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A long, long time ago - way before most of the readers of Ms. Havrilevsky were even gleams in their parents' eye, maybe even before Ms. Havrilesky was wearing plastic pants while she played with her toys in the playpen, I had the opportunity of spending a considerable bit of time with a Hollywood Legend. My writing mentor, who had written Mr. Hollywood Legend's least-favorite movie he made - but had become his good friend in the process - told me as he introduced me to Mr. HL that "he needs someone who hasn't heard his stories to listen to them, and if he chooses you, youll learn something if you listen up." My mentor was right, and I did indeed get a better "graduate" education than one could get at either UCLA, USC, or any other cowtown college with an MFA program in "fillum". Mr. HL read my stuff and told me "there's hope for you, kid." We used to eat a very nice top-of-the-line delicatessen lunch twice a month in his office while he talked and I listened. It was the best education a screenwriter could get, because most of it was about the business of being a screenwriter, which is where most screenwriters fail.
One thing he taught me was, be polite to everybody and don't mess them over. You never know where they're going, and you never know when you might need a good word from them. The guy who's down will be up, and vice versa. This wasn't new news, I had figured that out in ten years of professional politics-as-a-blood-sport, but all that was mere boot camp for the Real Deal - which is Hollywood.
I've survived as long as I have for knowing that, and every "bump in the road" has come from not remembering those words of wisdom.
Too bad Generation Y-bother hasn't figured it out. The two articles about Gawker prove that while it might have been right once to believe "don't trust anybody over 30," today the rule is "don't trust anybody under 30." You people are pathetic in your moron stupdity - you're even dumber than we were.
