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Clash of the Egos: On-Set Drama and Feuds


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Just thought I'd start this after reading about the legendary Joan Crawford/Bette Davis feud on the set of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane."  

 

From

http://flavorwire.com/298930/the-most-notorious-co-star-feuds-in-movie-history:

"Few stars got along as poorly as Davis and Crawford on What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, though they brought decades of rivalry and ill will to the set. The stories of their fights are legendary: Davis reportedly kicked Crawford in the head “accidentally” during one scene, while Crawford put weights in her clothes for a scene where she was dragged by Davis. But it got even uglier when that year’s Oscar nominations were announced — and Davis was nominated for Best Actress, while Crawford was not. Davis said later that her bitter co-star not only campaigned against her, but reached out to the nominees who were not able to attend and graciously offered to accept their awards for them. When Anne Bancroft won, Crawford pushed her way past Davis to triumphantly accept the trophy."

Highly entertaining I must say.

Edited by Treebeard
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I hear that Debra Winger and Richard Gere hated each other in An Officer and a Gentleman.  Rumor has it that she said that certain moments in the love scene that came off as passionate, were actually her trying to mask the unpleasantness of his touching her.

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The Davis/Crawford feud was indeed the gold standard. This Bette Davis quote always made me laugh:

 

 

Just thought I'd start this after reading about the legendary Joan Crawford/Bette Davis feud on the set of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane."  

 

 

There's even a book about it, Bette & Joan: The Divine Feud, by Shaun Considine. It is in my stack of books to read, and has just moved to the top.

 

 

I think Winger and Shirley MacLaine had a little feud thing going on An Officer and a Gentleman, too.  No, it was Terms of Endearment, as noted correctly below by Princess Sparkle.  (Duh! on me.)

Edited by harrie
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One that makes me sad is Harold Ramis and Bill Murray.  It started while Ramis was directing Groundhog Day, and Murray was acting a little nuts, going through a nasty divorce.  Reportedly there was no actual confrontation, but Murray just kind of shut out Ramis, who said he always felt bad about the situation and that he missed his friend Bill.  Ramis died last year, relationship unresolved.

 

Continuing on this uplifting (?) train of thought, another legendary feud was Olivia deHavilland and her sister, Joan Fontaine.  Fontaine won round one, getting an Oscar-TM first (against Olivia, no less); but deHavilland is still alive, while Fontaine passed away in 2013, so it could be argued she won overall. Here's a writeup on the many facets of the sisters' relationship.

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One that makes me sad is Harold Ramis and Bill Murray.  It started while Ramis was directing Groundhog Day, and Murray was acting a little nuts, going through a nasty divorce.  Reportedly there was no actual confrontation, but Murray just kind of shut out Ramis, who said he always felt bad about the situation and that he missed his friend Bill.  Ramis died last year, relationship unresolved.

 

Continuing on this uplifting (?) train of thought, another legendary feud was Olivia deHavilland and her sister, Joan Fontaine.  Fontaine won round one, getting an Oscar-TM first (against Olivia, no less); but deHavilland is still alive, while Fontaine passed away in 2013, so it could be argued she won overall. Here's a writeup on the many facets of the sisters' relationship.

When Bill was on Howard Stern last year, he actually said that he and Harold actually did get to make up before he died. 

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I hear that Debra Winger and Richard Gere hated each other in An Officer and a Gentleman.  Rumor has it that she said that certain moments in the love scene that came off as passionate, were actually her trying to mask the unpleasantness of his touching her.

I've heard that as well, and I've also heard that Debra Winger was pretty difficult to get along with.  I know there were rumors for awhile that she and Shirley McLaine did not get along on the Terms of Endearment set.  

 

This is a bit of a minor one, but I know on the set of the Breakfast Club, Emilo Estevez tried to fight John Kapelos, because John Kapelos made a joke about Martin Sheen's heart attack, not realizing that Emilio was his son.  

 

I know there are others, but I can't think of any at the moment.

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This is a bit of a minor one, but I know on the set of the Breakfast Club, Emilo Estevez tried to fight John Kapelos, because John Kapelos made a joke about Martin Sheen's heart attack, not realizing that Emilio was his son.  

 

Who makes a joke about someone having a heart attack?  And who doesn't know that Emilio Estevez is Martin Sheen's son??

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I seem to remember Lucy Liu having a fight with Bill Murray on the set of Charlies Angels. This being the reason Bernie Mac took over for the second movie. Apparently Murray said she couldn't act. Really Bill... on a movie like Charlies Angels ?

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Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling allegedly did not get along together on the set of The Notebook. The director talks about it here. I saw Rachel's audition for the movie on the DVD extras; she and Ryan had chemistry off the bat. Interesting how they worked through that, had some electric on screen chemistry, and ended up dating in one of the best loved celebrity relationships in recent years.

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Who makes a joke about someone having a heart attack?  And who doesn't know that Emilio Estevez is Martin Sheen's son??

I guess the joke was something along the lines of "Hey kids, don't be so intense on set; that's how Martin Sheen had a heart attack."  I can see how he wouldn't realize Emilo is Martin's son; Emilo wasn't really famous yet and I think Charlie Sheen is the brother that resembles Martin more closely.

 

In fairness to John Kapelos, he felt awful for years after he found out, and when he had a part on the West Wing, he relayed the story to Martin Sheen and apologized.  Apparently, Martin Sheen just laughed, so good for him.  I would call Emilio high strung, but I suppose if he thought it was common knowledge on set that he's Martin Sheen's son, I could see how he could take it the wrong way.

 

I seem to remember Lucy Liu having a fight with Bill Murray on the set of Charlies Angels. This being the reason Bernie Mac took over for the second movie. Apparently Murray said she couldn't act. Really Bill... on a movie like Charlies Angels ?

Yeah, I heard that too.  And yeah, we're not talking Schindler's List here, it's a campy action movie. 

Edited by Princess Sparkle
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Who makes a joke about someone having a heart attack?  And who doesn't know that Emilio Estevez is Martin Sheen's son??

I didn't know that for like most of the 80s. I think that was a bit of an overreaction.\

Edited by BooBear
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According to Leah Thompson, Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze hated one another in Red Dawn and she was always surprised they agreed to do Dirty Dancing together.

Stories of these two hating each other during Dirty Dancing are legendary.  

 

See?  This type of thing is what deserves Oscars IMO.  They created serious chemistry on that movie and if no one had ever told me I would have never known they couldn't stand each other.  There should be a category for that.  

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Jennifer and Patrick not getting along doesn't surprise me.  I think they were cordial to each other after the movie but I knew throughout the years that they weren't exactly friends.  I think for me it has to do with how the actors relate to one another after a movie is made, how they speak of one another.  For such an intimate game changing movie there was never much reverence or joy when either would speak of the other.

 

Contrast that with say how Patrick and Whoopi always talked about working with each other on Ghost.  You could tell they loved and adored one another. There was also this rumor that Demi didn't get along with them so well, but when Demi did an interview on The View a couple of years ago, her and Whoopi were practically in each others lap and spent a great deal talking about how much fun they had doing Ghost, especially the slow dance and kiss scene.  Goes to show some are just rumors.

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R2D2 and C3PO hated each other in real life! Well, the actors inside them.

Here's a list of quotes of classic actors dissing each other.

http://moviemorlocks.com/2011/08/11/they-said-what-classic-insults-from-classic-actors/

Some of them are hilarious, such as,

6. Vivian Leigh on Bette Davis after turning down a role in HUSH…HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE: “I could just stand the thought of facing Joan Crawford at seven in the morning, but I couldn’t stand the thought of facing Bette Davis at that or any hour.”

20. Fanny Brice on Esther Williams: “Wet, she’s a star. Dry, she ain’t.” Dayum

10. Christopher Plummer on Julie Andrews: “Working with her is like being hit over the head with a big Valentine’s Day card, every day.”

(Love julie andrews but still lol)

21. John Cassavetes on Ricardo Montalban: “Ricardo Montalban is to improvised acting what Mount Rushmore is to animation.”

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R2D2 and C3PO hated each other in real life! Well, the actors inside them.

Here's a list of quotes of classic actors dissing each other.

http://moviemorlocks.com/2011/08/11/they-said-what-classic-insults-from-classic-actors/

Some of them are hilarious, such as,

6. Vivian Leigh on Bette Davis after turning down a role in HUSH…HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE: “I could just stand the thought of facing Joan Crawford at seven in the morning, but I couldn’t stand the thought of facing Bette Davis at that or any hour.”

20. Fanny Brice on Esther Williams: “Wet, she’s a star. Dry, she ain’t.” Dayum

10. Christopher Plummer on Julie Andrews: “Working with her is like being hit over the head with a big Valentine’s Day card, every day.”

(Love julie andrews but still lol)

21. John Cassavetes on Ricardo Montalban: “Ricardo Montalban is to improvised acting what Mount Rushmore is to animation.”

 

Can you imagine if actors were so candid today?  Is #25 actually about Michael Caine?  He's many things but I would never describe him as "over-fat".

Edited by dusang
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Wow, that's a great list, Treebeard.  In this one -- 9. Bette Davis on Cary Grant: “He needed willowy or boyish girls like Katharine Hepburn to make him look what they now call macho. If I’d co-starred with Grant or if Crawford had, we’d have eaten him for breakfast. -- I think I detect a grudging respect for Crawford on Davis's part. 

 

dusang, by Richard Harris's standards, Caine might be chubby.   Harris was always kind of gaunt-looking to me.  

 

The set of Sabrina must have been fun.  Bogart and Holden didn't like each other, and I've seen a picture of Bogart and Hepburn on the set where they're sitting in chairs next to each other, but facing away from each other looking kind of disgruntled.  I don't know that it qualifies as a feud, but they didn't appreciate each other much, I believe.  Another case of acting (and directing) overcoming real life, I guess, because (IMO) Sabrina comes off as whimsical and fairy-tale like, which I believe was the intent of Mr. Wilder.  

 

And Oliver Reed was an SOB by just about all accounts, and a marginal actor by some accounts, but I cannot help loving him. 

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Ha, you gotta love Bette's shade on Hepburn/Grant. Boy-ish. Hee. Though I feel like Grant's appeal was precisely in his metrosexual vibe, and I wouldn't call Constance Bennett boyish yet that's my favorite version of Grant ever in Topper.

 

I will forever love Faye Dunaway for throwing piss in the face of Polanski on the Chinatown set. Couldn't have happened to anyone more deserving.

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I love that Bette Davis is the speaker or subject of most of the top ten.  Bless that woman.

 

 

Coincidentally I remember that Bette quite liked Debra Winger, at least by reputation. The quote was something like "She's been called very difficult, and you don't get anywhere in this business without being very difficult".

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Ha, you gotta love Bette's shade on Hepburn/Grant. Boy-ish. Hee. Though I feel like Grant's appeal was precisely in his metrosexual vibe, and I wouldn't call Constance Bennett boyish yet that's my favorite version of Grant ever in Topper.

 

I actually think a Davis/Grant movie sounds like a terrific idea and now I'm sad it never happened! With a skilled director like Hitchcock or Hawks, people who really understood what made Grant special as a presence in movies IMO, it could have been spectacular. Mixing Davis' authority on screen with Grant's brilliance at being the "reactor", could have been fire. Pauline Kael wrote a great essay on Grant's appeal as a leading man, how he was often the pursued and what made him so attractive was the sense that he was never really attainable. That even if at the end of a movie he declared his love for his leading lady you had the sense that he could still change his mind at any time. Hitchcock in particular also really explored the latent sadism in the Grant persona. Davis and Grant facing off in a film noir sound like an interesting idea, both could play at a certain darkness and ruthlessness.

 

More on topic: Weren't there always rumours that Leigh and Gable couldn't stand each other on the set of GWTW?

Edited by katha
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Speaking of GWTW, of course there was the fact that Gable detested George Cukor, the original director, mostly because Cukor was gay and was known for favoring the leading ladies in his films, who all loved him. Gable had Cukor kicked off and his buddy Victor Fleming brought on board after he finished filming Wizard of Oz.

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The set of Sabrina must have been fun.  Bogart and Holden didn't like each other, and I've seen a picture of Bogart and Hepburn on the set where they're sitting in chairs next to each other, but facing away from each other looking kind of disgruntled.  I don't know that it qualifies as a feud, but they didn't appreciate each other much, I believe.  Another case of acting (and directing) overcoming real life, I guess, because (IMO) Sabrina comes off as whimsical and fairy-tale like, which I believe was the intent of Mr. Wilder. 

 

The Bogart/Holden anti-chemistry worked with them as brothers. Bogart wanted his wife Lauren Bacall as Sabrina which (IMO) wouldn't have worked. I think he was disgruntled by that; I like Bogie on films, but he doesn't always sound like the easiest guy to work with. I don't think Audrey Hepburn really had an opinion on Bogie, but during the production, Hepburn and Holden were involved in affair. Holden called Hepburn the love of his life actually.

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Is #25 actually about Michael Caine?  He's many things but I would never describe him as "over-fat".

Harris has also had bad things to say about Ian McKellen, Kenneth Branaugh, Charlton Heston, Tom Cruise, and Julie Andrews. I get the impression he just sort of spewed random vitriol at everyone, though apparently Oliver Reed discovered this could be defused by confronting each other in a bar and getting hammered.

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There was a bunch of those hip young Brit actors in the 1960s who tended to get hammered. Add Robert Stephens (father to Toby and husband to Maggie Smith, and viewable on screen as Pistol in Branagh's Henry V after he dried out) to the list.

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The Bogart/Holden anti-chemistry worked with them as brothers. Bogart wanted his wife Lauren Bacall as Sabrina which (IMO) wouldn't have worked. I think he was disgruntled by that; I like Bogie on films, but he doesn't always sound like the easiest guy to work with. I don't think Audrey Hepburn really had an opinion on Bogie, but during the production, Hepburn and Holden were involved in affair. Holden called Hepburn the love of his life actually.

 

Bogart was supposedly really difficult to work with. I can't remember which movie set it was on, but he was playing chess with another actor and lost, and he got so pissed off that he flipped the entire table over, then stomped off to his dressing room.

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I have heard before that even though they were friends and presumably made up later, Henry Fonda once beat the crap out of James Stewart over some political rift.

Edited by vb68
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The Bogart/Holden anti-chemistry worked with them as brothers. Bogart wanted his wife Lauren Bacall as Sabrina which (IMO) wouldn't have worked. I think he was disgruntled by that; I like Bogie on films, but he doesn't always sound like the easiest guy to work with. I don't think Audrey Hepburn really had an opinion on Bogie, but during the production, Hepburn and Holden were involved in affair. Holden called Hepburn the love of his life actually.

 

Thank you, Athena -- I did not know that.   And I simultaneously giggle and shrink in horror imagining L. Bacall -- whom I love, don't get me wrong -- in the title role.  I wish I could scrounge up the picture I'm thinking of because A. Hepburn and Bogart both look pissed and turned away from each other; of course it could just be a bad moment that was captured. But Bogart was famous for his needling. Shelley Winters wrote in her memoirs about her Same Time, Next Year-esque trysts with Holden, but I also did not know that A. Hepburn was the love of his life. I kind of thought Stefanie Powers filled that role, not realizing she was an also-ran. 

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Hepburn hated that Bogart and Huston spent all of their time drinking during the filming of African Queen, but she and Lauren Bacall became friends during the filming.

 

Allegedly, K. Hepburn was very sick on that shoot because she drank the local water and Bogart and Huston spent most of it drinking alcohol.

 

Thank you, Athena -- I did not know that.   And I simultaneously giggle and shrink in horror imagining L. Bacall -- whom I love, don't get me wrong -- in the title role.  I wish I could scrounge up the picture I'm thinking of because A. Hepburn and Bogart both look pissed and turned away from each other; of course it could just be a bad moment that was captured. But Bogart was famous for his needling. Shelley Winters wrote in her memoirs about her Same Time, Next Year-esque trysts with Holden, but I also did not know that A. Hepburn was the love of his life. I kind of thought Stefanie Powers filled that role, not realizing she was an also-ran. 

 

I know the picture you are thinking of. I think Bogie didn't mind Audrey in the end, but they weren't going to be life long friends.

 

Holden was an alcoholic and he did have a number of affairs. He was separated from his wife more often than not. He tried to win Audrey back ten years later in Paris when it sizzles; the director even mentions how drunk he was during periods of filming and how he'd make a fool of himself in front of her.

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28. John Gielgud on Ingrid Bergman: “Ingrid Bergman speaks five languages and can’t act in any of them.”

 

Granted my love for Ingrid Bergman probably makes me biased, but I couldn't help but laugh at this one because 1.) she won 3 Oscars so clearly quite a few people thought she could act and 2.) she was nominated for a performance in a foreign film so that gives her at least 2 languages she can act in.

 

Someone mentioned Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda and I can't think of the specifics but I'm pretty sure there's a quote out there where Stewart said that in spite of their different political beliefs they remained lifelong friends. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they did fight over it, apparently they were complete opposites politically.

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The Davis/Crawford feud was indeed the gold standard. This Bette Davis quote always made me laugh: "You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Joan Crawford is dead. Good."

 

Vivian Leigh on Bette Davis after turning down a role in HUSH…HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE: “I could just stand the thought of facing Joan Crawford at seven in the morning, but I couldn’t stand the thought of facing Bette Davis at that or any hour.”

 

Classic Hollywood burns are the best!  

 

I remember rumors of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise hating one another in Interview with the Vampire. Seemed to work out well for the film.

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I hear that Debra Winger and Richard Gere hated each other in An Officer and a Gentleman.  Rumor has it that she said that certain moments in the love scene that came off as passionate, were actually her trying to mask the unpleasantness of his touching her.

 

        I once read that there was no love lost between Debra and the Director Taylor Hackford. 

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I can't believe I forgot to mention David O'Russell in my previous post!  There's Three Kings, where David O'Russell got punched by George Clooney, and then I Heart Huckabees, where he and Lily Tomlin got into multiple screaming matches on-set (which I think you can find on youtube).  I'm pretty sure Mark Wahlberg also said that he hadn't wanted to work with David O'Russell again, but only asked him to direct The Fighter after Christian Bale said he really wanted to work with him (O'Russell) and Scorsese turned him down.

Edited by Princess Sparkle
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I can't believe I forgot to mention David O'Russell in my previous post!  There's Three Kings, where David O'Russell got punched by George Clooney, and then I Heart Huckabees, where he and Lily Tomlin got into multiple screaming matches on-set (which I think you can find on youtube).  I'm pretty sure Mark Wahlberg also said that he hadn't wanted to work with David O'Russell again, but only asked him to direct The Fighter after Christian Bale said he really wanted to work with him (O'Russell) and Scorsese turned him down.

Yup, here's one of them... SEVERE LANGUAGE WARNING

That's more entertaining than the actual movie...should have put it in

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I remembered this gem from Shelley Winters' biography at IMDB-

 

On the September 26, 1975 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), she grew tired of Oliver Reed's attitude towards women. They had a heated conversation and, after Winters told Reed what she thought of his opinions, she left the set. The show continued with Reed going on about women while Johnny Carson looked at him in a daze. Shortly afterward, Winters appeared from stage left, unannounced to Reed and to the shock of Carson. She was carrying a beverage glass and surprised Reed by dumping it over his head. Reed went on to finish his statement as if nothing had happened and later claimed the beverage was whiskey.

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I remembered this gem from Shelley Winters' biography at IMDB-

 

On the September 26, 1975 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), she grew tired of Oliver Reed's attitude towards women. They had a heated conversation and, after Winters told Reed what she thought of his opinions, she left the set. The show continued with Reed going on about women while Johnny Carson looked at him in a daze. Shortly afterward, Winters appeared from stage left, unannounced to Reed and to the shock of Carson. She was carrying a beverage glass and surprised Reed by dumping it over his head. Reed went on to finish his statement as if nothing had happened and later claimed the beverage was whiskey.

There must be video of that somewhere. To Youtube!

Edited by Joe
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   Speaking of rants...Christian Bale's rant on the set of Terminator Salvation about 6 years ago:

 

Oh man, I can't believe I didn't think of that one. It was an epic thing. (And great, now I have the remix of it stuck on my head. Damn, that was catchy.)

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I'm amazed at how men like David O'Russell continue to work in the industry. 

Unfortunately money talks.  He makes his movies for cheap and they turn great profits as well as awards.  I will say I think that David has really started to change his ways in the last few years.  I have seen him on a lot of those roundtable discussions or interviews and he sort of alludes to his behavior in the past and not being proud of it and that he has made a change.  From what I heard there haven't been any issues in the last couple of movies he has done.

 

Speaking of roundtable discussions Nicole Kidman did one a few years ago and she said something that I found to be pretty interesting.  She was commenting on how she is not a fan of information from sets getting out.  This was right after the Christian Bale thing, and she was already talking about her collaborations with Lars Van Trier, who is pretty out there as a director.  Anyway she said that those types of situations can be tricky when making art and your doing a movie and trying to nail a scene after the 15th hour on set, etc.  Not condoning it but she said that most people whether talent or crew at the end of the day understand that and there can be a lot of forgiveness on set for things like that.  She said in a lot of cases situations like that are addressed and everyone is back to being friends five minutes later, but because now stuff like that is taped it lives on and helps form a reputation that someone may or may not deserve.

 

That got me thinking about sports in particular.  I mean if the stuff that went down in locker rooms was secretly reported on a wider scale I'm sure our opinions of both players and team management would be different.  Things like that happen to be more accepted in sports than say the arts.  Interesting.

Edited by JBC344
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I'm amazed at how men like David O'Russell continue to work in the industry. 

 

And that so many of his actors return for other projects -- Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, the entire cast of Silver Linings Playbook...

 

Although I hated SLP -- I will never understand the acclaim, I wasn't even that impressed with the performances -- he does make some really good films.

 

(Also, I just IMDB'ed him and it's David O. Russell.)

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And that so many of his actors return for other projects -- Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, the entire cast of Silver Linings Playbook...

 

Although I hated SLP -- I will never understand the acclaim, I wasn't even that impressed with the performances -- he does make some really good films.

 

(Also, I just IMDB'ed him and it's David O. Russell.)

I think he is starting to learn from his past mistakes.  He has had some pretty high profile fights with actors; the Lily Tomlin fight is epic, when you have pissed of George Clooney (Mr. Hollywood) enough to wear he is assaulting you, you have some issues.  Mark Wahlberg and he have made up since the Silver Linings Playbook issue. 

 

David was originally supposed to make SLP with Mark and Angelina.  Mark I believe had a scheduling issue with another movie and needed David to wait for him, David then offered the part to Bradley behind Mark's back, causing Mark to break off all ties with David.  At the Hollywood roundtable discussion they asked Mark about the feud and Mark said that he and David have actually made up. We will see if they will work together again.

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