Actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest move role as the over-the-top lead character in "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" has landed him some rather interesting interviews- all given completely in the character of Borat.
He’s even given a press conference in full character, and entertainment reporters are scrambling to file a story with the colorful quotes of the Kazakh wacko. But Lewis Beale, a writer for cinema news website, The Reeler wants no part of it.
The problem, Beale argued recently, is that entertainment journalism, which has long been one of the lesser-respected genres of the craft, is too often abused by the agenda and spin of Hollywood PR. After all, shouldn’t someone who call his or herself a journalist ask the tough questions and unearth some real stories behind Hollywood?
He writes:
“Interviewing an actor in character has as much relationship to real reporting as the Oakland Raiders do to a good football team. It's blatantly crawling up the ass of the studio .... You want to do it? Great. Have a fine time. But don't ever call yourself a reporter, my friend.â€
Beale also noted that the entertainment journalism of 20 years ago uncovered stories like how the mafia and the widespread use of cocaine affected Hollywood, and as one example, took a critical look at the “distorted†image of Vietnam veterans presented in films like "Rambo."
“Can you imagine stories like those in any arts section in 2006? It's not just that editors and writers seem to be uninterested in real reporting (under the mistaken assumption that readers don't care), there's also the fact that slowly but surely, they've allowed the PR machine to dictate what they write, and even how it gets played.â€
I agree with Beale's take on this issue, since I believe that entertainment journalism (as well as the also disrespected industry of women’s magazines) can, if it’d just try a little harder, write and investigate quality journalism that serves a better purpose then to either just entertain us on entertainment or to push someone else's PR agenda.
Vanessa Kitchen @ October 30, 2006 - 9:46pm
To play devil's advocate, don't actors have a right not to answer "difficult" questions about their personal lives, future movies, past love affairs, children, drug use, and so on, when the focus is on their movie and the characters that they play? Cohen is an extremely dedicated actor, determined to immerse himself in the part of Borat and refusing to detract from his work by granting Barbara Walters-esque interviews where he breaks down in tears about his adulterous wife or coke addiction. Cohen is not a world leader, not a policy maker, makes no claims to be an upstanding citizen or a role model, and is simply performing, which is his job. Investigative journalism into the entertainment industry is one thing--especially stories like you mentioned above (the work investigating the mafia, etc.). However, what kind of "real journalism" could you be referring to when talking about interviewing actors? Sure, if the article claims to be doing a profile on Cohen, they should do it on the real Cohen. If the profile ends up being more "Borat" than "Cohen," you can bet that it will be evident and/or mentioned in the article by the author. But will it really help the credibility of entertainment journalists by digging around the personal lives of actors to get the "real story"?? I think those journalists would be better off reviewing the movie and looking at the cultural context, or investigating questionable movie studio practices--leave questions about whether their co-star was a good kisser to the paparazzi.
»