On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:46:05 -0600, Rob Jensen <ShutUpRob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:05:26 GMT, "Sharpe Fan"
><sharpeseagle2003NOSPAM@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>>
>>"Rob Jensen" <ShutUpRob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>news:uacul3597ls7i7au92mrevbo4d750knlu2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 20:23:57 GMT, "Sharpe Fan"
>>> <sharpeseagle2003NOSPAM@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>"Rob Jensen" <ShutUpRob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>>>news:taasl3pm3v0o9psbg2sqad1****2es4n0oi@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>>> Just a few post-Gg observations:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1) Lauren Graham apparently either got really pissed off at Alexis
or
>>>>> really prepared for the writers' strike because she's sure got
another
>>>>> commercial gig so suspiciously soon after Gg's indefinite hiatus
>>>>> started. She's done the voiceover for the new American Express Plum
>>>>> Card (for small businesses). Usually, commercial campaigns take
quite
>>>>> some time to air. Several months and sometimes even up to a year
>>>>> depending on how big the campaign is and since it's AmEx, I'm
figuring
>>>>> that it's a fairly big campaign launch. I spotted the commercial
>>>>> during Countdown and then thought it was hilarious that it *didn't*
>>>>> air during Samantha Who?, especially since, well, that plum color is
>>>>> pretty.
>>>>>
>>>>snipped]
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -- Rob
>>>>> --
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Is Alexis a spokesperson for Visa or something? How does LG doing an
AmEx
>>>>commercial have anything to do with AB?
>>>
>>> Lauren going toward alternate sources of income -- two voiceovers so
>>> far (Special K and now AmEx). And that's even considering that IMO,
>>> Graham is a *terrible* voiceover person, with a delivery so clipped
>>> and rushed in a not-Amy-like way that she simulates emotion without
>>> actually delivering any emotion. IOW, I think Lauren rushes her
>>> voiceovers.
>>>
>>> -- Rob
>>> --
>>
>>
>>You postulated that a possible reason LG is doing the AmEx voice-over
>>because she is pissed at AB.
>
>No. I postulated that Lauren having such gigs lined up so
>suspiciously quick after the start of Gg's indefinite hiatus
>*indicates* that she's either pissed at AB or more quickly anticipated
>the writers' strike than most people in Hollywood (or, I'll add here,
>both.) You're inferring a statement of cause-and-effect where I only
>state corroboration.
Voice-overs are something actors will do if they can get them, whether or
not they have a steady gig. Doing two voice-overs so shortly after GG
ended doesn't indicate that LG is pissed at anyone (Ooh, I'm so mad at you
I'm going to go out and make money), or that she more prescient than
others
about the WGA strike (and exactly how prescient did anyone in the industry
have to be last spring to see it coming). It just indicates that her
agent
managed to line up some voice-work for her. It's the sort of work she
could do even if GG continued this season.
>Keep in mind, commerical work, while a source of steady and
>substantial income for the duration that the commerical or series of
>commercials are running, are nevertheless considered a step down from
>acting on prime time or the movies. They're considered more along
>the lines of a working vacation.
And you don't appear on comera. Actors who won't do commercials on-camera
will do voice-overs, and actors who can get voice-over work will do them
even while they are in high profile series. Patrick Stewart very famously
still did voice-over commercials while ST:TNG was on the air. The big
advantages are that you don't appear on-camera, which could compete with
your regular gig, and they usually just take a few hours in a sound studio
to do, so they don't interfere with your regular gig. Oh, and they make
you money.
>>I realize that this has some hyperbole (I hope), but I still don't see
any
>>connection between LG doing a commercial and anything to do with AB.
>
>Well, the show's on indefinite hiatus and she's done a commercial,
>four movies and the Evan Almighty press junket since the season
>wrapped in April. That's an hellaciously busy schedule, one that
>Graham likely wouldn't have been logistically (much less physically)
>able to do had the show not gone on indefinite hiatus.
But she committed to the movies before GG ended.
Her movie with
>Matthew Perry (Birds of America) and the Evan junket, obviously yes,
>as the former was an indie that went into production shortly after the
>season wrapped and is the sort of thing that Lauren does in-between
>seasons of the show and the latter was a pre-existing obligation that
>would have otherwise precluded her from doing other gigs for the rest
>of the summer.
>
>BTW, while every actor likes to get a new role -- because hey, it's a
>paying gig -- no one actually *relishes* the idea of having to go out
>on 40 auditions just to get one of them (literally. 40:1 is the rule
>of thumb and it doesn't change until you're Tom Cr^ize and own your
>own studio and religious cult. And, yes, she's going to have to
>audition for movie roles even *with* her NBC Universal deal for a
>possible TV series, which might even be subject to being
>force-majeured out by the writers' strike anyway. If someone else is
>the reason that you're out of a job, no matter how much you might feel
>for him/her, you're going to be at the very least disappointed that
>it's the other person's decision that put you out of a job. And with
>the rigors of Gg's schedule, I very seriously doubt that Graham really
>would have wanted to *have* to do three movies in a row right after Gg
>with no real rest between the show, the first movie, the Evan junket
>and the other two movies. Which is what I suspect that she felt she
>*had* to do in order to be set fundage-wise for the duration of the
>WGA strike *and* any potential strike by SAG.
>
>Including the *filming* of Evan Almighty, which took up virtually all
>of the summer of 2006 (I think Carell still had a month of filming of
>Evan to do when The Office started filming s3 in 2006), that would be
>approximately two years of 12-to-16-hour days, often seven days per
>week, that Lauren's been filming since the top of season 6, a year
>before filming of Evan started, but which marked the start of this
>virtually nonstop period of filming for Lauren. So, you know, I think
>Lauren probably expected her vacation to have started a little bit
>earlier than, like, approximately now. Okay, early November, but I'm
>rounding. I still think it's reasonable to speculate that her
>vacation started 3 months later than she expected.
LG has maintained that kind of schedule all during GG, not just in the
last
year or so. During GG's run, in addition to approximately one scad of
indies, she has made the following major studio films (using $10M plus
budget as my defining point), Sweet November, Bad Santa, The Pacifier,
Evan
Almighty, Because I Said So.
>And yeah, that disappointment at AB for the show ending likely
>factored into her decision to take on so many gigs so quickly.
You are aware that LG has never expressed said disappointment? You (and
that I have seen, nobody else, anywhere else) has inferred that
disappointment (that doesn't mean you're wrong, but it also certainly
doesn't mean you're right). Making an inference based on an inference is
never a good idea.
>Sustaining this sort of a pace for so long has a high burnout rate to
>consider. It'd be a different thing if the movies were basically just
>long cameos like her walk-on role in Sweet November or The Pacifier
>(roles that only took a week or less each to film), but she has
>substantial roles in these movies.
I would argue that Bad Santa and Because I Said So, are the only really
Lauren-heavy major studio productions in the group.
To sum up my position on what you've said
LG doing voice-overs on commercials is because advertising companies are
willing to pay her to do them. Good, in this case, is defined as 'sells
the product' and the advertising companies apparently decided that she met
that definition (since they keep hiring her).
LG is doing a bunch of movies because she can (she clearly believes in
Lord
Olivier's rule "An actor who isn't working, isn't an actor")
Neither LG, nor any other actor, goes out and gets paying jobs out of
spite.
--
"Oh Buffy, you really do need to have
every square inch of your ass kicked."
- Willow Rosenberg
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