This was an interesting read. I think Ebert’s comment about Clooney was less about Clooney himself, and more about the time when TV actors were TV actors and Movie actors were Movie actors and moving from one category to the other was considered difficult-to-impossible. (There was a whole thing about how the leads in Cheers tried and failed to become proper movie stars.) Clooney made the transition and Out of Sight was the first sign it was going to work for him.
Regarding Lopez, I think it’s difficult to analyse her career trajectory without factoring in her relationship with Sean Coombs. They were such a power couple - massive coverage, designer everything, peak late 90s glamour - and then the gun-in-the-nightclub incident happened and suddenly coverage of both of them really changed and never quite recovered. They split not terribly long after but it’s like that revealed something about both of them that has carried on through media coverage (on both their trajectories) ever since.
You may well be right on Ebert’s meaning. He was usually pretty thoughtful. And that’s so interesting on what happened with Sean Coombs - I knew absolutely nothing about that until I started reading around for this piece (hence not mentioning it). ‘What do you know about J-Lo’ is beginning to feel like some sort of Rorschasch test!
This is an un-feminist thing for me to say, which is why I hesitate to say it, but I think J-Lo was - or allowed herself to be - massively overexposed for a long time, and that she’s been made to pay the price for the media’s own frenzied laziness. My memory is that, in the months and years before 9/11, Jennifer Lopez and her bum were absolutely everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE, in mainstream Anglo-American media. At times, it seemed like she was on the cover of every single magazine and tabloid newspaper, and over and over again, to the point that it was inconceivable that someone could work so hard or bear to be photographed so much. The result was that there seemed to be no mystery about her; she seemed to give herself away too freely, to the point of mutual exhaustion. Maybe that’s what it means to say that she’s deemed brassy rather than classy. When 9/11 happened, I thought American mainstream culture might turn a corner: renounce its cruelty and superficiality, regain its imagination, and give poor J-Lo a break. Lol, it seems that only one of those things happened.
That’s v interesting - the mutual exhaustion point. I was quite detached from tabloid culture round that time (not claiming any high ground here - I was mostly stoned…) and probably wasn’t aware of the full extent of it, hence my bafflement now
Yeah, I was writing up my thesis aka eminently distractible! I was terribly good at finding reasons why I absolutely had to go online or walk to the corner shop. For me, that period in my life is all Findus Crispy Pancakes and J-Lo.
Well said, JLo is absolutely brilliant in Out of Sight and I always wondered why she wasn’t in more movies. As you say, too brassy? Anyway good for her, she’s terrific.
I’m not sure I agree with this entirely. I don’t think I’ve ever thought of Jennifer Lopez as anything other than hugely successful. I guess it’s possible she moved away from movies and into music because of that backlash but I remember it being aimed squarely at both Lopez and Affleck as a couple and not solely at her. I was also, mercifully, unaware of the “gobble,gobble” debacle until reading this article. I have never felt the need to rewatch Out of Sight. I just felt it was an ok thriller at the time so maybe it’s time for a rewatch. I have to say, the point at which I decided Clooney was a star was not this film but rather when I saw him in From Dusk Till Dawn. “Toxic” has gone straight on my must read list. Thanks for the tip!
As I said in another reply, it’s quite interesting how we all know/remember different aspects of what happened - I guess that’s one consequence of living 30 years in the tabloids. I do recommend ‘Toxic’ - I was so preoccupied with babies in the noughties that most of the stories in the book had passed me by. Was really interesting to think how women in the teens and twenties experienced it.
This was an interesting read. I think Ebert’s comment about Clooney was less about Clooney himself, and more about the time when TV actors were TV actors and Movie actors were Movie actors and moving from one category to the other was considered difficult-to-impossible. (There was a whole thing about how the leads in Cheers tried and failed to become proper movie stars.) Clooney made the transition and Out of Sight was the first sign it was going to work for him.
Regarding Lopez, I think it’s difficult to analyse her career trajectory without factoring in her relationship with Sean Coombs. They were such a power couple - massive coverage, designer everything, peak late 90s glamour - and then the gun-in-the-nightclub incident happened and suddenly coverage of both of them really changed and never quite recovered. They split not terribly long after but it’s like that revealed something about both of them that has carried on through media coverage (on both their trajectories) ever since.
You may well be right on Ebert’s meaning. He was usually pretty thoughtful. And that’s so interesting on what happened with Sean Coombs - I knew absolutely nothing about that until I started reading around for this piece (hence not mentioning it). ‘What do you know about J-Lo’ is beginning to feel like some sort of Rorschasch test!
This is an un-feminist thing for me to say, which is why I hesitate to say it, but I think J-Lo was - or allowed herself to be - massively overexposed for a long time, and that she’s been made to pay the price for the media’s own frenzied laziness. My memory is that, in the months and years before 9/11, Jennifer Lopez and her bum were absolutely everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE, in mainstream Anglo-American media. At times, it seemed like she was on the cover of every single magazine and tabloid newspaper, and over and over again, to the point that it was inconceivable that someone could work so hard or bear to be photographed so much. The result was that there seemed to be no mystery about her; she seemed to give herself away too freely, to the point of mutual exhaustion. Maybe that’s what it means to say that she’s deemed brassy rather than classy. When 9/11 happened, I thought American mainstream culture might turn a corner: renounce its cruelty and superficiality, regain its imagination, and give poor J-Lo a break. Lol, it seems that only one of those things happened.
That’s v interesting - the mutual exhaustion point. I was quite detached from tabloid culture round that time (not claiming any high ground here - I was mostly stoned…) and probably wasn’t aware of the full extent of it, hence my bafflement now
Yeah, I was writing up my thesis aka eminently distractible! I was terribly good at finding reasons why I absolutely had to go online or walk to the corner shop. For me, that period in my life is all Findus Crispy Pancakes and J-Lo.
Ha!
Well said, JLo is absolutely brilliant in Out of Sight and I always wondered why she wasn’t in more movies. As you say, too brassy? Anyway good for her, she’s terrific.
I’d so love to see her in a grown-up, well directed movie now, with all that life experience behind her.
I’m not sure I agree with this entirely. I don’t think I’ve ever thought of Jennifer Lopez as anything other than hugely successful. I guess it’s possible she moved away from movies and into music because of that backlash but I remember it being aimed squarely at both Lopez and Affleck as a couple and not solely at her. I was also, mercifully, unaware of the “gobble,gobble” debacle until reading this article. I have never felt the need to rewatch Out of Sight. I just felt it was an ok thriller at the time so maybe it’s time for a rewatch. I have to say, the point at which I decided Clooney was a star was not this film but rather when I saw him in From Dusk Till Dawn. “Toxic” has gone straight on my must read list. Thanks for the tip!
As I said in another reply, it’s quite interesting how we all know/remember different aspects of what happened - I guess that’s one consequence of living 30 years in the tabloids. I do recommend ‘Toxic’ - I was so preoccupied with babies in the noughties that most of the stories in the book had passed me by. Was really interesting to think how women in the teens and twenties experienced it.
She runs a kebab shop in Kentish Town
Mem’s?