Good Careers Gone Bad
            

            I stand corrected, and hope that Ms. Bullock can find it in her heart to
forgive me. Or acknowledge me, for that matter.

            Still, I think the larger point holds: Something bad has happened to her
career. It's like it had some tainted soup or something. Did you see
Practical Magic ? And have you seen the trailers for her next movie, with
Liam Neeson and Oliver Platt? It's rare to see three such likeable actors in
such a shoddy-looking film. (Disclaimer: I haven't seen the movie. I've only
seen the trailer. The movie could be a work of staggering genius. But somehow,
I doubt it. How often is the movie better than the trailer?)

            Along similar lines, what's happened to Liam Neeson? Since The Phantom
Menace , he's looked increasingly grim--he seemed to spend most of the
running time of The Haunting trying to visualize himself in another,
better movie. And now, there's this Sandra Bullock movie.

            And now that I come to think of it, Oliver Platt, a favorite actor of mine,
has gone from a terrific performance in Bulworth to Lake Placid ,
Three to Tango , and now, this Sandra Bullock-Liam Neeson movie. I smell
a conspiracy here.

            In other news, any thoughts on who might win big at the Golden Globe awards?
Apart from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which gets to pretend it's
a serious organization, if only for a night? There's a part of me that's sort
of amazed and outraged that a small handful of mostly unqualified individuals
throws an awards ceremony--a ceremony in which the voters are notoriously
susceptible to the influence of personal meetings with stars, lavish luncheons,
and other perks--and everyone pretends that the whole thing is legit. But
there's another, larger part of me that's convinced that such a ceremony is
really the only appropriate way to honor achievement in the movie business. The
folks at the Academy Awards like to look down on the Golden Globes as
representing a triumph of publicist-mongering, backstage maneuvering, and
star-worship over quality and substance. And I, for one, wouldn't have it any
other way. Any awards ceremony in which a trophy can't be bought for Pia Zadora
isn't being true to its industry.

            Tim