“Hoi polloi” refers to common stooges, not fancy ladies
There are thousands of articles about the many grammatical errors that people make when speaking or writing English: "its" vs. "it's" and so on. But these are the nine mistakes that bug me, Mark Tapio Kines, the most. "Snuck" instead of "sneaked". I realize I'm on the wrong side of history here: "snuck" has become so commonplace that it's practically proper English. But the word… read more!
Rainn Wilson in The Rocker
When I was a child, I watched Captain Kangaroo. Naturally, the Captain and his best pal Mr. Green Jeans dominated the show. But there was also a supporting player named Dennis, played by Cosmo Allegretti. In one episode, Dennis got his own little number, set to Manfred Mann's "Ragamuffin Man". He danced so soulfully. It was touching, seeing this guy that nobody cared about,… read more!
Hootie & the Blowfish
Surely by now you know that there's nobody named Pink Floyd; Syd Barrett named his band after American bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. (Jethro Tull and Rilo Kiley were similarly named for obscure historical figures.) But perhaps you were once fooled, like me, into believing that these nine bands' fictional frontmen were real. Echo & the Bunnymen. Vocalist Ian McCulloch never went by the nickname… read more!
David Lynch
Don't get turned off by this list's vapid title: I have some mildly interesting stories to tell. You see, although I have seen my share of famous people ever since I moved to Los Angeles, 2015 has been a banner year for celebrity encounters. Here are nine of those encounters, in chronological order: David Lynch. I had popped into a tobacconist to snag a matchbox; I was preparing my… read more!
Anton Chekhov
Thanks to this year's surprise publication of Harper Lee's long-lost Go Set a Watchman, Lee is no longer a member of that elite group known as "Famous Authors Who Only Wrote One Novel". The Internet is filled with lists about these people, and you'll see the same names over again: Emily Brontë (Wuthering Heights), Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man), Margaret Mitchell (Gone… read more!
Johnny Depp in The Libertine
The main (and indeed, only) character in my new short 20 Matches hails from Vienna. When casting the film, I sought out actresses from Austria and Germany rather than endure Americans attempting a Viennese dialect. I just didn't have the time. Conversely, when casting Foreign Correspondents I chose an American actor, Corin Nemec, to play my Englishman, not only because he was the… read more!
Them!
There's a line in Zoolander in which idiotic supermodel Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) looks at a scale model of a learning center and says, "What is this? A center for ants?" This is not a list for ants, though it is a list about ants. That is, movies about ants. Grab the Raid and read on. Ant-Man (2015). The inspiration for… read more!
A Hummer
In the 1980s, it was easy to define the previous decade by ticking off singular '70s fads: bellbottoms! disco! Leif Garrett! Likewise, when the '90s rolled around, one had no problem summing up the '80s: New Wave! Pac-Man! Moonlighting! Yet here I am in 2015, finding the current decade indistinguishable from the last. Part of this is me getting older and thus less attuned… read more!
Jonathan Harris
This weekend brings the annual Gay Pride festivities to West Hollywood, which is arguably the gayest city in the country if not the world. As one of relatively few straight men in WeHo, my preference for women may not be obvious as I walk through "Boys Town" on my way to the public pool. Thus I find myself identifying with… read more!
The Beaver, directed by and starring Jodie Foster
Finding work – and acceptance – is an ongoing struggle for female film directors, both in Hollywood and elsewhere, but some are doing it. A handful of them came from the acting world, though they haven't yet directed themselves in anything (e.g., Penny Marshall, Angelina Jolie). Here are some who have. In the wake of the boffo box office garnered by Pitch Perfect 2, the directorial debut of its costar… read more!
The Piano: The last film Kurt Cobain ever saw?
Recently I read an article in The New Yorker, written by Oliver Sacks, about the troubled last years of actor/monologist Spalding Gray (Swimming to Cambodia). Sacks noted that, on January 11, 2004, Gray saw the Tim Burton movie Big Fish a few hours before drowning himself in New York's East River. I was reminded of the Heaven's Gate suicide cult, and how,… read more!
Robert Shaw
I often try to write a personal List of 9 around my birthday, which was yesterday, so here you go. I've never been much of an autograph hound, but over the years I've compiled a most random collection of famous signatures. More or less in chronological order: Robert Hegyes and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs. It was 1975, and Welcome Back Kotter was all the rage. I… read more!
Canadian Bacon, directed by Michael Moore
Every once in a while, a documentary filmmaker will produce something notable – notable enough to make money at the box office, secure an Oscar nomination or a win, and turn said filmmaker into the toast of the town. Then comes the inevitable Hollywood offer: "How about directing a real movie with real actors?" Few can resist the temptation, and… read more!
Bruce Lee, born in San Francisco
Hollywood has, since the beginning, attracted talent from across the globe. These days, it seems like there are more British actors working in Hollywood than ever before – and most are playing Americans! Anyway, here's a quick and dirty list about those heavily-accented foreigners who, in fact, breathed their first breaths, saw their first rays of sunshine, and pooped their first poops in… read more!
The Twitter logo
In 2013, I had a fruitless meeting with a talent agent, who told me to "get on Twitter, follow some showbiz people you admire, tweet at them, and your career will go places." Lame advice, but I still made a go of it. A year and a half later, with over 1,000 tweets and around 400 followers, I have not warmed to Twitter, and Twitter has not warmed… read more!
Wish I Was Here
Now that I am in the throes of funding my short film 20 Matches on Indiegogo – and for those just tuning in, yes, I was the first-ever filmmaker to employ crowdfunding, back in 1998 (read more about it here) – this is a relevant list. The heyday of famous filmmakers raising money on Kickstarter and Indiegogo may be over, but crowdfunding is still a thing, and… read more!
Maleficent
Production designers are the unsung heroes of showbiz. If you really want to know about all the thought and care that goes into a film, then talk to these folks. They are the true "artistes" on a crew. They can tell you more about a film's characters, themes, and intentions than anyone else – even directors. Of all the crew… read more!
Van Halen
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were both born and raised in Queens. That makes Simon & Garfunkel a more "pureblood" New York outfit than, say, Blondie or the Velvet Underground. This made me think about the countless Los Angeles bands that, like the city itself, consist of transplants: most of the members of the Eagles, Guns N' Roses, and Maroon 5, for example,… read more!
The Last of Sheila, written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim
This was the original concept for an earlier list, which evolved into Nine Famous Authors Who Only Wrote One Screenplay. Nevertheless, this is an equally interesting group of people, who embody the idea that we all have at least one screenplay in us. In these cases, exactly one. ANTHONY PERKINS, The Last of Sheila (1973). Yes, Norman Bates wrote a screenplay. What's surprising is that this murder mystery, packed with… read more!