Sharon Stone Research Articles

“I Thought I Knew You”

“I Thought I Knew You”

Getting to the Point

Getting to the Point Stefan Iversen (bio) I really like music documentaries. If forced to rationalise this taste, I would point out two main reasons: one is to experience the aesthetic joy that can be derived from audio-visual performances; the other (less easily put on a cultural pedestal) is to revel in the decadent details of remarkable anecdotes, an important part of the story-bound fabric that provides music celebrities with [End Page 477] their cultural auras. Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese delivers aplenty on both accounts. Combining unseen footage from Bob Dylan’s experimental and mythical 1975 tour of United States and Canada with present-day interviews, the film shows Dylan and artists such as Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, and Allan Ginsberg performing and writing together in all sorts of creative collaborative activities. It also provides an informative stream of juicy stories about the tumultuous life of an (or perhaps even the) anti-establishment figure in modern music culture. During one such anecdote, it dawned on me that there might be a different point to the movie than the one I thought I was getting. In a present-day interview, actress Sharon Stone tells the story of how she as a young woman got involved with the tour and with Dylan. Dylan tricked her into believing he wrote “Just like a woman” for her, which then led to Stone joining the troupe. Wondering how this spectacular coincidence was missing from my previous knowledge about either cultural persona, I turned to the Internet as the movie ended, only to realise that the reason I did not know about this was that it never took place. Billed as a documentary, the movie offers no inter- or paratextual hints that central parts of it are made up; it has even been submitted to the Oscars in the documentary category. Upon closer inspection, other (but not all) interviews in the film appear to be discussing either completely or somewhat made-up events. The main framing device of the movie, a story about the eccentric filmmaker Stefan van Dorp who allegedly shot the concert footage, is made up. The concert footage itself, however, does document Dylan on and off stage in 1975. As a consequence of these conflicting textual and paratextual fragments, viewers (or at least this viewer—others might not even realise the presence of invented material1) are faced with a set of interpretational challenges, operating with all kinds of delays and with huge variance, depending on the particular cognitive environment of the individual viewer. This “Bob Dylan story” is not only a story about Bob Dylan or a story by Bob Dylan but contains an implicit double genitive: The intermingled narrative of fictionalised and informative events is itself like Bob Dylan and, vice versa, the combination of the words “Bob” and “Dylan” points less toward a biographical person and more toward a story with multiple conflicting points, effectively deconstructing the myth of the rock star. The film is by no means unique in its disruption of traditional distinctions between inventive and informative communicative devices: from experimental art such as autofiction and happenings via unconventional [End Page 478] documentaries to hoaxes, information campaigns, and even contemporary politics, present-day culture is riddled with texts that confuse their audiences due to subversive or mutually exclusive attributions of status as either fiction or nonfiction—texts that diverge from straightforward purposes and that are not so much out to make a point as to divide it. In order to approach such texts and try to understand their broader, real-world ramifications, one need not move away from definitions and distinctions about what it is that fictionalised discourse does, rather the contrary. A solid theory of how things normally work is needed to explain diversions of this kind. The understanding of fictionality as a rhetorical resource suggested and elaborated on by Walsh and others is such a solid theory. It offers a convincing, coherent paradigm through which to approach the forms and functions of fictional discourse. Its considerable explanatory powers stem from the fact that it avoids a series of pitfalls, inherent in most other theories of fiction...

Access Nollywood

Access Nollywood

They Call Me Supermensch by Shep Gordon

Reviewed by: They Call Me Supermensch by Shep Gordon Laura Vázquez Blázquez They Call Me Supermensch Anthony Bourdain, 2016 by Shep Gordon Shep Gordon, one of the most famous talent managers, invites us to explore his intense life from a very humble perspective, sharing his vivid memoirs in his book: They Call Me Supermensch. Paradoxically, he introduces us to his life from his nearing death experience after briefly sharing the LA trip, where he met Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, that would change his life. Starting with a beautiful description of his childhood modest home, and family back in Queens, New York, Shep retrospects his life journey to entertain us with anecdotes such as hosting, meeting, and cooking for the Dalai Lama, whose honorable acts reminded him—to a certain extend—to his own father, "a man who kept his word" (225). However, these are just a few of his pleasant stories; alcohol, drugs and sex were a lot more prominent throughout the first half of the book as his career as a manager emerged. The book entails twenty-two chapters in total, and although the second half presents his more mature life path, there are fascinating anecdotes in both parts. Shep was initially a dealer in Los Angeles when he realized he needed a cover to avoid legal issues. Back in college at Buffalo, he had already extensive experience dealing, but in LA, he started to perform at a larger scale. It is for that reason that he was told that as a Jew, he should be a manager, an idea that really caught his attention. Alice Cooper was his first band, and although at first he thought they would never make it, they actually became one of the most popular bands in rock history with outrageous and overproduced shows due to Shep's controversial modus operandi: breaking rules to attrack the press for publicity and make parents hate Alice Cooper. His motto: "Create history, don't wait for it to happen" (8), really worked for him and his clients. He helped out old Groucho Marx with his financial problems in chapter six, and certaintly made history by getting Salvador Dalí create his First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper's Brain as he explains in chapter eight. After since, he challenged himself promoting other artists. [End Page 313] Chapter twelve presents a turning point in his life journey after meeting the French chef Roger Vergé, a "serene pool of light" (158), who he truly admired. Shep just wanted to hang out with him but in his first attempt, he was suggested to go to cooking school, and so he did. Later, he followed Vergé to Bangkok to help him cook. It was there where he realized that …, true bliss was service to others and perfecting compassion" (163). Shep, of course, in exchange of his quality time spent with him, promoted his cooking skills with many other celebrities who became Vergés' fans and guests right away. Shep continued to manage a long list of musical artists such as Teddy Pendergrass, The Gypsy Kings, among others, and became very involved in Cannes. Shep even dated actress Sharon Stone, and it was through her that he learned more about Dalai Lama, who was later his guest in Hawaii. As a sociologist, Shep would always study the crowds around him. He helped many people in different ways, especially financially when needed. Although he would avoid getting too emotionally attachted to anybody, his gentle and sincere gesture taking care of Mia's kids—his ex Winona's daughter who died in a car accident—demonstrate how Shep was not like the typical Hollywood greedy manager. My favourite part starts with chapter eighteen, when Shep realizes that people were taking advantage of Vergé's kindness. The star chef was not getting paid for anything, and was not even allowed to eat in the dining room of the hotel where he cooked (240). The way chefs were treated deeply disappointed Shep. After a meeting with thirty-five notorious chefs, he was asked to manage them as he did with Alice Cooper. It was then when he opened his agency: "ACR, Alive...

Film stardom, gender, and philanthropy: Sharon Stone at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates

On 23 October 2013, Sharon Stone stepped onto the stage of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, Poland. It was the penultimate ceremony of the 13th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and the star was in...

The Homme Fatal and the Subversion of Suspicion in <i>Mr Brooks</i> and <i>The Killer Inside Me</i>

The Homme Fatal and the Subversion of Suspicion in <i>Mr Brooks</i> and <i>The Killer Inside Me</i>

A Trilogy of Unfortunate Events in China

In this paper, the authors address three recent organizational crises that have occurred in China; the SK-II cosmetic incident, the Sharon Stone comment on the May 2008 earthquake in China, and the melamine milk contamination crisis. Each held significant notoriety due to the crises involving major companies and an assortment of negative outcomes. After presenting an overview of each case, the authors outline their reflections on the management of these crises in relation to their cultural context.

Stardom and Sharon Stone: Power as Masquerade

This article illustrates the ways in which review media presented both the construction and the evolution of Sharon Stone’s public persona. I will draw on a wide range of film reviews and feature articles that cross media forms of quality and distinction in order to suggest that Sharon Stone’s public ‘personality’ is a carefully considered set of multiple masquerades that are created and re-created for the purposes of media attention. I am not interested in locating the true Sharon Stone behind the shifting star persona, but rather, I am interested in the ways in which review journalism worked to circulate this particular star image for Hollywood and its surrounding channels of discourse.

Unforgiven: The Elusive Essence of Violence

Our films preserve a record of popular beliefs about the sources of human violence, yet sometimes explain their characters' actions with theories of violence that have been challenged or discarded as untenable. The 1992 film, Basic Instinct, in its title and in its characters' actions embraces Freud's concept of an instinctual link between sexual desire and aggressive violence. In the film the two merge, as in the bedroom scenes between Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, where boundaries between sex and violence blur, or, in the opening scene in which a retired rock star's sexual climax converges with Stone's character murdering him with an ice pick (placing a phallic image side by side with a phallus). Violence, this film tells us, has as its source the same instinctual well as sexual desire.

Letter

The Stroke Association is concerned that people reading reports claiming Sharon Stone's stroke was caused by her intense fitness routine might be put off or even stop exercising themselves.

Minerva: May 2001

John Travolta, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Sharon Stone have all played a string of characters whose on.screen charisma depends on smoking. US tobacco researchers single them out as the most likely stars out of a group of 43 to encourage smoking among school children (Tobacco Control 2001;10:16.22). Children who nominated any of them as a favourite star were more at risk of becoming smokers than others who chose the image of non.smoking idols such as Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, or Sandra Bullock. Medical graduates in Australasia can train to be ophthalmologists in about four years. Medical graduates in the United Kingdom usually take about eight years-why? Are they overtrained? An ophthalmologist from Britain's flagship eye hospital stops short of admitting it, but suggests that if specialty leaders want Britain to fall in line with the rest of the world, basic surgical training could be the first victim (British Journal of Ophthalmology 2001;85:383.4). Most trainees spend three years as a senior house officer in unrelated surgical specialties before their ophthalmology training gets under way. Another paper on trainees in the United Kingdom, this time in cardiothoracic surgery, looks at the effect of training on …

Favourite movie stars, their tobacco use in contemporary movies, and its association with adolescent smoking

OBJECTIVETo assess the relation between adolescents' favourite movie stars, the portrayal of tobacco use by those stars in contemporary motion pictures, and adolescent smoking.DESIGN AND SETTING632 students (sixth to 12th...

Swashbucklers and Brainy Babes?

In his essay “Ritual abuse, hot air, and missed opportunities” (Essays on Science and Society, Science 's Compass, 5 Mar. p. [1461][1]), Michael Crichton criticizes my article “Script doctors” in The Sciences ([1][2]) for emphasizing “negative rather than positive images, a perennial exercise in self-flagellation, what I call ritual abuse.” ![Figure][3] Scientists Sam Neill and Laura Dern in Jurassic Park CREDIT: ARCHIVE PHOTOS Actually, “Script doctors” is a balanced look at how movies have always portrayed scientists; while it considers prototypically mad or overreaching scientists, it also discusses heroic ones, from swashbucklers to the wise Professor Barnhardt of The Day the Earth Stood Still, from Madam Curie to the admirable scientists of Crichton's own The Andromeda Strain— whom I describe as “pretty normal people who, in this case, manage to save the world.” Some of Crichton's comments are inaccurate or based on misinterpretation. For instance, he asks why I single out Sharon Stone's character in Sphere, instead of discussing any of the three males, since “[e]verybody in Sphere is a scientist.” But I specifically identify her as a new type of Hollywood scientist, “the brainy babe”—a category for which the three men do not readily qualify. Similarly, when he dismisses Re-Animator as “a movie no one has ever seen,” he is apparently unaware that this movie has spawned two follow-up films. Although he writes that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde “isn't about science, it's about the dual nature of man,” it is certainly about both. A constantly reiterated theme in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the danger of a brilliant scientist overreaching himself; in the 1932 version, Jekyll, speaking to God, says, “I have trespassed on your domain. I have gone further than man should go.” Crichton's “proof” that movie images do not “reflect society in some way,” is that “[f]ifty years ago, movies were characterized by strong women—Crawford and Stanwyck and Bette Davis. Women of intelligence and substance, women to be reckoned with. Since then…the movies have portrayed women primarily as giggling idiots or prostitutes.” The truth, of course, is that there were plenty of giggling idiots and prostitutes in the old movies, and to state that today's films do not have their share of “strong women…to be reckoned with,” would likely be unwelcome news to Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, Barbra Streisand, and a number of others, including Sharon Stone. Crichton says of my essay that “The implication is that scientists are singled out for negative portrayals, and that the public is therefore deceived in some way we should worry about. I say, that's nonsense.” That is indeed nonsense, but it isn't what I wrote. I thoroughly agree that accurate portrayals rarely have much to do with a commercial film. But I hardly think the public is “deceived,” since the subject of my essay was not the appearance of actuality, but rather how movies portray scientists in ways that reflect the hopes and fears of the audience. It's not a question of deception, but of reflection. Crichton's statement that “[a]ll professions look bad in the movies…doctors are all uncaring…All cops are psychopaths, and all businessmen are crooks” is not only nonsense (there are countless heroic cops and caring doctors onscreen); ironically, his own films contradict that assertion. His doctor in The Andromeda Strain is compassionate and heroic; his businessman in Jurassic Park is, as Richard Nixon might have said, not a crook. Crichton insists that “Scientific work is often an extended search. But movies can't sustain a search,” when The Andromeda Strain makes thrilling a scientific search that lasts the length of the film. A deeper irony is this: in generalizing about movies, Crichton seems to be dismissing their relevance, even as he accuses film columnists of demonizing scientists. But his own cinematic contributions attest that while films do not reflect reality, they do reflect our psychic aspirations and terrors and that, in doing so, they should not be devalued or ignored, any more than they should be presented as literally true. Any art form that has people of Crichton's caliber working in it should be taken a lot more seriously than he himself seems inclined to take it. 1. [↵][4]1. M. Z. Ribalow ,The Sciences (November/December 1998), pp. 26–31. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.283.5407.1461 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: pending:yes [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text

A Red Light Sabre to Go, and Other Histories of the Present

A Red Light Sabre to Go, and Other Histories of the Present

Outing Whiteness: A Feminist/Lesbian Project

On their way to perform in the Miss Make Believe Contest-a benefit for a neighboring theatre-two of the WOW Cafe's Five Lesbian Brothers, Maureen Angelos and Peg Healey, talk about what to do for the talent section of the contest. Three of the troupe's performers bowed out at the last minute leaving Angelos and Healey without a repertoire to draw on; there are no duets in this quintet. They decide to do something related to the film Basic Instinct, since it had recently opened in New York and debates were raging in the press and on the street over Sharon Stone's portrayal of an ostensibly lesbian character. Later, as the emcee introduces two of the Five Lesbian Brothers, Angelos and Healey walk slowly and purposefully on stage. Drawing deeply and excessively on lit cigarettes hanging from the corners of their mouths, they drop a block of ice on the stage, reach in their back pockets for ice picks, and throw themselves on the block, ravaging it. As the ice is decimated, smoke billowing, wave upon wave of squeals and laughter rise and fall as the metaphoric potential is realized and drained from the image.