Celebrity Dumb Quotes II: Dumb and Dumber

[Ladybug]

The Celebrity Memoir Book Club podcast covered Matthew Perry's book this week and I thought it was a great episode. They also noticed his very messed up ideas about women, sex, relationships, and marriage. Lots of mommy issues. And apparently, he writes that his abandonment issues began when he was put on an airplane as an unaccompanied minor to visit his father. That was the moment it all started going wrong for him. It was actually one of the better episodes of the podcast. The Geena Davis episode was also good and made me want to read her book.

[ahah]

Nov 2, 2022 9:21:02 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

The Celebrity Memoir Book Club podcast covered Matthew Perry's book this week and I thought it was a great episode. They also noticed his very messed up ideas about women, sex, relationships, and marriage. Lots of mommy issues. And apparently, he writes that his abandonment issues began when he was put on an airplane as an unaccompanied minor to visit his father. That was the moment it all started going wrong for him. It was actually one of the better episodes of the podcast. The Geena Davis episode was also good and made me want to read her book.

I can see where his childhood would have had a big impact on a lot of aspects of his life. His parents split up when he was very young, and from what he said in the Diane Sawyer interview, it sounds like both parents put a lot of focus on building new marriages and new families, which can be tough on a kid if a lot of focus is not put onto how to incorporate him in the mix.

[Ladybug]

May 18, 2021 10:34:59 GMT -4 ahah said:

I can see where his childhood would have had a big impact on a lot of aspects of his life. His parents split up when he was very young, and from what he said in the Diane Sawyer interview, it sounds like both parents put a lot of focus on building new marriages and new families, which can be tough on a kid if a lot of focus is not put onto how to incorporate him in the mix.

Absolutely. But in the book he pinpoints that event as the start of his issues, looking around on the plane and seeing other kids with their parents while he was alone traumatized him and made him feel alone for the entire rest of his life. The theme of deep, deep loneliness seems to be throughout the book. But he comes off as so unpleasant and difficult and high maintenance that it's not hard to understand why people don't really stick with him. He also resented his mom's job, which was press secretary for Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau, which was pretty demanding and required her to be away from the family traveling around Canada.

[ahah]

Nov 2, 2022 10:11:36 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

May 18, 2021 10:34:59 GMT -4 ahah said:

I can see where his childhood would have had a big impact on a lot of aspects of his life. His parents split up when he was very young, and from what he said in the Diane Sawyer interview, it sounds like both parents put a lot of focus on building new marriages and new families, which can be tough on a kid if a lot of focus is not put onto how to incorporate him in the mix.

Absolutely. But in the book he pinpoints that event as the start of his issues, looking around on the plane and seeing other kids with their parents while he was alone traumatized him and made him feel alone for the entire rest of his life. The theme of deep, deep loneliness seems to be throughout the book. But he comes off as so unpleasant and difficult and high maintenance that it's not hard to understand why people don't really stick with him. He also resented his mom's job, which was press secretary for Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau, which was pretty demanding and required her to be away from the family traveling around Canada.

I was talking to a friend not long ago about a few people who'd faced tough times and the comment was made - "Everyone has sh*t in their lives. Some people focus on the sh*t, some people focus on the flush". The tougher the hard times are, the harder it is to focus on the flush, but there are people who do it by focusing on gratitude and other positive aspects. I think that Matthew is definitely one who let the hard times be an obstacle in his life instead of something that could be flushed.

[Ladybug]

ahah that seems to fit him to a T.

[Ginger]

This is from the Washington Post's review of the book:

At age 5, he was sent as an unaccompanied minor to visit his father, who had left when Perry was 9 months old. “Not having a parent on that flight is one of the many things that led to a lifelong feeling of abandonment,” Perry writes.

He was a bottomless hole of neediness, desperate for his mother’s approval. He vied for her attention against rivals that included his stepfather, local newscaster-turned-“Dateline” legend Keith Morrison, and glamorous Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, for whom she worked long hours as a press secretary. (In grade school, Perry writes, he beat up Trudeau’s son, future prime minister Justin Trudeau, in retaliation.)

Perry treats his stepfather with a distant affection, often referring to him as “Keith Morrison,” as if, like us, he was merely watching Keith Morrison on TV. When an adult Perry wakes from a disorienting bender to find a worried Keith Morrison at the foot of his bed, he wonders at first if he’s in a “Dateline” episode.

As a teenager, Perry moved to Los Angeles to live with his father, a functioning alcoholic who starred in Old Spice commercials. Perry soon followed in his father’s footsteps, simultaneously pursuing an acting career, alcoholism — he took his first drink at age 14 — and, once his erectile dysfunction cleared up, an endless assortment of available women.

Also, this is funny:

Three weeks later, he landed the role of Chandler after his close friend, fellow actor Craig Bierko, passed on it.

Perry, of course, became rich and famous, while Bierko — poor Craig Bierko! — became a trivia question. In one of the book’s most wince-inducing passages, the men, estranged for years, reunite. Bierko admits to feeling jealous of Perry, who explains that fame doesn’t fix a person anyway, which Perry treats as a major revelation even though any reader of even one celebrity memoir has figured this out. Bierko does not appear to find this helpful.

[Ladybug]

Mar 13, 2005 12:45:42 GMT -4 Ginger said:

When an adult Perry wakes from a disorienting bender to find a worried Keith Morrison at the foot of his bed, he wonders at first if he’s in a “Dateline” episode.

I relate deeply to this Gen X sarcasm.

[cremetangerine82]

STFU, Paul Schrader!

“OSCARS SO NOT HOLLYWOOD. Diversifying membership, recalibrating [sic] how votes are counted, these changes have transformed the Hollywood Oscars into the International Oscars,” Schrader wrote on Facebook (via Twitter). “I rather like the provincial origins of the Oscars: Hollywood coming together to celebrate its own.”

Gee, Paul, it's like a ceremony celebrating movies including people of color and non-Anglophone movies because it's not 1927 anymore. Times evolve, so I'm sorry your ass didn't get kissed enough. To be fair, he was robbed of a Best Original Screenplay for Taxi Driver (shame on you, AMPAS!). Unfortunately, now he's an old white cis-het man mad about inclusion for those who aren't.

[seat6]

Go home, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Keanu Reeves, Antonio Banderes, Ben Kingsley, Omar Sharif, Emma Thompson, Cate Blanchett, Charlize Theron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Colin Farrell, Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Torro, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Nicole Kidman!

You're too international for Hollywood.

[Ginger]

Among the 10 Best Picture nominees, none of them were foreign-language films and only one of them (Banshees of Inisherin) was produced outside of America. Schrader's argument that "international" films should be awarded within their own countries is just not applicable. 90% of them were American films that were primarily produced, directed and acted by Americans.

If you were to go back and look at the Best Picture nominees of 20-30 years ago, I think you would see far more British and Irish movies taking up spots in the Best Picture category than they do now. And that's back when there were only 5 spots.

Did Schrader think that nominating My Left Foot, The Crying Game, Howards End, In the Name of the Father and The Remains of the Day were all doomsday signals for the movie industry? Probably not.

Schrader is correct that the Oscars are increasingly irrelevant and there are a number of reasons for that, probably many of them irreversible. But I find that Hollywood has been getting the worst results in recent years from attempting to produce "traditional" Oscar bait.