Like Brett Butler Before Him, Charlie Sheen Is Committing Professional Homicide
April, 01, 2011 11:18 am | Comments On #Charlie Sheen, TelevisionI had been overseas for the last few months and arrived home to Los Angeles to the media fusillade regarding Charlie Sheen. While I was away, my morning regimen consists of a stiff cup of coffee and the International Herald Tribune. The Tribune gave scant lineage to l’affaire Sheen and was much more intent on reporting the fall of fashions bad boy, John Galliano.
Galliano’s racist fulminations were in the paper ever day after the initial report and video evidence, then his suspension by Dior then swiftly his dismissal from his lofty position as their Head of Design. Dior’s decision to remove him from view (”I love Hitler!”) went faster then CBS’ endgame.
Now both individuals are without those six-figure paychecks, and who’s to say if we will ever see them return to their star status. To me this was more then professional...
Read MoreOur Man in Dingle
April, 21, 2010 5:27 pm | Comments On #David Lean, Dingle Film Festival, ireland, Marc Flanagan, MoviesLast year, through a series of happy coincidences, I received an invite to a film festival held on the west coast of Ireland, the Dingle Film Festival, a relative newcomer to the Irish film festival lineup.
I accepted without a moment's hesitation, and I have just returned from my second visit to Dingle or, as it is presented on every other road sign, "An Daingean" (many signs are in Gaelic, adding to the mystery/adventure of driving in the Emerald Isle).
Dingle, which lies on the southwest coast of Ireland in County Kerry, lays some claim to celluloid history, this being the village and coastline where David Lean and his crew of actors and technicians held sway for more than a year, 1969-70, shooting "Ryan's Daughter,"...
A Comedy Lesson From Mel Brooks
August, 03, 2009 8:13 am | Comments On #Mel BrooksA few weeks ago the MPAA Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences honored one of America's treasures, Mel Brooks. I was happy to read about this acknowledgement from the Association and I felt that if AMPAS can honor him, well, so can I.
I have the great pleasure of knowing Mr. Brooks, which amazes me to this day. When I was growing up I collected comedy albums; Jonathan Winters, Stan Freeberg, Lenny Bruce, et al, my favorite was: "The Thousand Year Old Man" with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks.
I didn't set out to memorize it, I just listened to it endlessly and it left its tread marks on my brain ... "Sigmund Freud? Sure, I knew him, he was a good basketball player."
In the late ‘60s, I sat in a movie theater watching "The Producers" for the first time. I gasped for air, for it made me laugh uninterrupted for all of its 91...
Read MoreThe Day Michael Appeared on My Street
June, 30, 2009 5:17 pm | Comments On #Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael JacksonI was shocked to hear of the passing of Michael Jackson, as we all were. And as some wag noted on Facebook, "When people ask me what I was doing when I heard that Michael Jackson had died, I was remembering what I was doing when I heard that Farah Fawcett had died."
For me, it was Michael.
Sometime in ‘93, I was renting a house in Brentwood, while in construction on my house in Santa Monica (which is now for sale -- at considerably less then what it was worth in 2007 -- so it goes) ... but I digress. My next-door neighbor was a dentist; he lived with his girlfriend and on the weekends his son would come to visit.
The dentist's son was about 10 or 11, with bright eyes and a beatific countenance. One Sunday, I noticed that decorations were placed in front of the dentist’s home clearly to honor his son’s birthday. As I was crossing my...
Read MoreOn the Set With the Porn People
April, 01, 2009 4:24 pm | Comments On #Jenna Jamison, Playboy, Porn shoot, Ron Jeremy, the ValleyI was about 10 when I saw my first naked woman.
Not in the flesh, in a Playboy magazine. My father's friend Phil Hubbard (who drove an MG convertible while wearing a jaunty plaid cap) allowed me to look at his latest issue -- and with my father's blessings. My mother was quite distressed, but my Dad and Phil thought it would be kind of amusing and instructional to expose me to Mr. Heffner's talent pool.
"He's old enough," the men insisted. I thought it was pretty great. No, I thought it was really great. I considered putting a subscription to Playboy on my Santa's Wish List but knew that would be pointless, for I knew my mother would "draw a line in the sand" over that request.
I would just have to grow up, so I could buy my own Playboys -- and while I was at it, picking up some Gents or maybe a couple of issues of Swank.
Gosh, I had...
Read MoreReally No Country for Old Men
March, 04, 2009 3:14 pm | Comments On #In the spring of 1998, as I watched the cast of "Murphy Brown" take its final curtain call -- a wonderful show that I was justly proud to have been a part of -- I wondered if perhaps this was the zenith of my career in television. What lay ahead for me now?
Three days later the mailman delivered my introductory copy of AARP. Uh oh. As I stared at the cover of the former Modern Maturity periodical (Serving the Needs and Interests of the 50 and Over), I felt the way Roy Scheider felt when he saw just how big and menacing that Great White Shark really was.
I quickly recycled the old people magazine (not to be confused with an old People magazine) and poured myself a stiff drink.
Why did they send this to me? I wasn't turning 50 until ... June, and that was months away. Then I wondered if television executives and studio personal paid a fee to get a list of...
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Description
Marc Flanagan is a television writer/producer. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Marc has written and produced "The Tracey Ullman Show," "Grace Under Fire," "High Society," "Murphy Brown" and assorted other programs. A few Emmys and a WGA Award came his way. Happy to be seen at TheWrap.
