December 15, 2017

Mira Sorvino cries over confirmed suspicion.


ADDED: Here's the underlying story. Excerpt:
"I now suspect we were fed false information about both of these talented women [Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino] - and as a direct result their names were removed from our casting list " [said Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson].... "My experience, when Miramax controlled the Lord of the Rings... was of Weinstein and his brother behaving like second-rate Mafia bullies. They weren't the type of guys I wanted to work with - so I haven't," he said.

135 comments:

Ken B said...

So, in other words, "I knew about Weinstein but I helped enforce his edict."

rhhardin said...

I never heard of her.

rhhardin said...

I do have 4 DVDs with her though, just not ones I remember.

YoungHegelian said...

If Jackson thought that Sorvino & Judd were being railroaded, what? His production company couldn't step up to the plate & hire them?

In the background of all these sexual abuse stories there are just waaaaaaaay too many ball-less wonders

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I'm sorry, honey, but life sometimes isn't fair.

It's also not fair to the Walmart worker who deserves the promotion to front end manager because she works hard and is reasonably bright, plus she needs the $2 an hour raise to buy school supplies for her kids, but doesn't get it because she didn't give handjobs in the store manager's car on her break.

In other words, I have a hard time feeling all broken up about the disappointments and minor humiliations of the rich, beautiful and privileged class when this shit has always happened and always will to the little people.

I'm sorry you didn't get the movie star career you dreamed of.

Henry said...

Mira Sorvino was terrific in Mighty Aphrodite.

I wonder what roles they would have auditioned for? There are only three significant female roles -- Galadriel, Eowyn, and Arwen. Galadriel and Arwen were played by A-listers Cate Blanchett and Liv Tyler, while Australian actress Miranda Otto was fantastic as Eowyn.

buwaya said...

Bit part as Sams girlfriend maybe.
But they got a more bucolic girl for that.

Ken B said...

YoungHegelian
Yup. That's my point too. Harvey Weinstein couldn't blackball anyone -- he controlled only one (admittedly important) company. He had to have other people who would accept his ukases. And it seems they all knew about him. So how are they not enforcers of the blacklist?

That stuff you hear all the time about the horrors of HUAC, the Hollywood Ten, the evils of blacklisting? All bullshit.

buwaya said...

Would not have worked for any major female role in LOTR.
All those were intended for ladies who could do "British Aristocrat" credibly, and for two of them to be rather ethereal.

narciso said...

The first film i saw her in was stillmans Barcelona, she costarred with tusks Bergen whose career hasnr exactly taken off.

Robert Cook said...

"I never heard of her."

Now you know why. She even won an Oscar!

buwaya said...

In other words, if cast in "Upstairs/Downstairs" or its reboot "Downton Abbey", Sorbino would definitely have been downstairs.

buwaya said...

"Barcelona" is unfairly forgotten.

eric said...

Lawsuit in 3, 2, 1....

Anonymous said...

Her career was stalled but what starlet's career was advanced?
I want to hear from those who submitted to HW and got the part.

Robert Cook said...

"I'm sorry, honey, but life sometimes isn't fair.

"It's also not fair to the Walmart worker who deserves the promotion to front end manager because she works hard and is reasonably bright, plus she needs the $2 an hour raise to buy school supplies for her kids, but doesn't get it because she didn't give handjobs in the store manager's car on her break.

"In other words, I have a hard time feeling all broken up about the disappointments and minor humiliations of the rich, beautiful and privileged class when this shit has always happened and always will to the little people.

"I'm sorry you didn't get the movie star career you dreamed of."


But don't you see this is all part of a continuum of atrocious behavior by the powerful over those weaker than they? If even an actress who won an Academy Award can have her career squashed because she wouldn't let herself be sexually used, isn't that dismaying? You shrug it off as "too bad, toots!", but if she had acquiesced, you'd call her a whore.

Don't you find such abuse of power over the poor or the more affluent revolting?

Qwinn said...

And note that Arwen's part was completely contrived. She's hardly in the books at all. Galadriel and Eowyn were major figures in the books, but that was pretty much it for significant female roles in his movies.

rcocean said...

"I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs. This was probably in 1998," Jackson said.

"At the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us - but in hindsight, I realise that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing.


That's what Weinstein did. He secretly gave Jackson a bad reference about the actresses so wouldn't hire them. But none of it was true. But yeah, you're right, he didn't issue a decree - because that wasn't needed.

Earnest Prole said...

Weinstein and his brother behaving like second-rate Mafia bullies

He has that exactly right. Weinstein's scheme worked like a mob protection racket with sex being extorted instead of money. "You got a nice rack and a promising career -- it'd be a shame if anything happened to them."

Patrick said...

Mira Sorvino is Paul Sorvino's daughter. A great talent and beautiful person. While you don't have to look far for worse injustices, that really sucks.

rcocean said...

BTW, reading ( or rather skimming) through a Marilyn Monroe Bio. She had to sleep with any number of powerful Hollywood execs and agents before she was given a chance to show her talent. It took years. Harry Cohn of Columbia refused to extend her six month contract because she didn't want to spend a "weekend on his yacht".

Hollywood has always been a cesspool.

Darrell said...

was of Weinstein and his brother behaving like second-rate Mafia bullies.

They developed those personas with their first business--a concert promotion firm on the East Coast. They even had goons to send around to scare the acts into accepting peanuts to perform and stopping bars and clubs from hiring them, if they tried to escape.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I like Sorvino, but I too think there is no way that she or Judd were going to end up cast in TLoTR. Judd isn't that great of an actress and Sorvino just isn't the right type.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

But don't you see this is all part of a continuum of atrocious behavior by the powerful over those weaker than they? If even an actress who won an Academy Award can have her career squashed because she wouldn't let herself be sexually used, isn't that dismaying? You shrug it off as "too bad, toots!", but if she had acquiesced, you'd call her a whore.

Don't you find such abuse of power over the poor or the more affluent revolting?


Of course I see that. It's exactly the point I was making. There are always those who will take advantage of those who are weaker than they, and it is always a sin and it is always atrocious. Life isn't fair. It's not Suddenly An Emergency because it's happened to people who live on Pretty Planet and who had no idea that sometimes life isn't fair for them as well.

And I would not have called her a whore; I would have called her weak and human and self-absorbed and lacking in dignity, but I would not have called her a whore. What an awful thing to accuse me of.

Darrell said...

In Hollywood, you don't need the goons. You just have your people spread rumors, and all the other producers enforce the ban. They might need Weinstein money in the future. Lots of actors, male and female, had their careers shortcircuited. We'll never know how big they could have become. Fans just assume they became druggies or something.

buwaya said...

Arwen was "expanded" in Jacksons movies.
For good cinematic reasons I think, and not too much overdone.
Its a different art form after all.
Imagine a LOTR opera - a hundred years ago there would have been one.

But in any case she is proper as an ethereal high-toned creature, immensely upper class, inhumanly so, as this went in LOTR.

Oso Negro said...

Sorry, Misplaced Pants - but I don't think a lot of handjobs are going on in cars at Walmart. I think the normal corporate workplace put the kibosh on that sort of thing a long time ago. Movies, television, journalism and Democratic politicians not so much.

traditionalguy said...

Wow! That is terrible. The Trump effect rolls on, as more and more pure evil comes into the light. And as Sorvino says, people can deal with the truth, as bad as it is. It is the massive
cover ups by the CIA owned brain washing media that makes life seem so impossible to handle.

narciso said...

Its a the soviet model, the inner party doesn't have to abide by prole rules, weinsteins film that catapulted Gallagher and giacomo to the middle ranks was 'sex lies and videotapes, then came talented Mr. Riley, celebrating a clever sociopath

Krumhorn said...

It’s not at all uncommon to canvass other filmmakers to find out what their experience is working with an actor. There is too much on the line to make a mistake. Actors who won’t take direction, won’t leave their dressing rooms until after noon, mistreat other actors, abuse hair and makeup staff etc. cause delays and cost money.

There certainly is a list of “difficult” actors and directors that producers and studios will not hire. I’m making no excuses, but at the time, Jackson was hearing the views of a man who was at the pinnacle of Indy success. He had no particular reason to discount what he said. I imagine I would have been influenced. I wouldn’t hire Christian Bale, Kathryn Heigl, Frank Darabont, or Gwennie. I don’t know them, but their reputations are toxic. Why risk it?

That’s what made Weinstein a bad guy.

- Krumhorn

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Don't you find such abuse of power over the poor or the more affluent revolting?

I find it more revolting when it is visited upon those who have no other options in life. It's not Walmart or the homeless shelter for Mira Sorvino, or Dahlia Lithwick, or any of these people who could have walked away from these no-win situations and gone to veterinary school or married a man with money or started a handbag line.

narayanan said...

Paul Sorvino also played male rape victim as the movie character in
It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy

narayanan said...

"It’s not at all uncommon to canvass other filmmakers to find out what their experience is working with an acto" assumes the actors have a record of multiple films?

if they are obscure names - such de-recommends should set off flags

rehajm said...

I like Sorvino, but I too think there is no way that she or Judd were going to end up cast in TLoTR. Judd isn't that great of an actress and Sorvino just isn't the right type.

Right. Isn't there a logic fallacy there? While I appreciate her sentiment no profession is a pure meritocracy. Perhaps Sorvino's point in space lies within the region where 'won't play ball' and 'not right for the genre' intersect?

Bill Peschel said...

What Krumhorn said. Plus, if you're a director involved in a huge, huge project. You have to make snap decisions. Every day, you may be faced with a hundred decisions about every aspect of the production.

For each part, there's a near limitless supply of possibilities. Many directors, once they find an actor they like, will use them in movie after movie (especially Wes Anderson, whose movies I'm catching up on lately).

Strike an actor off the list based on your producer's say-so, in retrospect, was a bad decision, but given who Jackson hired, and how the roles played on the screen, would he have used Sorvino? I could see Judd in the Liv Tyler role; they have the same look.

Thorley Winston said...

I like Sorvino, but I too think there is no way that she or Judd were going to end up cast in TLoTR. Judd isn't that great of an actress and Sorvino just isn't the right type.

I tend to agree that neither actress would have been right for those particular roles but even if they wouldn't have been cast it's still unfair as to how they were disqualified. And it's possible that because of Weinstein they lost out on other roles that they would have been a better fit for.

Jupiter said...

Blogger I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

"And I would not have called her a whore; I would have called her weak and human and self-absorbed and lacking in dignity, but I would not have called her a whore. What an awful thing to accuse me of."

Well, you might not have called her a whore, but you would have to acknowledge that she had traded sex for value. And that is the crux of the matter. If someone gets their job because of a willingness to work long hours, or to relocate frequently, or to do unpleasant tasks for low wages, we have no problem with it. Unless the unpleasant task is giving Harvey a blowjob.

George M. Spencer said...

She's in the new movie "8 Below," a not-so-good true-story winter survival film in which she plays the mother of a hockey player who gets lost in the snowy wilderness. First thing I'd seen her in in more than 20 years. She's Paul Sorvino's daughter.

Jupiter said...

The reality is that a lot of women are OK with trading sex for value. They start doing it young, and keep at it as long as they can. Many of them enjoy it, if not the sex itself, then the feeling of being desired and valued. As rhardin keeps reminding us, the question is, whose business is it? It used to be everyone's business, but it isn't any more. If it isn't my business to tell young women not to kill their babies, why is it my business to tell them not to trade sex for money? Or to tell Harvey not to demand blowjobs? He wants 'em, they gots 'em. Why not trade?

Qwinn said...

My general point was that the supply of potential actresses in the LOTR movies was insanely greater than the demand. This is as true about the entire movie industry.

As Mark Steyn pointed out recently, there's no other industry that has as many attractive women who would "do anything" to get in. Supply vastly overwhelms demand. That's always the background in which the worst abuses happen. If you have 3 roles, and 400 equally talented actresses literally begging for it, is anyone surprised that extra-curricular factors will wind up making the decision? What factor do you insist should be determinative, given how subjective the qualities that make an actress "talented" are?

It seems obvious to me that the top first, second, third and fourth extracurricular activities that will get you barred from a big movie role is being a vocal conservative. That's it. Kiss of death. No other explanation for the "disparate impact". Not sleeping with the producer is probably below number 5.

Why, then, be surprised that the miscreants are all leftists?

mockturtle said...

Here's a Democratic female Congresswoman not seeking re-election due to her sexual harassment of a male subordinate. Kansas Congresswoman, sexual harassment of subordinate

n.n said...

What was the deciding factor between the women selected and rejected?

Did the women selected offer "benefits"?

Drago said...

mockturtle: "Here's a Democratic female Congresswoman not seeking re-election due to her sexual harassment of a male subordinate."

#BelieveAllMen!

In the future, everyone will be both an accuser and the accused for at least 15 minutes.

mockturtle said...

I sexually harassed a few men in my life but they didn't seem to mind. ;-)

Kate said...

Not only does this make me sad, it makes me wonder about Blanchett, Tyler, and Otto. Presumably, they had HW's approval. Many people every day wonder why they lost out on a job opportunity. It's not often that proof of animus is shown.

narayanan said...

"she/he is difficult" could also be code for she/he won't put out.
what does that say about the ones who put out the message and those who get it - get it.

mockturtle said...

Sorry--I didn't see that there is a whole thread on the Andrea Ramsey thing.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I tend to agree that neither actress would have been right for those particular roles but even if they wouldn't have been cast it's still unfair as to how they were disqualified. And it's possible that because of Weinstein they lost out on other roles that they would have been a better fit for.

I'm not saying that what Weinstein did was defensible. I'm just saying I don't think they were right for the roles available in TLoTR. The article makes it sound like they were actually cast. But if you read what Jackson said, he seems that they were on the list of possibles. If I were them, I would be talking to a lawyer about suing Weinstein for loss of income.

Kevin said...

This reminds me of when Scott Adams was denied opportunities because of his race and gender:

My boss told me in direct language that a white male could not be promoted into their all-white-guy management ranks.

He was not even given the opportunity to give hand jobs in order to get the position. Sad!

Virgil Hilts said...

You know what would be interesting - a list of the actresses who actually slept with and/or had sex relations with HW, never complained and were rewarded for it.
Hard to believe that he never scored, that it was just 100s of unsuccessful harassments/beggings and a few (or maybe dozens) of downright rapes.
Yes HW's a disgusting monster that got off on harassing unwilling starlets, but still think there must have been numerous successes (at least early on) that helped encourage him to keep doing what he did.

California Snow said...

Wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity for these two women to try to work in Hollywood? If anything they could get a sympathy role and be seen as fighting against the patriarchy...you know, 'she persisted' kinda stuff.

Kevin said...

She's Paul Sorvino's daughter.

I'm sure Harvey would have woken up to a horse's head in his bed, had Paul known...

AllenS said...

Some years ago, I got back together with an old girlfriend that I had in the 1960s. She had been married a couple of times to financially well off men, and had taken them for as much money as she could when she divorced them. One time she told me: "never underestimate the power of pussy", and I responded: "I know. Just imagine how far you could have went if you had big tits". The relationship didn't last. She was the type that would have done anything that WH, or any other big shot would have asked for. That's why those men did what they did. They knew that there were a lot of women that would do what they wanted. You just had to hit on enough of them to sort them out.

Sebastian said...

"a list of the actresses who actually slept with and/or had sex relations with HW"

Which list would be longer, #MeToo or #MeTooPutOut?

Krumhorn said...

if they are obscure names - such de-recommends should set off flags

Everyone gets checked out that a producer of studio executive hasn’t worked with. Everyone. And there are some you just don’t have to check out regardless. Tom Hanks, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Scarlett, Viola Davis, Jennifer Lawrence, Will Smith....all have splendid reputations for their talent and work ethic.

There is too much at risk to take any unnecessary chances.

- Krumhorn

mockturtle said...

Kevin retorts: I'm sure Harvey would have woken up to a horse's head in his bed, had Paul known...

:-D

Paul McKaskle said...

Sorvino was also terrific in My Cousin Vinny (and received the best supporting actress Oscar). The movie, incidentally, while played for laughs actually contains pretty realistic portrayals of presentation of evidence, unlike most other movies portraying courtroom scenes.

Alcibiades said...

What if I'm eternally grateful that Weinfeld kept Peter Jackson from polluting LOTRs with Ashley Judd?

Gahrie said...

Sorvino was also terrific in My Cousin Vinny

???

Are you thinking of Marisa Tomei?

DAN said...

So there are actually people out there waiting for Hollywood to be fair.

Darrell said...

Jennifer Lawrence put out. I guarantee it. Too many lead roles, out of nowhere. That was then. But when she crosses that age threshold, it will be "now" again.

n.n said...

I sexually harassed a few men in my life but they didn't seem to mind.

The male-female disparity, maybe, which is closely correlated with visual cues, personality, and secular benefits.

PackerBronco said...

Blogger Henry said...
Mira Sorvino was terrific in Mighty Aphrodite.

I wonder what roles they would have auditioned for? There are only three significant female roles -- Galadriel, Eowyn, and Arwen. Galadriel and Arwen


You forgot Legolas ...

Darrell said...

The studio system would have been kinder. As you were on the payroll anyway, they'd put you in another film, at least. And you would get another chance to shine and make yourself stand out.

Unknown said...

I remember Sean Young being denied catwoman role

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyUx73RJ51o

I bet she wishes there was someone to blame.

SeanF said...

Do you guys think that LOTR was the only time Weinstein gave Sorvino a bad reference? She doesn't think so.

She suspected Weinstein was blacklisting her, and Jackson's story confirms that Weinstein was blacklisting her. Whether she had a realistic shot at Jackson's movie, specifically, doesn't really matter.

I've always liked Mira - I had quite the crush on her back in the day - so this makes me kind of sad. Ironically enough, the first thing I remember noticing her in was in the HBO movie "Norma Jean & Marilyn," in which she shared the title role with Ashley Judd (Sorvino played Marilyn Monroe, Judd played Norma Jean Dougherty).

Martin said...

Any possibility of a tort case? Something with 7 or 8 zeroes to the left of the decimal point?

I have no idea whether either actress would have been a good fit for Jackson's vision--but he should not have been influenced that way.

My parents taught me that people who listen to gossip are as bad as people who spread it. What Jackson did was not as bad as what the Weinsteins did in misleading him, but I do find it peculiar that all those supposedly smart people in the entertainment industry listen and act on totally uncorroborated gossip.

This also drives home, as did Salma Hayek's piece a day or 2 ago, why women tended not to go public--they had reason to be fearful, and you don't attack the king unless you are absolutely sure of taking him down... which they couldn't be at the time.

Ken B said...

Sean Young would have been a great Catwoman. So would Michelle Pfeiffer.

Ken B said...

We are all assuming, without evidence, that Sorvino didn't actually deserve a bad reference. But maybe she did. Presumably there are actors who are a problem or no-one would pay attention to such stuff in the first place.

Qwinn said...

Blacklisting due to being a conservative: thumbs up!

Blacklisting due to not being a whore: thumbs down!

One wonders how much overlap there was between the groups.

In a different context, I think the true blacklisting mechanism, both in Hollywood and Congress, includes "Will you do something, right here and now, that gives us blackmail material on you for life"? If you won't, you're done.

bleh said...

Don't care about this even a little bit. A privileged child of Hollywood is upset that she got screwed career-wise by a predator in Hollywood. Oh man, it breaks me heart.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Do you guys think that LOTR was the only time Weinstein gave Sorvino a bad reference? She doesn't think so.

No, and there are probably a lot of roles she missed out on that she would have been great in if she had had the chance.

tcrosse said...

Mira Sorvino's IMDB listing shows that she's working quite a bit, so maybe it's not accurate to say that she's been blacklisted.

n.n said...

"Will you do something, right here and now, that gives us blackmail material on you for life"? If you won't, you're done.

An "insurance policy".

They thought they had Trump until they didn't. Same with Moore et al.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Ken B said...
So, in other words, "I knew about Weinstein but I helped enforce his edict."

12/15/17, 11:24 AM

Jackson is from New Zealand, WTF does he know who is no good? That would be part of HW's value, presumably, knowing who to hire.

rhhardin said...
I never heard of her.

12/15/17, 11:25 AM
rhhardin said...
I do have 4 DVDs with her though, just not ones I remember.

12/15/17, 11:26 AM


If you can't appreciate the beauty (not to mention the brains; she went to Harvard and learned Chinese) of Mira Sorvino, then stick to fucking dogs and eating their food.

Ken B said...

"Jackson is from New Zealand, WTF does he know who is no good? That would be part of HW's value, presumably, knowing who to hire. "
Unless you already know he's untrustworthy and a douche.

Unknown said...

"In the background of all these sexual abuse stories there are just waaaaaaaay too many ball-less wonders"

The correct term is "liberals"... :)

donald said...

I saw part of an Ashley Judd movie once. I didn’t know who she was but pointed out to my wife that she was an incredibly wooden hack (Before I knew who she was). I’m to understand that she’s incredibly beautiful, but she’s a six in these parts, it has to be the Judd name.

Rabel said...

"I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs. This was probably in 1998," [Peter] Jackson said.

"Between 1996 and 1998, Mira Sorvino was romantically involved with director Quentin Tarantino, who was her escort to the Academy Awards ceremony where she won Best Supporting Actress for Mighty Aphrodite." - Wikipedia

I see dots that need to be connected.

Also, if the recent pattern continues we should see sexual harassment complaints about Peter Jackson coming out early next week.

Oso Negro said...

@ Bad Lieutenant -

If you can't appreciate the beauty (not to mention the brains; she went to Harvard and learned Chinese) of Mira Sorvino, then stick to fucking dogs and eating their food.

If she was all that smart, perhaps she wouldn't be a left-wing activist.

rcocean said...

The idea that anyone would defend Harvey Weinpig is amazing. Just because *some* actresses are willing to "do anything" to get a job, doesn't mean the Hollywood PIGS get to take advantage of them.

glenn said...

“Not right for the genre”

I think that’s why they call it acting.

Earnest Prole said...

Another thread that confirms the prototypical Althouse commenter is a 66-year-old man still living in the basement of his mother’s house.

Ken B said...

Watch the witch hunt unfold in a few paragraphs. Under a banner headline we read

>>
Actor and exhausting talker Matt Damon has waded haphazardly into discussion of a post-Harvey Weinstein Hollywood, by embarking on a car-crash interview in which he appeared to conflate false accusations of sexual misconduct with the #MeToo movement, and argued that men who have groped or harassed women should be forgiven as they haven't molested children or raped women.
Speaking to ABC News journalist Peter Travers while ostensibly promoting his latest film, Damon argued that while he is supportive of women being "empowered" by speaking out about their experiences of sexual harassment, he also insisted that there is a "spectrum of behaviour" that should be respected, and that certain behaviours aren't bad enough to warrant loss of work as a result.
<<

Car crash? Wow he must have said something awful. And, like, wow, anything short of rape, must be , like, fine. AMAZING! What a monster. Those must be some pretty stupid things he said!

But what did he actually say?

"There's a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right? Both of those behaviours need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn't be conflated, right?"

OMG. That’s worse than I imagined. Tar. Feathers. Run him out of town. Where's #RoseLynchMob when you need her?

FIDO said...

She never wowed me as an actress. Maybe it was Weinstein. But he couldn't sleep with everyone and he didn't control everything, so it is only a partial explanation.

Again, like Ashley, she is past her 'sell by' date. If it gives her peace, good for her.

n.n said...

And the other talented women? Was the deciding factor social liberalism or diversity?

Qwinn said...

Who defended Weinstein?

n.n said...

So, the moral of the story is that denying individual dignity (e.g. diversity classes, political congruence or "=") and debasing human life (e.g. selective-child, recycled-child) has clear and progressive consequences. It's a Pro-Choice, Pro-Choice, Pro-Choice, Pro-Choice world.

Paul Snively said...

Such bizarrely negative comments about an academy-award-winning actress who didn't deserve to be preemptively excluded from auditioning for "Lord of the Rings." I'm also somewhat surprised no one has mentioned her performance in the Frozen episode of "House," in which her character convincingly goes toe-to-toe (pun intended, for those who saw it) with the brilliant, badly damaged, and flirtatious/harassing Dr. House. It's a great performance.

FIDO said...

There were a thousand women denied the opportunity to audition for the role with no 'excuse' except that one needs to cut start cuts somewhere.

Not feeling too overly sympathetic. She has a net worth of 16 million. So she is 'just' rich with an Oscar. That she wasn't offered $100 million is not an offense against the gods. I don't care about the reason.

Tank said...

I'm sympathetic. Wonder if she'll talk about hiow conservatives are treated in HOllywood?

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Another one in the no sympathy camp. How many more talented and more beautiful women did she beat out in the beginning of her career because her daddy was an actor with influence and strings to pull.

I'm sure she was more than happy to take advantage of that situation. Now she's crying because some other woman took advantage of their "inside track."

Rick said...

Qwinn said...
And note that Arwen's part was completely contrived. She's hardly in the books at all. Galadriel and Eowyn were major figures in the books, but that was pretty much it for significant female roles in his movies.


You're forgetting Shelob.

Darcy said...

Have none of you seen Romy and Michele's High School Reunion?

Mira Sorvino is marvelous in it. I have wondered why she wasn't cast in bigger films over the years.

Jason said...

It's amazing the number of movies I haven't gone to see this year.

It's bigger than the number of NFL games I didn't watch, which is YUUUUUUUGGGGE!!!

MayBee said...

I feel really bad for her.

Here's what's a weird thing about human nature, though. Peter Jackson listened to Harvey Weinstein to form his opinion about Sorvino and Judd. Then, at some point, Peter Jackson realized he did not respect Harvey Weinstein's judgement. But he didn't go back and reconsider the opinions he'd formed based on his input. People do that. It's a shame.

Qwinn said...

Aaah, thank you for the reference to House and the "Frozen" episode. Yes, she was very very good in that, no question.

I wonder what derailed Janine Turner's career. She is also knockout beautiful, also a great actress, and has hardly been seen again outside of Fox News since Northern Exposure, at least compared to Mira.

I wonder why no one cares about that.

Bad Lieutenant said...

If she was all that smart, perhaps she wouldn't be a left-wing activist.

Oso Negro, I didn't know she was, but if Oppenheimer could be a lefty, smart people can be lefties. It doesn't mean they're right. Meanwhile, all you would have to do is puncture your eardrums. Not too high a price to pay.

Qwinn said...

Let me put it this way:

"Put out to me tonight, and the big movie role is yours."

"No."

"Okay, bye."

Versus:

"I heard a conservative word came out of your slut mouth in public again. Now that I know you're a Rethuglican whore, I don't care if you swear never to utter another word about politics again, you'll be lucky to get a 2 minute scene as a dead body on Special Victims CSI once I'm done with you."

"But..."

"Get the fuck out."


The first one has, and has always had, plenty of laws and advocates she could go to for justice.

The second? The second gets no options or sympathy or recourse whatsoever.

Timotheus said...

Can't say I know much about Sorvino, but Peter Jackson dodged a bullet by not hiring Judd.

walter said...

Ken B said...So, in other words, "I knew about Weinstein but I helped enforce his edict."

Blogger YoungHegelian said...If Jackson thought that Sorvino & Judd were being railroaded, what? His production company couldn't step up to the plate & hire them?
--
Weird..not what I got out of that link at all.
Sounds to me (if as relayed) like he accepted the advice initially, later determining they were bullies with respect to him..maybe others(the mafia reference)..but after casting. The bullying he references had to do with the movie format..essentially legit domain for a producer.

walter said...

And in Hollyweird, I doubt Harv's sort of determination that Hayek going topless somehow would help the success of Frida is that uncommon.
The rest of his weirdness..I hope..is.

FIDO said...

Ms. Althouse doesn't like the fact, but topless is a pretty popular selling point for 45% of the population...and probably a good bit of the lesbian and gay male population too.

I mean, look at 'Dusk til Dawn'. That entire movie is supported by a few one liners, a few visuals and Salma Hayek doing what she does best: not talking, not wearing much and holding onto a giant snake.

So Frida sounds like a studio loser as described. How many millions should he risk for the passion project of a B list actress?

Not defending Weinstein's sexual blackmail but if she feels she was 'owed' Frida, she is on drugs.

FIDO said...

And I defy anyone to see Wild Wild West and tell me that her acting is in fact any good.

William said...

My soul is expansive enough to feel sorry for rich, beautiful women. A bad experience is a bad experience. I guess wealth and beauty are shock absorbers, but Harvey had a lot of impact and velocity.......Sadly, though, her Harvey trauma is not sufficient to lead the field. She's not even in the top half of Harvey victims...... Hollywood should make amends by offering a special award to Harvey's most traumatized victim. The way Hollywood works, though, some actress with good connections and PR would probably cop the award and beat out that poor Italian girl..........I thought Wagner did the opera version of LOTR. Peter Dinklage is the one who should be pissed about not getting a part.

Ann Althouse said...

“I like Sorvino, but I too think there is no way that she or Judd were going to end up cast in TLoTR. Judd isn't that great of an actress and Sorvino just isn't the right type.”

That makes me think of how you have standing in federal court to challenge affirmative action without showing you would have gottin without it. The interest in an equal shot is enough of an injury.

Jupiter said...

rcocean said...
"The idea that anyone would defend Harvey Weinpig is amazing. Just because *some* actresses are willing to "do anything" to get a job, doesn't mean the Hollywood PIGS get to take advantage of them."

Not following you here. As far as I have seen, the women who were willing to do anything to get a job have not filed any complaint. Which probably means that the Hollywood PIGS did get to take advantage of them. And I understand they made some pretty good movies, too, although you couldn't prove it by me. It's the other women who are complaining.

Unknown said...

I once read that Gwyneth Paltrow's dad made sure that the best actor on the A team did not get a role in a popular TV medical drama because of the actor's pro-Reagan politics, no other reason. And the actor who got the job on the medical drama was nowhere near as good, and I watched about 100 hours of that medical drama, which could have been so much better without Gwyneth's dad's blackballing - so I have a right to be bitter (I am not but I have the right to be .... ("up to a point, Lord Copper" as Waugh used to say).
Gwyneth appears on the Harold Stern show even though Harold has made millions by humiliating low-income young women and young men with microcephaly. Not to mention what they did to Dana Plato on the Harold Stern show.
If Mira Sorvino has not been on the Harold Stern show, good for her!
If she has - she should question her priorities.
She (Mira Sorvino) is a good actress when the director is not clueless. Don't ask how I know, I just know.


Thuglawlibrarian said...

Obviously Weinstein is a thug but my impression is that Jackson was complicit in this blackballing too.

rhhardin said...

The interest in an equal shot is enough of an injury.

They have an equal shot. The job isn't what you're assuming.

The job is the deal they make.

Bob Loblaw said...

If Jackson thought that Sorvino & Judd were being railroaded, what? His production company couldn't step up to the plate & hire them?

He didn't realize it until after casting was done.

Gahrie said...

@Althouse:
The interest in an equal shot is enough of an injury.

So you oppose Affirmative Action?

Gahrie said...

Another thread that confirms the prototypical Althouse commenter is a 66-year-old man still living in the basement of his mother’s house.

He he hey...I'm only 52 damn it!

And the house doesn't even have a basement...so there!

walter said...

"Another thread that confirms the prototypical Althouse commenter is a 66-year-old man still living in the basement of his mother’s house."
--
"I hate that I'm here. But I won't leave. Strange, that".

Gahrie said...

Sean Young would have been a great Catwoman. So would Michelle Pfeiffer.

Heresy!

There is no other Catwoman than Eartha Kitt!

EMyrt said...

Uh, Buwaya

It's bit more than a hundred years ago, but there is an opera.
Four of them in fact.
http://www.the-wagnerian.com/2012/10/two-rings-to-rule-them-all-comparative.html

Unknown said...

Hey, Earnest Prole (the living in mom's basement guy) - I read a lot of comments here, and my guess is that most commenters here are more likely to be helping out their mothers, from a time zone away, by sending checks to their mothers to help pay their mothers' mortgage and medical bills, or to be good-hearted and uncompensated VOLUNTEER caretakers for their elderly mothers, than to be your idea of "a commenter who lives in his or her mother's basement." This is a real world and it is wrong to fail to try to understand it.

narciso said...

Yes but that was true of most of the cadt, in wild wild west

Anonymous said...

Sorvino was also terrific in My Cousin Vinny (and received the best supporting actress Oscar).
No that was Marisa Tomei. She was great in it though...

narciso said...

No you have him vpciponfused with Fred gwynne, or with the movie goodfellas.

Ron said...

No love in this thread for Romy and Michele?

urpower said...

Weinstein was being helpful. American actresses are for vulgar roles. The hooker with the heart of gold etc. That's American actresses. - like Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite.

Qwinn said...

"My parents taught me that people who listen to gossip are as bad as people who spread it. What Jackson did was not as bad as what the Weinsteins did in misleading him, but I do find it peculiar that all those supposedly smart people in the entertainment industry listen and act on totally uncorroborated gossip."

As I was mentioning earlier - because the supply of attractive young women who want to fill the movie roles far far far exceeds the demand. When you have hundreds to choose from for every single role, you look for pretty much any reason to eliminate choices and narrow the number down to the final one. A pimple on the ass can do it. Why deal with the possibility of uncorroborated gossip when there are so many others without that baggage to choose from? This is why Hollywood sounds like a nightmare hellscape to me. The slightest whisper can be used to destroy, and no evidence is required. Of course, you could always "know someone" who can talk you up and counter the uncorroborated gossip with a good recommendation... but that can earn a favor in return... and we really can't decide between these last five insanely hot women...!

I suspect Weinstein had a small number of close friends, like pretty much all humans do, and they all played the casting couch game, and they made it into an even greater game, trying to one-up each other on how nasty they could be to the hired help. How many they could score in a week. That sort of thing. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the assaults and rapes were done to win a bet.

Like almost anything in life, when supply vastly overwhelms demand, the supply becomes next to worthless, and it is eventually treated as such. When that supply is human beings, and when you've spent a lifetime subscribing to a political ideology that loves nothing more than to mock virtue and sexual "repression", what's left to make their humanity make a difference?

You can even see it laid out plainly in their product, the resulting movies. Where do you think "hookup culture" was learned from? Purely transactional sex was always the end game for the Left, baby, dunno how you missed it.

As long as the financial and other incentives of being a "star" remains so vastly disproportionate to the effort required (which is IMO devastating to almost every "star"'s mental health), in a market where people can only watch so many hours of movies in a day, that much won't and really can't ever change. Not until all the acting in movies from now on is done in CGI, and let a computer sort it all out and take away the temptation to a human being to choose, between hundreds of other human beings begging for your favor, the one that's willing to be the "nicest" to you.

Note that all of these things are just as true of men who want to be actors as it is of women. It's just that men don't usually have the additional coin of being able to offer sexual favors that the women can spend if they choose. The list of things that can kill *their* careers (along with "uncorroborated gossip", "being Republican", etc.) is just shorter by one line item ("doesn't put out") than the men's list. That's probably changing for the men too though. Yay progress?

Unknown said...

Qwinn - I liked Friends, but looking back, those people were amazingly cruel to each other with their retaliatory hook-ups. That is what you were talking about, right?

Qwinn said...

John: Definitely a good example, yes.

Yancey Ward said...

I always wondered why Sorvino seem to drop off the Hollywood radar- she was fabulous in Mighty Aphrodite even though I never liked the movie. She one starring role I remember in a terrible movie called Mimic, and later a co-starring role in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. I always liked seeing her- she was and is beautiful. She showed up in the last or next to last season of Falling Skies a couple of years back followed by a small role in a short-lived BBC drama Intruders, and it struck me that I had seen her in anything in over a decade.

Qwinn said...

Oh yeah! I remember her from Falling Skies now too! (That and House, never saw the others mentioned). Yes, definitely a very likable actress, and from a merit standpoint it is truly a shame if her career was unjustly derailed. (Not that I'm doubting it, I just don't think we can usually ever truly know from this distance.)

Qwinn said...

I honestly sometimes wonder what proportion of the things we are told about celebrities (including the Reckoning but even more mundane stuff) is in fact real at all. These people are *actors*, and they'd probably consider something like that an irresistible professional challenge. Would some actors be willing, given a sufficient payoff, to play-act as a perpetrator in the Reckoning, if it helped point the mob in a particular direction? Ditto the accusers. All it needs is someone with money who wants it to happen. Look at what came out about from Lisa Bloom today, offering people hundreds of thousands of dollars to make accusations against Trump.

Qwinn said...

Oh, and for those who don't know, Lisa Bloom is Gloria Allred's daughter.

So, when you see "multiple accusations" which supposedly make it more credible, well.

Kevin said...

The interest in an equal shot is enough of an injury.

So we were all harmed by the LOTR casting decisions? I, for one, did not have an equal shot at those roles.

MacMacConnell said...

mockturtle said...
"Here's a Democratic female Congresswoman not seeking re-election due to her sexual harassment of a male subordinate. Kansas Congresswoman, sexual harassment of subordinate"

She's not a Congresswoman running for re-election. She is a "Resist" liberal Democrat lawyer who was an Emily's List challenger to incumbent Kansas Republican Rep. Yoder.

FIDO said...

Exactly. That seems like an insane standard. A moron with a 60 IQ and not completing college could therefore sue Harvard if they feel it oppresses Asians, for example.

In fact, that is happening now, except that the students shooting for this DO exceed Harvard's criteria.

I should probably join a white male discrimination claim even though I am too old and not qualified...since those policies of higher standards discriminated against me.

Still not crying for Sorvino.

MacMacConnell said...

I'm a fan of Sorvino. It doesn't matter that she would not have been a good fit for "Lord of The Rings". It matters that the scumbag in Hollywood and his lackeys like Lisa Bloom spread gossip to derail her her career. Does anyone think they only told one director?

Would you hire a tax accountant or lawyer or butcher that rumor was they were incompetent? Or would you spend months trying to find out the truth? No you would move on to another choice.

Never been a big fan of Judd, but she was a strikingly good looking woman when she was younger. After hearing the angry garbage that spews from her mouth, I can see why she might be difficult to work with.

pious agnostic said...

Blogger Ron Winkleheimer said...
I like Sorvino, but I too think there is no way that she or Judd were going to end up cast in TLoTR. Judd isn't that great of an actress and Sorvino just isn't the right type.


This is undoubtedly true and would have been obvious to Jackson and co.; this makes Weinstein's comments more egregious however. He brings them up, only to bad-mouth them and plant seeds. This is how mean girls get their enemies excluded.

There are several reasons for a director to extend audition invitations to actors beyond the immediate project, however. He may have wanted to see them speak and move with an eye for using them in future films; Weinstein's shitty comments serve to prejudice such judgement.

Bad Lieutenant said...

--
"I hate that I'm here. But I won't leave. Strange, that".

Not at all, he gets to hurt people, or try to. What else does he want? We almost never get topical remarks or insight from him. Set phasers to ignore.

The only thing I have learned about him (if true) is that he has a wife and children, and thus purports to despise sexual and especially child abusers. But then he despises everybody. Loves or likes or admires or respects nobody and nothing. Must be tough being him. At least he gets to call everyone else "dopey," so there's that.