Jackson and for the studio, which has never won a best picture statuette. So the studio is leaving nothing to chance. In addition to Mayer, the studio has hired an impressive array of publicists to aid its campaign, including such veterans as David Horowitz, Melody Korenbrot, Johnny Friedkin, Ronni Chasen and Gail Brounstein. As Mayer puts it: "It's a lot like a company hiring three or four different ad agencies to come up with a campaign. It's good to have a lot of people with different ideas and strengths."
(Excerpt) Read more at sunspot.net ...
Ring Ping!! |
Anyone wishing to be added to or removed from the Ring-Ping list, please don't hesitate to let me know.
13 nominations and 6 for the second sounds about right to me. I'm not sure what a "major-category" win is, but I thought the teechnical awards that it did win were deserved.
We all know the Oscars are a game. If Jackson earns Best Director, that'd be alright with me. He deserves it for pulling together such a huge and spectacular production in the time he had.
But I'd be surprised if these machinations pull down an Oscar for Best Screenplay. I don't think it deserves that one.
I'd be a little worried that if ROTK does end up with a two-fer, winning both Best Picture and Best Director, and leading up to the awards there's a lot of press about this spinmeister angle and media blitz coming directly from New Line, the public perception might be that New Line "bought" or "stole" the Oscars. Remember what happened the year Shakespeare in Love seemingly stole the Oscar(s?) from Saving Private Ryan? However, I will grant you that the public has embraced all three of the films in a way that matches or exceeds the original Star Wars movies. Also, I think most people realize the Oscars have become nothing but a love-fest thrown by and for the Hollywood elite.
I think of the way that the Hollywood elite will look at the film... and I think they will want to award the sheer artistic nature of it, and the commitment of a studio and a director to go to GREAT lengths to build from scratch fabulous environments for the actors to work in. They really spared no expense on anything. The level of detail is so intricate that even all the mugs in Bree and the buttons on the vests were ordered made for the film. They didn't want anything used that would be recognized. Actors and film-makers like that kind of commitment to artistic perfection. Actors want to work for such a film that would go to that much trouble to give them a place to act.
Yes, I see your point and agree. I was just surprised when the "Academy" didn't bestow more awards on the first film. Then again, as I believe you and others have mentioned, they may indeed be waiting for ROTK since they knew in advance it was coming all along.
I don't recall how many Academy Awards the first Star Wars movie won. I believe it was "many" but I was much too young at the time to be storing away that type of trivia for future retrieval. Seeing as Hollywood didn't know at the time (or did they?) that Lucas planned on making two subsequent films I guess they didn't feel the need to hold back.
I was hopeful on the first film.... but I understood when it was over that they weren't going to set up a precedent and expectation for the LOTR to dominate for three whole years.
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
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