The Clinton Fox Debate: Through the Eyes of a B-Movie

2008-08-04T15:06:44Z

So there’s this great scene in Showgirls, and any B-movie buff worth their salt knows which one I’m talking about. In it, young, idealistic, hopeful, passionate Nomi Malone insists that she is not a stripper. She’s a dancer. Better than your average run of the mill Vegas showgirl. Cristal Connors, the seasoned, experienced, been there done that dancer extraordinaire takes a moment to put her in her place.

Cristal Connors: You are a whore, darlin'.
Nomi Malone: No, I'm not.
Cristal Connors: We all are. We take the cash, we cash the check, we show them what they want to see!

Nomi and Cristal. It’s an old story. Both solid dancers, both with their own set of fans. Cristal has the talent and skill of a seasoned professional, Nomi has the passion and raw talent of an excited beginner – but at the end of the day, they both cashed the checks, right?

Clinton’s latest move to accept a debate on Fox is a clear Cristal Connors moment. After the Democratic candidates made the decision not to debate on Fox, her decision to do so – is a moment of cashing the check. Now it’s up to Obama. Will he shove Cristal down the steps and become the new star of the Vegas review, or hold firm and refuse the Fox debate?

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Joe Eszterhas - On Screenwriting

2008-06-07T09:34:13Z

Complete program at: fora.tv

Screenwriter and author Joe Eszterhas discusses the writing process, and offers some advice for aspiring screenwriters.

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Joe Eszterhas, best-selling author and legendary bad-boy screenwriter discusses his new book "The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: the Screenwriter as God!."

Mike Ovitz told him his Wilshire Blvd. "foot soldiers" would hunt him down. He's antagonized almost everyone at the top in Tinseltown. And now, Joe Eszterhas tells everything he knows - in brief, quotable bursts - about the business, the history of Hollywood, and how to write screenplays that make millions. Idiosyncratic, gruff and as shaggy as Eszterhas himself, "The Devil's Guide to Hollywood" makes a character/leitmotif of Eszterhas' fellow Hungarian Zsa Zsa Gabor ("Money is like a sixth sense that makes it possible for you to fully enjoy the other five."), and makes the case that Marilyn Monroe was the sharpest tack in Hollywood ("Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents."). Refreshing, dirty, tough, there's no book like it. - Books Inc.

Joe Eszterhas has written fifteen films which have made more than a billion dollars at the box office. Among them are Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge, Flashdance, Showgirls, Betrayed, Music Box and F.I.S.T. He is the author of the recent New York Times bestsellers American Rhapsody and Hollywood Animal. In 1975, his second book, Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse, was nominated for the National Book Award. He was a senior editor at Rolling Stone from 1971 to 1975.

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showgirls at Brave New Films

The Clinton Fox Debate: Through the Eyes of a B-Movie

Joe Eszterhas - On Screenwriting