With her impassioned defense of the widely panned 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, The New Yorker’ s Pauline Kael helped launch the American New Wave and propel Warren Beatty into permanent orbit. More than a decade later, the powerful critic would leave her perch to accept the invitation of Beatty to co-produce James Toback’s Love & Money. The experiment failed, and Kael left Hollywood under a cloud. LILI ANOLIK tracks the seduction: Who was taking advantage of whom? And what exactly was at stake?
The facts, verifiable:
In 1979, New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael, 59, accepted an offer from actor-director Warren Beatty, 41, to help him produce Love & Money, a script his production company had acquired and set up at Paramount. Love & Money was to be the second feature of writer-director James Toback, 34, whose first feature, Fingers, Kael had reviewed ecstatically the year before. Toback was also a personal friend. She took a leave of absence from The New Yorker, headed to L.A.
Kael and Toback began working together. She wanted substantial changes to the script. He did not want to change the script substantially. She was removed from the project. Beatty secured a new deal for her at Paramount as a creative production executive. At the time, Paramount’s chairman was Barry Diller, a fan. It was not to Diller, however, that she would be reporting. It was to Don Simpson, senior V.P. of worldwide production. There were a number of properties she wished to develop. Simpson rejected all but one. Her contract was for five months. When it lapsed, it wasn’t renewed. She returned to The New Yorker in the spring of 1980.
These, as I said, are the matters of fact, checked and established, of the situation. And before I obscure them or re-arrange them, deface them with conjecture and speculation, intuition, feminine and otherwise, I wanted you to see them plain. Now you have. We still can’t get started, though. There are a few more things you should know first, mostly about the leads, Kael and Beatty: who they are and where they came from, what they meant in Hollywood and in America, in the worlds of movies and letters and politics, in the late 1970s.
Flashback, Hers
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Hollywood 2017-Ausgabe von Vanity Fair.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Hollywood 2017-Ausgabe von Vanity Fair.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
ALFRED MOLINA
The actor, currently starring in Uncle Vanya on Broadway, on his love of vinyl, New York, and not being the worst dad in the world
CITIZEN CHAMBERS
Until very recently, Jim \"Fergie\" Chambers was an heir to Cox Enterprises and one of the largest family fortunes in America. With hundreds of millions of dollars on hand, a zeal for revolution, and an innate sense for confrontation, he's becoming America's go-to radical communist
DEVIL'S EVE, 1982
Before she was killed by her ex-boyfriend, Dominique Dunne had been poised for Hollywood stardom. The crime launched her father, Dominick, into his calling, covering high-profile court cases for this magazine. The tragedy also reshaped their family, as GRIFFIN DUNNE writes in his memoir, The Friday Afternoon Club
MEMBERS ONLY
Scott Sartiano's private club, Zero Bond, became postpandemic New York's celeb-friendliest playground, luring the likes of Taylor, Elon, and Mayor Eric Adams. What's the secret sauce?
IN VITRO VERITAS
More than half a century ago, in a dusty Roman library, men of science and men of faith gathered together to unlock the mysteries of female fertility. The answer: urine from the brides of Christ. And lo, those nuns gaveth
OF GODS AND MEN
Despite playing Thor for years, Chris Hemsworth is every inch a human being: an introspective family man with real questions about his career and future. We meet up in Australia on the eve of his favorite role in more than a decade in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
RUNNING for His Life
His freedom in the balance, Donald Trump's campaign has been big on autocracy and low on the drama that marked previous runs. What might this newfound if terrifying competency mean?
Turner Classic
In the last few years, English actor Callum Turner has worked with Clooney, Hanks, and Spielberg-so yes, you could say it's going well. VF catches up with Hollywood's latest heartthrob as he takes downtown NYC in style
Out of Sight
Inside Apple Park, CEO Tim Cook talks exclusively to vf about the genesis of a "Mind-blowing" new device that will shape his legacy and, perhaps, how we see the world
Queen Anne
Anne Hathaway has become a style icon to gen Z-and embraced who she is after years of self-recrimination and internet noise. With the racy romance the idea of you hitting theaters, the Oscar winner talks about living out loud