Caitlin McCarthy received her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Emerson College. An award-winning screenwriter at international film festivals and labs, McCarthy has two projects in development: “Wonder Drug” with director Tom Gilroy (“Spring Forward”); and “Resistance” with director Si Wall (“Angie” and “Marbella Nights”). In addition to screenwriting, McCarthy serves as an English teacher at an inner-city public high school. Please visit www.wonderdrugthemovie.com and www.resistancethemovie.com.
CAITLIN’S CELEBRITY PREDICTIONS FOR 2010
I recently spooked some people (okay, just Elizabeth Searle!) with my off-the-cuff prediction in 2009 that Casey Johnson was heading for trouble this year. No one would have wanted to predict what happened to Johnson on January 4th, but when you live life in the fast lane, sometimes you crash and burn. (My condolences to Johnson’s loved ones — and, yes, that includes Tila Tequila. She’s cheesy, but she’s human.)
In light of this unfortunate prediction, Elizabeth asked me to share a few more (hopefully) harmless thoughts with you. Please allow me to preface my thoughts….
Growing up, I remember Shirley Maclaine being chided in the press for her interest in new age spirituality and reincarnation. (One of my favorite Letterman moments is when Maclaine called him an “asshole” for mocking her.) Dan Brown’s latest book “The Lost Symbol” takes Noetic Science very seriously, which has also triggered some giggles and eye-rolling from the peanut gallery.
Let’s just say that I get strong feelings or thoughts about certain things. This isn’t something that I can turn on and off like a faucet. These feelings come and go — usually while I watch TV, wash my hair, drive my car, whenever.
In case you’re wondering, this intuitiveness runs on my father’s side of the family. My Great Aunt Jodie was a professional psychic with several celebrity clients. (Sorry, I can’t name them here — privacy is important, but to be a tease, people in the Boston area would recognize certain names). And one of my great grandmothers read tea leaves on the D.L. for family and friends. I don’t envision myself setting up shop at a local strip mall anytime soon. But for my dear Elizabeth, I’m offering the following thoughts free of charge (haha).
A note for the celebrities about to be mentioned: The following are just “gut instincts” — as of this moment — about what could happen to you in 2010. They’re not set in stone. I have always believed that we have the ability to change the course of our lives, if we put our minds to it.
In 2010:
- Gwynnie Paltrow is going to separate from her husband, ie the blond Coldplay guy.
- Brad and Angie will stay together for one more year. Then things will get uglier than that thing on his face.
- Kathryn Bigelow will be the first woman to win Best Director at the Oscars (for THE HURT LOCKER).
- Jon and Kate will disappear from the tabloids. The hair extensions and phony break-in are the death rattle.
- Jenny from the Block won’t have that comeback she so desperately wants (as evidenced by that creepy one-sie she wore on New Year’s Eve).
Again, to the celebs, if you don’t like what you see, there’s still time to redirect your life. (I’m all about the positive!)
Love, Me.
(photos: C & G: ew.com; JenLo: GoogleImages)
I think Caitlin is on the nose here, especially so on GP and CM. She gives B and A too much time. Brad/Angie is already history. More predictions, please. I believe Caitlin has the touch.
I agree with JEFF that Caitlin has THE TOUCH–
and though Brad and Angie rumors are rife (see our link) I’m betting Caitlin is right and the franchise will hold on a little longer–
Anyone want to predict Brad & Jennifer A redux?
I do predict that as to Brad and Jennifer Aniston both need a career boost right around now. Sounds like Angelina has her own things going on so why not?
OK, we will add this to our Celebrity Predictions for 2010–
I myself don’t see Jen back in the pit with Brad, but you are so right that it would bring both Jen and Brad a goldmine of attention. But Brad better get a shave first!
Brad and Angelina–I have followed it for years. Read it every time–often in the grocery line. Just one more unseemly aspect of the first decade of the new millennium has been the Brad/Jen/Angelina triangle. It has so much: Jen’s lifelong love for Brad and her abysmal taste in other men that almost seems purposeful (John Mayer? John Mayer? Making fun of her publicly and she STILL takes him back????).
I wondered how Jen felt when Vince Vaughn got married recently. I doubt if he was The Right One either, but it made me think of that great scene in When Harry Met Sally when Meg Ryan learned her ex had married someone else–and she had to confront the fact that she might be difficult to live with.
Jen dynamites each of her relationships because she WANTS no man to live up to her idealized vision of her perfect man, Brad. She ought to rip a page from the life of fellow friend Lisa Kudrow–MARRY A CIVILIAN. A guy not so caught up in celebrity living.
See–I have been following this whole thing since Courtney Cox married goofy David Arquette when Friends was still on–and Jen married Brad. Who seemed to be the winner then? But whose marriage has endured (watch–as soon as I say this, David and Courtney will implode).?
It’s like the old Buddhist (??) story about what looks like bad news being good news. Man is given a horse and it looks like good news. Teenaged son breaks his leg taming it, and it looks like bad news. Soldiers come to village looking to take men to fight and the broken leg is now good news. And so on. But I digress. What looked like GOOD NEWS for Jen (Brad) ended up being the worst news of her life. And what looked like BAD NEWS for Courtney (David) ended up being a stable life partner to raise kids with (again, I hope by saying this, I don’t doom them).
Back to Jen. The perfect man is imploding so obviously. I loved Joan Rivers’ joke on the hysterical Graham Norton show on BBC America (a never-miss Saturday night ritual of mine): “One day Brad is going to stop smoking so much pot and say, ‘Where did all these kids come from?’
Of course, the enduring tragedy of all this is that if Brad goes back to the woman who really understood him and loved him for him (rather than his celebrity cache), he will damage those poor children more than they already have been damaged.
I do sincerely believe now that he and Angelina have been raising those children together, he is more than just a celebrity trophy on her wall. But this Jen stuff is going to make her so bitter, that the non-parenting part of their marriage will just be toxic waste.
Brad/Jen and Angelina are clearly the Eddie Fisher/Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor of our generation. But Elizabeth didn’t let this whole thing drag out over so many years as Angelina has. No, Elizabeth was never really in disgrace. She let no grass grow under her feet and moved on.
If it were not for the kids, I would say that Jen and Angi should do themselves a favor and do the same. MOVE ON! LEAVE BRAD TO STEW IN HIS OWN JUICES. But, lets face it, the kid part of this story is where the disgrace comes in. Hope Brad and Angelina can find a way to give them some “normalcy.” Not likely.
Hi Penny2:
There was so much meat to your comment I decided to post the Brad and Angelina part here too, on the new post, where we just put up a link predicting the demise of Brangelina and a reunion of Brad and Jen.
I’m curious if you see that as likely– and given your spot-on analysis of Jen (could not agree more about John Meyer) would it be wise? You are right: Brad’s gonna notice at some point all these kiddies who have sprung up around him and who depend upon two visibly unstable parents to see them through…
So you’d advise Jen, if her dream comes real and Brad shows up at her door, hopefully with a shave, to ‘just say no’?
Thanks for the deep analysis here– if only YOU were Jen’s therapist…
PS to Blogsters:
For Penny 2’s thoughts on Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins, as well as this excellent analysis of Brad and Angelina and Jen, see the previous post–
Thanks X 2 to Penny2
no, i do not see brad going back to jen and i do agree, jen would be crazy to take him back, although she would.
i get confused about whether brad and angelina are legally married?
Hmm– good question and I hope this link helps clear it up but it may just muddy the waters more– sounds like, to quote a new movie title, ‘It’s complicated…’
http://marriage.about.com/od/entertainmen1/p/bradpitt.htm
PS: a big THANKS to Penny2 for agreeing to have her mini-essay on Brad and Angelina and Jen (and Buddha too!) posted on the StarLit. page…
I agree that Caitlin’s predictions make a lot of sense. The one I’m most intrigued by is Kathryn Bigelow. I haven’t seen The Hurt Locker, but I want to, and it would be terrific to see a woman win for best director.
As for the celebrity stuff, I can’t stand Gwynnie or Chris, but I actually think it would be worse if they split up. Chris would write a slew of even whinier songs, and we’d all be forced to hear them. Plus, I sort of enjoy disliking them together.
I have my money on the Gwen Stefani/Gavin Rossdale marriage splitting up soon. In every photo I see of them, he looks faintly miserable.
LOL, Lisa and so true: whinier Coldplay songs would be a steep price to pay– and what of little Apple?
Yes, that telltale ‘faintly miserable’ look; Brad Pitt has that look a lot lately too–
Always great to hear from you and keep us posted on Gwen & co–
Elizabeth
Sci fi guy that I am, I can’t help wishing next year brings some sort of Singularity.
Ideally, we’d see a tipping point, some celebrity who jumps the shark squared. Hard to imagine that folks we follow (and in some sense care about) could get more moronic than Jon-Kate or Falcon-dad, more slimy than John Philips, more irritating than Sarah or the gatecrashers.
The end of “famous for being famous” would lead in turn to radical downturn in entertainment industry revenue. And if revenue is involved, things *will* change. IMO things can’t get any worse.
Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you no decency?
An impassioned comment Litotes! Yes, we do seem to be reaching the extreme end-point of some sort of scale.
But I think I speak for many in this celebrity-addicted generation in saying: yep, we have little decency left, at least when it comes to savoring celebrity gossip and scandal in all its decadent and sometimes delicious forms.
But we will await the Singularity of which you speak; we do require, too, the Shock of the New, so maybe that’s a tiny note of hope…
Elizabeth, Submitted for your approval: For the New Year’s first Celebrity in Disgrace, may I nominate our baseball Cardinal’s own Mark McGwire? NOW he wants to talk about the past, before the season starts, along with his new job as our batting coach. When that appointment was announced last year, can’t remember which MLB celeb said, “Now McGwire will HAVE to take questions on steroids use, incl. from out of town & national press, and Tony [LaRussa, our head coach, who has a bit of a temper at post game press conferences] can’t just get mad and walk off.” So Littler Mac timed this tremulous confession to our beloved Bobby Costas, so that when that happens during the season, he can once again say, “I’ve addressed those questions. I’m not here to talk about the past.”
Happy Palindrome Date! Mary K.
Hi Mary K–
Great job kicking off our Disgraced Celebrity of 2010 sweepstakes! Also your analysis of the forces behind the timing of this little ‘confession’ is spot-on.
It is a Sport in itself keeping up with all these Steroid confessions, denials etc. We’ll count on you to keep us posted on this elaborate disgrace dance in the wide world of sports–
Cheers and let the games begin–
Elizabeth
Jennifer Aniston has been waiting years for Brad to come back to her, and mybe it will happen. Of course she will take him back–he is her soul mate, true love. Also, those kids are probably driving him to distraction. He will continue to “father”them, but did you ever wonder why he and Angelina never married???–Jennifer, of course.
Hi Barb–
Good to hear from you and yes, I agree, Jennifer A. is waiting for Brad to come back. Also agree that all those kids must be driving Brad to distraction. And yes, I have wondered indeed why he and Angelina never married– the answer to that, I think, is in Angelina’s own public comments lately.
She states openly that she does not believe fidelity is necessary for marriage. I suspect Jennifer A. thinks differently.
Anyway, I’m glad to have another ‘prediction’ for 2010 and glad to hear from you and your voice of reason, Barb–
Elizabeth