When you hear the F-word in a modern Hollywood movie about life in an earlier century, you may wonder if this expletive is an anachronism. Is the F-word of recent vintage, or did Hollywood actually get right this time? Grant recommends a book on the...
Apatown n.— «It sounds like fun and games—the boozy, all-woman answer to those close-knit gangs of Hollywood boy-men captured on screen in “Entourage” and embodied by the real-life Apatown, the industry moniker for filmmaker Judd Apatow’s...
sliming n.— «The path to Academy Award victory, however, is beset with many dangers, quite apart from the pressures of walking the red carpet. As Slumdog has grown to be more and more of an Oscar contender, the murky Hollywood art of...
method costumier n.— «The competition for the Best Costume Oscar is as fierce as in any of the acting categories. One of the 13 nominations achieved by The Curious Case of Benjamin Button went to Jacqueline West, who is known in Hollywood...
feathered fish n.— «Yet a number of Hollywood observers believed that no amount of marketing could save “W.” from being a “feathered fish”—a film whose target audience thinks it’s for someone else.» —“The Cobra” by Tad...
Your brother-in-law the motormouth beats around the bush for so long about something that in exasperation you tell him to “cut to the chase.” The hosts explain the Hollywood roots of this phrase. This is part of a complete episode.