FILM UPDATE: our Celebrities in Disgrace film is now playing in the Hollywood FirstGlance short film competition: http://fgff.openfilm.com/join
DAMAGE-CONTROL DANCES WITH DAVE by Elizabeth Searle
Would Bill Clinton ever have become President if– after his disastrous keynote address to the 1988 Democratic Convention– he had not done an endearingly self-deprecating Damage Control dance on Dave Letterman?
For his own first public appearance since his much-mocked Oscar hosting stint, James Franco of course chose that same stage where many a shellshocked star has gone to mock themselves.
Claiming that anyone standing beside the bouyant Anne Hathaway might ‘look stoned’ (but not convincingly denying that he may in fact have been stoned) Franco seemed more comfortable mocking the Oscars than his own phoned-in –or ‘texted-in’– performance as host.
Still, he sported a wry winning grin and certainly won over Letterman himself, who offered him sage advice as if the two were sharing a beer. First, Letterman predicted as the voice of experience, Franco would feel embarrassed, then ‘numb’ and finally ‘defiant.’
In Franco’s own cutting-edge version of these three stages of public humiliation, he seems to have skipped embarrassed, played out ‘numb’ on the Oscar stage, and jumped right to ‘defiant.’ Take a peek and weigh in on this newest 2011 ‘take’ on the classic Damage Control Dance…
(photos: tvguide.com, hubpages.com, ohthescandal.com)
