Gary Marshall is a hack director. He’s cashed in on directing Pretty Woman for the last 17 years. Or maybe those fresh episodes of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley he wrote back in the 70’s somehow guaranteed him a full career. And his new movie, Georgia Rule, is seriously screwed up – and it’s most likely due to the tone he took. They should have called it “Molestation Hilarity” because that’s the vibe he clearly was shooting for.
Anyway, more of his genius came to light when it was revealed that he was the one who had the infamous letter sent to Lindsay Lohan during the filming of Georgia Rule.
Here’s how Marshall framed the incident:
“Once somebody walks on my set, it’s my problem, but we can’t go chasing them, this film is low-budget. We can’t lose days. … Tough love is a part of this business – she missed a day on the second week of shooting.”
On the surface this seems to be a fairly professional business interaction. Except for one tiny detail. It was only the second week of shooting. She couldn’t have missed multiple days or that would have been mentioned. And was she not available via cell phone to be scolded? Could he not have gone to her trailer the next day for clarification on what was up? The letter mentions she was “late” a few times too. How late? My guess is a few minutes or I’m sure they would have mentioned “hours.”
“Jim wrote the memo, and she came the next day and we were fine,” Marshall said.
What a jerk-off. I’m the last one to defend Lohan, and she legitimately missed a day of work, but the furor this caused was nothing more than a publicity stunt for a movie without an audience. Lindsay got sacrificed on the altar of some old fogey needing a hit movie. And now, by bringing this up again, you are trying another PR stunt. You leaked the letter and you’ve kept the hype going. You’ve made a mockery of your “art.” Most directors would say something to the effect of “Hey, the movie is great and I’m very protective of my actors so I don’t want to talk about it further. What happened is a private manner between colleagues.” But Gary couldn’t do that, could he?
Yes, Lindsay should tone down the partying and be at work on time, every time. But the true way to handle this was in person. And if it happened again, then you start with the escalation. The film was financed by goddamn Universal Pictures, I’m sure they were able to cover a day of extra shooting for Gary.
Egh. I hate you Marshall, and when your film makes $32 dollars at the box office I will laugh at you. I may even point my finger in a derisive manner.
Um, I know no one will read this but whatever.
So yeah, a lot of people had a lot of money invested in this film, and she was under contract to appear in it and be on set, etc. It’s not like it’s anything personal. It’s just a job. You said you’d do this, and you didn’t, so we have to remind you of your contractual obligations and the consequences if you don’t meet them.
Who cares if she was partying or whatever? She got hired to do a job and their staying on budget and not wasting their limited time depends on her being there. The end. So when you say “Egh. I hate you Marshall, and when your film makes $32 dollars at the box office I will laugh at you. I may even point my finger in a derisive manner” I don’t understand it. You hate this guy because he didn’t go have some personal confrontation? Isn’t an offocial letter the more appropriate way to handle this?
I agree with Brian. I don’t understand the comment.
It would be if they didn’t purposefully leak it to the press, yeah. Do you really think they didn’t want to milk this incident for all it’s worth?
I hate the guy because although he’s doing his best to exploit Lindsay he can’t even do that right. But if he’d made a good movie I could see all of this nonsense.
He didn’t.
Wow, sorry, but I don’t understand your response at all. It’s all speculation on my part, but I doubt they prized the dice roll that is drumming up box office from the leaking of a legal letter over securing the interests of their investors. And if the movie were good now it’s okay? Huh? Maybe I am trying to hard to make sense of something that was initially intended to be cheeky and not serious.