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What the Hell Happened to John Travolta?
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Dec 10, 2012, 4:02:53 AM12/10/12
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Posted by lebeau
John Travolta is the King of the Comeback. Where most careers involve
a rise and a fall, Travolta’s career is a roller coaster or peaks and
valleys. In the 70′s, he was a pop culture icon, in the 80′s he was a
has-been and in the 90′s, he reinvented himself as an Oscar-nominated
tough guy. Today, you’re more likely to see him on tabloid covers
than headlining a movie. What the hell happened?
Travolta started off on the stage in New York in the touring
production of Grease. Eventually, he moved to California where he
started making TV appearances like The Boy in The Plastic Bubble.
We’ve got a lot to cover here, so we’re just going to skip to 1975
when Travolta was cast in Welcome Back Kotter. Kotter was a sitcom
developed around stand-up comedian, Gabe Kaplan. Kaplan played a
teacher at an inner-city school and Travolta played one of his
delinquent students known as the “Sweathogs”.
Kotter was a big hit during its first couple of seasons. This lead to
lots of merchandising opportunities including a board game based
around Travolta’s catch phrase, “Up your nose with a rubber hose.”
Interestingly enough (for me anyway), the actor standing-in for
Travolta in that commercial was a young Steve Guttenberg.
While still appearing on Welcome Back Kotter, Travolta made the leap
to film with Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel,
Carrie.
By now, there have been umpteen adaptations of King’s novels. Some
have been adapted more than once. A remake of Carrie is currently
underway. But De Palma’s Carrie was the first and it set the bar too
high for most of the adaptations that would follow.
Travolta’s role was relatively small. He played the boyfriend of
Carrie’s primary tormentor, Chris, who was played by Nancy Allen. But
Travolta was involved in some of the movie’s more memorable scenes.
He was the one who slaughtered the pig for the bloody climax. And
when a blood-soaked Carrie left the flame-engulfed prom, Travolta’s
character tried to run her over.
The following year, Travolta entered pop culture history with Saturday
Night Fever. The image of Travolta in the white leisure suit dancing
to the Bee Gees is bigger than any movie. It has come to symbolize an
entire decade.
But Saturday Night Fever is nothing like its image. The soundtrack
may make you want to dance, but the movie is actually a depressing
melodrama about a guy who feels trapped in a meaningless existence he
can only escape on the dance floor.
The movie was based on an article in New York magazine about the
budding disco culture, Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night.
Ironically, the writer of the article later admitted that he had made
it all up. As an Englishman, he was baffled by the American dance
craze. So he based his story on a “Mod” friend instead.
Saturday Night Fever got mostly positive reviews. It was nominated
for several awards including Best Actor for Travolta. Film critic,
Gene Siskel claimed Fever as a personal favorite. He even went so far
as to buy Travolta’s leisure suit at an auction.
Fever wasn’t just a hit. It was a smash that dominated the pop
culture landscape. It ushered in the Disco Era. The soundtrack was
the best-selling soundtrack album of all times. Eventually, the
popularity of disco eclipsed the movie. So when the disco backlash
started, Saturday Night Fever was marginalized along with it.
In 1978, Travolta was still appearing on Welcome Back Kotter. But he
was no longer a regular. Instead, he was credited as a “special guest
star”.
He followed up Saturday Night Fever with the big screen adaptation of
Grease co-starring Olivia Newton John. Grease has a double-nostalgia
thing going for it. It is intended as a loving look back at the
50′s. But it is so of its era, that it captures the feeling of the
70′s just as well.
Grease was nowhere near as critically acclaimed as Saturday Night
Fever. In fact, most critics at the time didn’t like it. But
audiences loved the catchy musical numbers and elaborate dance
scenes. Grease was another huge hit for Travolta.
Responding to the success of Grease, Paramount Pictures re-cut a PG
version of Saturday Night Fever to play as a double feature with the
more family friendly musical. A few years later, Paramount would try
to recapture the success of Grease with a sequel. But Grease 2 was
such a disaster that it nearly killed Michelle Pfeiffer‘s career in
its infancy.
Travolta’s winning streak came to an end later that year with Moment
By Moment.
In Moment By Moment, Travolta played a young drifter who starts a
romantic relationship with a wealthy older woman played by Lily
Tomlin. It was a romantic pairing no one wanted to see. And very few
did. Moment By Moment got terrible reviews and was a huge bomb at the
box office.
In 1980, Travolta recovered from his first flop with Urban Cowboy
opposite Debra Winger.
Urban Cowboy was basically the country music version of Saturday Night
Fever. While it wasn’t as successful or well-reviewed as Fever,
Cowboy did get decent reviews and did well enough at the box office.
In 1981, Travolta re-reteamed with his Carrie co-star and director for
the Hitchcockian thriller, Blow Out.
In Blow Out, Travolta played a sound technician trying to find the
perfect screaming sound for a movie he is working on. While he is out
recording, he accidentally captures a car crash on his recording
equipment. Slowly, Travolta’s character gets drawn into a conspiracy.
Critics love Blow Out comparing it favorably to the works of Alfred
Hitchcock. But audiences were turned off by the dark subject matter
and the unhappy ending. It seemed they only wanted to see Travolta
dance.
In 1983, Travolta decided to give audiences what they seemed to want.
He danced his way through a sequel to Saturday Night Fever called
Staying Alive.
A sequel to Saturday Night Fever was a tricky proposition. For one
thing, there really wasn’t any more story to the character of Tony
Manero. Creatively, there was no reason for a sequel to exist.
Worse still, the original movie was best known for ushering in the Age
of Disco and the Bee Gees. But in 1983, there was a huge backlash
against all things disco. So Saturday Night Fever would have to be a
sequel that didn’t remind people of the original.
Towards this end, Paramount made some odd choices. First, they
decided that Tony Manero would move on from disco and try to make it
on Broadway. Second, they decided to hire Sylvester Stallone to do
everything but star in the thing. Stallone co-wrote, directed and
produced the sequel which resulted in weirdness like this:
Stallone even made an uncredited cameo at the end of the movie. And
of course his brother Frank sang the original song, “Far From Over”.
As bizarre as the decision to let Stallone direct a Saturday Night
Fever sequel seems today, it made a certain kind of sense at the time.
Stallone was the top dog in Hollywood in the early 80s. He had just
written, directed in starred in two successful Rocky sequels. He was
Paramont’s go-to guy.
Unfortunately, Stallone drained all the grit that had made Saturday
Night Fever a success in the first place. Instead, he delivered the
Broadway equivalent of Rocky 3.5.
The critics had a field day with Staying Alive which is viewed today
as one of the worst sequels ever made. Although it turned a profit at
the box office, it was a disappointment compared to Travolta’s earlier
successes.
Later that year, he reteamed with his Grease co-star Olivia Newton
John for Two of a Kind.
Travolta and John played a couple of petty criminals who fall in
love. Somehow, this proves to God that man is worth saving and
prevents him from pulling a Noah. I shit you not. Charles Durning
plays an angel who intervenes to ensure a happy ending.
The critics savaged Two of a Kind and rightly so. Even the allure of
Travolta and John together again was not enough to save this turkey.
It stank up the box office.
Travolta received his first Golden Raspberry nomination that year for
both Staying Alive and Two of a Kind.
In 1985, Travolta’s free fall continued with Perfect. Perfect tried
to do for health clubs in the 80s what Saturday Night Fever did for
disco clubs in the 70s. Man, did it ever fail!
Travolta played a Rolling Stone journalist investigating the fitness
craze. Jamie Lee Curtis co-starred as a fitness instructor Travolta
pursues for an interview… with benefits.
Perfect was anything but. The reviews were horrible and Perfect
bombed at the box office. Travolta was nominated for another Golden
Raspberry, but he lost to his Staying Alive director, Sylvester
Stallone.
From 85-89, Travolta was out of the public spotlight. He appeared in
Robert Altman’s 2-part TV movie, Basements in 1987.
In 1989, Travolta returned to the big screen in the Cold War comedy,
The Experts.
The Experts co-starred Ayre Gross. Who? Yeah, that’s all you need to
know. Here, let’s just look at the poster:
What the hell are they even supposed to be doing? Is that air
guitar? Are we supposed to be so distracted by Kelly Preston’s ass
that we don’t notice Travolta’s crotch grab? Or for that matter, his
mullet?
No surprise, The Experts was a train wreck. In early 1989, people saw
The Experts has the final nail in Travolta’s coffin. He was done.
Written off. Game over, man. On the upside, he met his future wife
with a poster-worthy ass, Kelly Preston.
Later that year, the unthinkable happened. Travolta had an unlikely
comeback opposite Kirstie Alley and the voice of Bruce Willis in Amy
Heckerling’s comedy, Look Who’s Talking.
In the history of cinema, there have been a surprising number of
talking baby movies. And only one of them has ever been a hit. For
whatever reason, it was Look Who’s Talking.
Despite mixed reviews, Look Who’s Talking was crazy successful.
Travolta was back in business.
Look Who’s Talking was so successful, the studio wanted a sequel
immediately. In 1990, everyone returned for Look Who’s Talking Too.
In the real world, if a kid was as old as Mikey and still wasn’t
talking, his parents would be worried. But this is a talking baby
movie. So even though the baby is now a toddler, Bruce Willis still
provides his internal monologue. For good measure, Roseanne Barr
voiced Mikey’s half-sister.
As with most sequels, there were diminishing returns. Reviews were
universally negative. And while Look Who’s Talking Too made money, it
was a disappointment.
In 1991, Travolta released three movies. None of them are worth
mentioning, so instead here’s a look at Travolta and Kelly Preston who
were married that year.
Travolta’s big comeback was turning out to be short-lived. Desperate,
he went back to the Look Who’s Talking well for Look Who’s Talking Now
in 1993.
By this point, the kids were talking normally. So the third movie
changed the gimmick from talking babies to talking dogs. Diane Keaton
and Danny DeVito voiced a couple of family dogs.
Speaking of dogs, Look Who’s Talking Now was one. Reviews were
terrible and the movie bombed.
Once again, it looked like Travolta was down for the count. His
career was on life support and the Look Who’s Talking franchise had
officially run out of gas. Then an up and coming director threw the
actor a much-needed lifeline.
The part of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction was originally intended for
Michael Madsen who played Vic Vega in Quentin Tarrantino’s previous
film, Reservoir Dogs. But Madsen dropped out of Pulp Fiction so he
could appear in Kevin Costner‘s Wyatt Earp. You can bet that Madsen
has never stopped kicking himself.
With Madsen out, Harvey Weinstein pushed for Daniel Day-Lewis for the
role. But Tarantino wanted Travolta. Travolta agreed to a fraction
of his going rate for the chance to reinvent himself. It was the best
decision of his entire career.
Like Saturday Night Fever before it, Pulp Fiction was more than just a
movie. It was a cultural revolution. Hollywood would spend the next
decade playing catch-up.
Travolta got his best reviews the early days of his career. He was
nominated for an Oscar for the second time after a wait of nearly 20
years. It was one of the biggest comebacks in Hollywood history. And
for Travolta, it was the second comeback of his career.
This time, Travolta didn’t waste his second (or third) chance. His
next film was Barry Sonnenfeld’s Elmore Leonard adaptation, Get
Shorty.
Get Shorty was an inspired choice. It allowed Travolta to play
another tough guy, but this time for laughs. Travolta played a loan
shark named Chili Palmer who travels from Miami to Hollywood to
collect a gambling debt from a shifty B-movie producer played by Gene
Hackman.
In Hollywood, Travolta’s character becomes entangled in movie
business. He starts up a romantic relationship with a B-movie actress
played by Rene Russo. Soon, he finds he excels as a movie producer by
using the skills he honed as a gangster.
Get Shorty got great reviews and was a hit at the box office.
Travolta won a Golden Globe for Best Actor. He was on a roll.
In 1995, that roll hit a bump in the form of White Man’s Burden, a
bizarre science fiction film that takes place in a world where white
people are an oppressed minority. White Man’s Burden got mixed
reviews and flopped at the box office.
Travolta bounced back in 1996 with three hit movies. The first was
John Woo’s Broken Arrow in which Travolta played a villain to
Christian Slater’s hero.
Broken Arrow got mixed reviews. So much so that Gene Siskel actually
changed his review from positive to negative mid-show after hearing
Roger Ebert’s criticisms of the film. It was the first and only time
that happened.
It was a modest hit at the box office, but it did even better in the
overseas market.
That summer, Travolta starred in a truly unlikely hit, Phenomenon.
In Phenomenon, Travolta played an average mechanic who became a genius
with telekinetic powers. It’s a weird premise which ultimately had an
unhappy ending. And yet, it was a hit.
Phenomenon was the kind of movie that proves a star is A-list.
Audiences turned out to see Travolta. He sold tickets. Without his
star power, there is virtually no chance Phenomenon would have been a
hit.
Travolta closed out the year with Nora Ephron’s, Michael.
Travolta played a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking angel who comes to earth
for one final mission. Yep, spoiler alert, Travolta dies again. But
in spite of mostly negative reviews, Michael was another hit for
Travolta.
In 1997, Travolta re-teamed with his Broken Arrow director, John Woo,
for Face/Off. But this time, he traded up in terms of co-stars.
Instead of Christian Slater, Travolta was paired with Nicholas Cage.
Travolta and Cage each got to play hero and villain as the two
characters switch roles. This also allowed each actor to do an
impression of the other. Much scenery was chewed. Reviews were
mostly positive and Face/Off was a big international hit at the box
office.
The rest of Travolta’s year wasn’t as triumphant as Face/Off. First,
Travolta appeared opposite Sean Penn and his wife, Robin Wright Penn,
in She’s So Lovely. She’s So Lovely was a little art house movie. No
one had any expectations of it being a hit. It was a prestige
picture.
But Mad City was a different story. Travolta starred opposite Dustin
Hoffman in a thriller which aimed at social commentary on the media.
Mad City missed its target. Reviews were negative and the movie
bombed in spite of its high-profile leads.
Travolta’s slump carried over into 1998 with Mike Nichols’ political
satire, Primary Colors.
Primary Colors was based on a book of the same name. The book was at
least partially based on Bill Clinton’s bid to be the Democratic
nominee for president. Travolta played his character, Jack Stanton,
as a Clinton stand-in. Reportedly the real Bill Clinton, who was
friends with Travolta at the time, was pretty pissed off by the whole
thing.
Primary Colors was an uneven mix of comedy and drama. It never really
settled on a tone. Reviews were mixed. But most enjoyed Travolta’s
Clinton impression. Travolta was nominated for a Golden Globe.
It was released when Clinton was embroiled in the Monica Lewinsky
scandal which could have worked for or against the movie. As it turns
out, audiences were sick of Clintonian political scandal and didn’t go
to the movies for a fictionalized account.
On Christmas Day in 1998, Travolta appeared in two movies. He was
part of a star-studded ensemble that included Sean Penn, Adrien Brody,
Jim Caviezel, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, and Nick
Nolte in Terrence Malick’s war movie, The Thin Red Line.
The Thin Red Line was the first movie from the legendary director in
more than 20 years and as you can see, A-list actors were lining up to
appear in it. Just getting cast was a victory of sorts. The fact
that The Thin Red Line got good reviews and was a hit at the box
office was just icing on the cake.
Travolta’s other Christmas release was the legal drama, A Civil
Action.
A Civil Action was based on a book which was based on a true story
about an environmental pollution law suit. It wasn’t subject matter
that screamed “box office hit”. And in spite of mostly good reviews,
A Civil Action wasn’t a box office hit.
However, I think it is a testament to Travolta’s popularity at this
time that A Civil Action did as well as it did. Worldwide, the movie
grossed over 100 million dollars which is pretty impressive for a
legal drama about pollution.
Travolta was still A-list, but he was slipping. His movies were
alternating between base hits and mild disappointments with no real
home runs or strike-outs in the mix. That trend continued in 1999′s
The General’s Daughter.
The General’s Daughter was billed as a sexy military drama. Travolta
played a military investigator on the case of the murder of (what
else) a general’s daughter. I remember seeing The General’s Daughter
when it was released, but I couldn’t tell you much about the plot
beyond that it was convoluted.
I really couldn’t bring myself to re-familiarize myself with it. So,
I’ll just note that in spite of negative reviews, The General’s
Daughter did very respectable business at the box office.
Then came a little movie you may have heard of… Battlefield Earth.
Battlefield Earth is one of those infamous flops like Waterworld or
Cutthroat Island. It didn’t just fail. It failed spectacularly as
only a few movies can.
I am more than a little amazed that I have made it this far into a
write-up of John Travolta without having mentioned Scientology. I
don’t want to get bogged down in it. Odds are you are familiar withe
the philosophy/religion founded by a minor science fiction writer.
You may have heard the word “cult” used to describe it at some point
or another. I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.
As the second-most-famous Scientologist in Hollywood, it was a
personal dream of Travolta’s to film L Ron Hubbard’s science fiction
epic. Travolta had originally planned to play the lead role of Jonnie
Goodboy himself. But getting Battlefield Earth made took such a long
time that Travolta was too old to play the lead. Instead, he cast
himself as the villain.
Why did it take so long to get Battlefield Earth made into a movie?
Well, no one in Hollywood was all that excited about the idea of
making a big budget science fiction epic based around the a philosophy
that many viewed as cultish. Also, did I mention the fact that the
hero was named Jonnie Goodboy. That’s a pretty good indication of the
level of sophistication of the source material.
But Battlefield Earth was a personal mission for Travolta. He fought
to make it happen. It is a testament to how much power he had at
the time that he was eventually successful. Because pretty much every
single non-Scientologist in the room knew Battlefield Earth was
destined for infamy.
We deal with a lot of infamous flops here at What the Hell Happened.
And frequently, we get comments about how Waterworld or Cutthroat
Island aren’t as bad as their reputations make them out to be. In
spite of their respective flaws, most of these films are pretty
entertaining once you have adjusted your expectations.
Not so with Battlefield Earth. It is the rare case of a flop which is
arguably worse than its reputation. You really have to watch
Battlefield Earth in order to understand every way in which a movie
can be inept. It’s not just that it is badly written and acted. It’s
that every single decision made by everyone involved in the film is a
bad one.
I had the pleasure of watching Battlefield Earth before it opened. I
was the only person in the theater. And my mouth was on the floor the
entire time. I could not believe this movie had been made let alone
that it was about to be released on an unknowing public. Surely,
someone would intervene.
But no, Battlefield Earth was released as planned. It was savaged by
critics and tanked at the box office. It cleaned up at the Golden
Raspberries including a much-deserved win for Travolta.
And yet, in spite of failing in every way a movie can, Travolta was
hell-bent on making a sequel for many years after the release of
Battlefield Earth. That is a kind of self-delusion I can’t
comprehend.
Later that year, Travolta re-teamed with his Michael director, Nora
Ephron for the lotto comedy, Lucky Numbers.
Any other year, a movie like Lucky Numbers would be an embarrassing
flop. The reviews were terrible. It lost roughly 50 million
dollars. It was a train wreck. And yet, next to Battlefield Earth,
Lucky Numbers didn’t seem so bad.
Amazingly, Travolta’s career survived his abysmal year. But it was
limping. In 2001, Travolta played another villain in the cyber-
thriller, Swordfish.
Swordfish co-starred fellow X-Men Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.
Jackman was trying to establish himself as a viable lead outside of
his role as Wolverine. And Berry, well, she was trying to overcome
her fear of nudity.
Thankfully for all involved, Halle Berry conquered her fears.
Swordfish got a lot of press for featuring Berry’s first-ever topless
scene. The reviews for Swordfish were poor, but Berry’s boobs
propelled the movie to success.
Later that year, Travolta starred in Domestic Disturbance, a would-be
thriller that sadly did not include gratuitous nudity from Halle
Berry. Without Berry’s boobs, Domestic Disturbance flopped.
And that is probably the only time the word “flopped” will ever appear
in the same sentence as Halle Berry’s boobs.
Anyway, Roger Ebert recounted the story of attending a critic’s
screening of Domestic Disturbance in which the wrong final reel was
shown. Apparently, the reel that was shown to critics had the wrong
soundtrack. Ebert pointed out that “Music is the last thing wrong
with that reel.”
Between Swordfish and Domestic Disturbance, Travolta was nominated for
another Razzie. Berry’s breasts were not nominated. But her time
would come.
In 2002, Travolta’s only appearance was a celebrity cameo in the third
Austin Powers movie. The cameos by Travolta, fellow Scientologist Tom
Cruise, Gweneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, etc were easily the highlight
of Mike Meyers’ tired sequel.
In 2003, Travolta re-teamed with his Pulp Fiction co-star Samuel L
Jackson for another military thriller, Basic.
Basic is one of those movies that looks good on paper. Travolta and
Jackson reunited, Travolta had a hit with the military thriller The
General’s Daughter and director John McTiernan had hits with Die Hard
and Predator. It seemed like a sure thing.
Unfortunately, Basic was anything but. It should have been called
Convoluted or Incomprehensible. The plot twists piled on top of each
other until no viewer could possibly keep them straight.
The reviews were bad and Basic failed at the box office.
In 2004, Travolta decided to get himself a piece of that super hero
action. As Travolta himself was way past his super hero expiration
date, he opted to play yet another villain. Unfortunately, he decided
to do so in The Punisher.
As Marvel comics characters go, The Punisher is a three-time loser.
The Punisher from 2004 starring Thomas Jane as the violent vigilante
was the second of three Punisher movies. All three of them were
critical and box office failures.
Later that year, Travolta appeared opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the
fire fighter drama Ladder 49.
A fire fighter movie in the wake of 9/11 could be viewed as
pandering. But it worked all the same. Despite mixed reviews, Ladder
49 was a much-needed hit for post Battlefield Earth Travolta.
Later that year, Travolta appeared opposite Scarlett Johansson in the
Southern fried drama, A Love Song For Bobby Long.
Bobby Long got mixed reviews and bombed at the box office.
In 2005, Travolta returned to one of his best roles with Be Cool, a
sequel to Get Shorty. Further stacking the deck in his favor,
Travolta reunited with his Pulp Fiction co-star, Uma Thurman.
Unfortunately, where Get Shorty was an incredibly smart Hollywood
satire, Be Cool was just a dumb comedy. The reviews were largely
negative and Be Cool just barely broke even at the domestic box
office.
In 2006, Travolta appeared in the period crime drama, Lonely Hearts.
If you have never heard of it, you are not alone. It got a very
limited release before going to “on demand”.
In 2007, Travolta staged a mini-comeback of sorts. He started the
year off with the middle-age crisis motorcycle road trip comedy, Wild
Hogs.
Wild Hogs teamed three former A-listers (Travolta, Tim Allen and
Martin Lawrence) and one well-known character actor (William H. Macy,
slumming for a paycheck) in an attempt to combine their fan base. And
despite bad reviews, it worked. Wild Hogs was a surprise hit.
There have been rumors of a sequel for many years although currently,
those plans appear to be on hold.
Later that year, Travolta put on drag and a fat suit for the
adaptation of the Broadway musical, Hairspray.
Hairspray, which co-starred fellow WTHH subject Michelle Pfeiffer, was
the rare Travolta film to get good reviews and be a hit at the box
office.
In 2008, Travolta lent his voice to the Disney animate film, Bolt.
Generally, I don’t spend a lot of time discussing voice work in these
columns because voice work rarely has much of an impact on an actor’s
career one way or another.
But Bolt is a bit of a special case. Disney was so confident in its
pairing of Travolta with their in-house superstar, Miley Cyrus, that
they scheduled Bolt up against the first Twilight movie.
Despite decent reviews, Bolt got trampled at the box office by
Twilight. It is viewed as one of Disney’s largest marketing blunders
in recent years.
In 2009, Travolta played another villain in The Taking of Pelham 123
opposite Denzel Washington.
The Taking of Pelham 123 was a remake of a 1974 movie of the same
name. It was directed by the late Tony Scott who had several box
office hits with Denzel Washington.
Pelham 123 was not one of them. It got mixed reviews and did okay at
the box office.
Later that year, Travolta re-teamed with his Wild Hogs director, Walt
Becker, for another middle-aged comedy, Old Dogs.
Old Dogs co-starred Robin Williams, Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston,
Seth Green (who was featured singing to a gorilla on the trailer) and
Bernie Mac (in his final performance).
Old Dogs was dedicated to the memories of Bernie Mac and Jett
Travolta, the son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston who died earlier
that year of a seizure. It got truly terrible reviews and was a mild
disappointment at the box office.
This image sums up Old Dogs nicely.
Travolta seems to be saying, “What am I doing here? Have I really
fallen so low? Is gorilla rape really the selling point of this
movie? Anyone want to make Battlefield Earth 2? Anyone?
In 2010, Travolta starred in another crime drama, To Paris With Love.
I have never seen To Paris, but my entire family had a good laugh when
it came out. Travolta in To Paris looks exactly like my younger
brother. I am looking at that picture above and laughing my ass off
right now. I will never be able to watch that movie without laughing
hysterically.
Anyway, To Paris got mostly negative reviews and was another box
office disappointment. But I swear to God, he looks just like my
brother…
In 2012, Travolta appeared as part of an ensemble in Oliver Stone’s
drug-themed thriller, Savages. I don’t think audiences were even
aware Savages existed. Critics were mixed.
In 2012, Travolta also faced a bit of controversy. An anonymous male
masseur filed a lawsuit against Travolta citing claims of sexual
assault and battery. Travolta’s lawyers denied the claims. However,
a second masseur has come forward making similar claims.
Since then, Travolta has been all over the tabloids with one
accusation after another.
Pictures of Travolta in drag have surfaced.
A former secretary accused Travolta of having an affair with his
former pilot. The male pilot eventually came forward claiming to have
had a 6-year affair with Travolta that pre-dated his marriage to
Preston.
As I was researching this article, questions about Travolta’s
sexuality were unavoidable. When I type his name in a Google search,
the word “gay” automatically appears next to it as a suggestion. When
I did image searches, this one kept coming up.
Personally, I am not especially interested in Travolta’s personal
life. If these rumors are true, I would think it would be in his best
interest to simply own up to them and let the scandal pass. Until
that happens, his denials just fuel the story.
Honestly, I debated whether or not to address these rumors at all in
this article. But I know they will be discussed in the comments
section. So I figured it was best just to tackle them head on. It
seems very likely they will have an impact on Travolta’s career going
forward.
It’s been a long, crazy ride. And frankly, there was a lot I didn’t
cover. But in summary, let’s look at what the hell happened.
Travolta started off as a pop culture icon. He seemed to excel in
movies that attached him to dance crazes. But once he became out of
step with the latest fads, his audience dried up.
Later, he had one of the greatest come-backs of all times. His career
soared to new heights. He was one of the most powerful actors in
Hollywood. And he threw all of that power at one of the most
notorious flops in history.
Even then, his career survived. But he chose one bad movie after
another. And slowly, he gained weight. Fat pictures of Travolta are
second only to pictures of fat Val Kilmer.
Now he’s embroiled in a series of scandals that seems likely to mar
his image for some time to come.
Posted by lebeau
John Travolta is the King of the Comeback. Where most careers involve
a rise and a fall, Travolta’s career is a roller coaster or peaks and
valleys. In the 70′s, he was a pop culture icon, in the 80′s he was a
has-been and in the 90′s, he reinvented himself as an Oscar-nominated
tough guy. Today, you’re more likely to see him on tabloid covers
than headlining a movie. What the hell happened?
Travolta started off on the stage in New York in the touring
production of Grease. Eventually, he moved to California where he
started making TV appearances like The Boy in The Plastic Bubble.
We’ve got a lot to cover here, so we’re just going to skip to 1975
when Travolta was cast in Welcome Back Kotter. Kotter was a sitcom
developed around stand-up comedian, Gabe Kaplan. Kaplan played a
teacher at an inner-city school and Travolta played one of his
delinquent students known as the “Sweathogs”.
Kotter was a big hit during its first couple of seasons. This lead to
lots of merchandising opportunities including a board game based
around Travolta’s catch phrase, “Up your nose with a rubber hose.”
Interestingly enough (for me anyway), the actor standing-in for
Travolta in that commercial was a young Steve Guttenberg.
While still appearing on Welcome Back Kotter, Travolta made the leap
to film with Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel,
Carrie.
By now, there have been umpteen adaptations of King’s novels. Some
have been adapted more than once. A remake of Carrie is currently
underway. But De Palma’s Carrie was the first and it set the bar too
high for most of the adaptations that would follow.
Travolta’s role was relatively small. He played the boyfriend of
Carrie’s primary tormentor, Chris, who was played by Nancy Allen. But
Travolta was involved in some of the movie’s more memorable scenes.
He was the one who slaughtered the pig for the bloody climax. And
when a blood-soaked Carrie left the flame-engulfed prom, Travolta’s
character tried to run her over.
The following year, Travolta entered pop culture history with Saturday
Night Fever. The image of Travolta in the white leisure suit dancing
to the Bee Gees is bigger than any movie. It has come to symbolize an
entire decade.
But Saturday Night Fever is nothing like its image. The soundtrack
may make you want to dance, but the movie is actually a depressing
melodrama about a guy who feels trapped in a meaningless existence he
can only escape on the dance floor.
The movie was based on an article in New York magazine about the
budding disco culture, Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night.
Ironically, the writer of the article later admitted that he had made
it all up. As an Englishman, he was baffled by the American dance
craze. So he based his story on a “Mod” friend instead.
Saturday Night Fever got mostly positive reviews. It was nominated
for several awards including Best Actor for Travolta. Film critic,
Gene Siskel claimed Fever as a personal favorite. He even went so far
as to buy Travolta’s leisure suit at an auction.
Fever wasn’t just a hit. It was a smash that dominated the pop
culture landscape. It ushered in the Disco Era. The soundtrack was
the best-selling soundtrack album of all times. Eventually, the
popularity of disco eclipsed the movie. So when the disco backlash
started, Saturday Night Fever was marginalized along with it.
In 1978, Travolta was still appearing on Welcome Back Kotter. But he
was no longer a regular. Instead, he was credited as a “special guest
star”.
He followed up Saturday Night Fever with the big screen adaptation of
Grease co-starring Olivia Newton John. Grease has a double-nostalgia
thing going for it. It is intended as a loving look back at the
50′s. But it is so of its era, that it captures the feeling of the
70′s just as well.
Grease was nowhere near as critically acclaimed as Saturday Night
Fever. In fact, most critics at the time didn’t like it. But
audiences loved the catchy musical numbers and elaborate dance
scenes. Grease was another huge hit for Travolta.
Responding to the success of Grease, Paramount Pictures re-cut a PG
version of Saturday Night Fever to play as a double feature with the
more family friendly musical. A few years later, Paramount would try
to recapture the success of Grease with a sequel. But Grease 2 was
such a disaster that it nearly killed Michelle Pfeiffer‘s career in
its infancy.
Travolta’s winning streak came to an end later that year with Moment
By Moment.
In Moment By Moment, Travolta played a young drifter who starts a
romantic relationship with a wealthy older woman played by Lily
Tomlin. It was a romantic pairing no one wanted to see. And very few
did. Moment By Moment got terrible reviews and was a huge bomb at the
box office.
In 1980, Travolta recovered from his first flop with Urban Cowboy
opposite Debra Winger.
Urban Cowboy was basically the country music version of Saturday Night
Fever. While it wasn’t as successful or well-reviewed as Fever,
Cowboy did get decent reviews and did well enough at the box office.
In 1981, Travolta re-reteamed with his Carrie co-star and director for
the Hitchcockian thriller, Blow Out.
In Blow Out, Travolta played a sound technician trying to find the
perfect screaming sound for a movie he is working on. While he is out
recording, he accidentally captures a car crash on his recording
equipment. Slowly, Travolta’s character gets drawn into a conspiracy.
Critics love Blow Out comparing it favorably to the works of Alfred
Hitchcock. But audiences were turned off by the dark subject matter
and the unhappy ending. It seemed they only wanted to see Travolta
dance.
In 1983, Travolta decided to give audiences what they seemed to want.
He danced his way through a sequel to Saturday Night Fever called
Staying Alive.
A sequel to Saturday Night Fever was a tricky proposition. For one
thing, there really wasn’t any more story to the character of Tony
Manero. Creatively, there was no reason for a sequel to exist.
Worse still, the original movie was best known for ushering in the Age
of Disco and the Bee Gees. But in 1983, there was a huge backlash
against all things disco. So Saturday Night Fever would have to be a
sequel that didn’t remind people of the original.
Towards this end, Paramount made some odd choices. First, they
decided that Tony Manero would move on from disco and try to make it
on Broadway. Second, they decided to hire Sylvester Stallone to do
everything but star in the thing. Stallone co-wrote, directed and
produced the sequel which resulted in weirdness like this:
Stallone even made an uncredited cameo at the end of the movie. And
of course his brother Frank sang the original song, “Far From Over”.
As bizarre as the decision to let Stallone direct a Saturday Night
Fever sequel seems today, it made a certain kind of sense at the time.
Stallone was the top dog in Hollywood in the early 80s. He had just
written, directed in starred in two successful Rocky sequels. He was
Paramont’s go-to guy.
Unfortunately, Stallone drained all the grit that had made Saturday
Night Fever a success in the first place. Instead, he delivered the
Broadway equivalent of Rocky 3.5.
The critics had a field day with Staying Alive which is viewed today
as one of the worst sequels ever made. Although it turned a profit at
the box office, it was a disappointment compared to Travolta’s earlier
successes.
Later that year, he reteamed with his Grease co-star Olivia Newton
John for Two of a Kind.
Travolta and John played a couple of petty criminals who fall in
love. Somehow, this proves to God that man is worth saving and
prevents him from pulling a Noah. I shit you not. Charles Durning
plays an angel who intervenes to ensure a happy ending.
The critics savaged Two of a Kind and rightly so. Even the allure of
Travolta and John together again was not enough to save this turkey.
It stank up the box office.
Travolta received his first Golden Raspberry nomination that year for
both Staying Alive and Two of a Kind.
In 1985, Travolta’s free fall continued with Perfect. Perfect tried
to do for health clubs in the 80s what Saturday Night Fever did for
disco clubs in the 70s. Man, did it ever fail!
Travolta played a Rolling Stone journalist investigating the fitness
craze. Jamie Lee Curtis co-starred as a fitness instructor Travolta
pursues for an interview… with benefits.
Perfect was anything but. The reviews were horrible and Perfect
bombed at the box office. Travolta was nominated for another Golden
Raspberry, but he lost to his Staying Alive director, Sylvester
Stallone.
From 85-89, Travolta was out of the public spotlight. He appeared in
Robert Altman’s 2-part TV movie, Basements in 1987.
In 1989, Travolta returned to the big screen in the Cold War comedy,
The Experts.
The Experts co-starred Ayre Gross. Who? Yeah, that’s all you need to
know. Here, let’s just look at the poster:
What the hell are they even supposed to be doing? Is that air
guitar? Are we supposed to be so distracted by Kelly Preston’s ass
that we don’t notice Travolta’s crotch grab? Or for that matter, his
mullet?
No surprise, The Experts was a train wreck. In early 1989, people saw
The Experts has the final nail in Travolta’s coffin. He was done.
Written off. Game over, man. On the upside, he met his future wife
with a poster-worthy ass, Kelly Preston.
Later that year, the unthinkable happened. Travolta had an unlikely
comeback opposite Kirstie Alley and the voice of Bruce Willis in Amy
Heckerling’s comedy, Look Who’s Talking.
In the history of cinema, there have been a surprising number of
talking baby movies. And only one of them has ever been a hit. For
whatever reason, it was Look Who’s Talking.
Despite mixed reviews, Look Who’s Talking was crazy successful.
Travolta was back in business.
Look Who’s Talking was so successful, the studio wanted a sequel
immediately. In 1990, everyone returned for Look Who’s Talking Too.
In the real world, if a kid was as old as Mikey and still wasn’t
talking, his parents would be worried. But this is a talking baby
movie. So even though the baby is now a toddler, Bruce Willis still
provides his internal monologue. For good measure, Roseanne Barr
voiced Mikey’s half-sister.
As with most sequels, there were diminishing returns. Reviews were
universally negative. And while Look Who’s Talking Too made money, it
was a disappointment.
In 1991, Travolta released three movies. None of them are worth
mentioning, so instead here’s a look at Travolta and Kelly Preston who
were married that year.
Travolta’s big comeback was turning out to be short-lived. Desperate,
he went back to the Look Who’s Talking well for Look Who’s Talking Now
in 1993.
By this point, the kids were talking normally. So the third movie
changed the gimmick from talking babies to talking dogs. Diane Keaton
and Danny DeVito voiced a couple of family dogs.
Speaking of dogs, Look Who’s Talking Now was one. Reviews were
terrible and the movie bombed.
Once again, it looked like Travolta was down for the count. His
career was on life support and the Look Who’s Talking franchise had
officially run out of gas. Then an up and coming director threw the
actor a much-needed lifeline.
The part of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction was originally intended for
Michael Madsen who played Vic Vega in Quentin Tarrantino’s previous
film, Reservoir Dogs. But Madsen dropped out of Pulp Fiction so he
could appear in Kevin Costner‘s Wyatt Earp. You can bet that Madsen
has never stopped kicking himself.
With Madsen out, Harvey Weinstein pushed for Daniel Day-Lewis for the
role. But Tarantino wanted Travolta. Travolta agreed to a fraction
of his going rate for the chance to reinvent himself. It was the best
decision of his entire career.
Like Saturday Night Fever before it, Pulp Fiction was more than just a
movie. It was a cultural revolution. Hollywood would spend the next
decade playing catch-up.
Travolta got his best reviews the early days of his career. He was
nominated for an Oscar for the second time after a wait of nearly 20
years. It was one of the biggest comebacks in Hollywood history. And
for Travolta, it was the second comeback of his career.
This time, Travolta didn’t waste his second (or third) chance. His
next film was Barry Sonnenfeld’s Elmore Leonard adaptation, Get
Shorty.
Get Shorty was an inspired choice. It allowed Travolta to play
another tough guy, but this time for laughs. Travolta played a loan
shark named Chili Palmer who travels from Miami to Hollywood to
collect a gambling debt from a shifty B-movie producer played by Gene
Hackman.
In Hollywood, Travolta’s character becomes entangled in movie
business. He starts up a romantic relationship with a B-movie actress
played by Rene Russo. Soon, he finds he excels as a movie producer by
using the skills he honed as a gangster.
Get Shorty got great reviews and was a hit at the box office.
Travolta won a Golden Globe for Best Actor. He was on a roll.
In 1995, that roll hit a bump in the form of White Man’s Burden, a
bizarre science fiction film that takes place in a world where white
people are an oppressed minority. White Man’s Burden got mixed
reviews and flopped at the box office.
Travolta bounced back in 1996 with three hit movies. The first was
John Woo’s Broken Arrow in which Travolta played a villain to
Christian Slater’s hero.
Broken Arrow got mixed reviews. So much so that Gene Siskel actually
changed his review from positive to negative mid-show after hearing
Roger Ebert’s criticisms of the film. It was the first and only time
that happened.
It was a modest hit at the box office, but it did even better in the
overseas market.
That summer, Travolta starred in a truly unlikely hit, Phenomenon.
In Phenomenon, Travolta played an average mechanic who became a genius
with telekinetic powers. It’s a weird premise which ultimately had an
unhappy ending. And yet, it was a hit.
Phenomenon was the kind of movie that proves a star is A-list.
Audiences turned out to see Travolta. He sold tickets. Without his
star power, there is virtually no chance Phenomenon would have been a
hit.
Travolta closed out the year with Nora Ephron’s, Michael.
Travolta played a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking angel who comes to earth
for one final mission. Yep, spoiler alert, Travolta dies again. But
in spite of mostly negative reviews, Michael was another hit for
Travolta.
In 1997, Travolta re-teamed with his Broken Arrow director, John Woo,
for Face/Off. But this time, he traded up in terms of co-stars.
Instead of Christian Slater, Travolta was paired with Nicholas Cage.
Travolta and Cage each got to play hero and villain as the two
characters switch roles. This also allowed each actor to do an
impression of the other. Much scenery was chewed. Reviews were
mostly positive and Face/Off was a big international hit at the box
office.
The rest of Travolta’s year wasn’t as triumphant as Face/Off. First,
Travolta appeared opposite Sean Penn and his wife, Robin Wright Penn,
in She’s So Lovely. She’s So Lovely was a little art house movie. No
one had any expectations of it being a hit. It was a prestige
picture.
But Mad City was a different story. Travolta starred opposite Dustin
Hoffman in a thriller which aimed at social commentary on the media.
Mad City missed its target. Reviews were negative and the movie
bombed in spite of its high-profile leads.
Travolta’s slump carried over into 1998 with Mike Nichols’ political
satire, Primary Colors.
Primary Colors was based on a book of the same name. The book was at
least partially based on Bill Clinton’s bid to be the Democratic
nominee for president. Travolta played his character, Jack Stanton,
as a Clinton stand-in. Reportedly the real Bill Clinton, who was
friends with Travolta at the time, was pretty pissed off by the whole
thing.
Primary Colors was an uneven mix of comedy and drama. It never really
settled on a tone. Reviews were mixed. But most enjoyed Travolta’s
Clinton impression. Travolta was nominated for a Golden Globe.
It was released when Clinton was embroiled in the Monica Lewinsky
scandal which could have worked for or against the movie. As it turns
out, audiences were sick of Clintonian political scandal and didn’t go
to the movies for a fictionalized account.
On Christmas Day in 1998, Travolta appeared in two movies. He was
part of a star-studded ensemble that included Sean Penn, Adrien Brody,
Jim Caviezel, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, and Nick
Nolte in Terrence Malick’s war movie, The Thin Red Line.
The Thin Red Line was the first movie from the legendary director in
more than 20 years and as you can see, A-list actors were lining up to
appear in it. Just getting cast was a victory of sorts. The fact
that The Thin Red Line got good reviews and was a hit at the box
office was just icing on the cake.
Travolta’s other Christmas release was the legal drama, A Civil
Action.
A Civil Action was based on a book which was based on a true story
about an environmental pollution law suit. It wasn’t subject matter
that screamed “box office hit”. And in spite of mostly good reviews,
A Civil Action wasn’t a box office hit.
However, I think it is a testament to Travolta’s popularity at this
time that A Civil Action did as well as it did. Worldwide, the movie
grossed over 100 million dollars which is pretty impressive for a
legal drama about pollution.
Travolta was still A-list, but he was slipping. His movies were
alternating between base hits and mild disappointments with no real
home runs or strike-outs in the mix. That trend continued in 1999′s
The General’s Daughter.
The General’s Daughter was billed as a sexy military drama. Travolta
played a military investigator on the case of the murder of (what
else) a general’s daughter. I remember seeing The General’s Daughter
when it was released, but I couldn’t tell you much about the plot
beyond that it was convoluted.
I really couldn’t bring myself to re-familiarize myself with it. So,
I’ll just note that in spite of negative reviews, The General’s
Daughter did very respectable business at the box office.
Then came a little movie you may have heard of… Battlefield Earth.
Battlefield Earth is one of those infamous flops like Waterworld or
Cutthroat Island. It didn’t just fail. It failed spectacularly as
only a few movies can.
I am more than a little amazed that I have made it this far into a
write-up of John Travolta without having mentioned Scientology. I
don’t want to get bogged down in it. Odds are you are familiar withe
the philosophy/religion founded by a minor science fiction writer.
You may have heard the word “cult” used to describe it at some point
or another. I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.
As the second-most-famous Scientologist in Hollywood, it was a
personal dream of Travolta’s to film L Ron Hubbard’s science fiction
epic. Travolta had originally planned to play the lead role of Jonnie
Goodboy himself. But getting Battlefield Earth made took such a long
time that Travolta was too old to play the lead. Instead, he cast
himself as the villain.
Why did it take so long to get Battlefield Earth made into a movie?
Well, no one in Hollywood was all that excited about the idea of
making a big budget science fiction epic based around the a philosophy
that many viewed as cultish. Also, did I mention the fact that the
hero was named Jonnie Goodboy. That’s a pretty good indication of the
level of sophistication of the source material.
But Battlefield Earth was a personal mission for Travolta. He fought
to make it happen. It is a testament to how much power he had at
the time that he was eventually successful. Because pretty much every
single non-Scientologist in the room knew Battlefield Earth was
destined for infamy.
We deal with a lot of infamous flops here at What the Hell Happened.
And frequently, we get comments about how Waterworld or Cutthroat
Island aren’t as bad as their reputations make them out to be. In
spite of their respective flaws, most of these films are pretty
entertaining once you have adjusted your expectations.
Not so with Battlefield Earth. It is the rare case of a flop which is
arguably worse than its reputation. You really have to watch
Battlefield Earth in order to understand every way in which a movie
can be inept. It’s not just that it is badly written and acted. It’s
that every single decision made by everyone involved in the film is a
bad one.
I had the pleasure of watching Battlefield Earth before it opened. I
was the only person in the theater. And my mouth was on the floor the
entire time. I could not believe this movie had been made let alone
that it was about to be released on an unknowing public. Surely,
someone would intervene.
But no, Battlefield Earth was released as planned. It was savaged by
critics and tanked at the box office. It cleaned up at the Golden
Raspberries including a much-deserved win for Travolta.
And yet, in spite of failing in every way a movie can, Travolta was
hell-bent on making a sequel for many years after the release of
Battlefield Earth. That is a kind of self-delusion I can’t
comprehend.
Later that year, Travolta re-teamed with his Michael director, Nora
Ephron for the lotto comedy, Lucky Numbers.
Any other year, a movie like Lucky Numbers would be an embarrassing
flop. The reviews were terrible. It lost roughly 50 million
dollars. It was a train wreck. And yet, next to Battlefield Earth,
Lucky Numbers didn’t seem so bad.
Amazingly, Travolta’s career survived his abysmal year. But it was
limping. In 2001, Travolta played another villain in the cyber-
thriller, Swordfish.
Swordfish co-starred fellow X-Men Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.
Jackman was trying to establish himself as a viable lead outside of
his role as Wolverine. And Berry, well, she was trying to overcome
her fear of nudity.
Thankfully for all involved, Halle Berry conquered her fears.
Swordfish got a lot of press for featuring Berry’s first-ever topless
scene. The reviews for Swordfish were poor, but Berry’s boobs
propelled the movie to success.
Later that year, Travolta starred in Domestic Disturbance, a would-be
thriller that sadly did not include gratuitous nudity from Halle
Berry. Without Berry’s boobs, Domestic Disturbance flopped.
And that is probably the only time the word “flopped” will ever appear
in the same sentence as Halle Berry’s boobs.
Anyway, Roger Ebert recounted the story of attending a critic’s
screening of Domestic Disturbance in which the wrong final reel was
shown. Apparently, the reel that was shown to critics had the wrong
soundtrack. Ebert pointed out that “Music is the last thing wrong
with that reel.”
Between Swordfish and Domestic Disturbance, Travolta was nominated for
another Razzie. Berry’s breasts were not nominated. But her time
would come.
In 2002, Travolta’s only appearance was a celebrity cameo in the third
Austin Powers movie. The cameos by Travolta, fellow Scientologist Tom
Cruise, Gweneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, etc were easily the highlight
of Mike Meyers’ tired sequel.
In 2003, Travolta re-teamed with his Pulp Fiction co-star Samuel L
Jackson for another military thriller, Basic.
Basic is one of those movies that looks good on paper. Travolta and
Jackson reunited, Travolta had a hit with the military thriller The
General’s Daughter and director John McTiernan had hits with Die Hard
and Predator. It seemed like a sure thing.
Unfortunately, Basic was anything but. It should have been called
Convoluted or Incomprehensible. The plot twists piled on top of each
other until no viewer could possibly keep them straight.
The reviews were bad and Basic failed at the box office.
In 2004, Travolta decided to get himself a piece of that super hero
action. As Travolta himself was way past his super hero expiration
date, he opted to play yet another villain. Unfortunately, he decided
to do so in The Punisher.
As Marvel comics characters go, The Punisher is a three-time loser.
The Punisher from 2004 starring Thomas Jane as the violent vigilante
was the second of three Punisher movies. All three of them were
critical and box office failures.
Later that year, Travolta appeared opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the
fire fighter drama Ladder 49.
A fire fighter movie in the wake of 9/11 could be viewed as
pandering. But it worked all the same. Despite mixed reviews, Ladder
49 was a much-needed hit for post Battlefield Earth Travolta.
Later that year, Travolta appeared opposite Scarlett Johansson in the
Southern fried drama, A Love Song For Bobby Long.
Bobby Long got mixed reviews and bombed at the box office.
In 2005, Travolta returned to one of his best roles with Be Cool, a
sequel to Get Shorty. Further stacking the deck in his favor,
Travolta reunited with his Pulp Fiction co-star, Uma Thurman.
Unfortunately, where Get Shorty was an incredibly smart Hollywood
satire, Be Cool was just a dumb comedy. The reviews were largely
negative and Be Cool just barely broke even at the domestic box
office.
In 2006, Travolta appeared in the period crime drama, Lonely Hearts.
If you have never heard of it, you are not alone. It got a very
limited release before going to “on demand”.
In 2007, Travolta staged a mini-comeback of sorts. He started the
year off with the middle-age crisis motorcycle road trip comedy, Wild
Hogs.
Wild Hogs teamed three former A-listers (Travolta, Tim Allen and
Martin Lawrence) and one well-known character actor (William H. Macy,
slumming for a paycheck) in an attempt to combine their fan base. And
despite bad reviews, it worked. Wild Hogs was a surprise hit.
There have been rumors of a sequel for many years although currently,
those plans appear to be on hold.
Later that year, Travolta put on drag and a fat suit for the
adaptation of the Broadway musical, Hairspray.
Hairspray, which co-starred fellow WTHH subject Michelle Pfeiffer, was
the rare Travolta film to get good reviews and be a hit at the box
office.
In 2008, Travolta lent his voice to the Disney animate film, Bolt.
Generally, I don’t spend a lot of time discussing voice work in these
columns because voice work rarely has much of an impact on an actor’s
career one way or another.
But Bolt is a bit of a special case. Disney was so confident in its
pairing of Travolta with their in-house superstar, Miley Cyrus, that
they scheduled Bolt up against the first Twilight movie.
Despite decent reviews, Bolt got trampled at the box office by
Twilight. It is viewed as one of Disney’s largest marketing blunders
in recent years.
In 2009, Travolta played another villain in The Taking of Pelham 123
opposite Denzel Washington.
The Taking of Pelham 123 was a remake of a 1974 movie of the same
name. It was directed by the late Tony Scott who had several box
office hits with Denzel Washington.
Pelham 123 was not one of them. It got mixed reviews and did okay at
the box office.
Later that year, Travolta re-teamed with his Wild Hogs director, Walt
Becker, for another middle-aged comedy, Old Dogs.
Old Dogs co-starred Robin Williams, Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston,
Seth Green (who was featured singing to a gorilla on the trailer) and
Bernie Mac (in his final performance).
Old Dogs was dedicated to the memories of Bernie Mac and Jett
Travolta, the son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston who died earlier
that year of a seizure. It got truly terrible reviews and was a mild
disappointment at the box office.
This image sums up Old Dogs nicely.
Travolta seems to be saying, “What am I doing here? Have I really
fallen so low? Is gorilla rape really the selling point of this
movie? Anyone want to make Battlefield Earth 2? Anyone?
In 2010, Travolta starred in another crime drama, To Paris With Love.
I have never seen To Paris, but my entire family had a good laugh when
it came out. Travolta in To Paris looks exactly like my younger
brother. I am looking at that picture above and laughing my ass off
right now. I will never be able to watch that movie without laughing
hysterically.
Anyway, To Paris got mostly negative reviews and was another box
office disappointment. But I swear to God, he looks just like my
brother…
In 2012, Travolta appeared as part of an ensemble in Oliver Stone’s
drug-themed thriller, Savages. I don’t think audiences were even
aware Savages existed. Critics were mixed.
In 2012, Travolta also faced a bit of controversy. An anonymous male
masseur filed a lawsuit against Travolta citing claims of sexual
assault and battery. Travolta’s lawyers denied the claims. However,
a second masseur has come forward making similar claims.
Since then, Travolta has been all over the tabloids with one
accusation after another.
Pictures of Travolta in drag have surfaced.
A former secretary accused Travolta of having an affair with his
former pilot. The male pilot eventually came forward claiming to have
had a 6-year affair with Travolta that pre-dated his marriage to
Preston.
As I was researching this article, questions about Travolta’s
sexuality were unavoidable. When I type his name in a Google search,
the word “gay” automatically appears next to it as a suggestion. When
I did image searches, this one kept coming up.
Personally, I am not especially interested in Travolta’s personal
life. If these rumors are true, I would think it would be in his best
interest to simply own up to them and let the scandal pass. Until
that happens, his denials just fuel the story.
Honestly, I debated whether or not to address these rumors at all in
this article. But I know they will be discussed in the comments
section. So I figured it was best just to tackle them head on. It
seems very likely they will have an impact on Travolta’s career going
forward.
It’s been a long, crazy ride. And frankly, there was a lot I didn’t
cover. But in summary, let’s look at what the hell happened.
Travolta started off as a pop culture icon. He seemed to excel in
movies that attached him to dance crazes. But once he became out of
step with the latest fads, his audience dried up.
Later, he had one of the greatest come-backs of all times. His career
soared to new heights. He was one of the most powerful actors in
Hollywood. And he threw all of that power at one of the most
notorious flops in history.
Even then, his career survived. But he chose one bad movie after
another. And slowly, he gained weight. Fat pictures of Travolta are
second only to pictures of fat Val Kilmer.
Now he’s embroiled in a series of scandals that seems likely to mar
his image for some time to come.
John Doe
Dec 10, 2012, 11:52:31 AM12/10/12
to
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> Subject: What the Hell Happened to John Travolta?
> From: TMC <tmc1982 gmail.com>
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> Xref: mx04.eternal-september.org alt.religion.scientology:101146 alt.fan.john-travolta:13 alt.fan.tarantino:46 rec.arts.movies.past-films:91991 alt.music.bee-gees:4
> Carrie.
>
> By now, there have been umpteen adaptations of King� Ts novels. Some
> Carrie� Ts primary tormentor, Chris, who was played by Nancy Allen. But
> Travolta was involved in some of the movie� Ts more memorable scenes.
>
> Fever wasn� Tt just a hit. It was a smash that dominated the pop
> its infancy.
>
> Travolta� Ts winning streak came to an end later that year with Moment
> know. Here, let� Ts just look at the poster:
> that we don� Tt notice Travolta� Ts crotch grab? Or for that matter, his
>
> Despite mixed reviews, Look Who� Ts Talking was crazy successful.
> immediately. In 1990, everyone returned for Look Who� Ts Talking Too.
>
> In the real world, if a kid was as old as Mikey and still wasn� Tt
> were married that year.
>
> Travolta� Ts big comeback was turning out to be short-lived. Desperate,
> he went back to the Look Who� Ts Talking well for Look Who� Ts Talking Now
> next film was Barry Sonnenfeld� Ts Elmore Leonard adaptation, Get
> Christian Slater� Ts hero.
> that screamed � obox office hit� . And in spite of mostly good reviews,
> A Civil Action wasn� Tt a box office hit.
>
> However, I think it is a testament to Travolta� Ts popularity at this
> time that A Civil Action did as well as it did. Worldwide, the movie
> grossed over 100 million dollars which is pretty impressive for a
> legal drama about pollution.
>
> Travolta was still A-list, but he was slipping. His movies were
> alternating between base hits and mild disappointments with no real
> home runs or strike-outs in the mix. That trend continued in 1999� �s
> The General� Ts Daughter.
>
> The General� Ts Daughter was billed as a sexy military drama. Travolta
> when it was released, but I couldn� Tt tell you much about the plot
> I� Tll just note that in spite of negative reviews, The General� Ts
>
> Amazingly, Travolta� Ts career survived his abysmal year. But it was
> scene. The reviews for Swordfish were poor, but Berry� Ts boobs
>
> And that is probably the only time the word � oflopped� will ever appear
> in the same sentence as Halle Berry� Ts boobs.
>
> Anyway, Roger Ebert recounted the story of attending a critic� Ts
> would come.
>
> In 2002, Travolta� Ts only appearance was a celebrity cameo in the third
> limited release before going to � oon demand� .
> columns because voice work rarely has much of an impact on an actor� Ts
> drug-themed thriller, Savages. I don� Tt think audiences were even
> forward.
>
> It� Ts been a long, crazy ride. And frankly, there was a lot I didn� Tt
> cover. But in summary, let� Ts look at what the hell happened.
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> Subject: What the Hell Happened to John Travolta?
> From: TMC <tmc1982 gmail.com>
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> Xref: mx04.eternal-september.org alt.religion.scientology:101146 alt.fan.john-travolta:13 alt.fan.tarantino:46 rec.arts.movies.past-films:91991 alt.music.bee-gees:4
>
> http://lebeauleblog.com/2012/09/02/what-the-hell-happened-to-john-travolta/
>
> Posted by lebeau
>
> John Travolta is the King of the Comeback. Where most careers involve
> a rise and a fall, Travolta� Ts career is a roller coaster or peaks and
> http://lebeauleblog.com/2012/09/02/what-the-hell-happened-to-john-travolta/
>
> Posted by lebeau
>
> John Travolta is the King of the Comeback. Where most careers involve
> valleys. In the 70� �s, he was a pop culture icon, in the 80� �s he was a
> has-been and in the 90� �s, he reinvented himself as an Oscar-nominated
> tough guy. Today, you� Tre more likely to see him on tabloid covers
> has-been and in the 90� �s, he reinvented himself as an Oscar-nominated
> than headlining a movie. What the hell happened?
>
> Travolta started off on the stage in New York in the touring
> production of Grease. Eventually, he moved to California where he
> started making TV appearances like The Boy in The Plastic Bubble.
>
> We� Tve got a lot to cover here, so we� Tre just going to skip to 1975
>
> Travolta started off on the stage in New York in the touring
> production of Grease. Eventually, he moved to California where he
> started making TV appearances like The Boy in The Plastic Bubble.
>
> when Travolta was cast in Welcome Back Kotter. Kotter was a sitcom
> developed around stand-up comedian, Gabe Kaplan. Kaplan played a
> teacher at an inner-city school and Travolta played one of his
> delinquent students known as the � oSweathogs� .
> developed around stand-up comedian, Gabe Kaplan. Kaplan played a
> teacher at an inner-city school and Travolta played one of his
>
> Kotter was a big hit during its first couple of seasons. This lead to
> lots of merchandising opportunities including a board game based
> around Travolta� Ts catch phrase, � oUp your nose with a rubber hose.�
> Kotter was a big hit during its first couple of seasons. This lead to
> lots of merchandising opportunities including a board game based
>
> Interestingly enough (for me anyway), the actor standing-in for
> Travolta in that commercial was a young Steve Guttenberg.
>
> While still appearing on Welcome Back Kotter, Travolta made the leap
> to film with Brian De Palma� Ts adaptation of Stephen King� Ts novel,
> Interestingly enough (for me anyway), the actor standing-in for
> Travolta in that commercial was a young Steve Guttenberg.
>
> While still appearing on Welcome Back Kotter, Travolta made the leap
> Carrie.
>
> By now, there have been umpteen adaptations of King� Ts novels. Some
> have been adapted more than once. A remake of Carrie is currently
> underway. But De Palma� Ts Carrie was the first and it set the bar too
> high for most of the adaptations that would follow.
>
> Travolta� Ts role was relatively small. He played the boyfriend of
>
> Carrie� Ts primary tormentor, Chris, who was played by Nancy Allen. But
> Travolta was involved in some of the movie� Ts more memorable scenes.
> He was the one who slaughtered the pig for the bloody climax. And
> when a blood-soaked Carrie left the flame-engulfed prom, Travolta� Ts
> character tried to run her over.
>
> The following year, Travolta entered pop culture history with Saturday
> Night Fever. The image of Travolta in the white leisure suit dancing
> to the Bee Gees is bigger than any movie. It has come to symbolize an
> entire decade.
>
> But Saturday Night Fever is nothing like its image. The soundtrack
> may make you want to dance, but the movie is actually a depressing
> melodrama about a guy who feels trapped in a meaningless existence he
> can only escape on the dance floor.
>
> The movie was based on an article in New York magazine about the
> budding disco culture, Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night.
> Ironically, the writer of the article later admitted that he had made
> it all up. As an Englishman, he was baffled by the American dance
> craze. So he based his story on a � oMod� friend instead.
>
> The following year, Travolta entered pop culture history with Saturday
> Night Fever. The image of Travolta in the white leisure suit dancing
> to the Bee Gees is bigger than any movie. It has come to symbolize an
> entire decade.
>
> But Saturday Night Fever is nothing like its image. The soundtrack
> may make you want to dance, but the movie is actually a depressing
> melodrama about a guy who feels trapped in a meaningless existence he
> can only escape on the dance floor.
>
> The movie was based on an article in New York magazine about the
> budding disco culture, Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night.
> Ironically, the writer of the article later admitted that he had made
> it all up. As an Englishman, he was baffled by the American dance
>
> Saturday Night Fever got mostly positive reviews. It was nominated
> for several awards including Best Actor for Travolta. Film critic,
> Gene Siskel claimed Fever as a personal favorite. He even went so far
> as to buy Travolta� Ts leisure suit at an auction.
> Saturday Night Fever got mostly positive reviews. It was nominated
> for several awards including Best Actor for Travolta. Film critic,
> Gene Siskel claimed Fever as a personal favorite. He even went so far
>
> Fever wasn� Tt just a hit. It was a smash that dominated the pop
> culture landscape. It ushered in the Disco Era. The soundtrack was
> the best-selling soundtrack album of all times. Eventually, the
> popularity of disco eclipsed the movie. So when the disco backlash
> started, Saturday Night Fever was marginalized along with it.
>
> In 1978, Travolta was still appearing on Welcome Back Kotter. But he
> was no longer a regular. Instead, he was credited as a � ospecial guest
> the best-selling soundtrack album of all times. Eventually, the
> popularity of disco eclipsed the movie. So when the disco backlash
> started, Saturday Night Fever was marginalized along with it.
>
> In 1978, Travolta was still appearing on Welcome Back Kotter. But he
> star� .
>
> He followed up Saturday Night Fever with the big screen adaptation of
> Grease co-starring Olivia Newton John. Grease has a double-nostalgia
> thing going for it. It is intended as a loving look back at the
> 50� �s. But it is so of its era, that it captures the feeling of the
> 70� �s just as well.
>
> Grease was nowhere near as critically acclaimed as Saturday Night
> Fever. In fact, most critics at the time didn� Tt like it. But
>
> He followed up Saturday Night Fever with the big screen adaptation of
> Grease co-starring Olivia Newton John. Grease has a double-nostalgia
> thing going for it. It is intended as a loving look back at the
> 50� �s. But it is so of its era, that it captures the feeling of the
> 70� �s just as well.
>
> Grease was nowhere near as critically acclaimed as Saturday Night
> audiences loved the catchy musical numbers and elaborate dance
> scenes. Grease was another huge hit for Travolta.
>
> Responding to the success of Grease, Paramount Pictures re-cut a PG
> version of Saturday Night Fever to play as a double feature with the
> more family friendly musical. A few years later, Paramount would try
> to recapture the success of Grease with a sequel. But Grease 2 was
> such a disaster that it nearly killed Michelle Pfeiffer� ~s career in
> scenes. Grease was another huge hit for Travolta.
>
> Responding to the success of Grease, Paramount Pictures re-cut a PG
> version of Saturday Night Fever to play as a double feature with the
> more family friendly musical. A few years later, Paramount would try
> to recapture the success of Grease with a sequel. But Grease 2 was
> its infancy.
>
> Travolta� Ts winning streak came to an end later that year with Moment
> By Moment.
>
> In Moment By Moment, Travolta played a young drifter who starts a
> romantic relationship with a wealthy older woman played by Lily
> Tomlin. It was a romantic pairing no one wanted to see. And very few
> did. Moment By Moment got terrible reviews and was a huge bomb at the
> box office.
>
> In 1980, Travolta recovered from his first flop with Urban Cowboy
> opposite Debra Winger.
>
> Urban Cowboy was basically the country music version of Saturday Night
> Fever. While it wasn� Tt as successful or well-reviewed as Fever,
>
> In Moment By Moment, Travolta played a young drifter who starts a
> romantic relationship with a wealthy older woman played by Lily
> Tomlin. It was a romantic pairing no one wanted to see. And very few
> did. Moment By Moment got terrible reviews and was a huge bomb at the
> box office.
>
> In 1980, Travolta recovered from his first flop with Urban Cowboy
> opposite Debra Winger.
>
> Urban Cowboy was basically the country music version of Saturday Night
> Cowboy did get decent reviews and did well enough at the box office.
>
> In 1981, Travolta re-reteamed with his Carrie co-star and director for
> the Hitchcockian thriller, Blow Out.
>
> In Blow Out, Travolta played a sound technician trying to find the
> perfect screaming sound for a movie he is working on. While he is out
> recording, he accidentally captures a car crash on his recording
> equipment. Slowly, Travolta� Ts character gets drawn into a conspiracy.
>
> In 1981, Travolta re-reteamed with his Carrie co-star and director for
> the Hitchcockian thriller, Blow Out.
>
> In Blow Out, Travolta played a sound technician trying to find the
> perfect screaming sound for a movie he is working on. While he is out
> recording, he accidentally captures a car crash on his recording
>
> Critics love Blow Out comparing it favorably to the works of Alfred
> Hitchcock. But audiences were turned off by the dark subject matter
> and the unhappy ending. It seemed they only wanted to see Travolta
> dance.
>
> In 1983, Travolta decided to give audiences what they seemed to want.
> He danced his way through a sequel to Saturday Night Fever called
> Staying Alive.
>
> A sequel to Saturday Night Fever was a tricky proposition. For one
> thing, there really wasn� Tt any more story to the character of Tony
> Critics love Blow Out comparing it favorably to the works of Alfred
> Hitchcock. But audiences were turned off by the dark subject matter
> and the unhappy ending. It seemed they only wanted to see Travolta
> dance.
>
> In 1983, Travolta decided to give audiences what they seemed to want.
> He danced his way through a sequel to Saturday Night Fever called
> Staying Alive.
>
> A sequel to Saturday Night Fever was a tricky proposition. For one
> Manero. Creatively, there was no reason for a sequel to exist.
>
> Worse still, the original movie was best known for ushering in the Age
> of Disco and the Bee Gees. But in 1983, there was a huge backlash
> against all things disco. So Saturday Night Fever would have to be a
> sequel that didn� Tt remind people of the original.
>
> Worse still, the original movie was best known for ushering in the Age
> of Disco and the Bee Gees. But in 1983, there was a huge backlash
> against all things disco. So Saturday Night Fever would have to be a
>
> Towards this end, Paramount made some odd choices. First, they
> decided that Tony Manero would move on from disco and try to make it
> on Broadway. Second, they decided to hire Sylvester Stallone to do
> everything but star in the thing. Stallone co-wrote, directed and
> produced the sequel which resulted in weirdness like this:
>
> Stallone even made an uncredited cameo at the end of the movie. And
> of course his brother Frank sang the original song, � oFar From Over� .
> Towards this end, Paramount made some odd choices. First, they
> decided that Tony Manero would move on from disco and try to make it
> on Broadway. Second, they decided to hire Sylvester Stallone to do
> everything but star in the thing. Stallone co-wrote, directed and
> produced the sequel which resulted in weirdness like this:
>
> Stallone even made an uncredited cameo at the end of the movie. And
>
> As bizarre as the decision to let Stallone direct a Saturday Night
> Fever sequel seems today, it made a certain kind of sense at the time.
> Stallone was the top dog in Hollywood in the early 80s. He had just
> written, directed in starred in two successful Rocky sequels. He was
> Paramont� Ts go-to guy.
> As bizarre as the decision to let Stallone direct a Saturday Night
> Fever sequel seems today, it made a certain kind of sense at the time.
> Stallone was the top dog in Hollywood in the early 80s. He had just
> written, directed in starred in two successful Rocky sequels. He was
>
> Unfortunately, Stallone drained all the grit that had made Saturday
> Night Fever a success in the first place. Instead, he delivered the
> Broadway equivalent of Rocky 3.5.
>
> The critics had a field day with Staying Alive which is viewed today
> as one of the worst sequels ever made. Although it turned a profit at
> the box office, it was a disappointment compared to Travolta� Ts earlier
> Unfortunately, Stallone drained all the grit that had made Saturday
> Night Fever a success in the first place. Instead, he delivered the
> Broadway equivalent of Rocky 3.5.
>
> The critics had a field day with Staying Alive which is viewed today
> as one of the worst sequels ever made. Although it turned a profit at
> successes.
>
> Later that year, he reteamed with his Grease co-star Olivia Newton
> John for Two of a Kind.
>
> Travolta and John played a couple of petty criminals who fall in
> love. Somehow, this proves to God that man is worth saving and
> prevents him from pulling a Noah. I shit you not. Charles Durning
> plays an angel who intervenes to ensure a happy ending.
>
> The critics savaged Two of a Kind and rightly so. Even the allure of
> Travolta and John together again was not enough to save this turkey.
> It stank up the box office.
>
> Travolta received his first Golden Raspberry nomination that year for
> both Staying Alive and Two of a Kind.
>
> In 1985, Travolta� Ts free fall continued with Perfect. Perfect tried
>
> Later that year, he reteamed with his Grease co-star Olivia Newton
> John for Two of a Kind.
>
> Travolta and John played a couple of petty criminals who fall in
> love. Somehow, this proves to God that man is worth saving and
> prevents him from pulling a Noah. I shit you not. Charles Durning
> plays an angel who intervenes to ensure a happy ending.
>
> The critics savaged Two of a Kind and rightly so. Even the allure of
> Travolta and John together again was not enough to save this turkey.
> It stank up the box office.
>
> Travolta received his first Golden Raspberry nomination that year for
> both Staying Alive and Two of a Kind.
>
> to do for health clubs in the 80s what Saturday Night Fever did for
> disco clubs in the 70s. Man, did it ever fail!
>
> Travolta played a Rolling Stone journalist investigating the fitness
> craze. Jamie Lee Curtis co-starred as a fitness instructor Travolta
> pursues for an interview� � with benefits.
>
> Perfect was anything but. The reviews were horrible and Perfect
> bombed at the box office. Travolta was nominated for another Golden
> Raspberry, but he lost to his Staying Alive director, Sylvester
> Stallone.
>
> From 85-89, Travolta was out of the public spotlight. He appeared in
> Robert Altman� Ts 2-part TV movie, Basements in 1987.
> disco clubs in the 70s. Man, did it ever fail!
>
> Travolta played a Rolling Stone journalist investigating the fitness
> craze. Jamie Lee Curtis co-starred as a fitness instructor Travolta
> pursues for an interview� � with benefits.
>
> Perfect was anything but. The reviews were horrible and Perfect
> bombed at the box office. Travolta was nominated for another Golden
> Raspberry, but he lost to his Staying Alive director, Sylvester
> Stallone.
>
> From 85-89, Travolta was out of the public spotlight. He appeared in
>
> In 1989, Travolta returned to the big screen in the Cold War comedy,
> The Experts.
>
> The Experts co-starred Ayre Gross. Who? Yeah, that� Ts all you need to
> In 1989, Travolta returned to the big screen in the Cold War comedy,
> The Experts.
>
> know. Here, let� Ts just look at the poster:
>
> What the hell are they even supposed to be doing? Is that air
> guitar? Are we supposed to be so distracted by Kelly Preston� Ts ass
> What the hell are they even supposed to be doing? Is that air
> that we don� Tt notice Travolta� Ts crotch grab? Or for that matter, his
> mullet?
>
> No surprise, The Experts was a train wreck. In early 1989, people saw
> The Experts has the final nail in Travolta� Ts coffin. He was done.
>
> No surprise, The Experts was a train wreck. In early 1989, people saw
> Written off. Game over, man. On the upside, he met his future wife
> with a poster-worthy ass, Kelly Preston.
>
> Later that year, the unthinkable happened. Travolta had an unlikely
> comeback opposite Kirstie Alley and the voice of Bruce Willis in Amy
> Heckerling� Ts comedy, Look Who� Ts Talking.
> with a poster-worthy ass, Kelly Preston.
>
> Later that year, the unthinkable happened. Travolta had an unlikely
> comeback opposite Kirstie Alley and the voice of Bruce Willis in Amy
>
> In the history of cinema, there have been a surprising number of
> talking baby movies. And only one of them has ever been a hit. For
> whatever reason, it was Look Who� Ts Talking.
> In the history of cinema, there have been a surprising number of
> talking baby movies. And only one of them has ever been a hit. For
>
> Despite mixed reviews, Look Who� Ts Talking was crazy successful.
> Travolta was back in business.
>
> Look Who� Ts Talking was so successful, the studio wanted a sequel
>
> immediately. In 1990, everyone returned for Look Who� Ts Talking Too.
>
> In the real world, if a kid was as old as Mikey and still wasn� Tt
> talking, his parents would be worried. But this is a talking baby
> movie. So even though the baby is now a toddler, Bruce Willis still
> provides his internal monologue. For good measure, Roseanne Barr
> voiced Mikey� Ts half-sister.
> movie. So even though the baby is now a toddler, Bruce Willis still
> provides his internal monologue. For good measure, Roseanne Barr
>
> As with most sequels, there were diminishing returns. Reviews were
> universally negative. And while Look Who� Ts Talking Too made money, it
> As with most sequels, there were diminishing returns. Reviews were
> was a disappointment.
>
> In 1991, Travolta released three movies. None of them are worth
> mentioning, so instead here� Ts a look at Travolta and Kelly Preston who
>
> In 1991, Travolta released three movies. None of them are worth
> were married that year.
>
> Travolta� Ts big comeback was turning out to be short-lived. Desperate,
> he went back to the Look Who� Ts Talking well for Look Who� Ts Talking Now
> in 1993.
>
> By this point, the kids were talking normally. So the third movie
> changed the gimmick from talking babies to talking dogs. Diane Keaton
> and Danny DeVito voiced a couple of family dogs.
>
> Speaking of dogs, Look Who� Ts Talking Now was one. Reviews were
>
> By this point, the kids were talking normally. So the third movie
> changed the gimmick from talking babies to talking dogs. Diane Keaton
> and Danny DeVito voiced a couple of family dogs.
>
> terrible and the movie bombed.
>
> Once again, it looked like Travolta was down for the count. His
> career was on life support and the Look Who� Ts Talking franchise had
>
> Once again, it looked like Travolta was down for the count. His
> officially run out of gas. Then an up and coming director threw the
> actor a much-needed lifeline.
>
> The part of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction was originally intended for
> Michael Madsen who played Vic Vega in Quentin Tarrantino� Ts previous
> actor a much-needed lifeline.
>
> The part of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction was originally intended for
> film, Reservoir Dogs. But Madsen dropped out of Pulp Fiction so he
> could appear in Kevin Costner� ~s Wyatt Earp. You can bet that Madsen
> has never stopped kicking himself.
>
> With Madsen out, Harvey Weinstein pushed for Daniel Day-Lewis for the
> role. But Tarantino wanted Travolta. Travolta agreed to a fraction
> of his going rate for the chance to reinvent himself. It was the best
> decision of his entire career.
>
> Like Saturday Night Fever before it, Pulp Fiction was more than just a
> movie. It was a cultural revolution. Hollywood would spend the next
> decade playing catch-up.
>
> Travolta got his best reviews the early days of his career. He was
> nominated for an Oscar for the second time after a wait of nearly 20
> years. It was one of the biggest comebacks in Hollywood history. And
> for Travolta, it was the second comeback of his career.
>
> This time, Travolta didn� Tt waste his second (or third) chance. His
>
> With Madsen out, Harvey Weinstein pushed for Daniel Day-Lewis for the
> role. But Tarantino wanted Travolta. Travolta agreed to a fraction
> of his going rate for the chance to reinvent himself. It was the best
> decision of his entire career.
>
> Like Saturday Night Fever before it, Pulp Fiction was more than just a
> movie. It was a cultural revolution. Hollywood would spend the next
> decade playing catch-up.
>
> Travolta got his best reviews the early days of his career. He was
> nominated for an Oscar for the second time after a wait of nearly 20
> years. It was one of the biggest comebacks in Hollywood history. And
> for Travolta, it was the second comeback of his career.
>
> next film was Barry Sonnenfeld� Ts Elmore Leonard adaptation, Get
> Shorty.
>
> Get Shorty was an inspired choice. It allowed Travolta to play
> another tough guy, but this time for laughs. Travolta played a loan
> shark named Chili Palmer who travels from Miami to Hollywood to
> collect a gambling debt from a shifty B-movie producer played by Gene
> Hackman.
>
> In Hollywood, Travolta� Ts character becomes entangled in movie
>
> Get Shorty was an inspired choice. It allowed Travolta to play
> another tough guy, but this time for laughs. Travolta played a loan
> shark named Chili Palmer who travels from Miami to Hollywood to
> collect a gambling debt from a shifty B-movie producer played by Gene
> Hackman.
>
> business. He starts up a romantic relationship with a B-movie actress
> played by Rene Russo. Soon, he finds he excels as a movie producer by
> using the skills he honed as a gangster.
>
> Get Shorty got great reviews and was a hit at the box office.
> Travolta won a Golden Globe for Best Actor. He was on a roll.
>
> In 1995, that roll hit a bump in the form of White Man� Ts Burden, a
> played by Rene Russo. Soon, he finds he excels as a movie producer by
> using the skills he honed as a gangster.
>
> Get Shorty got great reviews and was a hit at the box office.
> Travolta won a Golden Globe for Best Actor. He was on a roll.
>
> bizarre science fiction film that takes place in a world where white
> people are an oppressed minority. White Man� Ts Burden got mixed
> reviews and flopped at the box office.
>
> Travolta bounced back in 1996 with three hit movies. The first was
> John Woo� Ts Broken Arrow in which Travolta played a villain to
>
> Travolta bounced back in 1996 with three hit movies. The first was
> Christian Slater� Ts hero.
>
> Broken Arrow got mixed reviews. So much so that Gene Siskel actually
> changed his review from positive to negative mid-show after hearing
> Roger Ebert� Ts criticisms of the film. It was the first and only time
> Broken Arrow got mixed reviews. So much so that Gene Siskel actually
> changed his review from positive to negative mid-show after hearing
> that happened.
>
> It was a modest hit at the box office, but it did even better in the
> overseas market.
>
> That summer, Travolta starred in a truly unlikely hit, Phenomenon.
>
> In Phenomenon, Travolta played an average mechanic who became a genius
> with telekinetic powers. It� Ts a weird premise which ultimately had an
>
> It was a modest hit at the box office, but it did even better in the
> overseas market.
>
> That summer, Travolta starred in a truly unlikely hit, Phenomenon.
>
> In Phenomenon, Travolta played an average mechanic who became a genius
> unhappy ending. And yet, it was a hit.
>
> Phenomenon was the kind of movie that proves a star is A-list.
> Audiences turned out to see Travolta. He sold tickets. Without his
> star power, there is virtually no chance Phenomenon would have been a
> hit.
>
> Travolta closed out the year with Nora Ephron� Ts, Michael.
>
> Phenomenon was the kind of movie that proves a star is A-list.
> Audiences turned out to see Travolta. He sold tickets. Without his
> star power, there is virtually no chance Phenomenon would have been a
> hit.
>
>
> Travolta played a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking angel who comes to earth
> for one final mission. Yep, spoiler alert, Travolta dies again. But
> in spite of mostly negative reviews, Michael was another hit for
> Travolta.
>
> In 1997, Travolta re-teamed with his Broken Arrow director, John Woo,
> for Face/Off. But this time, he traded up in terms of co-stars.
> Instead of Christian Slater, Travolta was paired with Nicholas Cage.
>
> Travolta and Cage each got to play hero and villain as the two
> characters switch roles. This also allowed each actor to do an
> impression of the other. Much scenery was chewed. Reviews were
> mostly positive and Face/Off was a big international hit at the box
> office.
>
> The rest of Travolta� Ts year wasn� Tt as triumphant as Face/Off. First,
> Travolta played a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking angel who comes to earth
> for one final mission. Yep, spoiler alert, Travolta dies again. But
> in spite of mostly negative reviews, Michael was another hit for
> Travolta.
>
> In 1997, Travolta re-teamed with his Broken Arrow director, John Woo,
> for Face/Off. But this time, he traded up in terms of co-stars.
> Instead of Christian Slater, Travolta was paired with Nicholas Cage.
>
> Travolta and Cage each got to play hero and villain as the two
> characters switch roles. This also allowed each actor to do an
> impression of the other. Much scenery was chewed. Reviews were
> mostly positive and Face/Off was a big international hit at the box
> office.
>
> Travolta appeared opposite Sean Penn and his wife, Robin Wright Penn,
> in She� Ts So Lovely. She� Ts So Lovely was a little art house movie. No
> one had any expectations of it being a hit. It was a prestige
> picture.
>
> But Mad City was a different story. Travolta starred opposite Dustin
> Hoffman in a thriller which aimed at social commentary on the media.
> Mad City missed its target. Reviews were negative and the movie
> bombed in spite of its high-profile leads.
>
> Travolta� Ts slump carried over into 1998 with Mike Nichols� T political
> picture.
>
> But Mad City was a different story. Travolta starred opposite Dustin
> Hoffman in a thriller which aimed at social commentary on the media.
> Mad City missed its target. Reviews were negative and the movie
> bombed in spite of its high-profile leads.
>
> satire, Primary Colors.
>
> Primary Colors was based on a book of the same name. The book was at
> least partially based on Bill Clinton� Ts bid to be the Democratic
>
> Primary Colors was based on a book of the same name. The book was at
> nominee for president. Travolta played his character, Jack Stanton,
> as a Clinton stand-in. Reportedly the real Bill Clinton, who was
> friends with Travolta at the time, was pretty pissed off by the whole
> thing.
>
> Primary Colors was an uneven mix of comedy and drama. It never really
> settled on a tone. Reviews were mixed. But most enjoyed Travolta� Ts
> as a Clinton stand-in. Reportedly the real Bill Clinton, who was
> friends with Travolta at the time, was pretty pissed off by the whole
> thing.
>
> Primary Colors was an uneven mix of comedy and drama. It never really
> Clinton impression. Travolta was nominated for a Golden Globe.
>
> It was released when Clinton was embroiled in the Monica Lewinsky
> scandal which could have worked for or against the movie. As it turns
> out, audiences were sick of Clintonian political scandal and didn� Tt go
>
> It was released when Clinton was embroiled in the Monica Lewinsky
> scandal which could have worked for or against the movie. As it turns
> to the movies for a fictionalized account.
>
> On Christmas Day in 1998, Travolta appeared in two movies. He was
> part of a star-studded ensemble that included Sean Penn, Adrien Brody,
> Jim Caviezel, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, and Nick
> Nolte in Terrence Malick� Ts war movie, The Thin Red Line.
>
> On Christmas Day in 1998, Travolta appeared in two movies. He was
> part of a star-studded ensemble that included Sean Penn, Adrien Brody,
> Jim Caviezel, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, and Nick
>
> The Thin Red Line was the first movie from the legendary director in
> more than 20 years and as you can see, A-list actors were lining up to
> appear in it. Just getting cast was a victory of sorts. The fact
> that The Thin Red Line got good reviews and was a hit at the box
> office was just icing on the cake.
>
> Travolta� Ts other Christmas release was the legal drama, A Civil
> The Thin Red Line was the first movie from the legendary director in
> more than 20 years and as you can see, A-list actors were lining up to
> appear in it. Just getting cast was a victory of sorts. The fact
> that The Thin Red Line got good reviews and was a hit at the box
> office was just icing on the cake.
>
> Action.
>
> A Civil Action was based on a book which was based on a true story
> about an environmental pollution law suit. It wasn� Tt subject matter
>
> A Civil Action was based on a book which was based on a true story
> that screamed � obox office hit� . And in spite of mostly good reviews,
> A Civil Action wasn� Tt a box office hit.
>
> However, I think it is a testament to Travolta� Ts popularity at this
> time that A Civil Action did as well as it did. Worldwide, the movie
> grossed over 100 million dollars which is pretty impressive for a
> legal drama about pollution.
>
> Travolta was still A-list, but he was slipping. His movies were
> alternating between base hits and mild disappointments with no real
> home runs or strike-outs in the mix. That trend continued in 1999� �s
>
> The General� Ts Daughter was billed as a sexy military drama. Travolta
> played a military investigator on the case of the murder of (what
> else) a general� Ts daughter. I remember seeing The General� Ts Daughter
> when it was released, but I couldn� Tt tell you much about the plot
> beyond that it was convoluted.
>
> I really couldn� Tt bring myself to re-familiarize myself with it. So,
>
> I� Tll just note that in spite of negative reviews, The General� Ts
> Daughter did very respectable business at the box office.
>
> Then came a little movie you may have heard of� � Battlefield Earth.
>
> Battlefield Earth is one of those infamous flops like Waterworld or
> Cutthroat Island. It didn� Tt just fail. It failed spectacularly as
>
> Then came a little movie you may have heard of� � Battlefield Earth.
>
> Battlefield Earth is one of those infamous flops like Waterworld or
> only a few movies can.
>
> I am more than a little amazed that I have made it this far into a
> write-up of John Travolta without having mentioned Scientology. I
> don� Tt want to get bogged down in it. Odds are you are familiar withe
>
> I am more than a little amazed that I have made it this far into a
> write-up of John Travolta without having mentioned Scientology. I
> the philosophy/religion founded by a minor science fiction writer.
> You may have heard the word � ocult� used to describe it at some point
> or another. I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.
>
> As the second-most-famous Scientologist in Hollywood, it was a
> personal dream of Travolta� Ts to film L Ron Hubbard� Ts science fiction
>
> As the second-most-famous Scientologist in Hollywood, it was a
> epic. Travolta had originally planned to play the lead role of Jonnie
> Goodboy himself. But getting Battlefield Earth made took such a long
> time that Travolta was too old to play the lead. Instead, he cast
> himself as the villain.
>
> Why did it take so long to get Battlefield Earth made into a movie?
> Well, no one in Hollywood was all that excited about the idea of
> making a big budget science fiction epic based around the a philosophy
> that many viewed as cultish. Also, did I mention the fact that the
> hero was named Jonnie Goodboy. That� Ts a pretty good indication of the
> Goodboy himself. But getting Battlefield Earth made took such a long
> time that Travolta was too old to play the lead. Instead, he cast
> himself as the villain.
>
> Why did it take so long to get Battlefield Earth made into a movie?
> Well, no one in Hollywood was all that excited about the idea of
> making a big budget science fiction epic based around the a philosophy
> that many viewed as cultish. Also, did I mention the fact that the
> level of sophistication of the source material.
>
> But Battlefield Earth was a personal mission for Travolta. He fought
> to make it happen. It is a testament to how much power he had at
> the time that he was eventually successful. Because pretty much every
> single non-Scientologist in the room knew Battlefield Earth was
> destined for infamy.
>
> We deal with a lot of infamous flops here at What the Hell Happened.
> And frequently, we get comments about how Waterworld or Cutthroat
> Island aren� Tt as bad as their reputations make them out to be. In
>
> But Battlefield Earth was a personal mission for Travolta. He fought
> to make it happen. It is a testament to how much power he had at
> the time that he was eventually successful. Because pretty much every
> single non-Scientologist in the room knew Battlefield Earth was
> destined for infamy.
>
> We deal with a lot of infamous flops here at What the Hell Happened.
> And frequently, we get comments about how Waterworld or Cutthroat
> spite of their respective flaws, most of these films are pretty
> entertaining once you have adjusted your expectations.
>
> Not so with Battlefield Earth. It is the rare case of a flop which is
> arguably worse than its reputation. You really have to watch
> Battlefield Earth in order to understand every way in which a movie
> can be inept. It� Ts not just that it is badly written and acted. It� Ts
> entertaining once you have adjusted your expectations.
>
> Not so with Battlefield Earth. It is the rare case of a flop which is
> arguably worse than its reputation. You really have to watch
> Battlefield Earth in order to understand every way in which a movie
> that every single decision made by everyone involved in the film is a
> bad one.
>
> I had the pleasure of watching Battlefield Earth before it opened. I
> was the only person in the theater. And my mouth was on the floor the
> entire time. I could not believe this movie had been made let alone
> that it was about to be released on an unknowing public. Surely,
> someone would intervene.
>
> But no, Battlefield Earth was released as planned. It was savaged by
> critics and tanked at the box office. It cleaned up at the Golden
> Raspberries including a much-deserved win for Travolta.
>
> And yet, in spite of failing in every way a movie can, Travolta was
> hell-bent on making a sequel for many years after the release of
> Battlefield Earth. That is a kind of self-delusion I can� Tt
> bad one.
>
> I had the pleasure of watching Battlefield Earth before it opened. I
> was the only person in the theater. And my mouth was on the floor the
> entire time. I could not believe this movie had been made let alone
> that it was about to be released on an unknowing public. Surely,
> someone would intervene.
>
> But no, Battlefield Earth was released as planned. It was savaged by
> critics and tanked at the box office. It cleaned up at the Golden
> Raspberries including a much-deserved win for Travolta.
>
> And yet, in spite of failing in every way a movie can, Travolta was
> hell-bent on making a sequel for many years after the release of
> comprehend.
>
> Later that year, Travolta re-teamed with his Michael director, Nora
> Ephron for the lotto comedy, Lucky Numbers.
>
> Any other year, a movie like Lucky Numbers would be an embarrassing
> flop. The reviews were terrible. It lost roughly 50 million
> dollars. It was a train wreck. And yet, next to Battlefield Earth,
> Lucky Numbers didn� Tt seem so bad.
>
> Later that year, Travolta re-teamed with his Michael director, Nora
> Ephron for the lotto comedy, Lucky Numbers.
>
> Any other year, a movie like Lucky Numbers would be an embarrassing
> flop. The reviews were terrible. It lost roughly 50 million
> dollars. It was a train wreck. And yet, next to Battlefield Earth,
>
> Amazingly, Travolta� Ts career survived his abysmal year. But it was
> limping. In 2001, Travolta played another villain in the cyber-
> thriller, Swordfish.
>
> Swordfish co-starred fellow X-Men Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.
> Jackman was trying to establish himself as a viable lead outside of
> his role as Wolverine. And Berry, well, she was trying to overcome
> her fear of nudity.
>
> Thankfully for all involved, Halle Berry conquered her fears.
> Swordfish got a lot of press for featuring Berry� Ts first-ever topless
> thriller, Swordfish.
>
> Swordfish co-starred fellow X-Men Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.
> Jackman was trying to establish himself as a viable lead outside of
> his role as Wolverine. And Berry, well, she was trying to overcome
> her fear of nudity.
>
> Thankfully for all involved, Halle Berry conquered her fears.
> scene. The reviews for Swordfish were poor, but Berry� Ts boobs
> propelled the movie to success.
>
> Later that year, Travolta starred in Domestic Disturbance, a would-be
> thriller that sadly did not include gratuitous nudity from Halle
> Berry. Without Berry� Ts boobs, Domestic Disturbance flopped.
>
> Later that year, Travolta starred in Domestic Disturbance, a would-be
> thriller that sadly did not include gratuitous nudity from Halle
>
> And that is probably the only time the word � oflopped� will ever appear
> in the same sentence as Halle Berry� Ts boobs.
>
> Anyway, Roger Ebert recounted the story of attending a critic� Ts
> screening of Domestic Disturbance in which the wrong final reel was
> shown. Apparently, the reel that was shown to critics had the wrong
> soundtrack. Ebert pointed out that � oMusic is the last thing wrong
> shown. Apparently, the reel that was shown to critics had the wrong
> with that reel.�
>
> Between Swordfish and Domestic Disturbance, Travolta was nominated for
> another Razzie. Berry� Ts breasts were not nominated. But her time
>
> Between Swordfish and Domestic Disturbance, Travolta was nominated for
> would come.
>
> In 2002, Travolta� Ts only appearance was a celebrity cameo in the third
> Austin Powers movie. The cameos by Travolta, fellow Scientologist Tom
> Cruise, Gweneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, etc were easily the highlight
> of Mike Meyers� T tired sequel.
> Cruise, Gweneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, etc were easily the highlight
>
> In 2003, Travolta re-teamed with his Pulp Fiction co-star Samuel L
> Jackson for another military thriller, Basic.
>
> Basic is one of those movies that looks good on paper. Travolta and
> Jackson reunited, Travolta had a hit with the military thriller The
> General� Ts Daughter and director John McTiernan had hits with Die Hard
> In 2003, Travolta re-teamed with his Pulp Fiction co-star Samuel L
> Jackson for another military thriller, Basic.
>
> Basic is one of those movies that looks good on paper. Travolta and
> Jackson reunited, Travolta had a hit with the military thriller The
>
> In 2007, Travolta staged a mini-comeback of sorts. He started the
> year off with the middle-age crisis motorcycle road trip comedy, Wild
> Hogs.
>
> Wild Hogs teamed three former A-listers (Travolta, Tim Allen and
> Martin Lawrence) and one well-known character actor (William H. Macy,
> slumming for a paycheck) in an attempt to combine their fan base. And
> despite bad reviews, it worked. Wild Hogs was a surprise hit.
>
> There have been rumors of a sequel for many years although currently,
> those plans appear to be on hold.
>
> Later that year, Travolta put on drag and a fat suit for the
> adaptation of the Broadway musical, Hairspray.
>
> Hairspray, which co-starred fellow WTHH subject Michelle Pfeiffer, was
> the rare Travolta film to get good reviews and be a hit at the box
> office.
>
> In 2008, Travolta lent his voice to the Disney animate film, Bolt.
> Generally, I don� Tt spend a lot of time discussing voice work in these
> In 2007, Travolta staged a mini-comeback of sorts. He started the
> year off with the middle-age crisis motorcycle road trip comedy, Wild
> Hogs.
>
> Wild Hogs teamed three former A-listers (Travolta, Tim Allen and
> Martin Lawrence) and one well-known character actor (William H. Macy,
> slumming for a paycheck) in an attempt to combine their fan base. And
> despite bad reviews, it worked. Wild Hogs was a surprise hit.
>
> There have been rumors of a sequel for many years although currently,
> those plans appear to be on hold.
>
> Later that year, Travolta put on drag and a fat suit for the
> adaptation of the Broadway musical, Hairspray.
>
> Hairspray, which co-starred fellow WTHH subject Michelle Pfeiffer, was
> the rare Travolta film to get good reviews and be a hit at the box
> office.
>
> In 2008, Travolta lent his voice to the Disney animate film, Bolt.
> columns because voice work rarely has much of an impact on an actor� Ts
> career one way or another.
>
> But Bolt is a bit of a special case. Disney was so confident in its
> pairing of Travolta with their in-house superstar, Miley Cyrus, that
> they scheduled Bolt up against the first Twilight movie.
>
> Despite decent reviews, Bolt got trampled at the box office by
> Twilight. It is viewed as one of Disney� Ts largest marketing blunders
>
> But Bolt is a bit of a special case. Disney was so confident in its
> pairing of Travolta with their in-house superstar, Miley Cyrus, that
> they scheduled Bolt up against the first Twilight movie.
>
> Despite decent reviews, Bolt got trampled at the box office by
> in recent years.
>
> In 2009, Travolta played another villain in The Taking of Pelham 123
> opposite Denzel Washington.
>
> The Taking of Pelham 123 was a remake of a 1974 movie of the same
> name. It was directed by the late Tony Scott who had several box
> office hits with Denzel Washington.
>
> Pelham 123 was not one of them. It got mixed reviews and did okay at
> the box office.
>
> Later that year, Travolta re-teamed with his Wild Hogs director, Walt
> Becker, for another middle-aged comedy, Old Dogs.
>
> Old Dogs co-starred Robin Williams, Travolta� Ts wife, Kelly Preston,
>
> In 2009, Travolta played another villain in The Taking of Pelham 123
> opposite Denzel Washington.
>
> The Taking of Pelham 123 was a remake of a 1974 movie of the same
> name. It was directed by the late Tony Scott who had several box
> office hits with Denzel Washington.
>
> Pelham 123 was not one of them. It got mixed reviews and did okay at
> the box office.
>
> Later that year, Travolta re-teamed with his Wild Hogs director, Walt
> Becker, for another middle-aged comedy, Old Dogs.
>
> Seth Green (who was featured singing to a gorilla on the trailer) and
> Bernie Mac (in his final performance).
>
> Old Dogs was dedicated to the memories of Bernie Mac and Jett
> Travolta, the son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston who died earlier
> that year of a seizure. It got truly terrible reviews and was a mild
> disappointment at the box office.
>
> This image sums up Old Dogs nicely.
>
> Travolta seems to be saying, � oWhat am I doing here? Have I really
> Bernie Mac (in his final performance).
>
> Old Dogs was dedicated to the memories of Bernie Mac and Jett
> Travolta, the son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston who died earlier
> that year of a seizure. It got truly terrible reviews and was a mild
> disappointment at the box office.
>
> This image sums up Old Dogs nicely.
>
> fallen so low? Is gorilla rape really the selling point of this
> movie? Anyone want to make Battlefield Earth 2? Anyone?
>
> In 2010, Travolta starred in another crime drama, To Paris With Love.
>
> I have never seen To Paris, but my entire family had a good laugh when
> it came out. Travolta in To Paris looks exactly like my younger
> brother. I am looking at that picture above and laughing my ass off
> right now. I will never be able to watch that movie without laughing
> hysterically.
>
> Anyway, To Paris got mostly negative reviews and was another box
> office disappointment. But I swear to God, he looks just like my
> brother� �
>
> In 2012, Travolta appeared as part of an ensemble in Oliver Stone� Ts
> movie? Anyone want to make Battlefield Earth 2? Anyone?
>
> In 2010, Travolta starred in another crime drama, To Paris With Love.
>
> I have never seen To Paris, but my entire family had a good laugh when
> it came out. Travolta in To Paris looks exactly like my younger
> brother. I am looking at that picture above and laughing my ass off
> right now. I will never be able to watch that movie without laughing
> hysterically.
>
> Anyway, To Paris got mostly negative reviews and was another box
> office disappointment. But I swear to God, he looks just like my
> brother� �
>
> drug-themed thriller, Savages. I don� Tt think audiences were even
> aware Savages existed. Critics were mixed.
>
> In 2012, Travolta also faced a bit of controversy. An anonymous male
> masseur filed a lawsuit against Travolta citing claims of sexual
> assault and battery. Travolta� Ts lawyers denied the claims. However,
>
> In 2012, Travolta also faced a bit of controversy. An anonymous male
> masseur filed a lawsuit against Travolta citing claims of sexual
> a second masseur has come forward making similar claims.
>
> Since then, Travolta has been all over the tabloids with one
> accusation after another.
>
> Pictures of Travolta in drag have surfaced.
>
> A former secretary accused Travolta of having an affair with his
> former pilot. The male pilot eventually came forward claiming to have
> had a 6-year affair with Travolta that pre-dated his marriage to
> Preston.
>
> As I was researching this article, questions about Travolta� Ts
>
> Since then, Travolta has been all over the tabloids with one
> accusation after another.
>
> Pictures of Travolta in drag have surfaced.
>
> A former secretary accused Travolta of having an affair with his
> former pilot. The male pilot eventually came forward claiming to have
> had a 6-year affair with Travolta that pre-dated his marriage to
> Preston.
>
> sexuality were unavoidable. When I type his name in a Google search,
> the word � ogay� automatically appears next to it as a suggestion. When
> I did image searches, this one kept coming up.
>
> Personally, I am not especially interested in Travolta� Ts personal
>
> life. If these rumors are true, I would think it would be in his best
> interest to simply own up to them and let the scandal pass. Until
> that happens, his denials just fuel the story.
>
> Honestly, I debated whether or not to address these rumors at all in
> this article. But I know they will be discussed in the comments
> section. So I figured it was best just to tackle them head on. It
> seems very likely they will have an impact on Travolta� Ts career going
> interest to simply own up to them and let the scandal pass. Until
> that happens, his denials just fuel the story.
>
> Honestly, I debated whether or not to address these rumors at all in
> this article. But I know they will be discussed in the comments
> section. So I figured it was best just to tackle them head on. It
> forward.
>
> It� Ts been a long, crazy ride. And frankly, there was a lot I didn� Tt
> cover. But in summary, let� Ts look at what the hell happened.
>
> Travolta started off as a pop culture icon. He seemed to excel in
> movies that attached him to dance crazes. But once he became out of
> step with the latest fads, his audience dried up.
>
> Later, he had one of the greatest come-backs of all times. His career
> soared to new heights. He was one of the most powerful actors in
> Hollywood. And he threw all of that power at one of the most
> notorious flops in history.
>
> Even then, his career survived. But he chose one bad movie after
> another. And slowly, he gained weight. Fat pictures of Travolta are
> second only to pictures of fat Val Kilmer.
>
> Now he� Ts embroiled in a series of scandals that seems likely to mar
> Travolta started off as a pop culture icon. He seemed to excel in
> movies that attached him to dance crazes. But once he became out of
> step with the latest fads, his audience dried up.
>
> Later, he had one of the greatest come-backs of all times. His career
> soared to new heights. He was one of the most powerful actors in
> Hollywood. And he threw all of that power at one of the most
> notorious flops in history.
>
> Even then, his career survived. But he chose one bad movie after
> another. And slowly, he gained weight. Fat pictures of Travolta are
> second only to pictures of fat Val Kilmer.
>
Daryl
Dec 10, 2012, 1:18:06 PM12/10/12
to
On 12/10/2012 9:52 AM, John Doe wrote:
> Stop spamming UseNet
>
Spam is where it has nothing to do with the NG Charter. You seem
to be the only one that disagrees. This may not be what you wish
to read but it IS on topic. Since it is, you claiming that it's
spam is, in itself, the spamming of the NG.
Now get over yourself.
--
http://tvmoviesforfree.com
for free movies and Nostalgic TV. Tons of Military shows and
programs.
> Stop spamming UseNet
>
Spam is where it has nothing to do with the NG Charter. You seem
to be the only one that disagrees. This may not be what you wish
to read but it IS on topic. Since it is, you claiming that it's
spam is, in itself, the spamming of the NG.
Now get over yourself.
--
http://tvmoviesforfree.com
for free movies and Nostalgic TV. Tons of Military shows and
programs.
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