Interview: ‘Caddyshack’ Star Cindy Morgan Discusses Her Support of the Troops and Why She Wouldn’t Apologize to Chevy Chase

Hard to believe the lovely actress Cindy Morgan was once told she belonged behind the camera, not in front of it.

Morgan, who became a pop culture sensation by playing Lacey Underall in “Caddyshack,” started her career in broadcasting. “I ran camera, I ran sound,” Morgan tells Big Hollywood. “But they wouldn’t let me on camera. ’You’ll never get a job,’ they said.

A few years later, she was sharing the screen with Chevy Chase in the 1980 comedy classic.

Morgan’s “Caddyshack” role gave her an early lesson in how Hollywood works, and it wasn’t pretty. The day before her nude scene, a producer called to say a Playboy photographer would be on set to snap pictures which would run in the nudie magazine. (more…)

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Tags: "tron", Caddyshack, Caddyshack Reunion Golf Tournament, Chevy Chase, Comic Con
Posted Sep 2nd 2009 at 6:54 am in Culture, Film, Military | 21323474 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cftoto/2009/09/02/interview-cindy-morgan-caddyshack-tron/Interview%3A+%27Caddyshack%27+Star+Cindy+Morgan+Discusses+Her+Support+of+the+Troops+and+Why+She+Wouldn%27t+Apologize+to+Chevy+Chase2009-09-02+13%3A54%3A43Christian+Toto

Cult Classic ‘The Room’: So Bad, It’s Brilliant

It happens all the time in Hollywood: A friend has a dream of making a movie and wants to hire his friends as cast and crew. But most of the time, those dreams stay dreams, as the money to fund those projects rarely materializes.

For South Pasadena-based actor Greg Sestero, however, the dream became reality when his friend Tommy Wiseau managed to raise $6 million to write, direct and star in a movie called “The Room.” Keeping a promise he made years before when the two thespians met in a San Francisco acting class, Wiseau hired Sestero to be his co-star.

That should have been a happy ending, with the film either fading into oblivion or rising out of Sundance-style film festivals to become an indie sensation. Instead, “The Room” became wildly popular for an entirely different reason: it’s regarded as one of the great camp classics of all time, a movie considered so bad it’s brilliant.

Its monthly midnight showings at the Laemmle Sunset 5 theater in West Hollywood routinely sell out all five of the theater’s screens simultaneously, with crowds that have turned the viewing experience into the craziest interactive movie party since “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” (more…)

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Tags: "The Room", cameron diaz, Comic Con, Greg Sestero, John Hughes
Posted Aug 27th 2009 at 2:46 pm in Entertainment, Film, Reviews | 21195831 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/08/27/room-for-improvement/Cult+Classic+%27The+Room%27%3A+So+Bad%2C+It%27s+Brilliant2009-08-27+21%3A46%3A05Carl+Kozlowski

‘Selling Out is a Bad Thing’ and Other Absurd Cliches

“You made a movie about pimps and there ain’t no black people in it? I don’t know whether to slap you or kiss your face.”

Eddie Murphy said something like that to Ron Howard on SNL back when Howard was making the transition from Opie Cunningham to big-time Hollywood auteur. And now I know how Mr. Murphy feels: Fox has green-lit a sitcom called “Rednecks.”

When I saw the title, I winced, then thought, “I wish I could write for that show.” This illustrates the relationship I have with stereotypes and character-based clichés; I keep them at an arms length embrace. It thrilled me to see white trash characters north of the Mason-Dixon line in “Gone Baby Gone.” But you change the accents, swap Boston, MA for Austell, GA, and I’ll act offended while secretly admitting the portrayal is dead-on. “Rednecks” it turns out, is set in Buffalo, NY. Let the head-scratching ensue. (more…)

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Tags: Comic Con, Jocks, Just Friends, Star Wars, stereotypes
Posted Aug 9th 2009 at 6:54 am in Culture, Entertainment, Featured Story | 19871482 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ccannon/2009/08/09/stereotypes-and-cliches/%27Selling+Out+is+a+Bad+Thing%27+and+Other+Absurd+Cliches2009-08-09+13%3A54%3A43Cam+Cannon

Breaking My Comic-Con Cherry

Like college, Comic-Con was something I’d heard about but never planned on attending. My interest in the “graphic novel” faded sometime in the 70’s when Superman comics hit thirty cents and God created an endless supply of old movies on cable television. Besides, in my mind’s eye the picture wasn’t pretty.  I saw Comic-Con taking place in one of those dreary, sterile hotel banquet halls with off-white walls, harvest gold carpeting and long tables filled with dusty action figures surrounded by excited, pot-bellied fanboys speaking Klingon in homemade Spock costumes.

Which might have been how it was, and even how some purists wish it had stayed, but no more…

Uhm, I mean, No More! (more…)

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Tags: Cindy Morgan, Comic Con, Green Hornet, Lou Ferrigno, San Diego
Posted Jul 28th 2009 at 6:48 am in Celebrity News, Culture | 19315035 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/07/28/breaking-my-comic-con-cherry/Breaking+My+Comic-Con+Cherry2009-07-28+13%3A48%3A52John+Nolte

Reporting From Comic-Con: There Goes the Neighborhood

Sitting at home with another Comic-Con behind us I look over my box of comics and deposited business cards sprawled across the floor like a Trick or Treater dumping his hoard after a busy Halloween night. This convention represents the week that Hollywood took over the event.

Many comic creators dreaded the move-in of the film and video-game industry. The center of the convention center is year-by-year sprouting more and more fancy studio spaces as evidenced by towering signs and a hogging of square footage. Meanwhile, fledgling artists with books under arm can barely afford their tables though there’s still a four-year waiting list to get booth space. With maximum occupancy filled by both exhibitors and attendees only one thing can happen…prices will go up. It’s the law of supply and demand. (more…)

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Tags: Comic Con, Doug Tennapel, Entertainment media, graphic novels, Jennifer Love Hewitt
Posted Jul 27th 2009 at 8:24 am in Culture, Entertainment | 19220227 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/07/27/reporting-from-comic-con-there-goes-the-neighborhood/Reporting+From+Comic-Con%3A+There+Goes+the+Neighborhood2009-07-27+15%3A24%3A44Doug+TenNapel

Reporting From Comic-Con: The End is Near

Another great day of selling books, meeting fans, I sold out of my posters and blah blah blah. Tonight I’m officially burnt. Don’t worry, that’s part of the Con too. Sundays are notorious for hosting crowds of The Living Dead staggering around on fumes from media overload. At least tonight I’ll be in bed by 11, which will give me just enough sleep to push me through the final day.

I got a boost when half way through the day Jon Heder and Dan Heder came by my booth. Jon was wearing a Dan costume and Dan came as Jon. I loaded them up with books and Jon told me about his new series he’ll be doing for Comedy Central and Dan is doing CG pre-viz work on a Gore Verbinsky project.

I keep bumping into one of my favorite artists, Eric Powell, who is a great artist and a good family man. He’s living the dream with his “Goon” comic book being developed into a CG animated feature by David Fincher. (more…)

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Tags: "Goon", Comic Con, comics, Dan Heder, david fincher
Posted Jul 26th 2009 at 9:35 am in Art, Culture, Military | 19193045 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/07/26/reporting-from-comic-con-the-end-is-near/Reporting+From+Comic-Con%3A+The+End+is+Near2009-07-26+16%3A35%3A54Doug+TenNapel

Reporting From Comic-Con: Fear and Loathing in Booth 1714

Today the costumed conventioneers started showing up, but it’s not as big as the big event. The Saturday night costume contest that brings out a freak show of innovation and geekdom. I don’t know why but there are always a lot more Boba Fett costumes than Darth Vaders. Perhaps because the isolated nature of grown men who would wear a costume gravitate toward the go-it-alone ethic of a bounty hunter.

In a convention first, I ended up in a meeting at the Warner Brothers booth where I pitched a prime time TV show. The best thing about the convention is that instead of me having to scatter fifty meetings across the year to catch up on the usual folks to whom I pitch, they’re all in one room. Okay, it’s a big room, but somehow we’re managing to find each other.

At the Gotham Group/Darkhorse lunch party I met pals from Sony animation, Disney, Tyler Perry’s company, Warner Brothers, Dreamworks and Universal. Now we’re talking convenient, we got em’ all in a 30′ x 30′ room. I made my way through the mosh pit in front of the bar and ended up having three beers. They were free, and I left pretty wobbly. A few hours later I met with some executives from an unnamed family entertainment company that also has a theme park and rhymes with Schmalt Schmisney where they bought me two more drinks. So now I’m returning to my booth hammered. (more…)

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Tags: Comic Con, comics, graphic novels, Jon Heder
Posted Jul 25th 2009 at 10:29 am in Culture, Entertainment | 19161825 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/07/25/reporting-from-comic-con-fear-and-loathing-in-booth-1714/Reporting+From+Comic-Con%3A+Fear+and+Loathing+in+Booth+17142009-07-25+17%3A29%3A31Doug+TenNapel

Comic-Con Diary: 60 Stormtroopers Walk Onto the Terrace…

I just got home from Comic-Con. In a couple hours I have to take a shower and head back downtown for a big party my Hollywood management company invited me to. Every year they team with a bunch of other companies and throw a huge industry mixer. They’re usually really crowded and noisy, but there’s free food and drinks and I usually met interesting people.

This year they also teamed up with Wired magazine and set up a private green room called the “Wired Cafe,” where select people from the press and the industry are invited during the day. They have a bunch of laptops set up for people to blog and tweet and a cafe with an open bar and great food. I decided to go there for lunch instead of my usual haunts. I had a Smoked Turkey Panini and considered a Dim Sum sampler, which the person at my table ordered with his Burger. Maybe tomorrow. (more…)

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Tags: Bustelo, Comic Con, Doug Tennapel, Iron Man, Iron Man 2
Posted Jul 24th 2009 at 5:41 pm in Art, Culture | 19082234 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jhudnall/2009/07/24/comic-con-thursday/Comic-Con+Diary%3A+60+Stormtroopers+Walk+Onto+the+Terrace...2009-07-25+00%3A41%3A11James+Hudnall

James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Slams America

From The Hollywood Reporter’s interview with “Avatar” Director James Cameron at San Diego Comic-Con 2009:

THR: You’ve mentioned this ["Avatar"] is a parable.

Cameron: Really what this film ultimately does is hold a mirror to our own blighted history, where we have a culturally advanced civilization supplanting more “primitive” civilizations. Some of these civilizations and cultures have a lot more wisdom than we’ve shown. We just have bigger guns. We have ships that can cross oceans, we have horses and armor. And this country we’re in now was taken from its indigenous owners. And it’s kind of owning up to our own human history.

(more…)

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Tags: Aliens, avatar, Comic Con, guns, indigenous peoples
Posted Jul 24th 2009 at 3:53 pm in Celebrity News, Media Criticism, Politics | 191470215 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/07/24/james-camerons-avatar-takes-critical-view-of-america/James+Cameron%27s+%27Avatar%27+Slams+America2009-07-24+22%3A53%3A28Big+Hollywood

Reporting From Comic-Con: Lou Ferrigno Beats Arnold After All

Today I got to meet the grown son of the man who gave me my first entertainment job in 1991. He said he was a big fan of Earthworm Jim and I told him there would be a very good chance my most famous character wouldn’t have existed without his dad.

Twenty years ago a retired lady bumped into me while I was in line to see “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” when she said, “Oh, you like to draw? You should come to the San Diego Comic Con. Here’s two free passes.” She came to my booth today and I gave her a big hug.

I had over ten young industry professionals who work in comics, animation and video games and tell me that they decided to learn to draw because they liked my work. An incredible 25-year-old Russian kid said that he was raised on a pirate version of my game, “The Neverhood,” I did with Dreamworks in the mid ’90s. I looked at his comic pages and he could draw better than I could. I drew a character for him and he gave up a tear. (more…)

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Tags: "Alice In Wonderland", "Chumble Spuzz", "Pumping Iron", "The Neverhood", Arnold Schwarzenegger
Posted Jul 24th 2009 at 1:56 pm in Art, Entertainment | 19102220 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/07/24/reporting-from-comic-con-lou-ferrigno-beats-arnold-after-all/Reporting+From+Comic-Con%3A+Lou+Ferrigno+Beats+Arnold+After+All2009-07-24+20%3A56%3A45Doug+TenNapel

Reporting From Comic-Con: Overlap

What does Voltron, Gumby, “Gods of War III” and Bone have in common? Nothing and everything. This is the great cultural collision that occurs at the San Diego Comic-con. I moved into my booth as all of the exhibitors to the world’s most popular cultural event prepares to overwhelm, nay, smother an unsuspecting public when the doors open.

The last ten or so years has seen a deliberate migration of Hollywood into what used to be a convention to celebrate just comics. A general sense of grumbling can be heard from the true comic fans who resent the beautiful rich crowd carpet-bagging onto Will Eisner’s turf. But what many don’t realize is that this has contributed to the mainstreaming of comics into the rest of culture. With entertainment’s money comes stability of the comics medium, a broadening of a market, more books sold, artists, writers, publishers and bookstores able to stay alive a little longer this is good for our tribe. (more…)

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Tags: Comic Books, Comic Con, graphic novels, transformers
Posted Jul 22nd 2009 at 10:28 am in Art, Entertainment, Film | 18942259 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/07/22/reporting-from-comic-con-overlap/Reporting+From+Comic-Con%3A+Overlap2009-07-22+17%3A28%3A19Doug+TenNapel

Comic Con International Through the Years

It’s hard for me to believe that the San Diego Comic Con International is now close to 40 years old. I’ve been going to them since 1975. Since 1981 I have only missed 2 Cons. Over the years I’ve seen it grow from a small local convention for comic book collectors and fans of geek culture, into a vast industry unto itself. Something that rivals Cannes for cultural significance.

In many respects, Comic Con International (aka the San Diego Comic Con to us attendees), is America’s Cannes Film Festival. But it’s much, much more.

Cannes is basically for film industry people only and the press. Comic Con is for everyone, and it’s becoming more relevant to the entertainment business as the years go by.

When I went to my first convention, I was in high school. I lived in San Diego at the time. I attended Point Loma High, so it was local for me. Only a couple thousand people attended. It was held at the El Cortez hotel which once dominated the San Diego skyline downtown. Now the El Cortez is a converted condo complex, dwarfed by the surrounding super condos. (more…)

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Tags: Chuck Norris, Comic Books, Comic Con, comics, fans
Posted Jul 21st 2009 at 3:25 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment | 18835826 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jhudnall/2009/07/21/comic-con-international-through-the-years/Comic+Con+International+Through+the+Years2009-07-21+22%3A25%3A20James+Hudnall