This joke for The Ugly Truth is one I had in mind a couple weeks ago, BEFORE I turned my hand into hamburger with a router. So dusting it off this week makes it stale in my mind.
I know that’s not the case, though. Movies do exist in theaters for longer than one week. It’s hard to snap out of that mentality when I go to the work of making the comic timely.
Before we go any further, it would probably be advantageous if everyone were on the same page. So, embedded here is the clip in question. It is OBVIOUSLY not safe for work and probably not something you want to play around young children, either. You’ve been warned:
Now I had seen this clip maybe a month before The Ugly Truth was in theaters and I remember thinking at the time how hypocritical it was when considering Heigl’s comments back in 2007 to Vanity Fair that Knocked Up – the movie that pretty much opened the door to a successful career in film – was sexist.
Since the movie has come out, Heigl has been taking a lot of hits for those statements in contrast to the above scene. Sarah Ball from Newsweek published a particularly harsh article. Ken Levine, an Emmy-winning writer for Fraiser and Cheers also published a fairly articulate hate-piece on her.
Now Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen have gotten in on the act during an interview with Howard Stern last week.
Fans of Heigl cite a double-standard. That’s it’s okay for someone like Seth Rogen to run off at the mouth, but if someone like Heigl speaks her mind, she’s put back “in her place.”
I see both sides of the argument. But fundamentally I think Heigl’s problem is that she gives off an air of superiority that she hasn’t earned and it makes her unlikable. The sad thing is, I WANT to like Heigl. She’s funny, attractive and I appreciate anyone willing to speak their mind.
But career-wise, winning and Emmy and starring in a couple of romantic comedies aren’t much to hang your hat from. Her reputation and her performances don’t match up. She’s trying to be Sandra Bullock but comes off like Sandra Bernhard.
I don’t know how much of it is bad casting and how much of it is her choice. But I think before I would find Heigl more appealing if she were able to find (or develop) a character that plays toward her outspoken nature.
What do you think? Is there a sexist double-standard being applied to the outspoken Heigl? How aware are you of the statements she’s made to the press? Should it affect how we interpret her performances? Why do you think Heigl attracts these kind of strong feelings toward her? Leave your comments below!
Not only is a rip off of When Harry Met Sally...
But also completely hypocritical when considering Heigl's accusation that Knocked Up was sexist!
I know exactly what clip you're talking about and was equally outraged.
So outraged in fact, I must have watched that clip at least 15 times to... uh... verify my... uh.. outrage.
Yeah.
I think it’s supposed to be funny… and that means you can get away with for one scene.
“Supposed” is the key word there. Heigl’s been acing in more than just this recent run of comedies and from what I’ve seen she is a good actress. Quite why she’s degrading herself with something this pointless I don’t understand and to do this after admitting Knocked Up was sexist is confusing.
I have to admit, personally, I had no intention of seeing this film and this scene just reinforces that opinion. It is exploitive, ridiculous and part of a subcategory of comedy films that are quick to write, cheap to make and all too unfunny. I think the real double standard here isn’t this scene but the fact she was willing to do the whole movie. Then again what people will do for money defies explanation some times
The problem isn’t her being outspoken, it’s the explicit hypocrisy in her statement and her subsequent actions. What she said about “Knocked Up” was fine, if she didn’t distinctly choose to be in a movie with scenes like this that could easily be interpreted as being precisely as sexist as those from “Knocked Up”. Personally, if I were to look at “Knocked Up” as sexist, it would be because it portrays most men as soft, insecure losers whose only chance with a woman is for them to be drunk out of their minds to have tons of cash to lure a woman in.
For a woman to be critcised merely for having the audacicty to tell the truth is a double-standard. However, if a woman is outspokenly hypocritical – as Heigl was originally for taking money to do a movie she then turned around and criticised, and as she is now, for doing the same sort of movie yet again – then as far as I’m concerned, she deserves as much scorn as any hypocrite, male or female.
Good for her for speaking her mind, I have no problem with that. My issue is she didn’t wait very long before trashing the very jobs that made her famous and got her the all-important Big Break. Publicly trashing current and former co-workers like she has been shows a remarkable lack of class. She hasn’t yet earned a high enough place in the Hollywood echelon to be able to say whatever the hell she wants whenever she wants.
And for what it’s worth, I thought Apatow and Rogen’s comments were classless too. What happened to the high road guys?
Jeanne,
I agree that Apatow’s and Rogen’s comments were unnecessary. It comes off looking like they’re digging out old controversy to help promote Funny People.
I seen the movie on opening weekend with my wife and I during this scene I had mentioned to my wife about Heigls comments on Knocked Up and how it seems stupid to be playing the same part over again.
Granted if you understood the context of the scene this sort of thing does work, of course though with it only focusing on this part your left with a reminder of When Harry Met Sally.
I don’t typically let my own personal feelings about an actor or actress prevent me from seeing a movie, I judge each movie based on it’s merits and not so much the actors in it. An actor/actress may be in a crappy film one month and 6 months down the road give an oscar winning performance.
I dunno. I’ve liked Heigl in whatever I’ve seen her in. I don’t know about her various controversies, but my wife and I had the same kind of discussion after Knocked Up – fun movie, but a little unfair to the women portrayed in it. But … it is my wife who has to rein in my hijinks week after week, too, so I saw that aspect as maybe a little realistic.
She’s pulling the same crap that Megan Fox is… currently biting the hand that feeds her. She needs to get over herself. And either be proud of her works or avoid them entirely. That’d be like if Cameron Diaz Complained about “There’s Something About Mary” and then conviniently moved on to make “The Sweetest Thing” like that’d be any less skeezy. (fun movie by the way ha ha ha)
all in all, Heigl needs to either loosen up and have fun with her career (if she insists on sticking with the romantic comedy genre) or she needs to maybe decide that she’ll only support films in which SHE doesn’t find sexist or degrading…
…. Ok I know this is besides the point, but Meg Ryan totally does it better!
Hollywood is a real ego trip isn’t it?
Personal opinion: she’s pretty replaceable by any other working actress and anyone of them could have done an equally good job with Knocked Up. As Kevin Smith would aptly put it, she’s ” clown shoes”.
It is also stolen from the relatively unknown movie Short Bus. Watch it but be ready to be confronted in the opening scenes.
Matt K, man, how’d you get through watching Sook Yin Lee in that movie?! Not a family film, not even a film I’d recommend to non-film people. What was the tagline for the film ” the one you need to get on to get off”? Yes, the filmmaker went there.
hey now we are forgetting that bride of chucky also launched her career!