Live From American Film Institute
Cathy Seipp is hosting an event with Hollywood and blogger speakers and I'm blogging from it...LIVE!...at this very moment. We're at AFI in the hills of Hollywood. The evening is titled "The Inside Story: Hollywood And The Media Deconstructed." Emmanuelle Richard and I are her co-hosts, as always, but this time, all we had to do was e-mail out Cathy's invite, then a warning about getting frisked due to the presence of Charles Johnson from Little Green Footballs. Panel One -- the Hollywood part -- is Andrew Breitbart, co-author of Hollywood Interrupted; Mike Sullivan, former head of programming at UPN and still creating programming at Paulist Prodns; Allan Mayer (described below), and Rob Long, TV producer/showrunner who was the young, co-showrunner of Cheers.

I'll post whatever tidbits I can type fast enough to paraphrase and quote. PS This may turn out to be real crap, because it's terribly hard to listen and type and blog and get it right, so I may end up being a bit boring, omitting, and/or confusing in the name of correctly quoting people:

Cathy asked Mike Sullivan to talk about how some of the freshest shows on TV have been created by and/or star(red) "middle-aged has-beens"...from B-movie actress Lucy Arnaz, to Carroll O'Connor to David Chase ("The Sopranos"). Sullivan said the idea of network execs is that we know how "this old hack" will do, and "maybe this young hack will be better." Rob Long later pointed out that Ricky and Lucy wouldn't have been thought to have an inter-racial marriage back in the day.

"There's a cluelessness in the news business..." commented Alan Mayer, former editor of Buzz Magazine; now head of the entertainment division at Sitrick, a crisis PR firm. "We don't want to deal with the substance of anything," said Mayer. People just want to examine the motive -- not what happened, but why it happened, he explained. He feels there's a blurring of the lines between entertainment journalism and political journalism and other kinds of journalism. He noted that he was amused at the way the Schwartzenegger administration is dealing with the flood of foreign press requests by setting up a press junket, patterned on Hollywood press junkets.

Rob Long said just told...I think he said it was The New York Times...that the sitcom was dead.

Former UPN head Mike Sullivan breaks in: "Again?"

According to Rob, Hollywood sitcom execs are the meddling-est suits of all, constantly looking over the show-runner's shoulder. Oh yeah -- Sullivan used to be a censor. So he really knows all sides of the biz.

Rob comments on the Hollyweasels butting in: "It never occurs to these people that it's so bad because they're involved in doing it." Also, Rob knew a very funny sitcom writer who was depressed, and was prescribed Paxil. Apparently, anti-depressants are a cure for being funny. The guy took the drug, became a lug. Good. I think I'll stay crazy then!

Andrew brought up reality TV, and Mike noted that civility used to be prized; now it's the opposite (on TV and in our society, I think he meant). Alan said Jerry Springer's been doing it for 15 years, and it's just now moving into prime time. He sees a business problem for the entertainment industry: there are no reruns, and there's no syndication. It's throwaway programming. PS Alan did the recent behind-the-scenes for The Simpsons (voiceover) cast, in their bid to get salary increases.

Some very attractive woman, an actress, asked about people taking productions out of town and out of the country. George Clooney was one of the accused (for his first directing effort). Sullivan mentioned that (John Sayles) Matewan was non-union! It's always the leftiest lefties who are the worst employers!

VERACITY NOTE: Somebody posted in my comments section below that this is not true. Maybe the comment by Sullivan was that Matewan was ABOUT union struggles? If anybody has the correct info on this, please let me know. On deadline now -- will come back to this when I'm done with my column on Tuesday afternoon.

MORE: Actually, it appears Sayles has worked non-union, although I can only find rumors on Google that Matewan was non-union.

Alan addressed runaway production, noting that people get caught between the choice of shooting at home (because people like working at home, quality of technicians is high, and the US looks more like the US than other places do). He talked about the difficulty of getting a green light -- and learning you can make it "for a price." And sometimes the only way to make it work is to go to Canada. Sometimes, the choice is make it there, or don't make it, he noted. "The best that can happen, and it's not a happy outcome..." he noted, is "...doing as much of the prep and the post" as possible, here (in America).

Rob noted, because the "above-the-line" costs (ie, actors -- the non-crew members of the production) are so high now, money is a concern in a way it never was.

Sullivan revealed that the Sopranos was first developed for Fox, and said that if it had been made for Fox, it would have been a totally different show, and Gandolfini wouldn't have been in the lead role.

Rob thinks HBO will begin to think that everything they do is great, and it's great because they did it. He thinks it's the nature of..."people" (networks, I think he means).

Andrew (who runs The Drudge Report), referred to himself as "Matt Drudge's bitch," then commented that blogging is based on good mainstream journalism, and if the journalism isn't good (LA Times was his example of "not good"), the blogging can't be good. He thinks, if the rest of the country knew "how the sausages are made" (in terms of production), people would be outraged at how stars' salaries are squeezing the below-the-line people.

Cathy's daughter, aka Cecile Dubois, is blogging live on Cathy's blog...check out her stuff on the event here.

Alan mentioned that he liked how Mulder on "The X Files" referred to "the Military-Entertainment Industrial Complex," and talked about how he wanted somebody to write a book on NY, DC, and Hollywood when he was a book publisher, and feels people don't really address the growing inter-relation here. He mentioned this before, at greater length, but my fingers weren't fast enough. If you know Alan, ask him about this, because he has a lot to say on it. If you don't, Luke Ford will probably have it all, word for word, in a day or two, because he's taping this whole thing.

Rob describes Hollywood, in a nutshell, as "people scrambling for money." He says, I think referring to the old Ovitz aura: "There's no 'most powerful man in Hollywod'; there are just aging failures."

Alan calls journalism "such a passive profession" (now), where people are waiting for stuff to come to them, contrasted with the old Izzy Stone journalism. Sullivan noted that he, as a programming executive, was informed by the grips that shows were canceled -- when he had no idea. Alan found the stuff he needed for The Simpsons' salary negotiations via a guy who found all the information through public sources. Cathy commented on people from the LA Times who have a reputation for never leaving the office. Or their chair, she might have said.

Toby Young asked if a journalist who starts writing hard-hitting stories for The New York Times or another paper -- if they wouldn't be frozen out. Mike Sullivan responded by pointing out the vast number of great sources there are -- disgruntled employees. Rob answered Toby's question -- noting that people are afraid of being frozen out (of their society, I think he meant) -- and maybe even by their spouses!

Andrew pointed out that you rarely hear from celebrities how grateful they are that they make the kind of money they are, and how grateful they are to this country in general. Hmm, but with the salary whining -- this is the marketplace. The stars can get it, so they do.

Rishawn Biddle noted that we have kind of an innate knowledge of stars -- who they are and what they do -- Andrew kept talking over him, so I couldn't hear what he was saying. He noted that people understand that stuff is fiction, and like it -- and people from Pakistan aspire to be Americans. Andrew was arguing that you'll be pushed aside if you have "a certain mentality" (ie, right of center), that they'll be "utterly alienated." Oh, please. See below blog item on how NPR! has more Republican commentators than any others. He says "Hollywood puts out a negative message of what America stands for." Again, I turn to the marketplace. Hollywood is not a state film unit. You want to make a movie about how great fundamentalism is, raise the money, go ahead. Rob, who is right of center, disagreed that you'd be ostracized on the set for being to the right. If he has been ostracized, he's done quite well for it!

Rob feels "you can't get a more distorted view" (of America) than you can by watching CNN and reading The New York Times. He calls it "a massive disinformation campaign."

Sullivan pointed out that it would be hard to sell a movie critical of Roe v. Wade. Rob agreed.

Andrew noted that Martin Sheen, who is anti-nuke, is willing to get arrested for that, but said Sheen is pro-life and doesn't protest for that -- out of self-interest, Andrew felt. (That pro-life wouldn't play so well in The Biz.)

Whew. Time for a drink. I need one. Signing off! Hope this was semi-coherent!

Drunk From AFI
Okay, drinks thingie is over, and being a (post-)Jewish drunk, I had two drinks (my ultimate limit) and two spinach pie corners, and I'm more semi-coherent than usual. Sitting next to me is Matthew Klam, who's writing a piece for The New York Times on blogging...and has come all the way here from the coast that's convinced it's superior, ie, New York. Of course, we're the biggest book-buying market in the country, and the biggest subscriber audience to The New Yorker.

Panel number two is Matt Welch, Charles Johnson, Kevin Drum, Roger L. Simon, Moxie, and Mickey Kaus, who looks quite sexy in a sweatshirt and baseball hat with a day's growth (saw him in our local coffee shop the other day, dressed accordingly). Yeah, yeah...you've read his stuff, but now you know the untold story.

"Moxie is here to represent the 20% of women bloggers," says Cathy, noting that Moxie is "by far, the most right-wing person on this panel." There was something about running around in a bikini for John Ashcroft, but I missed the beginning part of it.

Mickey, like me, is a Kerry-loathing Kerry voter. Mickey used to be at Newsweek. "There's a reason every Newsweek writer is an ex-Newsweek writer." Small news-hole, apparently, is the reason. Why did Mickey blog: "If worse came to worse, I could start posting my stuff up on the Web." Now he has "a little bit of money and a few readers" -- his worst fears being none of either after starting a blog. He's Kausfiles.com (which gets you to his blog on Slate but don't ask me to link it, because I'm typing 900 miles per hour, and I'm still behind). Mickey attributes the demise of Howell Raines to bloggers -- rightly, I think.

Moxie started blogging in October of 2000 "as a means to write every day." Initially, she did not start her blog with the intention of writing about politics, but over the course of time, she became outraged by what she saw in the media -- ie, there are no right-wing women here (I think she means Los Angeles), and made the transition to writing about politics.

Roger L. Simon picked up on something Moxie said about blogs: "I think it's an extraordinary way of...meeting people." Blogging is a giant singles bar with no physical contact? Or something like that. When Roger had a novel coming out, he thought he'd try blogging (as a way to publicity). He finds a strange similarity between the writing required in blogs and the writing required in crime novels. Roger seems to claim to be apolitical, but or "off in all directions," but I think people tend to find him right-wing. He notes that blogs are crummy for selling novels.

Kevin Drum is a former software exec whose company got bought up by a Swiss company, then quit (I think that's what he said), and spent time reading Mickey, and then went to a Mickey link to Glenn Reynolds, then it was blog-crack to him. Two days later, he was blogging, then he started writing for Washington Monthly.

Kevin brought up, roundaboutly, one of the main charms of blogging: lack of editor! Well, I must interject, if you have a good editor, that person makes your work better. If you don't -- kill yourself, FAST!

Charles Johnson started blogging to teach himself the technology, then September 11 crystalized something in him -- which became the blog Little Green Footballs. Go back to his blog around September 11 -- and see the roots of what his blog is now. He's a musician, interested in history (he says), and "it's been a very interesting process - becaues it's lead to a real examination of all these issues with examination with Islamic extremism. He feels the mainstream media "whitewashes" what's going on now. "We're not even told this is a war...yes we're at war, but not really." He wants to bring "enlightenment" and "a more clear vision" of...?where we are and what we're going? I believe that's what he said.

Matt Welch pointed out that Charles goes through the Arab press and pulls stuff so we know what's going on. Matt feels he's "a lot less interesting," and felt then that "blogs were stupid and narcissistic" (and he still does). But, after September 11, he felt compelled to blog -- and Ken Layne set up his blog. Matt's also an associate editor at Reason Magazine. "Ultimately, I don't really care about politics too much," but he doesnt' belong to a political party, and finds people like Mickey, who are politics obsessed...sort of crazy...and I missed the other word, but it was quite funny.

Cathy noted that Matt has had "a few drs, inks." Yes, haven't we all!

Cathy pointed out that blogging makes the world smaller -- and noted that she met (via blogging) Sergeant Striker -- an Air Force mechanic and blogger. She thinks she meets people she would never meet otherwise.

Matt says "it's a fantastic way to meet people who just aren't in your social strata"...like a Republican cop from Pomona (one of his first readers). He thinks it breaks the red-blue divide: "Bro, we're on the same team here." He's a bit disappointed it's receded so much (I think he means since September 11). Matt uses his Web log, he says, to garner different points of view. Matt, here's mine: will you cut the baseball stuff already!

Charles gets tons of comments. And days of 100,000 unique visitors, he says. He's knocked with some regularity for not erasing comments of racists of one stripe or another. "Overly vehement" in their expression is his euphemism for it. "You really -- if you pick out the people who really have something to say and skip over" those "who don't"...he says you can "learn a lot." "The exchange of ideas" is "one of the main benefits" of blogging, he thinks.

Kevin Drum talks about proof of the reach of blogging being his being here -- meaning his Washington Monthly blog -- but actually, it was a blog-fight on LAObserved.com that got him here. People attacked Cathy for not including a more representative (ie, where are them Democrats!?) slice of blog-dom...and she responded by inviting Kevin.

Moxie says blogging has expanded her professional writing -- and her freelance photography jobs. Moxie, "bizarrely," Cathy notes, wrote a singles column for The Jewish Journal, even though she's "not Jewish, and a Republican."

Mickey doesn't think the Web breaks down class barriers: "I, too, have people from all over..." who send him tips and arguments. He hasn't found himself "talking to cops in Pomona." Apparently, they're all bored lawyers or women who "don't have careers but are at home..." Cathy tried to elicit the porn angle. No luck.

Matt pointed out that his site has comments; Mickey's doesn't.

Mickey feels blogging is a real meritocracy. Mickey does a commercial for Ken Layne. Buy the Corvids CD. Blog-mercial. "If you are a good blogger, you will be read." Mickey noted that your hits go down right away if you suck. I'll drink to that. Or sober to that, rather.

Cathy got her most hits when she said Playboy "was okay" on National Review. Hello, this is a surprise? She calls blogging "the ultimate free-market" something I forget by the time I was about to type it. Now she's opening to questions, and I think I need to get a wrist massage.

Matt says he's "too small to attract trolls." Actually, he's too balanced. Also, he says he argues with assholes "until they leave."

Cathy notes a sort of self-censoring by comments posters on people's personal sites. Roger says he's "had a few." Charles -- well, personal attacks are his blog business. He is "called an odious Neanderthal," notes Cathy. "There seems to be a general code of honor, more often than not," says Cathy.

Virginia Postrel notes that "the commenters create a sense of who the audience for the blog is." She finds it non-representative...and "not very intelligent" (and I think she's speaking of Reason's blog on that).

Matt's feelings about various people's commenters:
Roger Simon's: "scare me"
Charles Johnson's: "scare the hell out of me"
Kevin Drum's: "scare me"

Roger notes that there's some woman author who sometimes post 5,000 words a day on his site, and I think he said she is smarter than he is. "I think one of the reasons blogs are what they are" is that they're a way to have a dialogue outside the mainstream media. Roger doesn't get freaked by the wild comments: "they're out there and I want to see it." "I'm a writer and I want to know." "In order to do art, you need the food that comes from this kind of thing."

The origin of the name (of Charles Johnson's blog) "Little Green Footballs": "it's intended to be somewhat enigmatic." He had a music publishing company under that name. It had to do with "a hang-gliding incident in Tokyo."

Uh-oh...I'm running way low on laptop power, and on wrist-power, too. I think I have to check out now. Thanks to Apple, for creating the iBook, and for my ancestors, for these wrists, which continue to type, despite the massive abuse I put them through. I hope this wasn't terribly incoherent; then again, I've been drinking, so please take that as my excuse.