Gawker: defamer, benderspink

Hollywood Holiday Cards: A Spinkin' Xmas 3: Bender Spinks, Just Like Us!

Mark — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:47:54 EST

For the past three Decembers, the highlight of our Hollywood Holiday Card feature* has been watching management/production entity Benderspink's annual holiday card evolve from cut-rate Apprentice parody to disturbing, Giant Santa molestation fantasy to this year's surpassing achievement, a handsomely designed faux Us Weekly spread celebrating day-to-day life at the company, assistant-bludgeoning warts and all. Easily our favorite part of this mini-tour of the Benderspink offices is the They Develop Screenplays With Writers! panel, in which partner Chris Bender demonstrates the kind of mastery of three-act structure that will help shepherd upcoming prestige project Boob Job to incredible success.

Click here to see a much, much larger version of the card.

[*Scan them and send them in for maximum holiday fun!]

Hollywood Holiday Cards: A Spinkin' Xmas, Part II [Defamer]
Hollywood Holiday Cards: A Spinkin' Xmas [Defamer]

Frey/LeRoy Scandals Create Hollywood Philosophers

Seth — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 11:52:26 EST

The Million Little Piecesgate shitstorm continues to rage you don't make Oprah, Queen of the Universe, look stupid without some serious consequences with threatening letters from legal pitbull Marty Singer flying (we feel your pain, Smoking Gun), the first brusque responses from accused memoir embellishist James Frey posted to his website ("I won t dignify this bullshit with any sort of further response,"), with further bullshit non-dignification to follow on his Larry King appearance tonight. And lest we not forget the JT Leroy scandal, which serendipitously (for trend watchers, at least) broke on the very same day: According to the NY Times, the supposedly HIV+ male truck-stop hooker turned memoirist and literary darling is a complete fabrication and played by a woman. With both authors' books in various stages of movie development, THR examines what effect the scandals will have on the productions, if any. In doing so, they stumble onto a fascinating philosophical dialogue on the ultimate nature of truth (as it applies to getting your movie made):

[One time Leroy adaptation director Gus] Van Sant said he believes the person he dined with was indeed LeRoy but admits the possibility of being hoodwinked. He turned philosophical: "But is anyone who they say they are? Is Amy Pascal really Amy Pascal? Am I really me? How do you know you're talking to Gus Van Sant? I think people are a little light on information right now." [...]

"No matter what happens, James is still a really good writer," said JC Spink, who is executive producing [Frey s screenplay Prep ]. "Besides, haven't most of us in this town been guilty of embellishing at one time or another? If anyone was going to hold that against me, I'd never work again."

Talk about your metaphysical and ethical can of worms! Indeed, who IS the real Amy Pascal? Is the post-Stealth Pascal the same Pascal whose name is on her reserved parking spot sign and who can get a last minute patio table at the Ivy? Will the crusading, truth-seeking minority cause JC Spink never to work again, thereby denying the Universe the pleasures of the hilarious Benderspink annual holiday card? We have no answers, as we're too paralyzed by Big Questions about Perception, Truth, and Identity to grab a plunger and prevent the rapidly rising water in the commode of entertainment industry existential dilemmas, halting the flood of Knowledge before it soaks our best pair of shoes.

Hollywood weighing prose, cons [THR]
[Big Jim Industries]
Previously: James Frey: Hollywood s Favorite New Liar [Defamer]

Hollywood Holiday Cards: A Spinkin' Xmas, Part II

Mark — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 15:33:25 EST

We're happy to reintroduce our Hollywood Holiday Cards feature with this year's offering from the mud-wrestlin', wall-climbin', Beer-Pong-brawlin' management/production entity Benderspink, who most recently paralyzed us with comedic delight by burying cinematic treasure Ryan Reynolds in latex for Just Friends. We much prefer this 2005 sequel to last year's somewhat stale Apprentice parody, a set-up that can either play as a cute Christmas tableaux of Santa cavorting with kids on his Nice List, or the horrifying moment immediately preceding the giant Claus Kong's bloody rampage through a pajama-themed industry orgy.

Hollywood Holiday Cards: A Spinkin’ Xmas [Defamer]
Benderspink coming into its own via New Line [THR]