Notes From the Junket Field

In the wake of the restrictive agreement journalists were forced to sign before interviewing Angelina Jolie about ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’, attendees at a recent ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ press junket were greeted with a contract which read, in part:

I understand and agree that my participation in the aforementioned press day is for the purpose of writing features about the production of Dukes of Hazzard, and not a profile of any specific participant. My questions & story will relate to the film and its production.

Write about the film? Great, except there was no film to see. The only footage that Warner Bros. showed the press corps was the trailer, now playing to civilians in theaters everywhere. (By the way, I’m pretty sure the General Lee in the movie is not quite the same shade of orange as the one in the TV show.)

Anyway, it’s hard to see how WB expects journalists to write about a movie they won’t show them. I hope the gift bags were good.

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