Hollywood Babble On & On #1126: Random Drips From My Brain Pan.

LIVE FROM NEW YORK IT'S SOMEONE YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT!

Lena Dunham, the star/creator of HBO's Girls was guest host of Saturday Night Live, and predictably had some of the worst ratings the show has seen this season. She's also penning a four part story arc for Archie comics which could set new records in dismal sales if they use that in the sales pitch.

I say predictably because Dunham is a paradox. She's the child of New York's elite art and media scene who has known a life of privilege and near constant praise who tries to present herself as the average everywoman. Except whenever she tries to speak like an "average" person she sounds like Thurston Howell III trying to make friends in a working class tavern while on a lay-over in what she would call "fly-over country."

Her background pretty much insures that the media will sell her as if she is the biggest thing to happen to entertainment since Star Wars. She is more than just one of them, she is literally the child their village has raised, and her pretensions to average-ness appeals to their belief that they set the world's standards of normalcy.

So they repeatedly yell in the world's collective ear that she's the greatest thing to ever happen to them. But as the rest of the world gets to know her they realize how little they have in common, and move on to things they have a better chance of relating with.

The irony is that if Hollywood didn't go for such a hard sell right out of the gate, they may have had a better chance of finding her a larger audience.

A TRUE DETECTIVE MYSTERY

HBO's True Detective wrapped up its first and some are already sniping about the ending because, horror of horrors, they catch the killer.

I blame JJ Abrams and David Chase. Ever since they introduced the non-ending of a series critics, both professional and self-appointed tend to start feeding frenzies over the conclusions of shows. They demand either massive plot twists that would bend the brain of M. Night Shyamalan, or pretentious non-endings where things just stop, leaving untied threads, unanswered questions and unsatisfied viewers.

So a show that apparently has a logical conclusion shocks and dismays them.

Lighten up.

HE SHOULD KNOW

Harvey Weinstein of The Weinstein Company told LA's new film czar that California is still competitive in the movie business, even though more movies and shows are being shot in Louisiana these days.

Harvey should know, he lives and operates in New York City.

The sad truth is that California is not competitive anymore. Hollywood used to the place where movies were made because of the state's mild predictable weather and open-for-business frontier mentality. The weather's still there, but things have changed dramatically.

Developments in technology means that filmmakers aren't bound to sunshine and warm weather to make movies, and the frontier mentality is long gone. In its place is a closed off mentality where the wealthy elite, cushioned by their wealth from the consequences of their decisions, back programs and regulations that make living and working for the middle class and  small businesspeople nearly impossible.

That means the people who make the infrastructure of filmmaking possible are migrating to Louisiana, Texas, and a dozen other states. Hollywood has gone from being the place where movies are made to the place where the deals for making movies are made.