Good looks are a curse

Yes, Good looks are a curse. As per this NY Times profile of Olivia Wilde. Oh wait, there's another NYT profile of yet another good looking woman Brit Marling who has to work extra hard to make her mark in Hollywood. Listen kids, don't aspire a career in Hollywood, if you're even remotely good looking. Or prepare to work very hard to go past an ordinary person.

Here's li'l bit of my personal experience. All doors open for good looking people, either men or women. Period. I work in IT, not a glamorous field by any measure. And I've seen many people, whose good looks and charm gave'em li'l push on their way up on corporate ladder. Trust me, there's no such thing called glass ceiling for these people.

Back to the NYT articles, these are the article Headlines.
Look Past the Beauty, if You Can.
How to Succeed in Hollywood Despite Being Really Beautiful.

There was a time, I was naive and I've this impression that all I read in Newspaper or magazines is objective reporting. Slowly I woke up to fact that there's a profession by name Publicist. Whose job is make sure that his/her client gets enough visibility in all the media. Client could be anybody or anything. A new website, app, artist, athlete, tech entrepreneur, VC et al. So the publicists hired by the agencies of Ms.Wilde and Ms.Marling are behind these articles. This doesn't feel good to me but I don't have any problem with this. No harm whatsoever.

But these attention seeking faux headlines makes me cringe. We're talking about Hollywood, where good looks are a pre-requisite. And when was the last time good looks became liability to any actress. This whole argument sounds preposterous to me. Olivia Wilde's profile itself quotes that her parents are influential journalists with beltway contacts and that's how she got a job in a casting agency. So the family background and good looks which gave her a break early in her career are suddenly a liability?

I like Olivia Wilde, saw her on Bill Maher once and found her very informed about social issues. Haven't seen any movie or TV series starring her. I've no idea who the other lady is. I don't have any beef with magazines profiling these artists, whenever their new movie/memoir/music album comes out. My only problem is with these catchy Headlines, these show business reporters come up with. If this article is all about beauty being a bane, then they should've skipped the photoshopped pic. Nope, that wasn't the case.

Being beautiful is not a liability. It never was and never would be. Media should stop using this overplayed meme. Just imagine how many people would recognize Olivia or the other woman, if they haven't inherited that good gene pool. This is show business, not Financial Engineering or Nuclear Science.

Peace.

lieMAX or IMAX?

I've been to "Star Trek - The IMAX experience" last weekend. It's one of the movies I've been waiting for this year and I thought the IMAX experience would be a better choice. It partly was. However, I was expecting a HUGE screen and this one was just like any other screen only slightly wider, not really an IMAX screen if you ask me. I've watched a couple of IMAX movies at museums and I always felt it was the HUGE screen that really made the difference. I would probably never spend those extra $5 again for the IMAX experience at AMC or REGAL cinemas, but I found an interesting link that can be used for reference if at all you would like to watch commercial cinema in IMAX.

lieMAX or IMAX on Google

Pakistan proposes lifting ban on Indian films

Just read this news.
Yeah I know, it's good for Indian economy, good for building up friendship between India and Pakistan, yada yada yada..

But I wonder how a Hindi movie will shape up with this new revenue avenue. Imagine a movie opening in Pakistan on the same Friday it's hitting screens in India and elsewhere. Already Yash Raj movies and Karan Johar movies are made for NRIs (read south Asian diaspora aka muslims).

Seriously, Hindi Film heroes might be named as Salim/ali/hussein..instead of eternal prem/rahul/rohit... Throw in a Hindu villain and ahhh..a Hindu heroine name wouldn't hurt either.

Before the readers come into a conclusion that I'm a racist, please recall this movie. main hoon na Here is the plot in nutshell. A army major rescues another major's daughter from a hindu extremist ...WTF. Director Farah Khan intelligently establishes the Hindu Extremist Raghavan's charecter with this scene. Raghavan (played by sunil shetty) kills a innocent Pakistani kid in Point Blank range just for crossing the border. And the intelligence continues in character names also. Sharukh and Zayed characters are named as Ram and Lakshman.

If my memory is not wrong, Kamal Hasan rejected this hindu extremist's role coz of the characterization. Any sensible actor would do the same thing. Now I'm not the only one complaining. Please follow this link.


....there are increasingly large numbers who charge there is undercurrent of pro-Islamist and subtle anti-Hindu messaging in Khan's brand of cinema planted within the rest of the entertainment. An industry observer points out that while Shahrukh Khan has never made a film targetting Islamic terrorists, the villain in Khan's previous high profile production, Main Hoon Na also was instead a 'Hindu terrorist' of none other than the Indian army itself.

Hope the Hindi movies remain close to Indian/Hindu tastes and sentiments.

Jai Hind.