Celeb Advice: Finding a couple.

[TamLin01]

I'm working on a story for the Celeb category, and Hollywood has not been kind to me.

For plot purposes, I need a big star-power couple, both filmmakers (preferably actors, although an actor/director or actor/producer pairing would be fine), both A-list types, and both generally considered attractive by the public at large, despite how subjective and mercurial those things may be.

Previously, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, or even Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner would all have been easy choices. But they all split in the same damn year.

Beyonce and Jay-Z fit the bill very well, but I'd really prefer movie stars. And I'm afraid I just don't pay enough attention to such things to even know who else is dating or hitched these days.

Any suggestions?

 

[sr71plt]

I suggest you devise a fictional couple and make them anyway you like rather than victimize living people.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Agree, but at the same time, I tend to also view current era Hollywood as very thin as far as 'truly exciting' people are concerned.

And Celeb-fantasy writers can't just fall back on Susan Sarandon-Tim Robbins all the time. It's unfair!

I think what the OP is probably driving at is 'thematic motif couple...' There aren't any. Not at the moment. There may be a few in overseas cinema - Europe, Spain, Scandinavia, Chinese film. Even there all the top talents are moving out of the ingenue roles.

Hollywood pushes a handful of major female stars, none of which has anything coming through their 'heart' onto the screen as far as I can tell.

Bruno Aveillan walked out on the last 'big production' Hollywood title he was said to have been contracted for and I don't blame him.

Hollywood thinks marketing and propaganda can substitute for storyline and good writers; they can't, and the Clinton DNC campaign just found that out, did they not - not that they will admit it or maybe even realize it. And so, probably neither will Hollywood and sooner or later that will be the end of Hollywood.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

What about Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Hey, I agree with pilot (an unusual occurrence) why write about a couple you really know nothing about. They obviously aren't a favorite of yours. You haven't followed their careers for your whole life. If you're going to make shit up about them, why not just me it a fictional couple who can be what you really want them to be.

Like Roger and Jessica Rabbit.

 

[Carnevil9]

Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. Or Brad and Angelina and just set it a couple years ago.

Although I agree with the prevailing opinion that you should just make them up.

 

[lovecraft68]

For those who say make them up....doesn't that defeat the purpose of a celebrity category? If you make up people now it goes into EC or whatever other category fits.

To the OP I am no help, the TMZ type stuff makes me nauseous.

 

[sr71plt]

For those who say make them up....doesn't that defeat the purpose of a celebrity category?

Yep, because victimizing real people is sleazy and borderline (at least) stalking.

 

[lovecraft68]

Yep, because victimizing real people is sleazy and borderline (at least) stalking.

I can't say I disagree, but that's our opinion and for the moment not one shared by the law as its legal.

Worse? There are sites where people photo shop female celebs with loads all over their faces and in various hardcore sex positions, yet those people aren't sued or jailed so I think the law needs to start looking at this as a form of revenge porn.

Go one better on that note. There is a software program out there that's feature is creating realistic 'facials' on any pic you own. So...someone could post pics of their school teacher, Minister, a nun...a friend your sister...anyone looking like it came from a porn site.

That stuff really needs to be looked at and addressed and made punishable.

Course that would be the end of this site with its lawless pic threads because they seem to think they are beyond any form of law.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Go one better on that note. There is a software program out there that's feature is creating realistic 'facials' on any pic you own. So...someone could post pics of their school teacher, Minister, a nun...a friend your sister...anyone looking like it came from a porn site..

Wow. guess my paranoia about photos is well founded. You just gave me another reason....

 

[TamLin01]

Hmm. I appreciate the suggestions, but I'm still not sure anyone quite fits the bill. Someone like Tom Hanks seems too normal and approachable for what I have in mind (that's the secret of his success, after all), and someone like Goldie Hawn, while very respected, isn't a performer studios are building multi-million dollar movies around in this day and age, which would make it harder to incorporate her into the plot this way.

Maybe I ought to set the story in an earlier period, with some stars from the old days. Or maybe I don't have to care so much about who is really dating whom right now; it is fiction, after all.

As for why I would want to reference real celebrities instead of fictional ones, without delving into the granular details of the story and theme all I can say is that I've thought about it a lot and it just plain wouldn't work as well. I'm reminded of a story about the making of the movie "Being John Malkovich"; producers were terrified that Malkovich wouldn't agree to the part, but the screenwriter insisted that no other star would work, and that he could only have written the movie with Malkovich in mind, weird as that was. And he was right: Sometimes, the real deal is the only thing that works.

If a few people find that distasteful, that's okay; porn always offends someone sooner or later, and they are welcome to their opinions.

Thanks all.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't find it distasteful from the sex angle; I find it distasteful from a stalking of real people angle. More sick and total insensitivity than distaste.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

That's all very well and good, pilot, but 'some' celebrities have actual genuine dark side of the tracks sex lives too...

I'm not so sure some of them wouldn't be secretly flattered. The point being one need not be outrageously vulgar but use a bit of art in the matter. Art is a power we have, or strive at having, or should have.

Certainly, some of the rl incidents that reached the press a long time ago - say, in the infamous days of places like Studio 54 in the day - would be candidates for those events being forgotten in decency now, but then again, I'm a little surprised people don't even generally remember THE CURRENT ERA A-LISTERS who were at those places and made the newspapers for what they did there, or were said by sources to have done.

Not to mention the fact that identities like Gwyneth Paltrow make a habit of talking publicly about things like jade eggs in vaginas and vaginal steaming and the like.

Oh yeah, the place has 'some' dare I say 'fertile fields' for the fictional writer, although, for me, less so recently than in the past.

Further, there are major celebrities whose actual 'business' was sex - Germaine Greer, for example. A lady who was a touch before my time, and claimed to have had sex with Jimi Hendrix.

The most tragic thing for me was once, when I was walking through the main central mall of the city where I was, together with two of my junior executives, and they just walked straight by her not recognizing her at all. And I had to tell them, look, albeit she is not a young person anymore, but there was a moment in time when she was THE GOD OF SEX. And not 'intellectual sex' either. Just S.E.X. and 'free love' (Goddess, if you like).

...There are some who would opine that a few porn actresses are every bit as good at real ACTING as any mainstream actress. And why are those three from the PB Mansion who made the show the hit it was not included in the 'Hollywood actor/actress' class - they are every bit that.

 

[sr71plt]

That's all very well and good, pilot, but 'some' celebrities have actual genuine dark side of the tracks sex lives too...

And some writing dirty stories have no brakes or scruples when it comes to anyone but themselves. We see that in various aspects here on the forum.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm not going to get into the argument about whether real-person fic is acceptable. But...

I'm not so sure some of them wouldn't be secretly flattered... identities like Gwyneth Paltrow make a habit of talking publicly about things like jade eggs in vaginas and vaginal steaming and the like.

A woman mentioning her sexual organs doesn't amount to sexual permission.

Gwyneth Paltrow is a twit who promotes a range of quack therapies, and she ought to be criticised loudly for that. But your post seems to be suggesting that it makes her fair game for erotic fic, and I'm very uncomfortable with that. All of us here are talking about outright sexual topics. Does that make us fair game for somebody who knows our real-life identities?

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

And some writing dirty stories have no brakes or scruples when it comes to anyone but themselves. We see that in various aspects here on the forum.

Yeah that's true. That's definitely true. It happens. It's a risk.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I'm not going to get into the argument about whether real-person fic is acceptable. But...



A woman mentioning her sexual organs doesn't amount to sexual permission.

Gwyneth Paltrow is a twit who promotes a range of quack therapies, and she ought to be criticised loudly for that. But your post seems to be suggesting that it makes her fair game for erotic fic, and I'm very uncomfortable with that. All of us here are talking about outright sexual topics. Does that make us fair game for somebody who knows our real-life identities?

Good question.

In the real world (especially of hacked computers and things) this is a risk. I admit I'm a TOTAL libertine when it comes to 'literature' - you rise or fall by the QUALITY of what you are writing, not the moderation of your language. So I don't fit in well with the 'always be nice to others' thing when it comes to the field of writing and literature, ANY kind of literature.

To me writing is a gun. In every sense.

 

[Hypoxia]

Why write salacious stories about living people (celebs) who have voluntarily relinquished their privacy by striving for the spotlight? Because large audiences exist for such, for slimy details of the lives of the rich and (in)famous. Because an author might share that fetish. Because the targets might *deserve* such treatment, especially if they're socially or politically controversial. (Deserve? Who judges that?)

Why not write such stories? Because of defamation lawsuits, however unlikely. Because an author may find such targets distasteful, unworthy, or totally off their radar. Because the targets do NOT deserve such treatment. Because we have other stuff to write.

OP: How about writing salacious shit about characters, not the humans portraying them? Kirk+Spock GM stories aren't the same as Shatner+Nimoy tales. Appropriate some settings and unleash the players.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively?

It would help if you have some indication of what kind of creepy/nasty things you're going to reveal about them.

Michael Douglas and CZJ?

 

[8letters]

LitE encourages authors to write stories about celebrities by have a Celebrities and Fan Fiction category. If you don't like people writing stories about real individuals, take it up with Laurel instead of bashing a writer.

 

[sr71plt]

LitE encourages authors to write stories about celebrities by have a Celebrities and Fan Fiction category. If you don't like people writing stories about real individuals, take it up with Laurel instead of bashing a writer.

Sorry, this is really lame. Of course I would take it up with the one who actually wrote it. This is also something that's come in with the newer generations, I think--it's always some babysitter's fault, not the fault of the one who actually wrote it. By all means don't take responsibility for something you did.

 

[8letters]

Sorry, this is really lame. Of course I would take it up with the one who actually wrote it. This is also something that's come in with the newer generations, I think--it's always some babysitter's fault, not the fault of the one who actually wrote it. By all means don't take responsibility for something you did.

The way I interpret the rules of conducts here on the AH is that all authors of material that is publishable on LitE are welcome here. If you want to publish material that is not publishable on LitE, then you aren't welcome. So if you want to publish a story about underage sex, bestiality, rape, snuff, etc.; you are not welcome here. If you're an author who writes gay male stories (or incest or BDSM or noncon or nonhuman or etc), then I should welcome you here even if I don't like gay male stories (or incest or BDSM or noncon or nonhuman or etc).

 

[sr71plt]

Doesn't mean that folks can't give their opinion on folks choosing to post what they do. You've changed your tune, though, on who's responsible for what gets published here. Glad to see you do that. "Laurel made me do it" was really lame.

 

[8letters]

Doesn't mean that folks can't give their opinion on folks choosing to post what they do. You've changed your tune, though, on who's responsible for what gets published here. Glad to see you do that. "Laurel made me do it" was really lame.

It's okay to say that a category doesn't appeal to you. That you find stories in a particular category troubling. I've had people say that about Incest and that doesn't bother me. I think there's nothing wrong in me saying that Celebrity is a category that doesn't appeal to me.

I don't think it's okay to attack someone for wanting to write a story for a particular category, to tell them to not write a story for that category and to come up with something "more acceptable". Would you be fine if someone criticized your for wanting to write a gay male story? Called gay male stories sick? Told you to make it a heterosexual couple?

I never said that Laurel made anyone do anything. I said that Laurel is the authority for what is acceptable on this website.

 

[Hypoxia]

Much stories Laurel approves are in genres and categories I dislike. Not wanting to read such stuff, I have choices:

* Go elsewhere.
* Hit the backspace button.
* Stick to categories that interest me.
* Yell at authors of stories I find distasteful.

That last option seems rather useless. Hello, LW commentators! Let's say I dislike wittol (cuck), SheMale, celeb, and BDSM tales. Should I spam all authors of stories in those categories with threatening comments and PMs? Should I load the forums with critical diatribes? Or should I merely read something else?