Some news (I use the term somewhat broadly) about a couple things that have been mentioned copiously on this blog in the past. As you may be aware, yours truly is quite the Peter Sarsgaard enthusiast, as well as a... it's hard to think of the proper word here, but let's just say I'm always up for reading about Stephen Glass, Patron Saint of Fabrication.
So, I happened across this one NPR interview with Stephen Glass about a particular article he had written/fabricated. There's another interview floating around on youtube on the same topic, but it's a different one than this NPR one. This NPR one I actually hadn't come across in the past (can you believe it?), but it was interesting to hear. They even have a transcript with the disclaimer "Below is the transcript of the interview. It is here because we did not want to erase history and because it provides insights into Glass, not because we believe he spoke truthfully," but it's interesting to hear him talking so I recommend actually listening to the interview. I also found this about Shattered Glass, which I don't think I had read before, but I honestly can't completely remember, as I've read so, so much about Stephen Glass and all.
Tying these topics together, the Washington Post recently published a list of the 10 best journalism movies. I'll stick to the more notable ones, in my mind, all three of which were mentioned and which I've seen (in fact, they're really the only journalism movies I've seen to date). All the President's Men (no surprises there; that's probably the most famous one of all), Spotlight (fairly recent, and starring Mark Ruffalo, who actually bears a fairly close resemblance to the actual person he portrayed in the movie -- I became aware of this because there was a picture of the actual person in an exhibit in the Newseum, and I realized that hey, that's the guy who got portrayed by Mark Ruffalo in the movie Spotlight!), and.... Shattered Glass (starring Peter Sarsgaard as the editor, and Hayden Christensen as the eponymous Glass. Chloe Sevigny is even is this movie too, as one of Glass' coworkers.)
Each movie has some commentary about it by a journalist; the relevant ones had commentary from the people portrayed in them: All the President's Men had commentary from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Spotlight had commentary from Marty Baron, who was the editor at the Boston Globe at the time of the events portrayed in the movie (they got the casting pretty accurate for his character as well, as far as physical resemblance goes). I seem to remember reading about Spotlight somewhere that the costume design for the journalists' clothes had them dressing somewhat more snazzily than they actually did in real life. Which is sort of interesting to think about, if you're me; I love to know about those little background details. For All the President's Men, they were very meticulous about making the Post's newsroom look as it actually did at the time of the events.
Anyways, onto the main event here.... Shattered Glass (which I wouldn't mind rewatching, yet again). Chuck Lane gives commentary about this one; he, as I'm certainly very well aware, was played by Peter Sarsgaard in the movie. Some of the notable bits (honestly, that was most of it): he was ashamed that Stephen Glass had been able to fool him and the fabrications were published, instead of being proud of uncovering the fabrications. Apparently, the movie was pretty visually accurate (which is nice to know): "'Shattered Glass' nails that era's TNR office culture, right down to Glass's trademark blue Oxford shirt and khakis." (and how he didn't wear shoes in the office, just socks) Towards the end of the commentary, Lane draws some comparisons between Stephen Glass' use of stereotypes and playing to people's biases and the current political/cultural climate, which is something I've sort of touched on somewhere in the past on this blog, I think.
I had also lately been thinking about about the idea of a play (or movie) based on recent events in my own life. I guess it could sort of be considered a journalism play/movie, or at least somewhat related to/involving that topic. I had even decided theoretically who could play a couple of the characters (based on real people!)... Peter Sarsgaard as one of them (one of the protagonists, a journalism/English professor) and Wolf Blitzer as the main antagonist (also a professor, but not particularly adept at his job). Which is a bit of a theoretical disservice to Wolf, since he seems like a nice and decent person, and in my theoretical play/movie, he would play the role of an unsavory and nasty character... but as far as physical resemblance goes, I think it's fairly close. As for the other people/characters, I don't know who would theoretically play them, but I have given some thought to the costume design and the set decoration/locations/visual stuff. It would be interesting to be a film director and/or to write a play, and actually have the play performed...
As far as Peter Sarsgaard goes, the new Netflix documentary series he's in has FINALLY been released. Finally!! So I'm hopefully going to get around to watching that sooner or later, so perhaps expect a review if I'm not too lazy. I've realized that I've gotten to the point where I've seen most of the more interesting looking movies in the filmographies of my favorite actors, so now some of the ones that are left are the ones that seem like they'll be boring and/or bad... which means I can either watch and suffer through those, or find some new favorite actors and start exploring their filmographies... I have to watch Requiem for a Dream again sometime before the end of the month before it leaves Netflix, so I just need to wait until I'm in the right mood for that. It's a great movie, but it's fairly heavy and depressing.
Apologies for neglecting the blog; I've been busy (and sort of lazy) lately... but with the winter break, I hopefully should be having more time to think of (and write) things for this humble blog that no one really reads. If you do read this blog (for whatever reason), I hope you find it interesting.
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