World Trade Center ‘Junket Whore’ Critic Banned By Paramount
A freelance film critic who wrote about a Seattle press junket for Oliver Stone‘s World Trade Center says Paramount Pictures, the studio behind WTC, has banned him from future press junkets and is demanding he remove the 5,000-plus-word piece, “I Was a Junket Whore,” from his Web site.
The critic, Eric D. Snider, was flown by Paramount to Seattle from Portland, Ore., and put up in a luxury hotel in lieu of the staff film critic at a newspaper Snider contributes to because the newspaper, “like almost all reputable news outlets, has rules against such things.” He then did the unforgivable in the world film-criticdom — he wrote about it:
Between the hotel (two nights!), the stipend, the plane ticket and the cab fare, Paramount spent close to $1,100 on me, not including things like the breakfast and lunch that were produced for the benefit of all the whores. For Paramount to have spent its money wisely, my story about Stone and the movie, wherever it’s published, will have to convince readers to spend $1,100 on the film. Is my article going to influence 150 people to see the movie who would not have done so otherwise? I highly doubt it.
When was the last time you read a pre-movie release piece as unfiltered as this?:
One of the [fellow junket] writers lives in Seattle but still used the free hotel room the night before. That’s $300 that Paramount might just as well have set on fire. I noticed all the junket whores refer to celebrities by their first names. It reminded me of paparazzi, who do the same thing.
Oliver Stone finally arrived at noon, all smiles and gregarious pleasantries and not a word of apology. … He spoke of the disaster that was “Alexander,” though he still refuses to accept its disastrousness. He said he plans to release an extra-long director’s cut to DVD, because for sure what that movie needed was to be LONGER. I was disappointed to discover that despite Gyllenhaal’s appearance in mostly independent, non-mainstream films, she still seemed a lot like a regular ol’ shallow actress. She said things like this: “I think 9/11 was for everyone a wake-up call.” Really, Maggie Gyllenhaal? You think 9/11 was a wake-up call? Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah: From EVERY SINGLE PERSON who has ever said anything about 9/11, that’s where.
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