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Ex-Stripper Diablo Cody Bares All for Entertainment Weekly
By Kyle | December 17, 2007
Kudos to Entertainment Weekly, whose managing editor Rick Tetzeli announces in an editor’s letter this week that he has managed to hire as a confessional columnist Diablo Cody, the (supposed) former stripper and author of the script for “Juno” who is lava-hot in Hollywood right now. Tetzeli notes that he’s getting a peek at the musings of someone who is both a rising star and an unabashed pop culture fan, and as I’ve said before Cody is likely to win the Oscar for best original screenplay for “Juno.”
Cody is a clever writer, but if you read her column you may find yourself asking the question: Doesn’t she kinda sound like a lot of other clever bloggers? (Keep in mind that her director Jason Reitman, in the intro to the just-published book edition of the “Juno” screenplay, calls her, “one of those voices that will define a generation.”)
If I were advising Cody, I would say: Don’t do this. You can’t win. Unless you are an extremely gifted comic writer, you aren’t going to be able to keep coming up with funny ideas on deadline. Some of your columns will merely be okay. Which means you will get ripped apart by other writers and bloggers and their jealousy. Which in turn will hurt your Hollywood buzz value. Even if you can consistently come up with that many funny ideas, why waste them on a magazine column? Save up those bons mots and put them into much more lucrative scripts. And if your quirk gets to be a routine people are used to reading in lots of magazine columns, how eager are people going to be to line up at the box office for your next film?
Topics: Books, Magazines, Movies, Oscars |
December 17th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Her debut column reads like someone who is rather clever but has trouble keeping our interest when the snark well runs dry. Perhaps future columns will show improvement. But, alas, she’s striking while the iron is hot by taking this gig.
And boy is the ex-stripper part of her resume getting some mileage.
December 17th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
She wasn’t one of the main actors in Juno, that said she is arguably the breakout star of the film.
December 17th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
You are set for a long career as a hack magazine writer.
December 17th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Do you really think so that would be awesome.
Your column was great by the way, except the boxing vs. cock fighting part, I love boxing
February 26th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
The Oscars needs to know who their real winners…
I don’t mean to put down Diablo who won the best original screenplay
but do you really think without learning the art and craft about
screenwriting is possible to get an oscar?
Screenplay have rules, discplines, art, structure, sequence,
main plot, subplot, sub text, etc. She can’t just possibly learn the craft by reading other screenplays.
She may have a good story but to put it in a screenplay is a new ball game. Other
writers are busting their chaps for years learning the craft and Diablo
just happen to have a remarkable talent to have it. Oliver Stone took ten years to master the craft.
Sure, a talent can come anywhere like a diamond under the rubble. But when you find that rare diamond, it too
needs to be polished just like this woman. How long has she been writing a screenplay and
how many?
I’m speculating that Diablo got help from a good screenwirter and I would probably understand for the movie Juno to win. But whoever helped her should get
the credit as well. What if Steven Speilberg gave you a screenplay and it wins an oscar.
Are you the real winner?
This woman got helped to write a scrrenplay and We need to show the world that co-writer.
Its important. Otherwise, spec scripts will start pouring out there, coming from anywhere without the
art and discipline. And we wonder why art is degrading… Its bad promotion for the art!
The OSCAR should be concerned about this. And they should READ THE SCREENPLAY not just watch the movie.