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Marcophile: Celebrities: In the movies, on the news
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On this Labor Day holiday, a lot of us will go to the movies, getting out of the heat and, at the Marco Movies anyway, enjoying dinner with the show.
Marco’s movie experience is different too in that our movie demographic, like our population in general, is older. Americans age 18-24 go to movies a lot more than the rest of us. They’re into celebrities, which may explain why more kids know about Paris Hilton than Dick Cheney.
Who better to decry that than comedian-actor-writer Jerry Seinfeld? He does that in an ongoing HBO special. The show stars Seinfeld and three other comics — Chris Rock, Larry Sanders and Robert Klein. Alleged newsman Anderson Cooper interviews the comedians, rubbing his nose and scratching his head whenever he’s on a close-up.
After the comics swap inside showbiz banter, Seinfeld makes a short but long overdue speech. He asks why Hollywood gives itself so many awards.
“I’m sick of all these actors, I want to know why we’re so fascinated with actors in this country. They haven’t got a thought in their stupid, bed-head, hairdo mini-brains.
“Why, (mocking Hollywood lovers) we must honor this man, why, he pretended to be Bob Johnson. He’s a genius I tell you, a genius, what he’s doing.
“Playing dress-up and pretending is not genius, ladies and gentlemen, it’s not genius. ‘Roll the cameras, put on these clothes, stand there, ready, now say what we told you to say.’
“Fantastic. He did it. Give this man a huge, golden trophy. He’s a genius. (And they wear) ridiculous outfits, like senators from Krypton.”
Seinfeld can say these things that many others believe, but are afraid to say. And he’s funny. As for Anderson Cooper, the CNN news guy, perhaps it’s appropriate that he now has officially erased the line between news and entertainment on TV. It’s appropriate because he began his career as a ricochet celebrity, being the son of Gloria Vanderbilt. He did overnight news on ABC and emceed a game/reality show called The Mole and Mole II. Then he went to CNN.
Somehow he’s become the sort of celebrity that requires nothing further. Fans pore over tidbits about their hero, swooning at reports he won’t drink hot liquids and that he studied at the University of Hanoi. I don’t know if all that’s true and don’t care, because we should not blame Cooper for ruining the journalism craft. He didn’t create the slippery slope, he just careens down it. That slope was greased by the likes of Meredith Vieira, who does the Today show and Who Wants to Be A Millionaire with aplomb and talent. Then there’s Barbara Walters with her interviews — movie stars, presidents, like that.
Other “news” people started as sports coverers and now cover wars, elections and other events with more horserace metaphors than real analysis. Rush Limbaugh and Larry King sometimes are called journalists. Wrong and wrong. They’re comics, commentators, even actors, but not journalists.
Even local TV news anchors are part actors. Ask any anchor whether “acting” is part of the job. Better yet, ask a former news anchor. Or just watch the news. You may see a news anchor go from a mouth-stretching grin while reading the TelePrompTer about kittens or pumpkins to a grief-stricken sob as she jumps to the next story, about an abused kitten or a vandal-ruined pumpkin patch. That’s acting.
When a lot of younger Americans get all their “news” from Jon Stewart, the situation is clear. Cooper better get funnier if he hopes to get to the top. He should watch Geraldo do it. Now he’s funny.
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Chris Curle is a former news anchor for CNN and for ABC TV stations in Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C. E-mail: chris@chriscurle.com.
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