“I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don’t bluff….”
—Barack Obama
When I read this quote from Jeffrey Goldberg’s interview with president Obama I laughed out loud. For about five minutes.
First of all, let’s recognize that Goldberg was hand picked by the White House because Goldberg is a reliable democrat drone who will not challenge Obama on anything, much less Israel.
I laughed because Obama is heading into elections where some of his Jewish contributors have decided that supporting an implacable foe of the Jewish State might actually be suicidal.
I laughed because this was Obama’s prelude to his speech of lies to AIPAC.
And finally, I laughed because I’ve been writing and producing movies in Hollywood for over twenty-five years and each project comes out of some fairly tough if not brutal negotiations. And if there’s one lesson I’ve learned it’s this: when a studio solemnly informs my agent that this is the final offer, not one more concession because they
Do
Not
Bluff.
Well, you know they are bluffing.
Seriously, no one who is serious takes this ”I’m not bluffing line” seriously.
Especially in an election yeaar.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
8 Comments
Well, at least it was a better effort than telling the Republicans, “Don’t call my bluff.”
(btw; Isn’t it amazing that our *American* president seems to have no working knowledge of American idioms?)
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In James Garner’s memoirs – The Garner Files, he detailed exactly what transpired between his discovery that Universal was doctoring the accounting books to cheat him out of any royalties for The Rockford Files and the day of the court date of his lawsuit against Universal.
Universal had 2 sets of books, one of course the real book, and one where they inflated costs of production 3x-5x.
Anyhoo (to quote a famous screenwriter) Garner was so mad he ignored the ‘You’ll never work in this town again” threats and sued Universal and Lew Wasserman, at the time the studio head.
The inevitable offers of court settlement came in and Garner refused them, until the “final offer” – where they wouldn’t go any further.
Garner considered it, and refused against advice from a lot of people. He was ready to go to court.
Well (as I recall) this being either the day of the trial or very close to it, Universal’s rep, upon hearing the refusal to his “this is the final – we will go no further” – offer, pulled out an envelope with a check giving Garner what he was demanding.
They were just trying to see if they could settle for less.
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Bill:
No movie with profit participation deals has ever made money. The smart stars always ask for a % of the gross. Those with no power get a % of the profits.
I think Gone With The Wind is still losing money and Titanic is struggling to break even.
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Johnny – while walking the dog this morning at 05:30 I was listening to LA’s Mark & Brian – most of the time inane banter (but you can’t be choosy at that hour) but occasionally interesting stuff.
) – but point is that all the principle actors have achieved some prominence in the interim and would want to be paid up front, to the tune of $100 million for (all of them ) or so.
They were talking about this very subject this morning – about making a sequel to a successful movie of which I had absolutely zero interest (so a sequel would put my interest in the negatives?
So the movie won’t be made.
But they also mentioned Tom Hanks who agreed to take a percentage (of the gross I assume) of Forrest Gump with a small amt up front, and ended up making $100 million off that movie.
But as you said I think it was this Universal episode with James Garner that brought the shadier practices of studio accounting up front.
I mentioned the story because I thought it best exemplified the This is our final offer – we’re not bluffing genre.
And I think they settled on the morning of the trial and my sometimes flaky memory remembers it wasn’t for the full amount Garner was seeking but he said “very close”.
Upon hearing this his wife Lois painted a red “V” on their front door.
Today I am hearing an interview on Hugh Hewitt on a woman who has revealed a number of people in the Obama administration who were members of the radical Left SDS – Students for a Democratic Society – in the 60s.
I know this will shock some of you…
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Robert, you laughed for 5 minutes. Our enemies around the world have been laughing since January 20, 2009.
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Johnny:
LOL, or CMHO (Cry My Heart Out)
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Amen…
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More like since 1979.
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