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The genesis for Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull is believed to have come in 1992 when Harrison Ford made his appearance in ‘The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones’. Playing a slightly older Indy, it gave Lucas the idea of making a movie about a more middle-aged Indiana in the 1950s. Lucas then turned it into a story treatment, with the idea of making it like a 50s sci-fi b-movie, mimicking how time had moved on from the 1930s adventure serial style of the originals. However, at this point Harrison Ford is said to have been very resistant to the idea of having aliens in an Indy movie.

Even with Ford’s reservations to overcome, getting a new Indiana story and script together proved to be far more difficult than anyone could imagine. Initially Lucas suggested that Indy should be married by the time the movie opens and that his father should again be a major part of the plot. Initially the Russians weren’t the villains, but after Lucas learned about Stalin’s interest and experiments into psychic warfare, he decided they’d make a good addition to the storyline. After Jeb Stuart had completed a few drafts, Lucas hired Last Crusade screenwriter Jeffrey Boam, who wrote three more versions. With Ford and Spielberg still hesitant and the script still having problems, at this point Lucas decided to concentrate on the Star Wars prequels.

The idea wasn’t revived until 2000, when its believed Spielberg approached Lucas after his son had asked him when the next Indiana Jones film was going to be released. With all parties saying they were now interested in revisiting the franchise, yet more versions of the script were commissioned. It was around this time that rumours of a new Indy flick began to surface among movie fans. While little was confirmed at this stage, all sorts of ideas about what the script was going to be about surfaced, with some saying it would follow the plot of the computer game, ‘Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis’. However it’s believed that the story was always going to have sci-fi b-movie influences, with aliens and using the Crystal Skulls that had interested Lucas when he was making ‘Young Indiana Jones’.

Incidentally, while they don’t look like they do in the movie, there really are Crystal Skulls housed at various institutions around the world. According to some these skulls are from pre-Columbian South America, using techniques that would have meant it would take 150-300 years to make each one. However what more interested Lucas was the idea that some people had suggested, which was that even with modern tools, trying to make such a perfect skull out of a single hunk of natural crystal would be impossible without breaking it. Some have also attributed psychic powers to the skulls. However, most people who’ve studied them have come to a different conclusion, which is that they’d while very cleverly made, most are actually no older than the Victorian era. Both the British Museum and Smithsonian have crystal skulls in their collections, and both officially catalogue them as being non-South American and far more recent than the Aztec era.

Despite having the skulls as a central idea, it still proved difficult to come up with a script that pleased all those involved. Writers such as M. Night Shyamalan, Stephen Gaghan and Tom Stoppard were approached, with Shawshank filmmaker Frank Darabont spending 18 months between 2002 and 2003 working on a screenplay. The experience left him rather dispirited when he couldn’t come up with a version everyone wanted to make. However it was his idea to bring Marion Ravenwood back, although it’s believed his version would have given her and Jones a teenage daughter, which Spielberg felt was too close to Jurassic Park: The Lost World. After Darabont left, Jeff Nathanson was brought in, only to be replaced in 2005 by David Koepp. After several more drafts of the script were completed, Ford, Lucas and Spielberg were finally all happy and shooting began on Jun 18th, 2007. While the production visited America, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Hawaii, this was the first Indy movie not to have its interior scenes shot in the UK.

While few expected Indy IV to flop, some wondered whether audiences would take to an older adventurer, and also whether a younger generation would be as interested. As it turned out, they were very interested. It didn’t hurt either that the movie had an intense $150 million marketing campaign. Even so, the film’s $782 million worldwide take makes it by far the highest grossing of the Indy movies, and it’s currently second only to The Dark Knight as the year’s most successful film. Of course, this has led to rumours of whether there’ll be more Indy films, perhaps with Shia Labeouf’s character taking over the main role. However while we may or may not get more Indy movies, it’s certainly been nice to have him back.

Indy Extras!
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is already shaping up to be the DVD release of the year, with a two-disc package bulging with fascinating extra content. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are no slouches in the special features department, and Crystal Skull demonstrates their commitment to the cause. Disc 1 is spearheaded by ‘The Return Of A Legend’ feature, which charts the evolution of the new film, offering a fond tribute to the whip-cracking hero and his enthusiastic creators. That is followed by a ‘Pre Production’ offering, which follows Steven Spielberg as he creates the movies dazzling animatic sequences, Shia Labeouf’s strenuous swordfight training and even captures the long-awaited reunion between the cast and filmmakers on the soundstage.

The fun doesn’t end there however. Disc 2 contains an expansive production diary featuring contributions from key cast and crewmembers. Subjects that they wax lyrical on include: the commencement of shooting in New Mexico, Indy’s return to school in New Haven, Connecticut, the jungle-based action filmed in Hilo, Hawaii, the mysterious realm of Akator and even the celebratory wrap party. Other featurettes concern ‘Warrior Makeup’, ‘Iconic Props’ and even the ‘Crystal Skulls’ themselves. They are followed up by three enlightening ‘Pre-Visualization Sequences’, which examine the ‘Area 51 Escape’, ‘Jungle Chase’ and ‘Ants Attack’ scenes. Last but not least we have behind-the-scenes photographs, art department galleries and even a gallery devoted to the corpses, skeletons, mummies and aliens – courtesy of the legendary Stan Winston Studio.

If you are looking forward to checking out Indy’s adventures in high definition, then there is plenty of additional Blu-ray content to sink your teeth into. The standard definition feature list is replicated entirely, with many featurettes also benefiting from the hi-def treatment. However, the real gem comes in the form of the Blu-ray exclusive ‘Indiana Jones Timelines’ feature, which allows you to explore the movie through three interactive timelines, all of which include video featurettes, in-depth information and unique imagery. The timelines in question are a ‘Story Timeline’, a ‘Production Timeline’ and a ‘Historical Timeline’ which each explore a different aspect of the Crystal Skull phenomenon. The two-disc DVD special edition is tipped to retail for £24.99, whilst its Blu-ray counterpart will cost you £29.99. 

Special Features:
DISC 1:
‘The Return Of A Legend’ Featurette
‘Pre-Production’ Featurette

DISC 2:
‘Production Diary: Making Of The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull’ Six-Part Documentary
‘Warrior Makeup’ Featurette
‘The Crystal Skulls’ Featurette
‘Iconic Props’ Featurette
‘The Effects Of Indy’ Featurette
‘Adventures In Post-Production’ Featurette
‘Closing: Team Indy’ Featurette
Previsualisation Sequences
Galleries

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PREVIOUS Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade 

After Temple Of Doom, Spielberg said he agreed to make The Last Crusade both to fulfil his promise to George Lucas to make an Indy trilogy and also to, “Apologise for the second one.” While initially the idea was to return to the unused idea of the Monkey King, with Chris Columbus writing a screenplay based on this concept, Lucas then came up with the idea of using the Holy Grail. Initially Spielberg felt this was too ethereal, however when it was melded into a metaphor for the father-son relationship between Indiana and Henry, Spielberg agreed to it. As a result, Sean Connery was brought into the cast to play Indy’s father, although there was actually only 12 years difference between Connery and Harrison Ford.

An even more international operation than previous Jones films, filming locations included the customary England and the US, but also took in Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany and Jordan. There were also some interesting places that stood in for other locations, such as Tilbury Docks in Essex standing in for parts of Venice’s Grand Canal during the boat chase, and the Nazi Rally taking place at Buckinghamshire’s Stowe School. It’s also interesting to note that the film’s motorcycle chase wasn’t in the original script at all, and was only added after Spielberg viewed a rough cut of the movie and realised it needed another action scene at that point.

The release of The Last Crusade was more critically successful than its predecessor, with many praising its return to the Saturday morning serial fun of the original. Many even suggested it was the best of the Indiana Jones movies, such as Caryn James in the New York Times feeling it might become, “The Indiana to end them all,” while particular praise was heaped on the opening sequence, in which River Phoenix plays a young Indy trying to protect the Cross Of Coronado. Audiences seemed to agree with the critics, as while Batman may have been the highest grossing movie of 1989 in the US, worldwide it was The Last Crusade, with $474 million.

Again the movie saw some success at the Oscars, winning for Best Sound Effects Editing, but losing out in the Best Sound and Best Score categories. The movie also saw Sean Connery get a Golden Globe nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for his role as Indy’s father.

It was here that everyone believed the Indiana Jones big screen cycle had come to an end. Spielberg had fulfilled the promise he’d made to George Lucas 12 years before, Harrison Ford had suggested he’d be hanging up his fedora and even the title, The Last Crusade, had a note of finality about it. However a few years later, rumours surfaced suggesting perhaps we hadn’t heard the last of Harrison Ford as Indy after all.

The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones
Having created the sequence at the beginning of The Last Crusade featuring Indiana Jones as a boy, George Lucas realised that this was an idea he could go a lot further with. He decided to write a detailed timeline of the life of Indy, ending up with ideas that he believed could be the basis for 70 episodes of a TV series. By basing each episode around historical events, he also hoped it would be an educational series, but in an entertaining format.

While Sean Patrick Flanery is best known for playing young Indy, Corey Carrier played an even younger version of the characters in some episodes, and in one instalment, Harrison Ford returned to the character, to play him aged around 50. Although ‘The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones’ was somewhat popular, it was an incredibly expensive series to make, and after 31 of the 70 stories had been filmed, production ended. In many ways it’s a shame, as the plan had been to fill in more of the gaps between Indy’s early years and the movies, with later unmade episodes introducing characters such as Abner Ravenwood. It was also during the production of the TV series that Lucas became interested in crystal skulls.

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PREVIOUS Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom
NEXT Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull 

The idea of there being more than one Indy movie was born long before the first film became a hit. While the second movie wouldn’t have got the greenlight if it hadn’t been for Raiders rapturous reception, even in 1977, when Lucas tapped Spielberg to helm the flick, he told the director that if he agreed to make one, then he’d have to agree to make a trilogy. While Spielberg initially believed this meant Lucas had three stories in mind (as he had for Star Wars), it turned out that, in Spielberg’s own words, “George did not have three stories in mind and we had to make up subsequent stories.” Lucas also felt the movie should be darker in tone than Raiders, in the same way The Empire Strikes Back was darker than Star Wars. However both Lucas and Spielberg have since suggested the sinister tone may have had as much to do with the end of their marriages to Amy Irving and Marcia Lucas respectively.

Various plot devices were considered, including going up against the Monkey King in China and a haunted castle in Scotland. However with the logistics of filming in China proving impossible and Spielberg worried the haunted castle idea was too close to Poltergeist, the script gradually melded the various ideas with the legends of the Indian Thuggee cult to become Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. As it was meant to be a prequel to Raiders (partly because Lucas didn’t want the Nazis as villains again), they also came up with a new set of supporting characters, leaving Indy as virtually the only holdover from the first movie.

Despite its setting, the filmmakers were denied permission to film in Northern India as the government were concerned that the script presented the country in a bad light, sensationalising a long dead part of its history. They would only approve filming if script changes were made and they were given certain privileges over the final cut. As a result much of the movie was made in Sri Lanka, while Macao doubled for the movie’s Shanghai set opening and filming also took place in England and America.

Compared to the first movie, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom got a rather mixed reception from critics on its 1984 release. Vincent Canby in the New York Times remarked that it was “Too shapeless to be the fun that Raiders is,” while others complained that it was racist (indeed it got banned in Indian for its allegedly “Racist portrayal of Indians and overt imperialistic tendencies”). However that didn’t stop audiences flocking to it, with the movie grossing $333 million during its initial run in cinemas. This time around though its Oscar reception was more muted, winning Best Visual Effects, but only getting one other nomination, for John Williams’ score. Since its release, it hasn’t just been the critics who’ve had reservations about Temple Of Doom, as even Spielberg has said he finds it “Too dark, too subterranean and much too horrific,” while Kate Capshaw, who played Indy love interest Willy, has described her character as, “Little more than a dumb screaming blonde” (however the duo did get something out of it, as they later married).

It’s also Temple Of Doom (along with Gremlins) that helped inspire the Motion Picture Association Of America to create the PG-13 rating, to deal with movie that fell in between what was sensible at either PG or R.

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PREVIOUS Raider Of The Lost Ark
NEXT Indiana Jones And the Last Crusade 

It all started in the mid-70s, when a young George Lucas was coming up with ideas for films. The two main ones that he started working on were for a Flash Gordon type sci-fi movie, and another inspired by 1930s and 1940s adventure serials. The first became Star Wars and the latter Indiana Jones, or ‘Indiana Smith’, as he was in Lucas’ first treatment in 1973. In The Last Crusade it’s revealed that Indy took his name from his dog, which is sort of true, as Indiana was actually the name of one of Lucas’ dogs. 

Elsewhere Steven Spielberg had just become big Hollywood property with the 1975 release of Jaws, which had become the highest grossing movie ever made. After following this with the exceptionally popular Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, it seemed Spielberg should have enough clout to make any movie he wanted to. However being the hottest director in the world wasn’t enough for the producers of the Bond movies. With Spielberg being a major fan of 007, he expressed an interest in directing a Bond flick. Roger Moore has recently said he himself took the idea to Bond producer Cubby Broccoli, who immediately dismissed it, feeling Spielberg would demand a slice of the profits – something he wasn’t prepared to give up for anyone.

As a result Spielberg went on the lookout for other projects, and found his dream to make a Bond style adventure fitted well with George Lucas’ ideas about an all-action archaeologist. Already friends, Spielberg agreed to direct Lucas’ Indiana Jones film (allegedly while building a sand castle in Hawaii). While many involved felt Harrison Ford would be perfect for the role, George Lucas was resistant, largely because he’d already used him in both American Graffiti and Star Wars. As a result they looked elsewhere, eventually settling on Tom Selleck, who’d recently found great success on the TV show ‘Magnum P.I.’. There was a bit of a problem though, as Selleck’s schedule for his TV series clashed with the movie shoot, and despite attempts to sort this out, Tom eventually had to step down from the role. Lucas then agreed that despite his reservations, Harrison Ford could indeed play Jones. 

Filming started in France in June 1980 with scenes involving the Nazi submarine (which had been hired from the production of Das Boot). The production also moved to America, England and Tunisia, with the latter involving many of the same locations that had doubled for Tatooine in Star Wars. 

While many wondered whether Lucas and Spielberg were committing a massive folly by making a movie inspired by serials that had been out of fashion since the 40s, the film received a rapturous reception when it was released in 1981, grossing $381 million worldwide. It was even nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Picture, and won four of them (Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Set Decoration and Best Visual Effects). And with success like that, it was certain it wasn’t the last we’d hear from Indiana Jones. 

Page 2 of 5
PREVIOUS Introduction
NEXT Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom 

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CABLE NETWORKS
The other main source for TV in the US is cable (there’s also satellite but it’s failed to penetrate in the same way cable has). Around 58% of American households have cable TV, which is split into two main types of channels.

Basic Cable: These are the channels that are normally available to anyone hooked up to a particular cable network. The cable company will pay a set fee per customer to the channel for its inclusion in the lineup, and the channels are likely to supplement this income with commercials. An increasing amount of US programming is coming from basic cable channels, such a Comedy Central producing ‘South Park’ and ‘The Daily Show’, FX airing ‘The Shield’, ‘Damages’, ‘Nip/Tuck’, ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘The Riches’, and USA Networks originating the likes of ‘Monk’ and ‘Psych’.

Premium Cable: These are channels that you have to pay extra for, with most of them primarily being film channels that don’t show commercials (it’s similar to Sky Movies in the UK). Most of these now offer a range of channels, which you have to purchase as a package. In recent years, several of these, such as HBO and Showtime, have moved into producing their own series, mini-series and TV movies. For example, HBO was responsible for ‘Band Of Brothers’, ‘Six Feet Under’, ‘Entourage’ and ‘The Sopranos’, while Showtime airs ‘Weeds’, ‘Californication’ and ‘Dexter’.

SYNDICATION
If all that weren’t enough for sources of TV programmes, there’s also syndicated TV, which for original programming are shows that aren’t attached to any particular channel or station. As mentioned above, the broadcast networks don’t and aren’t allowed to provide programming 24 hours a day, and so the stations have to fill up their schedules with something else. While there might be some local programming, much of the schedule will be syndicated shows, which are made by one company, but then sold to a multitude of different stations across the country. So, for example, ‘Oprah’ is not allied to any network, and so while her show might be on an ABC affiliate in one part of the country, she might be with an NBC affiliate in other areas.

Most syndicated TV is made for daytime viewing, so the likes of ‘Judge Judy’, many US gameshows and all the endless talk shows come from this source. Although this may seem like a slightly haphazard way of making and airing programmes, it’s incredibly lucrative, as when the fees are added up from the multitude of different stations across the US, the money can be enormous. It’s for this reason that Oprah can earn $385 million in a year from her talk show – a salary she wouldn’t even be able to get close to on network TV.

The other part of syndication is selling older network series to cable channels or local stations so they get the rights to air reruns. The important thing to remember here is that to get good money from rerun rights, you need over 100 episodes of a particular show, mainly because most stations will want to show one episode each weekday, and won’t want to run out of episodes too soon.

The reason this is important is because making broadcast TV in the US isn’t actually very profitable. For example, Warner Brothers makes ‘ER’ for NBC, and NBC pays Warner for each episode. However when production costs are taken into account, Warner doesn’t actually make much money from the initial airing. Indeed, when development costs are taken into account, the first season of a show might actually be done at a loss. Syndication is where the big bucks are made (and nowadays, DVD revenue is vitally important too), and as a result getting to 100 episodes is incredibly important to a show, and also to all those involved in making it, as big stars and producers will normally have syndication profits written into their contracts.

For example, Jerry Seinfeld became the highest paid actor in the history of television when he made $225 million in a single year. However the cash didn’t come from his self titled show, ‘Seinfeld’, airing new episodes on TV, it came from syndication rerun rights. In some cases, such as with ‘The Cosby Show’, the rerun rights per episode can total more than the original network paid to show the series when it first aired.

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PREVIOUS - Networks
NEXT - Sweeps 

SWEEPS
If you’re already confused by this labyrinth, prepare for one of the things that makes US TV particularly peculiar to UK eyes. Advertising rates for US networks aren’t decided based on the number of viewers for particular shows over the entire year. Instead there are three so-called sweeps months, in November, February and May (technically there’s another in July, but as networks generally don’t air their biggest shows over the summer, this one is normally ignored). It is from these four week periods that the advertising rates over the coming months are decided, and so the higher your viewership during these key periods (and more importantly, the number of viewers in particular demographics), the more you can charge for adverts.

The result of this is that when we watch American TV, we don’t do it in the same way as Americans do. The first and biggest difference is that when a season of a US show starts on UK TV, we get a new episode every week until that season is over, which is normally 22-24 weeks later. Most of the time, American viewers can’t do that, as the networks want new episodes in all three sweeps months, but don’t care as much at other times. The result is that you might get six new episodes in October and November, then a gap where there’ll only be reruns, then a few more new episodes around the February sweeps, before it stops again, ready for a final blast of new episodes in May. The result for people trying to keep track of densely plotted shows is that they’ll often have to try and remember all the key points of an episode for more than a month, before they get to see what happens next.

Things are changing however. Rather than sporadically getting new episodes, several US shows are now experimenting with showing the entire season in one or two blocks, with a new episode each week. ‘Lost’ is one of these, as is ‘24’. However most seasons of a show are shown in bits and pieces over nine months, which is one of the main reason why seasons that start in early autumn in the States, won’t be seen on UK screens until January at the earliest, as otherwise we’d run out of episodes and have to wait for the US to catch up.

You may have also noticed when watching US TV that there seem to be blocks of episodes that are particularly dramatic or use an unusual gimmick. For example, there have been live episodes of the likes ‘ER’ and ‘Will And Grace’, while ‘Medium’ did a 3D episode, ‘Seinfeld’ had an episode that ran backwards, while a few shows have also done musical one-offs. While to British eyes they seem utterly random, in the US they’re done as sweeps stunts to try and artificially increase viewership during those key months. Likewise, this is when the biggest guest stars are likely to turn up, show crossovers are more likely to happen, or there’ll be particularly enormous cliffhangers. 

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PREVIOUS - Cable Networks and Syndication
NEXT - Regulation and Conclusions 

REGULATION
All of this makes US TV a very peculiar beast, but there’s one other thing to remember and that’s the regulation of US TV. The American equivalent of Ofcom is the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), who are in charge of issuing licences to TV stations and who also set the rules on what is and isn’t considered permissible on over-the-air stations in terms or sex, violence and language. It’s only these local stations they cover, so cable programming isn’t under their control at all. So when Janet Jackson’s nipple flashed on screens during the Superbowl on CBS, the FCC could have issued a fine to every local station across the country that showed it, as according to US rules, it’s the individual stations not the network that has to ensure they don’t overstep the mark. However in the Janet Jackson case the FCC tried to fine only the affiliates that CBS owned and operated itself (the fine has since been struck down by the courts). However if Jackson had done the same on Comedy Central, the FCC couldn’t have done anything at all.

The tendency is that the more you pay, the more graphic the programming gets. So on over-the-air broadcast networks you can’t swear, you have to imply sex and you can’t be too violent (which is why shows like ‘CSI’ and ‘Bones’ are so gleeful about the gruesome aftermath of crime, as they’re allowed to gross you out with that, but they would have to be a bit more coy about the actual crime itself). Basic cable tends to be a big more edgy, and there might be some swearing and more explicit sex and violence. However it’s when you get to premium cable that all bets are off, with the likes of ‘The Sopranos’ not pulling any punches on the violence and swearing front. So if anyone say ‘fuck’ on a US TV show, it’s most likely to originate on premium cable, although possibly basic cable, but definitely not network TV.

While this is restrictive enough in itself, probably an even greater regulator of content than the FCC are the advertisers. Networks are absolutely terrified of upsetting their advertisers. For example in 2006 NBC attempted to hit back at cable TV’s success with edgy series by launching ‘The Book Of Daniel’. The series starred Aidan Quinn as a vicar who literally talked to Jesus to help him with his problems. However the reverend was addicted to painkillers, had a dysfunctional family and, worst of all for the conservative Christians who protested the series, a gay son. Initially NBC stood by the series, even when affiliates in Indiana and Arkasas refused to air the first episode. Even dismal ratings for the first couple of episodes didn’t dim their determination. However the protesters weren’t just complaining to the network and the press, they also targeted companies who advertised during the programme, and it was only when these corporations got skittish about the series that NBC yanked it off the air.

This happens far more than you might think, and it is partly because HBO doesn’t have adverts (all its revenue comes from subscriptions) that it can get away with far more sex and violence than either basic cable or the networks. It is therefore, in essence, massive corporation who are afraid of having their products’ image tarnished, who regulate most American TV.

CONCLUSIONS
So there you have it. You might have thought Americans just made programmes and then they got shipped over here, but US TV is just about the most labyrinthine system imaginable. What we watch and enjoy only exists because of complex networks of affiliates, weird ownership rules, a system of different types of channels, all of which are allowed to show different types of content, need to increase viewership during arbitrary sweeps months and want to make buckets loads of cash out of syndication. Somewhere in all that there is a desire to entertain audiences, but to be honest, that’s only one small part of a system that may produce some of the best TV in the world, but does so almost in spite of its own monolithic complexities.

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PREVIOUS - Sweeps

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IMAGE MANIPULATION It’s only in the upper echelons of Hollywood that you really feel that sort of large scale image manipulation, although that’s not so say that most celebs don’t do it to some degree. And before anyone gets too uppity about how pre-fabricated a lot of this is, it should be remembered that there’s a good reason a lot of famous people try to control their image, and that’s because of how the press works. With newspapers, and particularly now with the rise of gossip websites, even the smallest misstep can be blown out of all proportion and beamed round the world in seconds. The likes of TMZ love videos where a star has lost it at the paparazzi who are chasing them or shoving a cameraman who’s trying to videotape them. On nearly all these gossip sites, the story becomes about what an asshole the star is.

A video recently emerged of Tobey Maguire trying to drive away from a restaurant (click above to watch the video). Gossip sites variously called him a ‘douche’ and ‘primadonna’ (among less choice terms) for winding down the window and screaming at the paparazzi surrounding him. However in reality he was trying to leave a restaurant while have a hoard of people screaming at him, getting in the way of his car, flashing camera bulbs in his face and positioning themselves so he literally couldn’t see whether it was safe to turn out onto the road. Would you keep your cool under circumstances like that, particularly if that was what your life was like all the time? I wouldn’t. Yet celebs live in a world where anything and everything they do can be turned into a story, and as always, a negative story will always have far more traction than a positive one. As a result it’s little surprise many of them try to carefully control their image, not through some Machiavellian desire to dupe people, but because there are plenty of people out there who would love nothing more than to rip a star to shreds and destroy them in the media. It’s more a case of pre-emptive damage limitation, rather than most stars genuinely being unpleasant people.

Admittedly it does sometimes get a bit silly, but more often than not, that can be tracked down to outside people, such as studios (who are ridiculously protective of talent) getting too pushy, rather than the stars themselves. I remember once doing a phone conference with Jodie Foster, where there was a selection of journalists, each waiting in line to ask questions, and on the other end of the line was Foster and a studio publicist. We’d been told beforehand that Jodie doesn’t like to answer personal questions, and so nobody asked them. Even so, before Jodie could answer nearly half the questions, the publicist stepped in to deflect them. This was not because the questions were personal, but because of overzealous protection of the star. In the end Foster herself stepped in and made sure the publicist knew he didn’t have to be quite so assertive. We also recently had a situation where a star was busy so we were asked to e-mail some questions to them, which they would then respond to. However when we got the e-mail back, the star’s publicist had removed about 70% of the questions. If these had been intensely personal questions, fair enough (although I do generally believe stars should really deflect questions they don’t like themselves, rather than someone else doing it – after all, it’s perfectly fair to say, ‘I’d prefer not to answer that’), but they weren’t. In fact, the star’s publicist was so overzealous that she removed every single question about the project we were actually doing the interview about. The result was a few incredibly short, banal answers that were so tepid that it was pointless to print them, so we didn’t. It’s also this sort of thing that ensure that we only ever agree to e-mail questions to someone when every other avenue has fallen through.

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