Shocking Upset in Hollywood's Most Despised Boss Awards
If Hollywood were a high school then it would pretty much be exactly like Hollywood, right down to the Most Popular awards, named today by the Hollywood Temp Diaries blog, with the annoucement of their coveted 2009 Brown List.
To compile its first annual list the Temp Diaries asked visitors to the site to name the business' Most Liked and Least Liked executives. Visitors could nominate an unlimited number of executives. The final list is a tally of the most nominations in each category. With the relatively small sample size (it only took five nominations to make the top ten on either list) the voting was certainly open to Get Out the Vote campaigning. But gauging the enthusiasm levels, positive or negative, is part of the test of Most or Least Liked; seeing whom can mobilize a constituency passionate about a candidate's coolness or suckiness says a lot about whether this is just a passing distaste or a deep visceral contempt that will stand the test of time.
Anyhow, here are the results. Starting with the Top Ten Most Hated (full tallies available at the site):
First off, the huge news; a hearty congratulations is due to one Randall Emmett of Family Room Entertainment (pictured above.) Least Liked is the category in which the true giants of Hollywood compete — Geffen, Weinstein, Rudin, Berg, Emmanuel, Ovitz. To see the name of one of the pillars of the industry who has literally built an empire on abusive, infantile behavior atop a Least Liked List would almost be anticlimactic. For an unknown dark horse from a no-profile company to not just win, but win but such a resounding margin (23 votes between him and the #2 finisher) is an enormous accomplishment, worthy of a young David O. Selznick or Robert Evans.
We attempted to find out everything we could about this new giant on the scene of egomania. Here's what we've learned:
• Had he not qualified for the Worst list on the basis of his behavior, Emmett's producing credits alone might merit him a slot. His IMDB page is, in a word, stunning. That one man could have been involved in so many horrible films just takes your breath away. An Andrew Dice Clay film, A Love Song for Bobby Long, The Amityville Horror remake, The Wicker Man remake, 88 Minutes, Rambo. Learning that one mind was behind all these disasters suddenly makes one see the world as a very different sort of place, where bad things do not happen just by accident but by shadowy design.
• According to his website, Emmett was invited to be the commencement speaker at his old high school in Miami, Fla., in 2002. Video anyone?
• He is a distant cousin of Jerry Bruckheimer. And we're not at all surprised.
• He got started on the set watching Michael Bay at work on Bad Boys.
• His lifetime Rotten Tomatoes score is 12 percent.
•He is currently production partners with Rapper 50 Cent.
But all that doesn't begin to explain how he earned such a prestigious prize. If anyone has any knowledge about what makes Emmett so very least liked, we're all ears.
In a distant second to Emmett in the #2 spot is Jason Lust, VP of the Henson Company. One doesn't generally think of Muppet-land as a breeding ground for world class jerks, however history is rife with tales of children's authors who were monstrous or at least very strange in their personal lives, so Lust is following a great tradition.
Further down the least, the Lions of Jerkiness take their places on the list - Scott Rudin, Ari Emmanuel, Jeff Zucker, Harvey, Jeff Robinov. However, their relatively low rankings suggest that perhaps these once great windbags are losing their edge; that perhaps the torch is being passed to a new generation — with new energy and new technology to employ abusing their assistants and treating minions like dirt. For Emmett, and newly crowned Paramount President Adam Goodman (#6), a new day is at hand which may yet come to make a Weinstein tantrum look quaint and homey.
As for the Most Liked:
We have little to say here, other than to note that the Henson Company suspiciously occupies the second spot on this list as well, indicating some folks over there may be spending a little too much time on Hollywood Temp Diaries when they should be coming up with toilet bowl cleaner tie-ins for Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem.
We know very little about James Waugh, The Most Popular Man in Hollywood. So we'll just say, congratulations for being so popular with a bunch of assistants, Guy Smiley. And we're sure this honor won't hurt you a bit when you run into the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh Least Liked tonight.