That happens quite often, actually. The case most similar to Clooney's is that of John Travolta's. Like Clooney, Travolta shot up the small screen. He also began doing film roles and, when he did Saturday Night Fever, the Academy endorsed him with a Best Actor nomination. Shortly afterwards, the Academy wasn't pleased with anything that followed for many, many years.
At which point the industry turned on Travolta. Possibly, like John, Clooney has the ability for a comeback. (Travolta's turn in 1994's Pulp Fiction restored the industry confidence in Travolta as more than a pretty face.) That seems debatable. Unlike John, Clooney's never really connected on the big screen and the sex appeal is lost as well (or maybe just buried under that bad Ellen DeGeneres 'do he currently sports).
Anything can happen. You never know. But Clooney's had too many bombs and really hasn't lived up to what the industry once predicted for him so chances are he'll be doing the slow fade back to television shortly.
If that happens, he may meet-up with the rest of the Clooney Pack who have also exhausted the industry's patience. Chief among them: Julia Roberts and Matt Damon.
Julia Roberts used to joke that there would be no sequel to Pretty Woman because what would you call it? Still Pretty Woman? Older But Pretty Woman?
Sadly that joke is now her career. In the early 90s, she took a long break from film -- and the industry needed one from her. When she returned to the screens with the hit film The Pelican Brief, everyone appeared willing to stop mentioning the rumors of a bizarre sex life, the hard drug rumors, how she earned the name "Tinkerhell" on the set of Hook. (Temporary) Success wiped it all away. Near the end of that decade, her private affair would become a little too public as would the fact that she really doesn't read scripts despite having a production company and being an actress. She would embarrass herself and everyone else on the set of Something To Talk About with one raging tantrum after another and demands that Kyra Sedgwicke's scenes be cut. But then she reteamed with Richard Gere for Runaway Bride and it restored industry confidence in her leading to her Academy Award for Best Actress three years later.
She said "thank you" by going on to star in one bomb after another (while being a glorified extra in Clooney's first two Oceans). Her bombs included America's Sweethearts, The Mexican, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (with Clooney), Full Frontal, Mona Lisa Smile, Closer, Charlie Wilson's War and Duplicity.
The last time she carried
a film over the $100 million mark was 2000's Erin Brokavich. But there she was on stage last Sunday night, looking awful, her face looking like a wreck, her dress a joke and that hair pulled too far back as she sang the praises of fellow Box Office Poison George Clooney. When Jeff Bridges' name was announced, the applause was as much for Bridges winning a long deserved award as it was for the fact that the industry had turned it's back on Clooney.Those watching closely saw that message sent when Matt Damon lost the award for Best Supporting Actor early in the show. Matt's the Sly Stallone of the Clooney Pack: An airhead who thinks he has some knowledge and who managed to type out a screenplay that really wasn't all that. (In fact, Good Will Hunting can easily be seen as Rocky Goes To Campus.) Like Stallone, Damon has two franchises. Instead of Rocky and Rambo, they're Oceans and Bourne. As with Stallone frequently swearing off both franchises, don't take Damon at his word when he insists no more Bourne. Without Jason Bourne, Matt Damon has no career.
What he has is a string of flops. When you're asking price is in the millions, you need to be able to fill the seats. When you can't do that, you're overpaid. Outside of his bad Clint Eastwood impersonation as Jason Bourne and playing Clooney's boy in the Oceans, Matt Damon can't deliver an audience -- something he's repeatedly demonstrated in the last decade and something, when the box office figures are released at the end of the day today, he's again demonstrated over the weekend.
In the Kodak Theatre, we were reminded again of why Demi Moore became a star and Molly Ringwald a minor footnote to pop culture. There was Demi presenting, looking incredible and commanding the stage. Contrast that with Molly Ringwald who was sullen, pouty, wearing what appeared to be a bad wig and a 'dress' that left you with the impression that, when she removed it, it would be taken back to Cloth World.
We saw history made as Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director for a full length feature film. And, the next day, we saw the generic response to any trail blazing woman -- a never ending round of "Bash The Bitch."
In their rush to tear apart Bigelow, so many of the women haters (which include women -- such as Amy Goodman -- and is not all male) rushed to prop up Mo'Nique for her offensive acceptance speech.
Apparently mistaking herself for Vanessa Redgrave, Mo'Nique opened with, "I would like to thank the Academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics." A number of post-awards commentators did not grasp what she was saying and invested meaning into those remarks. Mo'Nique did not 'play' the party game, she refused to 'campaign' for the award (or said she refused). That's what she was referring to. She went on to thank Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey, her attorney, BET, her husband and . . . .
"My Precious family" doesn't cut it. When you've named your attorney, but refuse to name your director (Lee Daniels), refuse to name your screenwriter (Geoffrey S. Fletcher), refuse to name the star (Gabourey Sidibe) of the movie you appeared in?
Sandra Bullock won the Best Actress award and managed to thank not only the people working on the film but also her four other Best Actress nominees. By contrast Mo'Nique appears in a movie that Sidibe carries and can't thank her by name.
The big-post ceremony story was Mo'Nique who was seen as ungrateful onstage and who was a holy terror backstage as she refused to follow the protocol the Academy had in place and as she challenged/sneered at reporters. As one friend over studio production said, "A scar was born . . . and it will be visible for years." It was at the after-parties that we learned of Mo'Nique's sad appearance on Barbara Walters' last Academy Awards special. During her interview, plus-size Mo'Nique revealed that she'd married a (thin) man and given him a career (as the producer of her specials) and also provided him with the opportunity to sleep around. As she explained it, they have an open marriage but she doesn't cheat, she doesn't.
After Mo'Nique the big talk was Clooney's ridiculous hair do (which we had seen) and his sullen expression (which we would see the next day via Tivo) and the death of the Clooney Pack. Or as one agent put it, "The castration of the Clooney Sack."
