Paul Newman: A Life with Joanne Woodward

Some nights Paul Newman walked alone through the theater district, hoping and dreaming. "It was one of the greatest moments in the American theater," he later recalled. "Not just Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, but all sorts of emerging playwrights were turning out masterpieces. It was a dynamic time, and I wanted to be a part of it. I imagined it was like Elizabethan London at the time of Shakespeare." In September 1950 Newman had a brief flirtation with a young actress, Sally Kellerman, while his wife on Staten Island tended to their kids. 

Sally's big hopes rested on her auditioning for the Actors Studio. Three days before, the actor who was to appear with her came down with the flu. In desperation, Sally asked Paul to play a scene with her from Battle of Angels, an early play by Tennessee Williams. He readily agreed, wanting to enter the august precincts of the school that virtually every actor on Broadway had praised. Watching Paul emote were other actors climbing the ladder to fame, the attendants included Karl Malden, Rod Steiger, Eli Wallach, and Kim Stanley. Sitting by himself in the corner, and looking sullen, was an enigmatic, rather intense young actor, James Dean. Although many of these actors had already gone through their initial training, they'd shown up that particular afternoon because Lee Strasberg had announced a party for them. Paul was introduced to burly Rod Steiger, who seethed with intensity both on and off the stage. He had his Hollywood debut in the 1951 film Teresa, starring Pier Angeli, in which he'd played Angeli's boyfriend's pshychotherapist. "You've got something, kid," Steiger told Newman. "You just don't know how to express it yet."

Paul would later confess to Geraldine Page, "If I had known all those talented actors were sitting out there judging me, I would have passed out." Geraldine herself was on the dawn of one of her greatest successes. She was soon to win the role of the Southern spinster in Tennessee Williams's Summer and Smoke. At the time, Paul could not have imagined that one day he'd co-star with her in both the stage and later, in 1962, the movie version of another Tennessee Williams play, Sweet Bird of Youth. In addition, Paul was awed to meet Karl Malden, who didn't need acting lessons but often dropped into the Actors Studio. Of course, Paul recognized the brilliant actress walking toward him as Kim Stanley. Instead of reaching out to shake his extended hand, she kissed him on both cheeks and congratulated him on his performance in Battle of Angels. "She was one of the most intense women I'd ever met," Newman told Marlon Brando. 

"There was a turbulence in her face, like a woman who'd known trouble all her life." Weeks later, he'd tell Shelley Winters, "I think I kind of fell in love with Kim Stanley the first day I met her. I know it sounds like I had a schoolboy crush, but she made me feel that I'd married the wrong woman. Kim seemed to be the woman I'd been waiting for all my life. In many ways, Kim seems so interesting, but the real girl of my dreams is Joanne Woodward." The Actors Studio changed Paul's life and brought him into contact with some of the stellar lights in the American theater, especially the Method Acting visionary Lee Strasberg, director Elia Kazan, and producer Cheryl Crawford. "I have nothing but sympathy for you," Kazan told Paul. "In your case, you're probably hoping for a defining role like Marlon Brando had when he played Stanley Kowalski. Year after year I see actors living the illusion and growing older as their dreams don't come true. Don't let that happen to you. Take the work you're offered. Chances are you won't be as lucky as Brando. Become a working actor instead. But who knows? Maybe I'll be the guy who directs you in your defining role." 

In later life, in reference to his successes at the Actors Studio, Paul referred to it as a case of "Monkey see, monkey do. I just sat there and watched how actors like Julie Harris and Maureen Stapleton pulled it off. I had enough sense not to open my big mouth. In truth, I never became a true Method actor," Paul said. "I was more of a cerebral actor. Lee Strasberg taught me to draw upon memory of past experiences. Of course, that caused a lot of inner turmoil and pain in me. I came to realize I'd buried certain parts of my life. Going to the Actors Studio was like lying on a headshrinker's couch." In years to come, Paul would have only the highest praise for the Actors Studio, and he greatly contributed financially to its support. "I learned everything I know about acting at the Actors Studio." 

Even after he'd signed to join the Picnic cast, Paul continued to pursue additional work with his new MCA agent, John Foreman. Paul referred to his performances in teleplays as, "the best thrill in town, a totally new experience for me. I was able to play all kinds of roles, since I hadn't been categorized." In July of 1953, Foreman landed Paul a TV role in "The Bells of Damon." In September of the same year, a part in another teleplay, "One for the Road," would also be presented to him. One morning at the offices of MCA, the agent had an attractive young blonde-haired actress waiting outside to see him as well. As Foreman opened the door to his office to let Paul out, Joanne Woodward jumped up from her seat. Foreman introduced her to Paul, who apologized for "eating into your time. We got carried away." But there were no great sparks, no love at first sight.

"My introduction of these two was a historic moment in theater and film history," Foreman recalled. "And they couldn't have seemed less interested that day. Who could have predicted what was to come?" "I hated him on sight," Joanne Woodward later recalled. "He was pretty and neat like an Arrow Collar ad. He looked like a snobby college boy type in a seersucker suit, the kind insurance salesmen wore in summer making the rounds in my native Georgia." Like Paul, Joanne had been born a winter baby but not into freezing weather. When she entered the world on February 27, 1930, it was 70 degrees Fahrenheit in Thomasville, Georgia, a town that had once flourished as a winter resort, lying only ten miles north of the Florida border.

With her blonde hair and pixie face, she looked at the world through inquisitive green eyes. By the age of five, she had become an avid movie-goer. She told her parents, Wade Woodward and Elinor Trimmier Woodward, that she wanted to grow up to become an actress like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Ironically, at the time of her birth, her mother had wanted to name her after Joan Crawford, but after prolonged wheedling, her Southern relatives succeeded in getting the child named Joanne instead. When Elinor took Joanne to see Laurence Olivier playing the melancholy Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Joanne developed her first serious crush. That same year of 1939, when the newspapers announced that the premiere of Gone With the Wind was to be held in Atlanta, Joanne begged her mother to take her. In school it was revealed that Joanne had a high I.Q., and she excelled in her grades. Life seemed so happy in the Woodward household that she later said she was devastated when her parents announced that they were divorcing. "It took years for me to adjust to that," she said. Returning to Greenville, she appeared in a local production of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie-ironically, the same play in which Paul Newman had appeared during his own school years in Ohio. In 1987, Joanne would star in a film version of that same play, directed by none other than Paul himself.

Persuading her mother to let her go to New York, Joanne arrived there by train at the age of twenty-one. Until she got work in the theater, she planned to support herself on the sixty dollars a month her father gave her. Almost immediately she enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse, which, like the Actors Studio, trained the aspiring stars of tomorrow. At the Playhouse, she studied under the great dramatic coach, Sanford Meisner, who warned her to "get rid of that Southern drawl, or you'll appear only in plays by Tennessee Williams." Like Paul, Joanne signed with MCA, under whose management she pursued roles in live television dramas. She appeared in an original teleplay, Penny, which aired on June 9, 1952. Between jobs, Joanne liked to hang out with her fellow actors; she had long cups of coffee with Rod Steiger, a newly made friend of Paul's. As a result of attending a casting call, she was summoned to appear before Joshua Logan, who asked her to read a scene from the upcoming play he was directing, Picnic. Amazingly, he liked her reading and hired her to understudy both Janice Rule, playing Madge, and also Kim Stanley playing Millie, Madge's younger sister. 

When Joanne reported for work the next day, Logan introduced her to Paul. "We've met before," she said winking at Paul. As Picnic went on the road, opening in such cities as Cleveland, Joanne began to look at Paul with a different eye. "He wasn't conceited at all. In fact, I found him rather modest for such a good-looking man. He had a protective wall around him when I met him, but deep down he was a sensitive man with the soul of an artist. He just didn't want the world to know that." On the road, Paul began to date Joanne in a casual way. They often met for lunch in some dreary coffee shop or treated themselves to a late night dinner together after the evening's performance. Sometimes Paul didn't tell Joanne good night until two o'clock in the morning. During the run of Picnic, Paul had been seeing more of Joanne than his wife Jackie. Officially Paul assured fellow cast members that he and Joanne were "just friends." But no one, especially Joshua Logan or Kim Stanley, believed that. It was suspected that Paul had occasional sleepovers at Joanne's apartment on Fifty Sixth Street in New York. It was a five-flight walkup. He learned what breakfast at the Woodward household was like. It meant walking down to the street and purchasing two hot dogs from a street wagon vendor and carrying them back up those five flights.

When Rod Steiger learned about Jackie's second child, he said jokingly that Paul seemed to want to keep his wife "barefoot and pregnant," and stashed safely out of sight in Long Island while he pursued his stage career. Paul told Steiger that Jackie had "abandoned forever" her dream of becoming an actress. With Paul away from the house most of the time, Jackie had become a full-time housewife and mother. Word had gone out along Broadway and had even reached Hollywood that a hot new star was appearing on Broadway, taking over for Ralph Meeker in Picnic. "It didn't match the excitement that Brando had generated," Shelley Winters said, "during his performance in A Streetcar Named Desire, but the word was out to catch Newman's act." In the fall of 1953, just before one of his performances, during his second week as Hal in Picnic, he was alerted by Logan that both Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe were in the audience. "I wasn't so afraid of Marilyn, but of Sinatra. For some reason, I thought he'd make fun of me. I knew he hated Method actors like Brando." Sinatra was still depressed and almost suicidal over the recent breakup of his marriage to Ava Gardner. But, in spite of Paul's fears about meeting him, Frank warmly extended his hand and congratulated Paul on his performance. "You're great, kid," Sinatra told him. "Originally Logan wanted Brando for the part. That jerk would have fucked it up big time." Paul accepted their invitation for an apres-theater dinner. Every head in the restaurant turned to watch Marilyn slither across the restaurant floor while Newman and Sinatra were virtually ignored.

Newman deciphered the real purpose of the visit. Marilyn was lobbying for the role of Madge in the movie version of Picnic. "Janice Rule would be okay," Marilyn said, "but she's got no sex appeal." Newman said that being in the presence of two fabled stars, and accepted by them as an equal, was going to his head even more than the wine. Elia Kazan called Karl Malden and asked him to coach Newman, grooming him for a screen test. Malden had already been promised the role of the priest in On the Waterfront and told Kazan: "I've got to have something really hot to show Sam Spiegel. You select the girl to work with Newman." Malden had been impressed with the acting of Joanne Woodward, and he asked her to rehearse with Newman. She gladly accepted. "There was a definite chemistry between the two," Malden recalled. He worked tirelessly with both Joanne and Paul until he felt they were "camera ready." Then he called Kazan. "I've found your stars," Malden said. "Newman and Woodward as a couple will sizzle on the screen. You can give them a screen test and shoot the results over to Spiegel." Kazan seemed delighted with the test and sent it to Spiegel. Weeks went by and there was no response from the producer.

"Paul was very nervous," Malden said. "He knew there was a lot at stake." When word came in from Spiegel, it was a devastating blow to Paul. The producer had promised the role of the young fighter Terry Malloy from Hoboken to Frank Sinatra, who was virtually claiming "native son status," being the most famous man to ever emerge from this then-grimy New Jersey port city. There were more surprises awaiting both Kazan and Newman. "Who knows why, but Marlon finally changed his mind without anyone twisting his arm," Malden recalled. "I had to wonder if all this talk about Paul Newman or Frank Sinatra playing the part lead Marlon to think it over. How could he pass up that part?" As for Joanne, perhaps she never thought that she had a serious chance to play the female lead. Instead, the role went to another similar blonde actress, Eva Marie Saint. When Brando finally accepted the role, Spiegel dropped Sinatra, who threatened to sue him. "The reason is money," Spiegel told Kazan. "I can get my investors to double the bankroll with Brando instead of Sinatra." While filming On the Waterfront, director Elia Kazan plotted his next feature film, East of Eden, eventually released in 1954. His fantasy cast included Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando, playing brothers, even though physically the two actors did not look alike. Both Clift and Brando turned down the parts of a modern day Cain and Abel story, as portrayed in the best-selling John Steinbeck novel.

During the casting of On the Waterfront, Kazan had considered Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward for the leading players. Now, although he remained secretive about the casting of East of Eden, he once again considered Paul teaming with Joanne. But seemingly every other day, he thought James Dean and Julie Harris would bring more sensitivity to the roles. "Julie Harris has the part," Kazan explained to Newman. "Your girlfriend, Joanne Woodward, would have been terrific in the part, but Julie Harris fits more the part. By the way, I saw Julie yesterday at the Actors Studio. She said she adores you." "She's not my type," Paul said, putting down the phone. At that point in her life, Joanne still had not committed to Paul. "How could I?" she asked Rod Steiger. "He's still married with a wife that's pregnant again." 

Teleplays kept coming Joanne's way, and in 1954 she could be seen on TV in such dramas as The Dancers, Unequal Contest, Interlude, Five Star Final, Segment, Welcome Home, and Homecoming. It was her role in Interlude that brought her to the attention of Fox executive Buddy Adler. He promised Joanne a film contract, which was slow in coming. In letters, she kept Paul posted, promising that she'd soon be joining him in Hollywood. Paul was up for yet another movie role in 1954 during the casting of Battle Cry, based on the Leon Uris' novel of marines in World War II, which had a key role for the young soldier Danny Forrester. Bill Orr, the son-in-law of Jack Warner, conducted a joint screen test of both Paul and Joanne. "They came in with a preconceived idea of what they wanted to do in the scene," Orr said. "First they rolled around on a mattress and on the floor, and then they rolled around on a blanket. I had suggested to Warner that he give the role of Danny to James Dean. Dean could pull this one off. Newman came off as a jerk." Paul told his comrades at the Actors Studio, "Maybe I'll be more like Humphrey Bogart in Hollywood. He never sold out to any studio, and I won't either." 

Elia Kazan, the director of East of Eden, said that during the shooting, had to listen to James Dean's lovemaking sessions with Pier Angeli night after night. "My dressing room was across the hall from Dean's. I could actually hear them making love through the thin walls. Dean was very vocal. The sex would usually end in a big argument. After one of these blow-ups, Dean always got drunk. I don't know how I ever finished the picture with him." Whilst, Joanne Woodward flew into Los Angeles. She had signed a contract to film Interlude, starring Dick Powell, as part of a presentation on TV for the Four Star Playhouse. The American singer, producer, actor, and director, Dick Powell, was her co-star. He was famously married to June Allyson, MGM's fading sweetheart of the 1940s. Joanne knew Powell from his 1940s tough guy roles at RKO and less so for his 30s musicals, often starring Ruby Keeler, including 42nd Street. In Interlude, Joanne played a young woman in love with an older man, Dick Powell. Throughout the shoot, Powell had high praise for her acting talent. At the show's wrap, Powell sent a print of her work to Buddy Adler, who had only recently won an Oscar for the 1953 film From Here to Eternity, starring two of Paul's friends, Frank Sinatra and Montgomery Clift. At the time Adler previewed Joanne's work, he was hoping to replace Darryl F. Zanuck as head of production at Fox. Adler, like Powell, was so impressed with Joanne's screen work that he showed clips to Zanuck, who was still his boss. The cigar-chomping studio boss wasn't impressed. 

Zanuck said. "She won't put out from what I hear. Besides, I hear she dates only fags like that writer, Gore Vidal. Sign her up if you want to. But if she fucks up, you're to blame. Fox isn't into losing money." While performing on Broadway in The Desperate Hours, Paul accepted the lead in Philco Television Playhouse's The Death of Billy the Kid, which would be aired on July 24, 1954. The drama of William H. Bonney (Henry McCarthy was his real name) was re-written by Gore Vidal. At the time, newspapers were referring to Vidal as the "beau" of Joanne Woodward. Fred Kaplan, in his biography of Gore Vidal, quotes Joanne as saying, "I think we had gotten to that point had Gore said, `Let's get married,' I might very well have done so. Because I was very fond of him. Many people have had that sort of marriage. I can't imagine how long it would have lasted. I think I would have driven Gore crazy, probably." Both Paul and Joanne configured themselves as Gore's celebrity supporters, as did Eleanor Roosevelt, when he unsuccessfully ran for Congress in a Republican district in New York State in 1960.

Joanne played a pivotal role in the film noir, A Kiss Before Dying, released in 1956. It had a stellar cast which included Hollywood heartthrobs Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter. Around that time, Kim Stanley told Paul he was right for the role of Bo Decker in Bus Stop, and she promised to secretly lobby for him. Brooks Clift, her secret lover, claimed she didn't lobby very hard, because she believed that Paul was too pretty and not rough enough around the edges. "He is just too polished a gentleman to play a hayseed like Bo Decker. Paul has 'class' written on his face." "As Picnic clearly showed, you don't have that wild streak in you to play Bo," William Inge said to a disappointed Paul. "I've got a god damn wild streak in me, and I'll fucking show you," he told Inge. "Paul sensed a strong rivality with Albert Salmi, who deliberately gave Paul bad advice," Steiger said, "although I don't know that for sure. Frankly, I think Paul wanted Albert Salmi to bomb in Philadelphia, the way that Cliff Robertson had bombed. If Salmi also were fired, then Paul could step into the role. He knew every line of the play." Brooks Clift claimed that Paul and Kim Stanley had another tiff when he learned that she didn't really back him for the role. Not knowing of Paul's own involvement with Kim Stanley, Albert told him of his private flirting with Stanley. This made Paul doubly jealous of his rival, although he managed to conceal that. Produced by Roger L. Stevens and Robert Whitehead, Bus Stop opened to rave reviews on May 2, 1955 at the Music Box Theater in New York. 

At this point, Albert Salmi had not yet learned of Paul's attempt to steal the role from him. Tenaciously Newman was still clinging to his dream of playing Bo. He was certain that a movie of Bus Stop would be made, and he told Steiger that "Salmi is not photogenic. His rough looks are okay on stage, but not in a close-up." The next morning, Newman encountered Rod Steiger at the Actors Studio and swore him to secrecy about what he was to tell him. "My dream is about to come true," he said. "Paul Newman and Marilyn Monroe starring in Bus Stop. I can see our names linked in movie marquees across the country." "Perhaps," Steiger said skeptically. "But you've got the billing wrong. Any actor will always have to play second fiddle to Marilyn." To Paul's surprise, he learned that Elvis Presley had appeared in the audience to see Bus Stop. "I heard through Logan that Elvis also wants to play Bo," Albert said. "If he's really serious, he'll get the part. Let's face it: Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe would be the box office attraction of the decade." Paul warned Albert "not to worry. There's no way in hell that Colonel Tom Parker will let his moneymaker do a straight dramatic part." When that news reached Paul, he called Logan and practically demanded that he get the part. "I can play Bo. Marilyn and I have great chemistry together. Besides, you owe me one." During an afternoon at the Actors Studio, Kim Stanley encountered Paul, "Sorry, honey, I've got bad news. Logan, that bastard, has cast Don Murray." 

"Murray's got no fire," Newman said. "He's a nice-looking boy-next-door type." Paul was crushed, but he tried to be gracious about his loss. "I'm the loser. I'm horribly disappointed. But Marilyn is such big box office, and she is right for the role. You and I have seen her act at the studio. We know how good she is. None of us believe that she's the lightweight her fans think of her." Even so, Don Murray got an Oscar nomination that year as Best Supporting Actor. In time, Albert Salmi learned about Paul's behind-the-scenes maneuvering to grab the role of Bo Decker from him. Although they would work together in Bang the Drum Slowly (1956), he never really forgave him.

During the shooting of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, there was tension in the Newman/Woodward marriage over his heavy drinking. "She's nitroglycerine and I'm diesel fuel," Paul explained to filmmaker George Roy Hill. There was more trouble awaiting Joanne in her marriage, widely interpreted at the time as the most enduring in Hollywood. That trouble arrived on the set of Butch and Sundance in a very shapely form. A spunky pin-up model turned into reporter, Nancy Bacon had posed for provocative pictures using the name "Buni." This brunette beauty had been hired to write a fluff piece on the production for Confidential magazine, her first interview was with Paul Newman himself. That "interview," on and off,  would last for eighteen months. According to Bacon, after Paul made love to her, he felt what he called his "heart attack time." Apparently, all that beer and Scotch drinking was often interfering with his sexual prowess.

News of the affair spread rapidly across the Hollywood grapevine, no doubt reaching Joanne. Paul's heavy drinking was problem enough for his marriage, but his affair may have proved too much for Joanne to handle. It was Joyce Haber, the gossip columnist, who first broke the news that the Newmans might be on the verge of breaking up. Writing for The Los Angeles Times, she reported that "the Newmans are living apart, according to friends, and will soon get a divorce," although she admitted that these were just "fascinating rumors, so far unchecked." To counter her revelation, the Newmans took out a $3,000 half-page ad in The Los Angeles Times. It read: "RECOGNIZING THE POWER OF THE PRESS, FEARING TO EMBARRASS AN AWESOME JOURNALIST, TERRIFIED TO DISAPPOINT MISS HABER AND HER READERS, WE WILL TRY TO ACCOMMODATE HER FASCINATING RUMORS BY BUSTING UP OUR MARRIAGE EVEN THOUGH WE STILL LIKE EACH OTHER." It was signed: "Joanne and Paul Newman." Eventually, Bacon decided that she didn't want to carry on with an affair going nowhere. She lied to Newman (who harbored a  deep sense of guilt), telling him that she was going to marry another man. He hardly reacted in front of her, but wished her all the best of luck. "I finally said to myself, I can do better. I told him, `You're always drunk, and you can't even make love'." Nancy Bacon reportedly had liaisons with other actors such as Errol Flynn and Rod Taylor. She alleged to have been a roommate of Marilyn Monroe and friends with Elizabeth Taylor, Jayne Mansfield, Judy Garland, and Sharon Tate. 

"For two people with almost nothing in common, we have an uncommonly good marriage," Paul told the tabloid press in London in 1969. As for Joanne, she seemed to be getting tired of all that talk about what a sex symbol and box office sensation Paul was. "Look, he's forty-four, got six children, and snores in bed. How can he be a sex symbol?" Newman was thrilled to learn he’d made Richard Nixon’s enemies list, supposedly because Nixon was jealous because Newman made the cover of Life magazine when Nixon hadn’t and because of Newman’s support for Paul McCloskey, a Nixon opponent in 1972. Reportedly Nixon once told John Foreman, “Newman is a first-rate actor even if he thinks I’m a lousy politician.” Although Newman was survived by five children and an older brother as well as his wife, he left most of his considerable fortune to Joanne—including significant real estate holdings and the Connecticut estate—and the rest to charity. Asked once how Joanne and he managed to stay together for so long, Newman replied, “I never ask my wife about my flaws. Instead I try to get her to ignore them and concentrate on my sense of humor. Joanne believes my character in a film we did together, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge comes closest to who I really am. I personally don’t think there’s one character who comes close to me, but I learned a long time ago not to disagree with her.” Not too long before his death, Newman was asked if he had any advice to give aspiring actors. “Study your craft and know what’s special about you. Find out what everyone does on a film set, ask questions and listen, which means don’t do things where you court celebrity, and give something positive back to our society.” For his very, very long life and highly successful career, that is exactly what Paul Newman did. Nothing more needs be said. —Paul Newman: A Life (2009) by Lawrence J. Quirk 

Paul Newman: A Life, Moral Education

 

America's national epic is reflected poetically in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938, and it was described by Edward Albee as "the greatest American play ever written." Our Town contains the snapshots of bygone days, cracker-barrel philosophies, homespun homilies, good-natured ironies, the hints of pain caused by epiphanies, and that climax which brings a welling to your eyes despite yourself. It contains us. The Stage Manager is knowing and vigilant. With his spectacles perched on the tip of his nose and a vaguely distracted air, he stills looks imposing. He appears to have lived every vicissitude of life. Such is his air of decency and authority that you find yourself hoping he deems you worthy. George Gibbs, the youthful hero, is an all-American boy. His heart is in the right place, even if he must occasionally be reminded of just where that place is. He’s handsome, and when caught up in the spell of love, he croons; you wouldn’t tune a piano to it, but he’s sincere. Later, when George escorts his sweetheart, Emily, to the drugstore for an ice cream soda, the Stage Manager takes on the persona of Mr. Morgan, who crafts the fountain treats for the youngsters. When it turns out that George has forgotten his pocket money at home, he refuses to accept the boy’s gold watch as collateral for the debt: “I’ll trust you ten years, George—not a day over.” You sense affection in the older man and, equally, respect in the younger; the mutuality is warming. The old man has acted for Michael Curtiz, Robert Wise, Richard Brooks, Robert Rossen, Sidney Lumet, Martin Scorsese. He has lent his voice to Doc Hudson in the Pixar movie "Cars," teaching Lightning McQueen that "life isn't about the destination but about the journey." 

You could think of him in the company of legends as Humphrey Bogart and James Stewart. The young man is making a name for himself, but he keeps getting compared to Marlon Brando and James Dean. The young man has just turned thirty, has been married for six years, and has three children. The older man is seventy-eight, with his forty-fifth anniversary coming up and five grown daughters and a pair of grandkids with whom to celebrate it. The old guy is serious, a World War II vet who attended Kenyon College and the Yale School of Drama on the GI Bill; he’s raised hundreds of millions of dollars for charity and served as president of the Actors Studio. The older man is Paul Newman, playing the Stage Manager in the Westport County Playhouse production of Our Town, at the Booth Theater on Broadway in October 2003. And the younger man, you know him too: Paul Newman, playing George Gibbs in the same play for NBC in September 1955.

For fifty years, on-screen and off, Paul Newman vividly embodied certain tendencies in the American male character: earnest and roguish, sly and determined, brave and vulnerable. He was equally at home on Hollywood soundstages, in theatrical workshops, in the pits of racetracks, and especially on the blessedly raucous fields and in the log cabins and swimming holes of the camps he built and maintained for seriously ill children. The world was his for the claiming—and he claimed only the bit that he felt was reasonably due to him, and he gave back more, by far, than he ever took. Newman had an intense discipline that demanded he earned, through sheer perseverance, a place alongside the Method gods Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean. He was ultimately the one true superstar to emerge from the original Actors Studio generation, the most popular Stanislavskyan actor in American screen history.

Pauline Kael on her review of Hud (1963): "Paul Newman's range isn’t enormous; he can’t do classics. But when a role is right for him, he’s peerless. Newman imparts a simplicity and a boyish eagerness to his characters. We like them but we don’t look up to them. Even when he plays a bastard, he’s not a big bastard—only a callow selfish one, like Hud. He can play what he’s not—a dumb lout. But you don’t believe it when he plays someone more perverse or vicious, and the older he gets and the better you know him, the less you believe it. In his personal life, his likableness seems infectious and it's difficult not to like Paul Newman. But Hud is just possibly the most completely schizoid movie produced anywhere anytime. Hud is much of an anti-Western and I think it's also an anti-American film, yet so astutely made and such a mess that it is redeemed by its fundamental dishonesty."

As he would bemoan for the rest of his life, director Martin Ritt—along with screenwriters Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., adapting Larry McMurtry’s 1961 debut novel Horseman, Pass By—had intended to make a film taking the side of Homer Bannon and the impressionable Lon (Brandon De Wilde), Homer’s grandson and Hud’s nephew. “Hud was meant to be the ultimate heel, condemned to a life of loneliness and alcoholism for his harsh arrogance,” Ritt said at the American Film Institute in 1974. “If I’d been near as smart as I thought I was,” Ritt added, “I would have seen that Haight-Abshbury was right around the corner. The kids were very cynical; they were committed to their own appetites, and that was it.” “Little by little the look of the country changes because of the men we admire,” Homer says in decrying Hud, and the same is true of our cinema. Shades of gray were on their way in, and with Hud, Paul Newman’s cold blue eyes served as the headlights on the dark road to come. Source: online.ucpress.edu

   

Paul Newman was visiting Maynard Morris, the MCA agent who got him a role for “Ice from Space” TV episode in 1952 (from the sci-fi show Tales of Tomorrow) and the agent’s next appointment was already waiting for him in the reception area, a young alluring actress named Joanne Woodward. Morris introduced the two by way of apologizing to her for running late. As Woodward later remembered it, “I had been making the rounds, and I was hot, sweaty, and my hair was all stringy. Morris introduced me to a pretty-looking young man in a seersucker suit, all pretty like an Arrow collar ad, and said, ‘This is Paul Newman,’ and I hated him at first sight, but he was so funny, he disarmed me.” Newman said his first reaction to her was to think: “Jeez, what an extraordinarily pretty girl.” Woodward had been spotted by a scout for MCA in a Neighborhood Playhouse showcase and brought into the agency as a client of a young agent named John Foreman, who was handling the television careers of new actors. He got her a series of roles on TV—in episodes of Robert Montgomery Presents, and Goodyear Television Playhouse; she played Ann Rutledge in a five-part series about Abraham Lincoln on Omnibus that required that she travel to Hollywood. “I didn’t have enough money to rent a car,” she later boasted. “Can you imagine being in California with no car?” In New York, Joanne had reportedly dated a lot of young men, even if she wasn’t exactly the type that was in vogue. 

As they got to know each other during the rehearsals and downtime on Picnic, she came to seem to him an ideal girl. “I was shy, a bit conservative. It took me a long time to persuade her that I wasn’t as dull as I looked.” “Joanne and I have had difficult, mind-bending confrontations,” Newman told columnist Maureen Dowd many years later in The New York Times Magazine. “But we haven’t surrendered. I’ve packed up and left a few times, and then I realize I have no place to go, and I’m back in ten minutes.” “Being Mrs. Paul Newman has its good and bad days,” Joanne confessed to Good Housekeeping. “Obviously, since we’re still together, most of them have been good. But it hasn’t been easy, and I don’t think any valid relationship is.” Joan Collins (co-star of Newman and Woodward in Rally Around the Flag) once weighed in on their marriage. "I believe he was totally faithful to Joanne in the many years of their relationship in spite of the fact that many starlets, and even some stars were interested in more than just staring into his blue eyes." By "stars," she may have been referring to Marilyn Monroe, Piper Laurie or Sandra Dee.

As with Rachel Rachel (1968), Paul Newman demonstrated his loyalty by committing himself to Joanne Woodward’s work. Almost everything he would produce or direct going forward would include her. And he learned to accommodate her interests and moods, encouraging her love of ballet by giving her gifts of ballet-inspired artworks, and by helping her to fund a dance/theatre company of her own. Theirs would often be praised as a fairy-tale marriage. And perhaps because it contained and overcame some dark and perilous episodes, it was worthy of the name. Playwright A. E. Hotchner, who knew Paul Newman longer and better than almost anybody, assesed: “Paul was an unadorned man. He was simple and direct and honest and off-center and mischievous and romantic and very smart… He was the same man in 2008 that he was in 1956—unchanged, despite all the honors and the movie stardom.” —Paul Newman: A Life (2009) by Shawn Levy

The researcher Susan Shimanoff of San Francisco State University discovered that regret was the most common negative emotion, and the second most common emotion of any kind – after love. However instructive past regrets may be toward making better decisions in the future, imagining that we could be happier with someone else can burden an otherwise reasonable life or romantic relationship. As the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips writes in Monogamy (1996): ‘We are prone to think, erroneously, there should be someone else who could love us more, understand us better, or make me feel more sexually alive.’ Looking for someone ‘better’ may be particularly tempting today: with Internet and advertising finding its way into every nook and cranny of our consciousness, we are invited to hate what we love, and envy that which is not worth pursuing. 

‘I don’t think individuals in the 1950s and ’60s tended to imagine a happier life with another romantic partner, at least in the sense that they could build a happier life with someone else,’ explained the historian Stephanie Coontz, author of A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s (2011): ‘I think they imagined that everyone else was happy with their lives, and that there was something wrong with them not being happy. Because the sitcoms and magazine articles of that era portrayed successful families as ones that followed a formula, and it looked easy to replicate.’ Yet, the idea of pursuing happiness, however compelling, can have a very high costs for parents and children. In a follow-up study I did with Philip Cowan – professor of psychology at the University of Berkeley – we found that estranged parents who didn’t divorce were more likely to eventually reconcile with their children than those who did. In my clinical experience, divorce can increase the risk of a more conflicted or distant parent-adult child relationship in multiple ways. As Deborah Levy writes in her memoir, The Cost of Living (2018): ‘Chaos is supposed to be what we most fear but I have come to believe it might be what we most want.’

The sociologist Allison Pugh found that first marriages of ‘moderately educated’ women (those with some college education) are twice as likely to break up in the first five years as those of women with college degrees. Sometimes we are in the midst of depression and have gotten feedback from a therapist or others that our mood is distorting our view of our relationship. Alternatively, it's good to make attempts to communicate more effectively with your partner, and those attempts probably will be well-received and will be able to change the perceived problems. Sadly, some relationships have to be brought to the brink of a breakup to get the attention of the other person. E Mavis Hetherington’s study of divorce For Better or For Worse (2002) found that 25 per cent of men were completely surprised when their wives served them with divorce papers. 

One of Émile Durkheim’s central insights in the late 19th century: that in removing the rituals, traditions, roles and expectations that had guided desire for centuries, we also removed the ability to know that we had arrived and could stop trying. ‘As soon as there is nothing to stop us, we cannot stop ourselves,’ he wrote. ‘Beyond the pleasures that we have experienced, we imagine and yearn for others, and if one should happen to have more or less exhausted the possible, one dreams of the impossible – one thirsts for what is not.’ However constraining and outdated are social roles, they at least provided clarity of whether we should stop and smell the roses – or exhaust ourselves in the pursuit of the sweeter ones that might be just over the hill. So the endless pursuit of happiness can produce the opposite result: rather than leading us to a deeper, more meaningful life, we just end up getting one more thing we don’t really need. Source: aeon.co

The Extraordinary Lives of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward: "The Last Movie Stars"

"Joanne gave him his confidence," says Ethan Hawke in The Last Movie Stars (2022). "Joanne taught him to believe in himself. Joanne taught him to love himself. When somebody asks her why their marriage worked, she said, 'There's my ego, and there's his ego, and there's our ego. And when we're both in service of our ego, we can do anything.'" "Their relationship never stopped growing," said their daughter Clea. "Their art never stopped growing. They never stopped pushing themselves, finding new things that were interesting to them." Paul Newman won several national championships as a driver in Sports car racing while Joanne Woodward teached theater classes. And together they were exceedingly generous philanthropists. According to Clea, they gave away "between $700,000,000 and a billion dollars. I don't really know. It's a lot. And the funny thing is, is that they probably wouldn't want anybody to know."

Hawke says, "I feel like we all need heroes that show the end of our life as a possibility of being the best part of our life." What Hawke is getting at in this documentary isn’t how to act but how to live as a Hollywood actor—how to remain artistically substantial and socially responsible, and how to sustain family relationships and friendships, all the while taking part in the machine and existing relentlessly in the public eye. For this, as the documentary reveals, there is no method. "I'm running out of steam," Newman said in 1968. "Wherever I look, I find parts reminiscent of Cool Hand Luke or Hud or Fast Eddie. Christ, I played those parts more than once. It's not only dangerous to repeat yourself, it's damned tiresome." 

Besides, he had discovered racing and turned pro in 1977. He was fifty-two years old, and acting was now something he did on the side. Being a car racer he could use it to become the actor he'd always wanted to be, free of all the smirking boyo stuff and freeze-framed machismo. If he ain't Hud, ain't Fast Eddie, ain't Cool Hand Luke, ain't Butch Cassidy, who is he? Who is Paul Newman? "I don't know," he says. "You can't not absorb some of those character traits. You try to separate those little fragments you've created. The toughest role is playing Paul Newman. My own personality is so vapid and bland, I have to go steal the personalities of other people to be effective." 

Nominated eight times for Academy Awards in the best-actor category, Newman won only once, for "The Color of Money" (1986), in which he reprised the role of "Fast" Eddie Felson that he originated in 1961's "The Hustler." When Newman finally won an Oscar in 1986 for "The Color of Money," it was neither his nor director Martin Scorsese's best effort and was seen by some observers as compensation for having been overlooked in "The Hustler." However, Newman didn't hide his disappointment that filmmaking in Hollywood had abandoned the "theater of the mind" for the "theater of the senses." 

A new book, “Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man,” will be published in October. Ben Brusey, publishing director, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Suzanne Smith, vice-president and director of foreign rights at Knopf Doubleday, for publication on 27th October. Knopf will simultaneously publish in the US. The publisher describes The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man as the “insightful, revealing and surprising memoir of perhaps the greatest movie star of the past 75 years”. Its synopsis reads: “Before he died in 2008, Newman had been at work on this project for five years. Newman recounts in detail his often traumatic childhood, his teenage insecurities, his youthful failures with women, his rise to stardom, his early rivals – Marlon Brando and James Dean – his first marriage, his greatest film roles, his drinking, his philanthropy, his professional racing car career, the death of his son Scott, and his desire for his daughters to understand the truth about their father. 

“Perhaps the most moving material in the book centres on Newman’s relationship with Joanne Woodward and their deep love for each other. Additional voices that run throughout the book include Newman’s childhood friends, Navy buddies, family members and film and theater collaborators. The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man provides a new understanding of a man many admired but few really knew – from the perspective of the man himself. Newman died of lung cancer in 2008 at the age of eighty-three. Out of all his achievements, he valued his charity work the most. In his later years, Newman said: “I’d like to be remembered as a guy who tried to be a part of his times, tried to help people communicate with one another, tried to find some decency in his own life, and tried to extend himself as a human being.” That vision and his efforts toward it resonate today, through his legacy, carried on by his daughters and their respective philanthropy and activism. And through Joanne, his partner in this work, with whom he completed fifty years of marriage before his death. On their fiftieth wedding anniversary, Paul Newman asserted: “Joanne, being married to you has been the joy of my life.” Source: www.thebookseller.com

Emmy Awards 2022 nominees, Ozark: Jason Bateman and Laura Linney

This year’s Emmy Award nominees were announced, with “Squid Game” earning 14 nods, the most ever for a foreign-language show. The 74th Emmy Awards will be broadcast live at 8 p.m. Eastern on Sept. 12 on NBC and will stream live for the first time on Peacock TV. Best Drama Nominees shows: “Better Call Saul” (AMC), “Ozark” (Netflix), “Severance” (Apple TV+), “Squid Game” (Netflix) and “Stranger Things” (Netflix). Best Comedy Nominees shows: “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (HBO), “Hacks” (HBO Max), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon), “Only Murders in the Building” (Hulu) and “Ted Lasso” (Apple TV+). Best Actor in Drama: Jason Bateman, “Ozark”, Brian Cox, “Succession”, Lee Jung-jae, “Squid Game”, Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul” and Adam Scott, “Severance”. Best Actor in Comedy: Donald Glover, “Atlanta”, Nicholas Hoult, “The Great”, Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”, Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building” and Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso”. Best Actress in Drama: Laura Linney in “Ozark”, Melanie Lynskey, “Yellowjackets”, Jodie Comer, “Killing Eve” and Reese Witherspoon, “The Morning Show”. Directing for a Drama Series: Jason Bateman, “Ozark” (“A Hard Way to Go”), Ben Stiller, “Severance” (“The We We Are”), Lorene Scafaria, “Succession” (“Too Much Birthday”), Hwang Dong-hyuk, “Squid Game” (“Red Light, Green Light”), Karyn Kusama, “Yellowjackets” (“Pilot”) and Mark Mylod, “Succession” (“All the Bells Say”). Source: nytimes.com

Jason Bateman made his first important contribution as a film director in The Family Fang (2015), which opens with a sequence that is one of the most provocative introductions to a movie I’ve ever seen. The story is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Kevin Wilson. Bateman (Juno, The Gift) and Nicole Kidman (The Hours, Dogville) play as the siblings Annie and Baxter Fang, both artists, somewhat successful but struggling with their art: she’s a moderately successful actress who’s appeared in a bunch of crap and a tampon comercial, and he’s a wunderkind novelist whose third book-in-progress is stuck in low gear while he is mired in writer’s block. Bateman is his usual splendidly sharp but understated self; Kidman matches him beat for beat in a way that she doesn’t often get the chance to do. Their warm but contentious relationship is the box out of which emerges a tale of the existential crisis of a whole family, but not in any way you’ve seen before, one that explores the boundaries between being true to oneself and being a self-obsessed freak when other people need you. It asks how much you may reasonably draw on other people as the inspiration for your art. It’s not funny in a way that makes you laugh out loud, but funny in a way that makes you uncomfortable. That is a place that few movies dare to go. Source: www.flickfilosopher.com

When Jason Bateman accepted his Emmy award for his work as director/producer in Ozark, Bateman began to tear up as he thanked his family. "I would like to say specifically though to my wife, my two daughters – Amanda, Franny and Maple – without you, none of it would be enjoyable and it probably wouldn’t be possible. I love you more than I even tell you I do. And I’ll be home for kisses so don’t go to bed. Amanda, pop a mint, I’m going to come give you yours in about five minutes." He called his family the "three most important people" in his life and gave them credit for allowing him to be the best actor/director he can be, saying that because of their love and support he doesn't mail-in his performances when he must be away from them. 

"That keeps me from taking any of this for granted or just doing it half-assed," he said. In his usual deadpanning style, when asked if Bateman could make a sequel to any movie what would it be? Bateman said, not missing a bit, Teen Wolf 3 in 3D. Jason Bateman's career dates officially from a Golden Grahams advert in 1979, when he was just 10 (he’s now 53). He talks about his mother's influence – she was a Pan Am flight attendant, originally from the UK. If certain things are hilarious to him, Bateman explains that's because “my mother is British and everything is dry to her”. His father would be the more obvious role model in professional terms. Kent Bateman was a writer and director, and the producer of the 1987 fantasy sequel Teen Wolf Too, the lead role that sealed his son’s teen-idol status as nerdy, unthreatening and very 80s at once. Source: people.com

In Teen Wolf Too, it was explained that Bateman's character Todd Howard was the first cousin of Michael J. Fox’s Scott Howard from the original. Todd Howard was recruited by Scott’s former high school basketball coach Finstock (inexplicably now a college boxing coach) in the hopes that Todd shared the family “werewolf gene” that made Scott Howard such an excellent werewolf basketball player. However, first cousins only have a 12.5% genetic similarity. So there was only a one-in-eight chance that Todd would be a werewolf like Scott. Teen Wolf Too is a 1987 American fantasy comedy film directed by Christopher Leitch, written by R. Timothy Kring, and starring Jason Bateman (his first film debut), John Astin, Estee Chandler and Kim Darby. 

It is the sequel to Teen Wolf (1985). During his first boxing match, Todd has his second "wolf-out" to display his supernatural agility and strength and has a dramatic come from behind victory, thus earning the admiration of the students as well as the strict Dean Dunn (John Astin). With his newfound fame as the prodigy wolf it comes girls, top grades and even a car from the dean but as the year goes on, Todd realizes that he is losing his friends and self-respect. He seeks advice from his uncle, Scott's father, Harold Howard (James Hampton), who helps him come to terms with his responsibilities. Todd also reconnects with his nerdy girlfriend, Nicki (Estee Chandler), who helps him regain his focus on being humble. Source: blu-ray.com

Meant to Be (2022) by Emily Giffin

Meant to Be by Emily Giffin will suck you right in. When Joe Kingsley, the son of an iconic American family, meets model Cate Cooper on a photo shoot in the Hamptons, it’s love at first sight. But Cate comes from the wrong side of the tracks and isn’t interested in becoming front-page news by dating Joe. Eventually, she gives in, and the two fall in love, but secrets from Cate’s past and a tragedy threaten to destroy their relationship. Out of the gate, you are charmed by Joseph "Joe" Kingsley, Jr., a lovable bachelor with a heap of expectations on his shoulders due to his family's name and prestige. The chapters alternate between Joe's perspective and of his romantic interest, Cate Cooper, a thoughtful, strong and effortlessly elegant model-turned-stylist. It's no secret that Giffin's novel was inspired by JFK, Jr.'s and Carolyn Bessette's love story; however, Giffin's creativity and insights take her characters to a new level. You will be left with insights on how two people from very different worlds can navigate differences, and how sometimes a couple's love story really is meant to be.

Inspired loosely by John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette's ill-fated romance and set in '90s New York City, Meant to Be follows cool, blonde, model-turned-fashion stylist Cate Cooper and hunky Joe Kingsley, scion of the Kingsley family, and as close to American royalty as you can get. The pair have a glamorous, passionate romance, tailed by the ever-present paparazzi. (It sounds familiar?) Giffin spoke to EW about Meant to Be, modern icons, and how the '90s "feels like the last decade of innocence." Source: ew.com

"On the weekends, I would stay in my room with Pepper, listening to music, reading Judy Blume novels about other miserable kids, and flipping through my Bop and Tiger Beat magazines. I didn’t like boys in real life, but I had a robust lineup of celebrity crushes that included Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett, and Donny Osmond. My hands-down favorite, though, was Joe Kingsley. Growing up, I’d always known who Joe was. A few years older than I was, he had a famous father who was killed in a failed space mission, and he lived on Fifth Avenue with his glamorous mother. [...] Joe laughed, his face lighting up, then looked directly into my eyes. I held his gaze, feeling a little light-headed. I’d met celebrities before, but no one near this famous—or handsome. Overwhelmed, I had to glance away for a second. When I looked back his way, he was still staring at me. “I’m Joe, by the way,” he said, extending his arm. I gave him a half smile, then shook his hand. “I’m Cate Cooper.” Joe looked smug as he gave me a wink. “Yep. I knew it. I never forget a face. Not one as pretty as yours, anyway.” It was the kind of line that usually sounded cheesy, but Joe’s delivery was so sincere that it disarmed me, and I could feel my heart flutter a little as I thanked him." —Meant to Be (2022) by Emily Giffin

The Biology of Desire, Ozark: USA's Identity

Experts estimate that one in 10 Americans is dependent on alcohol and other drugs, and  behaviors like gambling, overeating and playing video games can be addictive in similar ways, Once, addictions were viewed as failures of character and morals, and society responded to drunks and junkies with shaming, scolding and calls for more “will power.” This proved spectacularly ineffective, although, truth be told, many addicts do quit without any form of medical treatment. Nevertheless, many do not, and in the mid-20th century, the recovery movement, centered around the 12-Step method developed by Alcoholics Anonymous, became a godsend. Marc Lewis, a neuroscientist and psychologist, is the author of a new book: “The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease.” Lewis’s argument is actually fairly simple: The disease theory, and the science sometimes used to support it, fail to take into account the plasticity of the human brain. Of course, “the brain changes with addiction,” he writes. “But the way it changes has to do with learning and development—not disease.” All significant and repeated experiences change the brain; adaptability and habit are the brain’s secret weapons. The dangerous changes wrought by addiction are not, however, permanent. Each of these people, Lewis argues, had a particular “emotional wound” the substance helped them handle, but once they started using it, the habit itself eventually became self-perpetuating and in most cases ultimately served to deepen their wounds. Over time, people who are addicted become trapped in the moment-to-moment experiences and disconnected from their past and future. Source: www.salon.com

Throughout her body of work, Laura Linney exudes a quality at once familiar and slightly hard to place, with a dimpled smile that can slide easily from delight to menace and a contralto voice that can be adjusted to the scale of the medium. Still, when it comes to why she became an actor, she has no answer. “I don’t know if I really want to know,” she says. “Maybe when I’m 80 I’ll look at it. Why I decided on acting? For me, it’s always been about a connection that I don’t find anywhere else, possibly.” About the good appraisal Ozark has received, Linney remarks: “It’s a miracle when anything works. There’s a difference between successful and good. Something can be great and nobody sees it.” By the end of the third season, Wendy gives up her older brother Ben to the Navarro Cartel. Although this was done to protect her family, Wendy proves herself to be the ultimate anti-hero of the show. Yet, she is still someone the audience wants to root for.

"I’m having real withdrawal from Ozark. Everything about it worked. All the right people were in the right positions. Everyone had a similar viewpoint. Everyone had a similar work ethic. I loved being in Atlanta. It was an unbelievable crew. Crews on television normally do not stay intact. Ninety percent of our crew stayed the entire time. What that does on a set, the safety that you feel, the unspoken communication, the ease, the comfort, and the fun that you have — I feel like I just landed in a pot of honey. I miss it a lot. Ultimately, Ozark was about our identity. Who are we? Who are you? Who am I? Who are we as communities? Who are we as a country? Identity."

Why does Ozark’s Jason Bateman think audiences responded so positively to the dark drama? Bateman has his thoughts on why the show has struck a chord: "It’s great that Ozark it’s not black and white. That it’s not good vs. evil or villain vs. hero. That’s the satisfying takeaway from our show, and that’s what gives you the anxiety, that there’s a level of tangible and relatable conflict and confusion. You recognize that you might be saddled with the same type of push-pull based on mistakes. There’s not a ton of explosions and effects and overt violence in the show. Hopefully, what is unsettling about it is that it’s humanity pushed right to the edge of what you’re capable of justifying." Source: cinemablend.com

Roe vs Wade overturned, Juno's commentary

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the ruling of Roe v. Wade "such an insult, a slap in the face to women." "There's no point in saying good morning, because it certainly is not one," she said. "This morning the radical Supreme Court is eviscerating women's rights and endangering their health and safety. Today the Republican-controlled courts achieve their extreme goal of repealing a woman's right to make their own health decisions." Former President Barack Obama criticized the decision, saying the high court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent but it "relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues -- attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans." Hillary Clinton wrote: "Today's Supreme Court opinion will live in infamy as a step backward for women's rights and human rights." Source: cnbc.com

The writer of the film Juno has referred to abortion state bans as a “hellish alternate reality”, adding that she wouldn’t write the same movie nowadays. “I don’t even know if I would have written a movie like Juno if I had known that the world was going to spiral into this hellish alternate reality that we now seem to be stuck in, it sucks so fucking bad,” Diablo Cody shared. During their first meeting, Juno and Mark Loring strike up an instant connection and friendship that builds throughout the film. Mark (Jason Bateman) is a grown-up version of Juno. Just like her, he's into all that counter culture stuff, and he's taken on an ironic detachment, just like Juno. It doesn't help Juno makes some barbed comments to Mark such as "What would The Melvins think? You are quite the sellout!" 

Mark’s outfits throughout the film change according to where he is, mentally, in his marriage. His respetable clothes at the beginning of the film seem to be picked out by Vanessa, who favors a classical style. As the story progresses, Mark begins to dress in a more comfortable manner, opting for flannels and jeans before completely turning the page with a Soundgarden t-shirt layered over a long-sleeved shirt and a color scheme that complements Juno’s wardrobe. It can be said that Mark undergoes a negative character development, his underlying resentment towards Vanessa ruining his friendship with Juno at the end. So why is it until Juno comes into the picture that Mark finally chooses to break his silence? Back in the audio commentary of the film, Reitman and Cody comment that despite Mark and Juno having feelings for each other, Juno is in love with the idea of being an adult while Mark is in love with the idea of being young. And it isn’t until Mark reveals he’s leaving Vanessa that their worldviews clash and these feelings projected onto each other are unable to find any solid basis or hold, and they crumble. Source: medium.com

 

Stranger Things Part 2, Dark Triad

Netflix has released images from the final hours of Stranger Things, which drop July 1. Two episodes totaling nearly four hours make up Volume 2 of the drama’s fourth on the streamer. Episode 408 will clock in at 1 hour, 25 minutes, while 409 will run 2 hours, 20 minutes. Last week, Netflix released a teaser for the final s4 hours of the drama created by The Duffer Brothers. During Netflix’s Geeked Week, Ross Duffer said he and his brother can now put the young stars in a lot more danger. Season four, up until this point, has been markedly darker than several of the preceding seasons. While the show always had one foot in the macabre, season four has been even harsher on the harried Hawkinites. A lot of this horror can be attributed to this season's newly introduced enemy, the villainous Vecna.

A trait consistently found to have a negative correlation with enjoyment of watching a horror film is empathy (Tamborini et al, 1990; Johnston, 1995; Lynch & Martins, 2015). People who report through self questionnaire higher empathy tend to sympathize more with characters they see on screen who are in danger than people with lower empathy (Davis et al., 1987). Therefore, viewers who are very empathetic should have the most negative effects when watching horror movies and would be expected not to enjoy them. Consistent with this, a meta analysis of experiments using horror movies showed that empathetic concern was negatively correlated with enjoyment of frightening and violent media (Hoffner & Levine, 2005). These robust findings of high sensation seeking and low empathy predicting horror movie enjoyment have led to my hypothesis that scoring high on Dark Triad traits can also be used as a predictor for horror movie enjoyment. Low empathy and high sensation seeking are both tendencies found among the personality types of the Dark Triad. The Dark Triad was identified as such in 2002 by Paulhus and Williams as three personality variables that are distinct but have some overlap and are all considered anti-social. These three traits are psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism. While narcissism and psychopathy were both originally identified as clinical personality disorders and identified as such in the DSMIV, they also exist at the subclinical level. Psychopathy is usually considered the most dangerous of the Dark Triad traits (Rauthman, 2012) Psychopaths by definition have low empathy (Del Gaizo & Falkenbach, 2008; Mahmut, Homewood & Stevenson, 2008) and would therefore be less likely to empathize with victims in horror films. Psychopathy is of particular interest to the study of horror movies because of their noteworthy relationship with fear. Psychopaths are often characterized as having no fear (Hosker-Field, Gauthier & Book, 2016) Source: digitalcommons.bard.edu