I can't help feeling somewhat sorry for Colin, after having read this disturbing article from 'Variety', regarding his ex Emma Forrest and seemingly yet another name/undercover dropping exercise, all in the name of her career as a writer. I neither like, nor dislike Ms Forrest, as I simply don't know enough about her to feel I can judge her skills as a writer. She may well be a very good writer.However, it does concern me that she appears to 'get off' on the little rich girl tag, who has an undeniable, and really quite remarkable ability to be in the right place at the right time, and of course with all the right people... one can't but wonder, coincidence, or staged, or simply over-privileged?
But the real irk for me personally, is someone declaring with such pride that they are happy, willing, and want to write about their past liaisons, this does not strike me as a particularly clever, or indeed a very nice act to do. In fact one could almost say it's verging on being rather childish. However, as I said I can't dismiss her work as not being 'good', and clearly it must be enjoyed by others in order for her to be able to market herself so well and indeed make so much profit!
Extract:
Don't date Emma Forrest if you're afraid to see yourself immortalized in her next script.
"I'm from the Nora Ephron school," she confesses. "Everything is copy. Every guy I get involved with for five minutes knows I'm going to write about him."
She wrote "Liars (A-E)" this spring in just three days following the breakup of her yearlong relationship with actor Colin Farrell. A couple of weeks later, the script was sold to Scott Rudin and Miramax. Richard Linklater is attached to direct, and shooting is slated for fall.
"It came like a fever dream. I was afraid to stop writing because I was so afraid to lose it," she recounts.
Have a read of the story for yourself and make you're own mind up. Please click the link below:http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006599.html?categoryId=3186&cs=1
MONDAY 03/08/09: PLEASE READ THIS GUY'S
This is a statement made by Emma on her blog, and I'm assuming... this is confirmation from the lady herself that this is to be the last comment in regards to the thread that got everyone so heated up.
EF COMMENT:
If I'm going to have an ex-boyfriend on my "permanent record", which I am, no matter what I do or don't write, say or don't say, I'm relieved it's a man I admire as much as him. A kiss and tell will never happen and it wouldn't sell anyway, because "He was so devoted and clever and funny and cooked me great meals and my parents loved him" is not what people want to hear. I have said and will continue to say that 'Liars (A-E)' is a fictional screenplay that draws from the memory of several break-ups. The title is from a Dexys Midnight Runners song I always loved. I can't stop what people make up, and a good lesson passed down from that person I so admire, is you ought not waste energy trying. The end. http://emmaforrest.blogspot.com/
I still stand my own point, naturally because why wouldn't I? That she did not particularly go out of her way to deter people's attention within the article away from such a famous ex-boyfriend alliance, and in view of the actual composition of the script in question, would it not be fair to say most people would understandably draw the same initial conclusion? I suppose we have to ask ourselves, if we were in the literary public domain would we have had any real control over what was implied about us, or our work? Or shall we just say the timing was spot on in every possible way kid : - )
At the end of the day publicity is publicity, good or bad, right or wrong, and if you live in the public domain, well then yes, I can only imagine it must be a bitch to deal with at times... but then hopefully the rewards out-weigh the intrusion.
All I can personally say is I do wish Ms Forrest, as I've said on her blog, and mine, all the best with her screenplay.
Gemini xxx
That is so tacky and terrible! I wonder if she'll expect him to star in it.
ReplyDeleteHe's probably so sorry he ever went near her!
;-) LOL Maybe she'll cast ABC too!
ReplyDeleteGemini, I got all of her books out of the library when I heard she was dating Colin and I didn't like them. I'm an avid reader by the way. She is all about pop-culture and tries to be cutting edge regarding sex and shocking (eating a little girl's nose nuggets). I expected her to write about Colin but not exploit him in this way. Not nice. Notice it's called Liars! Yuck.
ReplyDeleteIt is a cheap trick of hers to use his mame to get the script spotted by the press.
ReplyDeleteShe ain't a good writer.If she was she wouldn't need to do it. She thinks she is Salinger. Sigh, she is just someone that writes as a traumatized , breathless,16 year old would. I am deeply sorry Colin had his name associated to this low person.
I have to agree the title 'Liars', is a tad on the obvious side! I also admit I did go onto her web-site and to be honest I just don't get where she's coming from... or maybe I'm just not cool enough, or hip enough, or young enough, or artistic enough, or educated and posh enough to understand?!
ReplyDeleteEven more stunning, my daughter(13), and an avid reader... top of her year in fact... sorry now I'm just boastng;-) But she told me today, that she had tried reading some of her novels and found her style of writing childish!
I read a couple of articles about this and it sounds like it's about a woman who drives to Obama's inauguration, picking up items she had left at various ex-boyfriends along the way.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't sound like a dig at Colin and their relationship to me, but what do I know?
It doesn't sound very interesting, either.
It's probably not about C but she, and producers are not stupid, timing, just after break up or at at least "public break up" - it was picked up recently and going to production soon, plus mentioning C from time to time is great promotion isn't it? It's possible though, that she agreed some things with C.
ReplyDelete"How to Never Get Laid Again"
ReplyDeleteBy Emma Forrest
"Year long relationship" That relationship - she's stated herself - started in June 08 and ended - as state in the article quoted above- at the beginning of Nov (election day break up). Relationship DIDN'T last a year, barely lasted 6 months and I doubt he was ever serious about her.
ReplyDeleteI've read her writing, its horrible. She's smug and self-serving and thinks she's some kind of sought after, great writer. She takes 5,000 words to make ONE point. Not good at all.
The only reason anyone picked this up as a script is because of her connection with Colin.
She obviously mentioned Colin when she talked to the person who interviewed her for this bit of shite and she is now pretending she didn't mean for the connection to be made. On her blog she's saying these are rumors. Yah rumors started by herself. Interesting.. some people who like this director are having a WTF moment. Do a news search for her and see for yourself. Here's one article if the link works.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cinematical.com/2009/07/28/richard-linklater-gears-up-for-a-rom-com/
This sounds as silly as her novels. Gemini, I read her books and agree 100% with your smart girl. Feel free to brag. :-)
What's worst for me, I'm truly not so sure if this whole "big" relationship was even so big from what I can see, it's what? like 5 pictures of them together no, no, no there's something wrong here. 5 picturest for a year? Couple who lives in LA? and remember that after In Bruges C had a long holiday from filming so what? they were siting in home watching tv? It was probably just a fling or it just didn't work out,but promoting script talking about that bleh. I don't know about you but I would be embarassed.
ReplyDeleteYou're link did work, thanks :-) I have to admit, it doesn't sound as if anyone is getting particularly excited about the whole project, it appears to be more an exercise in a hopeful profit making dream!
ReplyDeleteAnd I also agree with a lot of you, it does rather seem as if EF has done most of the promotion herself, and so perhaps this is the most accountable reason for her script having even got as far as it has.
I can't help thinking friends in high places?!
Here's another very, interesting article posted by David Berke on the New York Press site.
ReplyDeletePlease copy and paste this link into the search finder:
http://www.nypress.com/blog-4719-find-out-tawdry-details-of-colin-farrell-paul-sevigny.html
On her Mixtape Blog (what are we 13?) she answers a couple of Colin's fans who commented saying something like they assume what they assume. Except she said herself she wrote the script in a "fever" in three days after they broke up. Assume? Wonder how on earth anyone would assume it is about Colin when she says that??? Ug! Gemini, I think you are right when you say friends in high places. Her mother for starters- a TV writer. I wonder if Colin is embarrassed. Too bad it looks like it will be made since they have a director and an actress involved (to play the main characters friend).
ReplyDeleteOKAY: WARNING, I'M NOT HAPPY & HERE'S WHY... I've left a couple of comments on EF Blog, as I was pretty pissed off with her denial that she'd written her script, three day's after her public parting with CF, but then claimed that the CF connection was simply people believing what they wanted to assume?!
ReplyDeleteYeah people don't assume unless they are supposed too, and indeed when presented with such an article that is purely geared towards such a revelation... is it not understandable that people would make such a connection... was that indeed not the whole idea? I don't mind anyone self-promoting themselves, but at least have the balls to admit to it!
PS. SORRY... I know I'm sounding off here, but for some of us, getting our writing into the domain, does not always come so easy. So it just dull's me when someone who doesn't need to work at getting their work recognised... still can't help themselves from the glory of name-dropping! But seriously, please, to what purpose, other than money, and dare I say it... fame!
I smell something fishy. Confession- I followed EF's blog religiously while she and Colin were an item and went again after the Liars story came out. She has never allowed comments mentioning Colin. They were deleted or she used some kind of screening process only allowing comments she approved to appear. A couple of times she dumped the entire blog! Suddenly she is letting people mention him, I dare say wanting people to mention him there. I can't guess what her motive is but it's a clear change in behavior. Makes me wonder if she's cooked up a scheme to use Colin's fans as well as Colin himself to promote her career. That said there's never seemed to me to be much interest in her blog until Colin's fans came along. She has a couple of people who praise every utterance (I'm guessing her mom), otherwise not much interest. I'm thinking she is wanting angry responses from people who support him.
ReplyDeleteComic relief. Go here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lucidrep.com/
Click on Photographer Ella Webber, then portraits, first two (when I looked) and see the screenwriter.. wanna be.. what? Wonder woman was my first thought. Is that a Hello Kitty tat on her shoulder????
Thank you for your link ;-) She's certainly not the shy and retiring type is she? You don't suppose she hired Lucid to set up her own photo-shoot for some sort of self promotional quest do you... no, surely not?!
ReplyDeleteYeah. Major photoshop on her nose. hahaha
ReplyDeleteWhile ago, EF put a pic of Salma on a mag, and criticized photoshoped actresses. Nothing to do with "Colin Powell" alledgedly kissing Salma at the GG back stage, I am sure! I think you are right, she is dying for some fight with Colin's fans to get free publicity!
uuuu, to be fair I think she's really pretty , but, I don't get this wonder women;P photos especially the second one.But hey, I don't need to understand everything. ( It's little like: look what you have lost ... maybe)
ReplyDeleteOMG, yes she is a beautiful woman. Please let me make really clear, I am certainly not having a personal dig at her based on any physical appearance... the same as I sincerely hope I would never judge anyone else!
ReplyDeleteMy disappointment is the way EF has chosen to gloss over the fact that she has allowed her connection to CF to now be encouraged, simply in order to push the publicity of her script. Yet does not have the honesty to admit to playing the contradictory card.
I personally find this discourteous not only to her fans, or indeed any potential audience, but mostly to herself as a writer!
These photos don't look like her. She's posted photos of herself at the blog. These have been enhanced by a professional photographer, makeup and hair stylist. If you were looking for this woman on the street you wouldn't spot her unless she was wearing that snazzy suit. She's pretty- yes. I always liked her look because she's different from the typical Hollywood girl. The thing is she is exploiting someone she insists is a friend. That's not nice. She's counting on an angry response from Colin's fans imo to keep people talking about Liars (ug!)- which is why I am keeping my comments here on Gemini's blog. Gemini this is a great blog. All your work is appreciated. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWonder Woman
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/21095024@N08/2821627413/
The reference will only make sense if you've seen the Lucid portraits or it won't make any sense t'all. It was just my first thought when I saw EF's costume.
Thanks, I've checked it out and know exactly where you're coming from ;-) LOL
ReplyDeleteIf there really is no such thing as bad publicity (and I don't work in media or anything like that so excuse me if this sounds ridiculous)but might this not be a win-win for Colin? Maybe the public (don't underestimate us) will see through the calculated self-publicity and realise that "ach poor Colin, he was looking for someone to trust & got stung..AGAIN." So what if a few extra bodies go to see the film on foot of the 'Colin-Connection'? If EF writing is as bad as some of the comments suggest then chances are the movie won't exactly be so hot either. (I have never read anything of hers so I make no comment on the woman's ability). The key point is that success / flop, at some point it'll come up in an interview and he, Colin, can be the perfect gentleman and "wish EF all the best with her endeavors blah blah blah". So what if she makes a few bucks? (yeah we mightn't do it to our 'friends' but heh maybe she did clear it with him..who knows?). At the end of the day what she'll cop in $ is nothing to the invaluable, intangible more long-term prize that Colin could scoop.....public empathy......that's priceless :-) In the day-to-day working realm of the craft of acting ...definitely priceless.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point. I don’t think the publicity around Liars (which already seems to be waning except for on her blog and here wink wink) will hurt or help Colin. We all know he has a number of films in various stages of production that all seem to me to be very interesting and promise to showcase his talent as a talented and versatile actor. I’m expecting a passionately renewed interest in Mr. Farrell by the movie industry (and if not he always has our passionate interest to fall back on). EF obviously dropped his name in the interview to get attention and it worked for a minute. Liars has a couple of problems imo. Kiss and tell, not good, but the most obvious to me is the Obama connection. I love President and First Lady Obama and their sweet relationship but as happens in American politics, the honeymoon is over. A film with Obama’s inauguration as a central “character” would’ve been great if it came out two months ago, but now his approval ratings are slipping (unfortunately and not his fault) and this concept won’t seem as precious when it’s ready for release many many months from now. This silly thing could go straight to video or Lifetime for that reason alone.
ReplyDeleteI would feel sorry for EF except she’s too obvious in her self-promotion and plays a bit loose with the truth. Not to mention she seems to have set a trap on her blog for Colin’s fans - she’s letting everyone say anything. Scary! When she first blogged about this wonderful news her headline was My First Screenplay. She must have had an aha moment and remembered talking about the others. Oops. She wrote one that Brad Pitt fell in love with.. Remember that? Here’s a couple of links to what happened there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/movies/29brow.html?pagewanted=print
http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/29/mystery-white-boy-the-long-awaited-jeff-buckley-film-finally-ge/
I wonder if Brad is still an EF fan?
Anyway, I think Colin is safe from whatever publicity comes his way from Liars. He survived a sex tape, rehab and the hair stylist who worked on Alexander. Don’t beat me - I loved his performance but not so much the hair..
You may be interested in the last comment added today ;-)
ReplyDeleteI loved the shit shit shit coment. Very well put!!!! Not going there is the best to do , she craves for the attention only Colin's fans give her. Is it true the script is about a quest on objects of ex boyfriends? Se recently posted a pic of 3 things,one of them being a blue corn ring she said she got in Santa Fe, last year. Colin was there last year filming Crazy Hearts. Any connection???
ReplyDeleteI agree about not going over there. It has gotten ugly. Some Colin fan has written a long mean comment about Gemini, maybe to mean for EF as she changed sujects to Richard Burton.
ReplyDeleteGemini, could I respectfully make a suggestion? Delete this entire thread from your blog. You have created a fun fan site for Colin. Don't let it be spoiled by this back and forth with Emma Forrest's blog. There's nothing to be gained and people who don't respect you or Colin will come here for the wrong reasons.
ReplyDeleteLisa is the name of EF's sister. So.. the hateful coments are just jealousy because your blog is great and growing gemini.
ReplyDeleteHang on girl , on these internet times being a succesfull blogger is wonderfull.
FERB-BHE
Is EF inferring that the road to the Whitehouse is paved with liars? OMG?! Are Obama fans perturbed? I agree with the comment above Gemini about deleting this thread. I love your blog. Its cornerstone seems to be a fun, light-hearted, feel-good appreciation of a cool actor. So yeah Gemini delete this thread as the 'feelgood' is just being manipulated. The best of Colin's career & Gemini's blog is yet to come... As they say "you go girl" ;-)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWARNING THIS A LONG ONE...
ReplyDeleteOkay, here we go... I have now just added my last comment on the EF blog, but in my defense I did so before I came on here... dam!
Personally, I just got sick and tired of how EF fans... no sorry, they don't like being referred to as fans even though they follow her blog, which call me stupid, but that doesn't strike me as being any different to anyone else who follows a blog? So I guess you have to ask yourself the question: Why do I find myself following any blog at all? Well, there are millions of answers to that one my friends ;-)
My POINT is, and trust me it's so good to be able to make a point here wihtout people deliberately making out they SO don't get it, and then so obviously go out of their way to be bias and crass... that indeed many of you were quite right, I don't know why I bothered in first place! Whatever I said was according to the EF bloggers, either me being jealous of EF; Say what... how can I be jealous of someone so far removed from my own life, she might as well be Minnie Mouse! Or that I'm so Colin Farrell obsessed (you don't think it's because I have a CF blog do you?), that clearly I'm not capable of judging anyhing, or anyone, let alone such an acclaimed writer... because of course my time/life is completely filled up with the romantic idolized notion that one day myself and Colin will run off into the fucking sunset! And pray should this fantastic Oscar nominated worthy camera, scene and action ever take place, please can it be in St Lucia, my favourite place int he world!
But back to reality now... told ya it was a long one ;-) Curiously, within the hub of the EF bloggers, I found it so very odd that they did not consider anything they had to say as being anything other than perfectly conducive, understandable incomprehensible, and completely within the realms of trying to be of good literary reason, not to mention being incredibly cool and of serious purpose... to them. To me, most of the responses I got made little or no sense to my limited mind, as I am only from planet Earth.
And so finally, enough... even for me, and the poor very lady in question, who very wisely I noticed keeps out of most her blog debates, I'm sure everyone here wishes you well x
By all means if anyone here wishes to continue the debate on the CFWB blog then I for one will not be stopping you, and hell I might even join in!
PS. Thanks to those who were concerned for me, and can I just get sentimental for a moment and say... I'm so glad I started this blog, and I'm so glad I have intelligent bloggers who make it all worth while :-)
Thank You
Gemini xxx
I'm glad you started your blog too. I, for one, hope the debate about EF ends. It has turned hateful (thanks mostly to "Lisa") and feels gross. Thank you for your hard work on your blog. xxx
ReplyDelete:-) x
ReplyDeleteI have on very very few occasions gone to EF's blog. If you've seen the photos she's posted of herself then you know 1) that photo above in the Wonder Woman suit (LOL) is completely photoshopped especially her face/nose. The second photo I had laugh at the "pose". Seriously, what look was she going for? and 2) she purposely puts things in her photographs she knows will annoy Colin's fans (fang necklace he sometimes wears/ring from Santa Fe). We thought we'd heard the last of her when they broke up but "remained friends" (really? one doesn't normally write a book called "Liars" and say in an interview that its about a recent break up). Seems maybe they're not friends anymore. Anyway, thanks for not deleting this thread. I'd stay away from her blog if I were you. Her fans are nuts. Literary nerd types who I'm surprised haven't made up their own language (or maybe they have). Unless you're on a cocktail of psyche meds, you wouldn't be able to comprehend. And yes, I do believe thats a Hello Kitty tattoo. Again, LOL.
ReplyDeleteAgree with everything you said, except I think this thread is giving EF satisfaction and for that reason Gemini would be better off deleting it. Her intellectual fans (although I think it is probably her mother and sister) can't see the Liar aspect of this ordeal. To say she wrote the thing for three days when they broke up and called it Liar. Yet everyone is to believe that it won't be an unfair negative representation. I guess they are on good drugs. ;-p
ReplyDeleteColin in an apron? Mmmm. I give up trying to understand EF. I've said before I read and didn't like her books, this film if it's about going to the inauguration and getting stuff off old boyfriends sounds stupid and if it's about Colin (or any ex) being a Liar still not interested. This latest statement sounds sarcastic to me- maybe I'm wrong but it makes no sense to dump someone you admire sooooo much.
ReplyDeletePS the Nell person is still on Emma's blog. She comments everytime EF posts. I saw that someone is wondering about her. Why the interest in her? Is that EF's sister?
I really think that this latest EF post is sarcastic very sarcastic, but we should really ignore her. Really there is to much fuss around it. It s not such a big deal.
ReplyDeleteFrom another article about the “Screenwriters to Watch” (the 6 women anyway) by Monika Bartyzel, who seems to have EF figured out.
ReplyDelete“While these scribes are working on a number of projects ranging from romance to spy capers, it's mostly and essentially all about romantic comedy. Name to name, they're working on romantic underdogs, sluts and "friends with benefits," and class-conscious romcom fare. Emma Forrest's Liars (A-E), which I posted about recently, is about her relationship with Colin Farrell -- and even Halpern and Haskins' Book Smart, which could be about anything when coming from two Harvard grads, is about girls looking for boyfriends at the prom.”
“But for now, it's all about the romcoms. One can only hope they're not as ugly as The Ugly Truth, that this success doesn't perpetuate the idea that romantic comedy is all a woman can do/is interested in, and that it's merely a springboard for more varied work. Speaking on the latter, could this be all that Hollywood is buying, and that some of the writers are using this as a springboard for variation (although not Forrest, who seems to be all about the breakup-rant scripts)? I would imagine that if this was the case, that would be mentioned.”
http://www.cinematical.com/2009/08/03/girls-on-film-women-screenwriters-to-watch-for/
It would appear EF has only fooled the faithful. Everyone else sees through her.
Well she's free to write whatever she wants, I guess. But my sticking point is she contradicts her own statements. Her 1st comment was "Anyone I date for 5 minutes knows I'm going to write about them" Then after people rip her, it's "It's a fictional screenplay with parts of many break ups. I can't help what people think" Well they think it because YOU SAID IT, ya moron!
ReplyDeleteOK I feel better now! :)
Exactly right Virgo. She needs to keep better track of the shite she spews. Does she really not get this??? She pretends to be so above everyone in intelligence and wisdom.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but I just couldn't help have a little chuckle when I read this...
ReplyDeleteExtract from EF Blog:
Inspiration
In a recent interview, I said (let me tell you what I actually said, not what ran) "If I talk to you for more than five minutes, I'm probably going to write about you" - an interpolation of a Taylor Swift quote (viva Nashville!) I mentioned here before. And it's true: my friends, family and lovers, not to mention the mailman, the bikini waxer, and this construction worker who once yelled something crazy at me on 8th avenue, are all in my writing in some form or another. Men become women, women become men, 40 year olds become wise beyond their years 16 year olds - there's even one short story where I combined an ex-boyfriend with a cat. The point is, everything I write is real experience strained through wild imagination. For me, that's inspiration. Stephen King, on the other hand, gave a lecture some years ago where he said every single thing he writes comes from one thought: "Wouldn't it be funny if...?"
So...you all write - poets, authors, comics, part-time bloggers. What drives you?
: - ) I so adore the part-time bloggers... there's no flies on this gal eh?
I feel kind of sorry for Em. There isn't any interest in her blog unless people are there to talk about Colin.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could ever quite bring myself to feel sorry for EF, she's made of stern stuff and knows exactly how to work her career... let alone her blog, to very much ones own best advantage ; - )
ReplyDeleteGemini- "part-time blogger" ;-p, one of my favorite commenters on CF's IMDB board posted about the crazy Lisa rant on Emma's blog. She says she responded to Lisa's comment there but I'm positive EF isn't going to post it. Maybe Athena will put her comment on the IMDB board or here so people can see it.
ReplyDeleteI don't really feel sorry for Emma- the comment above was me taking a stab at sarcasm.
I never liked her. I came across the photo of her on the Jewish Journal when she did her strip show (they ran a story about Liars there too). Ug!