J-Law And Dave

[Joe Hass]

We talked a year and a half ago about Lindsay Lohan's appearance on Letterman, and how Dave had handled her. The only reason I knew about it was seeing a TV promo, which prompted me to watch it.

I had first heard about Ms Lawrence's appearance being slightly "wacky" last week via an email newsletter and finally got a chance to watch it this morning. Two things struck me as I watched it:

1. Jennifer Lawrence is what I think we all hoped Ms Lohan would turn into. About five minutes in, as they've wandered off into the deconstruction of the two sentences her best friend, I thought "That could've been Lohan. Albeit four years younger, that could've been her interacting with Dave that way." It was the playful version of the Dad Dave we saw that March night.

2. This is probably as close to what we lovingly refer to as "Old Dave" as we'll ever see now. When, as the staff tried to make heads or tails of Dave wanting to see the trailer (and someone please help me: who is the female behind the podium?), I expected him to refer to them as pinheads. I went back and watched her previous appearances, and saw him shift from "Oh God, Another Young Actress" mode into "Old Friend Of The Program" mode, and it was as fun to watch those twenty-odd minutes unfold. And as they walked off hand-in-hand, I thought, "I would pay a significant amount of money to watch these two interact for an extended period of time."

I read in the New York Times about the tribute to Elaine Stritch from a couple nights ago, and how I wished I could've seen that. Having watched how they must have edited down who knows how much time down to fit, I wish I could've been in the Ed watching it.

My favorite moment of the Carson Farewell Tour was Bob Newhart mockingly breaking down the next to final week and begging Johnny not to go. When Lawrence went down that route, and drew Dave to admit that, yeah, he probably *could* keep doing this until he died, I felt this odd touch of poignancy that wasn't intended, but was there.

God, we're gonna miss him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYpXpTLrlwU

[Tom Wolper]

Nancy Agostini is the woman behind the lectern. She is listed in the credits as a co-executive producer.

http://ddy.com/dlcredits_2014-6-05.html

You're right about Dave and what Jennifer brings to the show as a guest. She's in a league with Teri Garr and Bonnie Hunt. The problem is that she's the only under-30 star (or maybe even under-40 star) who can get the best out of Dave and turn it into an extraordinary appearance.

[Joe Hass]

On Wed Nov 19 2014 at 3:26:08 PM Tom Wolper <two...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 1:12 PM, Joe Hass <hassg...@gmail.com> wrote:

When, as the staff tried to make heads or tails of Dave wanting to see the trailer (and someone please help me: who is the female behind the podium?), I expected him to refer to them as pinheads.

Nancy Agostini is the woman behind the lectern. She is listed in the credits as a co-executive producer.

Thank you. I fondly remember her from the Eagles music incident and found her adorably funny trying (and failing) to wrangle Dave back in, and she was again thrown for a loop and handled it gracefully. She also reminds me of the Late Night days.

[Dave Sikula]

Can I be a dissenting voice here? Personally, I can't stand Lawrence, and find her as phony as Monopoly money. In a weird discovery for me, I heard Kristen Stewart with Leonard Lopate a couple of weeks ago and thought she's exactly what Lawrence puts on the pretense of being: Someone who honestly doesn't give a rat's ass about "stardom" and who is far more interested in doing interesting projects and then going away and living (what sounded like) a real life among actual people until she comes across something she thinks is worthwhile. Before this interview, I had no interest in Stewart at all, marking her as "that Twilight girl," but I found her to be interesting, funny, and savvy. Lawrence always strikes me as Acting Too Hard at being "quirky" and "normal" and comes across as anything but for me.

If nothing else, she owes me Big Time for both "Silver Linings Playbook" and "American Hustle."

--Dave Sikula

[Tom Wolper]

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 8:11 PM, 'Dave Sikula' via TVorNotTV <tvor...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Can I be a dissenting voice here? Personally, I can't stand Lawrence, and find her as phony as Monopoly money. In a weird discovery for me, I heard Kristen Stewart with Leonard Lopate a couple of weeks ago and thought she's exactly what Lawrence puts on the pretense of being: Someone who honestly doesn't give a rat's ass about "stardom" and who is far more interested in doing interesting projects and then going away and living (what sounded like) a real life among actual people until she comes across something she thinks is worthwhile. Before this interview, I had no interest in Stewart at all, marking her as "that Twilight girl," but I found her to be interesting, funny, and savvy. Lawrence always strikes me as Acting Too Hard at being "quirky" and "normal" and comes across as anything but for me.

If nothing else, she owes me Big Time for both "Silver Linings Playbook" and "American Hustle."

I agree about Silver Linings Playbook and have no plans to see American Hustle.

I don't care what Lawrence is like off camera or whether her indifference to stardom is contrived or authentic. For obvious reasons the Late Show is going to bend over backwards to bring on popular young actresses and Lawrence knows how to come with energy and playfulness. Her peers are all stiffs on the LS.

[PGage]

I like Lawrence a lot - I take Joe's point, except I never wanted or expected much from Lohan, even when she was a kid. Silver Linings was way over hyped, and not a particularly good portrayal of Bi-Polar Disorder, but I did not hate it - and I quite liked American Hustle.

But the point here is not how great Lawrence is as an actress, but how good a guest she is on talk shows, particularly with Dave. My daughter is a huge fan of Miss Stewart, and for all I know she is a superior actress (I have never seen her work) and human being; but she is just a horrible, horrible talk show guest. Now that is not the worst thing you can say about somebody - probably most of the very good people on the planet would be bad talk show guests. But if the topic is "good talk show guests", I think by any standard, Lawrence will be rated very high, and Stewart very low.

Lawrence reminds me of George Clooney (when he was doing interviews). A regular person, humble persona which clearly is very intentionally crafted and worn as a mask. I don't mind that - it is a likable mask, and these people have so many demands on them that you don't really expect them to be "themselves" (whatever that means) in their 100th interview of the tour.

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[Steve Timko]

After 20 years of fame, Clooney's humble personna may be fake,  I don't think Jennifer Lawrence's personna is fake. Part of it simply is because it appears the lights are on and someone is home. She has even veered towards some politically incorrect comments,  such as her indifference to PETA's criticism of bowhunting. Jon Stewart is a big fan of her acting,  BTW.
Sent from Blue Mail

[Adam Bowie]

Well if Lawrence's persona is fake, then she's an even better actress than I already thought she was. 

I really enjoyed that interview, and considering that she was pumped full of drugs to keep her on the publicity trail, it wasn't surprising that she sometimes meandered around subjects. [Aside: I'm not sure about the rights and wrongs of using antibiotics just to get someone on a chat show however, given what we know about the current future of antibiotics]

I really liked Silver Linings Playbook, whatever the reality of the film's treatment of a condition, and she was the best thing in American Hustle even if I didn't at first I thought that she had to be too young for that character. (I enjoyed American Hustle in spite of Christian Bale who I find so overbearing in everything. His best work still must still be Empire of the Sun.) 

I even watched Lawrence in The Hunger Games on TV last night and quite enjoyed it. And if you've never seen Winter's Bone, find it on your favourite streaming service now - a terrific film.

So yes - great actress; great interviewee. 

Adam

[PGage]

Steve wrote...

After 20 years of fame, Clooney's humble personna may be fake,  I don't think Jennifer Lawrence's personna is fake. P

On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:29 AM, Adam Bowie <ad...@adambowie.co.uk> wrote:

Well if Lawrence's persona is fake, then she's an even better actress than I already thought she was. 

I don't anybody could do the talk show circuit and be their "real self" - most of the time. People get tired, cranky, depressed, anxious and fed up in real life. So the question is not really whether a celebrity is "real", but how likable is the persona they choose to adopt? For my money, the personas of Clooney and Lawrence are very likable, and no less so when I assume that they are somewhat different than their "real" every day selves.  

 

[Joe Hass]

First, my apologies for being unclear on this (and I realized it when I was standing in the Costco parking lot last night). I wasn't matching up Lohan and Lawrence as actresses. Rather I was matching them as David Letterman guests. My apologies.

Here is my extent of actual experience with Ms Lawrence's career: when Jack Nicholson interrupted her interview with George Stephanopoulos after winning the Oscar, and her interviews with Dave. She may be a lousy, lousy actress, but she's an incredible guest, and Dave goes into a rare mode with her that, as Tom noted, is at the Hunt/Garr level.  

I know we all have our different modes for different situations. If she's fundamentally different than this, then as Mr Bowie noted she's a helluva actress.

[PGage]

On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 10:24 AM, Joe Hass <hassg...@gmail.com> wrote:

(SNIP) I know we all have our different modes for different situations. If she's fundamentally different than this, then as Mr Bowie noted she's a helluva actress.

She is a hell of an actress. As someone mentioned - exhibit A is "Winter's Bone". 

[do...@flids.net]

I can point to that interview with Stephanopoulos as the moment that I fell completely in love with Lawrence. Nicholson tapped her on the shoulder to speak his congratulations to her, and she endearingly acted like a giddy school girl as she spoke to one of her apparently heroes.  As he was finally walking away, he yelled "You look like an old girlfriend of mine" and J-Law had the presence of mind to switch into bawdy mode without missing a beat, and shouted back "do I look like a *new* girlfriend?" and then turned and squealed at Stephanopoulos like a 14-year-old girl.  

I laughed out loud, first time I saw the exchange, and thought "that girl's gonna do all right."

Doug Fields

Tampa, FL

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] Re: J-Law And Dave
From: Joe Hass <hassg...@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, November 20, 2014 1:24 pm
To: tvor...@googlegroups.com

First, my apologies for being unclear on this (and I realized it when I was standing in the Costco parking lot last night). I wasn't matching up Lohan and Lawrence as actresses. Rather I was matching them as David Letterman guests. My apologies.

Here is my extent of actual experience with Ms Lawrence's career: when Jack Nicholson interrupted her interview with George Stephanopoulos after winning the Oscar, and her interviews with Dave. She may be a lousy, lousy actress, but she's an incredible guest, and Dave goes into a rare mode with her that, as Tom noted, is at the Hunt/Garr level.  

I know we all have our different modes for different situations. If she's fundamentally different than this, then as Mr Bowie noted she's a helluva actress.

[PGage]

That was a great moment - and could only be spontaneous. I had a similar reaction as Doug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJmhsJ5T5L0

[Joe Hass]

I don't remember if it was discussed here or somewhere else at the time, but on second watching, focus on Nicholson in the background *before* he comes up. He takes a couple moments to prepare himself (patting the sweat off his forehead, taking off his glasses). He knew damn good and well what he was gonna do, and for me, it makes the entire thing even more sincere and delightful.

The final lines (L:"Is he still there?" N:"I'll be waiting!") sent me over the edge.

[Dave Sikula]

Joe:

My own apologies for taking it off-topic, but for me, it's all the same. I'll stipulate that she's lively and quirky and seems to have chemistry with Dave, but for me her affect seems entirely non-spontaneous and planned; hence, the phoniness. I can't separate one from the other. (I feel the same about Drew Barrymore, by the way.)

As for Mr. Nicholson, he is entitled to his opinion.

--Dave Sikula

[Mark Jeffries]

All I will say is that if it took a public radio interviewer to make Kristen Stewart unbland, good for him (and granted, she hasn't been given much of a chance to do anything other than Bella-ish characters).  If Jennifer Lawrence comes in to see Lenny and he exposes her as a fake, then I guess we'll know.  Otherwise, I will only relate someone else's story:  An actress acquaintance of mine in Chicago's parents knew Lawrence's parents in Louisville, where she grew up, and she babysat Lawrence when she was a teenager.  It'll be two years ago that went to a Christmas party in Louisville, Lawrence was there, recognized her and was the delightful person she always seems to be, as the person I know tells it.  So for now...

Mark Jeffries
Saints Spotlight Editor
spotl...@gmail.com

[Michael]

And for another affirmative account, my friend and writing partner was sitting right next to her at a festival screening of "Winter's Bone" a few years back, and when it ended, he leaned over to her and said, sincerely, that she was going to be the next big thing, She smiled, pushed on his shoulder, and replied, "That's sweet, but don't be silly." They chatted for a bit, and when he recounted the meeting to me, he said she was genuine, self-deprecating, and funny. After Letterman's recent interview, my friend remarked that he had seen the Late Show episode, and how pleased he was that she was as unpretentious and good-natured as when he met her at that screening. Sometimes a nice, jubilant and earthy person stays that way, even in the glare of the celebrity spotlight.