My date with a "junket whore"
It's a strange and powerful feeling to know that you can cause shame in another person.
I just got back from vacation (including a short trip to Disneyland that I will discuss in more detail in my Sunday column) and found that I had shamed my old friend and colleague, Eric Snider, into telling a lie.
A week ago today, just before going on vacation, I flew to Seattle for a one-day mini-junket for the movie "World Trade Center." I sat in a roundtable interview with Oliver Stone, and had one-on-one interviews with actors Michael Pena and Maggie Gyllenhaal - as well as with the people Pena and Gyllenhaal play in the movie, former Port Authority Police officer Will Jimeno (who survived being trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001) and his wife Allison. (Look for that story in the Tribune on Aug. 6.)
I flew in Thursday morning, flew back Thursday evening, and all on the Trib's dime. Movie studios would happily pay to fly me around, put me up in a nice hotel, wine and dine me - but that would violate the Tribune's ethics rules, and frankly I wouldn't feel good about it, either.
Before the interviews began, I ran into Eric - formerly the movie critic at the Daily Herald in Provo, and now working in Portland, Ore. Snider told me he had driven up from Portland to Seattle for the junket, and we caught up on Utah gossip.
Now here's the thing: Eric lied to me, and admitted as much when he e-mailed me a few days later. He had flown in the night before, and stayed at the swanky new hotel where the interviews took place - all at Paramount Pictures' expense.
The good news is that Eric's intentions are pure: he decided to go on the trip so he could write about the process, which he does hilariously in this article, "I Was a Junket Whore." The better news is that Eric still has the capacity to feel shame about being bought off by a movie studio - something many "junket whores" long ago lost.
I just got back from vacation (including a short trip to Disneyland that I will discuss in more detail in my Sunday column) and found that I had shamed my old friend and colleague, Eric Snider, into telling a lie.
A week ago today, just before going on vacation, I flew to Seattle for a one-day mini-junket for the movie "World Trade Center." I sat in a roundtable interview with Oliver Stone, and had one-on-one interviews with actors Michael Pena and Maggie Gyllenhaal - as well as with the people Pena and Gyllenhaal play in the movie, former Port Authority Police officer Will Jimeno (who survived being trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001) and his wife Allison. (Look for that story in the Tribune on Aug. 6.)
I flew in Thursday morning, flew back Thursday evening, and all on the Trib's dime. Movie studios would happily pay to fly me around, put me up in a nice hotel, wine and dine me - but that would violate the Tribune's ethics rules, and frankly I wouldn't feel good about it, either.
Before the interviews began, I ran into Eric - formerly the movie critic at the Daily Herald in Provo, and now working in Portland, Ore. Snider told me he had driven up from Portland to Seattle for the junket, and we caught up on Utah gossip.
Now here's the thing: Eric lied to me, and admitted as much when he e-mailed me a few days later. He had flown in the night before, and stayed at the swanky new hotel where the interviews took place - all at Paramount Pictures' expense.
The good news is that Eric's intentions are pure: he decided to go on the trip so he could write about the process, which he does hilariously in this article, "I Was a Junket Whore." The better news is that Eric still has the capacity to feel shame about being bought off by a movie studio - something many "junket whores" long ago lost.
10:47 AM
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