Emma McKee | Showbiz Cheat Sheet Writer

Dolly Parton Was ‘Livid’ After a Reporter Wished She ‘Had a Cocaine Stash Somewhere’

Emma McKee — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 21:39:00 +0000

Dolly Parton has charmed many reporters over the course of her career. The singer is professional, full of stories, and quick to crack a joke, making her a solid interview subject. While Parton said she generally values her relationship with the press, there are certain interviews that have bothered her. One reporter made her particularly angry with just a sentence.

Dolly Parton did not appreciate what 1 reporter wrote about her

As Parton’s fan base grew throughout the 1970s, she gave more interviews to sources outside the country music sphere in Nashville. Some reporters, upon hearing her accent, tried to stylize it in the text of the interview. Parton couldn’t stand seeing this.

“A horrendous writer in Green Bay tried to write a negative piece, but it didn’t come off,” reporter Dave Hershey said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “The woman quoted Dolly as saying ‘Ah’ for ‘I,’ and Dolly got a little rankled at that. She said, ‘She tried to make me sound like a country bumpkin.’”

Dolly Parton | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

There was another part of the article that angered Parton even more. It affected her for the rest of the day.

“But there was a line in the story that really angered her,” Hershey said. “The woman wrote, ‘Dolly Parton is so sweet you’d almost hope she had a cocaine stash somewhere.’ My wife showed the piece to her, and she was livid for the rest of the day. This was nothing except a woman trying to be clever at Dolly’s expense, but Dolly said, ‘This is the nastiest thing anybody’s written about me in quite a while.’ The day after, she seemed really down and wouldn’t do any interviews — just the fact that it was not a rave.”

She knew the value of a good interview

Hershey said he could tell that Parton knew exactly how valuable interviews were to her career.

“What’s amazing to me is that she knows every magazine in the country and what they mean to her,” he said. “Our circulation is three million, and I got a two hour interview.”

Hershey’s wife worked for a magazine with a larger audience. Parton gave her a more extensive interview because she wanted to reach those readers.

“My wife is a senior editor at Family Circle, and its circulation is nine million,” Hershey said. “She got a four-hour interview. Dolly knows Family Circle is the heartland, she’s got her hard-core fans out there.”

Dolly Parton frustrated a reporter with her repetition

Because both Hershey and his wife interviewed Parton, he was able to clearly see the way she recycled anecdotes with different outlets. This was a bit frustrating for him.

“Dolly knew we were married, or maybe she forgot, but she knew we were traveling together, and she repeated the same anecdotes to us as if they were fresh,” Hershey said. “She’s really got the lines down. That’s what disturbs me more than anything. I went out there, thought I got really good stuff, and then came back and read the clips and got a little depressed, because most of the anecdotes were in the clips.”

Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again” | Donaldson Collection/Getty Images

He said he was thrilled to have gotten one line that seemed new, only to realize Parton said it to Nash a year prior.

“She gave me one great quote — she said, ‘I can’t run or jog, ‘cause I’d black both my eyes,’ and my friend at Rolling Stone who does Random Notes was all excited about it,” Hershey recalled. “He said, ‘Jesus, what a great quote. Can I have it?’ I said, ‘No, it’s one of the few things I have that I haven’t read in the clips.’ And then I found out she’d given it to you a year and a half ago. I was sick. She’s got like twenty lines that she just keeps trotting out every so often, and it’s very calculated. Occasionally, she’ll slip and give you something different, but very rarely.”

As a result, Hershey came to view Parton’s public image as a calculated act.

Jennifer Lopez Said 1 Movie Would’ve Been ‘Very Different’ if She and Sean Penn Were Single on Set

Emma McKee — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 21:19:00 +0000

In 1997, Jennifer Lopez and Sean Penn starred in U-Turn, an Oliver Stone thriller. Lopez expressed her pride at working with an actor of Penn’s caliber and said they got along well on set. So well, in fact, that she might have pursued a romantic connection with him had they not been in other relationships.

Jennifer Lopez said she would have had a ‘thing’ with Sean Penn in a different universe

When Lopez filmed U-Turn, she was engaged to her first husband, Ojani Noa. Penn was married to his second wife, actor Robin Wright. Still, both actors felt chemistry between them. When asked which of her co-stars she would have had a “thing” with in a parallel universe, Lopez named Penn.

“Should I get myself in trouble with my husband?” she asked Movieline in 1998. “OK, in a parallel universe, Sean.”

Ojani Noa and Jennifer Lopez | SGranitz/WireImage

She said that she and Penn even discussed this on set. She believed they would have had a very different experience working together if they had both been single.

“I was engaged when we were shooting U-Turn, and one day he said, ‘If I weren’t married and you weren’t engaged, would this have been a very different movie?’ And I go, ‘Yeah! Very different,’” she recalled. “So we kind of … well, we both had our own lives, so that made a real difference.”

Jennifer Lopez was proud to have worked with Sean Penn

Lopez said she was proud to work with someone like Penn. She believed that he respected her too.

“He has a lot of strength and we got along great, actually,” she said. “He could tell right away I wasn’t intimidated to be there with him and Oliver.”

She said that working on U-Turn felt like a major accomplishment because of the talent of her co-stars.

“Working with Sean and Nick Nolte, too, who is a truly amazing, great actor whom I respect so much — that was top of the line,” she said. “I could never work with better actors.”

Though Lopez felt proud to have worked on the film with these actors, U-Turn received tepid reviews, even landing on some worst-of-the-year lists.

She spoke dismissively about his ex-wife

In the same interview in which Lopez spoke glowingly about Penn, she shared some dismissive remarks about his ex-wife, Madonna. Penn and Madonna were married between 1985 and 1989. Lopez said that while she could admire her as a performer, she found it vaguely insulting that Madonna would call herself an actor.

Jennifer Lopez | Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

“Do I think she’s a great performer? Yeah. Do I think she’s a great actress? No,” Lopez said. “Acting is what I do, so I’m harder on people when they say, ‘Oh, I can do that — I can act.’ I’m like, ‘Hey, don’t spit on my craft.'”

Her comments about Madonna and some of her other contemporaries, like Salma Hayek and Gwyneth Paltrow, generated some controversy. Lopez insisted that her remarks had been taken out of context.

Jennifer Lopez Bragged About Taking a Role ‘Right Out From Under’ Sandra Bullock

Emma McKee — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 19:22:00 +0000

When Jennifer Lopez was a rising star in Hollywood, she spoke of her eagerness to get her hands on any kind of role. She saw herself as one of the better actors of the era and said she was willing to work hard to prove this. She also didn’t mind taking roles that other people wanted. Lopez said she got a part that would have gone to Sandra Bullock because she was willing to do more for it.

Jennifer Lopez fought for a role that had been offered to Sandra Bullock

Throughout the 1990s, Lopez’s star continued to rise, making her one of the biggest names in Hollywood. She said she would never coast on her success, no matter how big she became. She was willing to take parts from anyone who wasn’t as relentless.

“I have this attitude — and it won’t change no matter how big I get — that you have to fight for things you want,” Lopez told Movieline when discussing how she got her part in Out of Sight. “You can’t expect things to be handed to you on a platter, even if you can fill theaters week in and week out. Because there’s always somebody like me ready to kick down the door and steal the job right out from under you.”

Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney | Ke.Mazur/WireImage

The person she stole the job from was Bullock. George Clooney, who starred in the film, wanted to screen test with his potential co-star. Bullock refused, giving Lopez space to take the part.

“One of the smart things George did was to screen-test everybody because he knew he’d had trouble with the women in his movies, where maybe there wasn’t as much chemistry as there could have been,” Lopez explained. “Universal was pushing for Sandra Bullock because they said she’d put people in seats. George and the director met with her, but they were like, ‘If Sandra really wants it, she’s gonna have to test for it.’ She wouldn’t test, and her agent, who is also my agent, supported that. If I was Sandy, I’d say, ‘Well, I’m gonna show them that I can do it. I’ll read with them, make them offer me the part, then make them pay out the a**.’”

She said she also had to fight for higher pay in the film

Lopez didn’t stop advocating for herself, even after she officially landed the part. She said she had to work hard for a paycheck she felt was acceptable, even if it was far less than what Clooney received.

“I think George Clooney’s getting $10 million for this movie. [Universal] thought they were going to get me cheap from the beginning, but I kept telling my agent, ‘No, no, no! Keep asking!’” she said. “When my agent called me saying, ‘What should we say to them?’ I said, ‘Say, Who’s going to break their a** to promote this movie while George is on ER? Say, Anaconda is now over $100 million worldwide and why do you think girls between 18 and 25 went to see it more than any other action movies — because of Ice Cube?’”

She said she wouldn’t let up until industry higher-ups paid her what she deserved.

“I don’t take it personally, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight for what I feel,” she said. “We are looking at the long run, they’re not. Eventually, they’re going to pay. People don’t believe it yet, but right now I’m very underpaid.”

Jennifer Lopez believed she could do nearly any kind of role

Lopez said that part of the reason for her success was her fearlessness. She was willing to fight for parts and take on roles that others might shy away from.

“I’m the best,” Lopez said. “I feel I can do anything — any kind of role. I’m fearless.”

Jennifer Lopez | Emma McIntyre/WireImage

She said her confidence never wavered.

“I work really hard,” she said. “I’ll just get better as I go along because I’m open to getting better. If you have the goods, there’s nothing to be afraid of. If somebody doesn’t have the goods, they’re insecure. I don’t have that problem. I’m not the best actress that ever lived, but I know I’m pretty good.”

Dolly Parton’s Guitarist Said the Character of Dolly Parton Had ‘Overtaken’ Her

Emma McKee — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 22:55:00 +0000

Dolly Parton said she created a character to present to the public when she became famous. Her hair, makeup, and clothing present an image that she said was different from her true self. While Parton believed she and the character she presented were one and the same, her guitarist thought she let the persona overtake her true self.

Dolly Parton said she created a character for herself when she became famous

Parton said she invented the character of Dolly Parton long before fame. It helped her rise to success in the music industry. She said she is proud of what she created.

Dolly Parton | David Redfern/Redferns

“A character never grows old. A character lives forever, just like Mae West, like Zsa Zsa Gabor, Liberace,” she said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I guess I am a character. In more ways than just by look. I guess I’m a character only because I’m just totally what I am. I’m not afraid to be that and say what I want to, and just do what I want to.”

She said she treated the character like a ventriloquist does a dummy.

Dolly Parton’s guitarist believed that character overtook her real self

Parton said it was fine that she and her character became one in the same, her guitarist, Don Roth, had some concerns. Roth worked with other stars who were able to drop their persona offstage. He said Parton never did this.

“They come backstage, and they’re just regular people. They’ll offer you a beer. But Dolly is always Dolly,” Roth said. “I’ve never seen her without her wig, without her makeup. After we got close, I asked her why. She said, ‘It’s my opinion the reason I’m so successful is that the masses expect to see Dolly Parton sparkle and shine, and I don’t want them to ever not see that.’”

He worried that people were unable to get close to her because she didn’t present her true self. Roth certainly felt that Parton kept him at a distance.

“And even though I was a member of the band, I was closer to being the masses than I was to being a friend,” he said. “I don’t know if there is a character other than the spangles and sequins. If there is, it’s buried really deep. I don’t know that it’s an act at all, because the character has overtaken her.”

A reporter didn’t think Parton’s personality could all be an act

While Roth said he wasn’t sure there was anything beneath Parton’s shiny public-facing mask, others thought she presented her true self. Journalist Joan Dew didn’t think it was possible for Parton to completely conceal herself.

Dolly Parton | Paul Natkin/Getty Images

“You’ve heard all these stories about her marriage being an arrangement, and you’ve heard that she is so ambitious that nothing stands in her way,” she said. “And then you spend an hour with her, and she shines those big blue eyes on you, and that soft, little-girl voice, and she’s sweet. There’s a sweetness, an innocence about her, that can’t be all phony. Unless she’s the world’s greatest actress.”

Dew said she never doubted Parton’s sincerity.

Dolly Parton Was ‘Afraid to Appear Human,’ Said 1 Interviewer

Emma McKee — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 19:40:47 +0000

Dolly Parton has spent her career cracking jokes at her own expense and telling stories of her humble beginnings in Tennessee. It’s worked well for her, as she has maintained the support of her dedicated fan base for years. In the 1970s, though, one reporter said Parton didn’t seem to want to be human.

Dolly Parton seemed afraid to be human

When Parton crossed over to the pop charts and became more of a mainstream celebrity, many people didn’t seem to know what to do with her. She wore exaggerated outfits, wigs, and makeup and cracked jokes about herself, but she was clearly a talented artist. Journalists began publishing pieces to see if she was really the way she presented herself. Dave Hershey of the New York Daily News did not believe she was fully genuine.

“I was sent down to do the ‘Dolly Parton — Is She For Real?’ story— what’s behind the cornpone charm,” he said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “And it’s a very well-cultivated act, I think. I tried to catch her at odd moments when she wasn’t hooked into her stage persona, but she always seems to be on. She’s just a very, very charming person, and you can’t catch her with her guard down. I’ve done a lot of big-time celebrities in the last year and a half, but she is as tough to catch off-guard as anybody.”

Dolly Parton | Richard McCaffrey/ Michael Ochs Archive/ Getty Images

Hershey said Parton dodged questions about her childhood, which made him believe she wasn’t genuine.

“She’s very guarded about her childhood. Everytime I would say, ‘It sounds like you had a miserable childhood,’ she would say, ‘Oh, no, no, it was really quite happy, joyful. I’m not like Loretta Lynn. I’ve had a very happy life,’” he said. “She’s afraid to appear human, and that’s sad. It’s just a matter of time before people see through it. I went out there totally objective, and I could tell it was an act the whole time.”

Parton has spoken frequently about her childhood over the years. She has said that while the family was poor, they were happy.

Another journalist believed she was genuine

Though Hershey believed Parton wasn’t the real deal, other journalists didn’t think it was all an act. Journalist Joan Dew thought Parton would have to be the greatest actor in the world to completely conceal her true self.

“She can convince me of anything in an interview,” Dew said. “You’ve heard all these stories about her marriage being an arrangement, and you’ve heard that she is so ambitious that nothing stands in her way. And then you spend an hour with her, and she shines those big blue eyes on you, and that soft, little-girl voice, and she’s sweet. There’s a sweetness, an innocence about her, that can’t be all phony. Unless she’s the world’s greatest actress.”

Dew believed that all the glowing interviews of Parton backed up her belief.

“Have you ever read a cynical, bitter interview with Dolly Parton? An interview where the reporter doubted in print her sincerity?” Dew asked. “Never. And you probably never will. Did you read the Rolling Stone interview? Now, you know how cynical they are. The guy was eating out of her hand!”

Dolly Parton said she created a persona for herself when she became famous

Parton said she tries to present herself truthfully to the public, but she admitted she created a persona when she rose to fame.

Dolly Parton | Richard McCaffrey/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

“I look one way and am another. It makes for a good combination,” she said, per the book Dolly on Dolly, adding, “I always think of ‘her,’ the Dolly image, like a ventriloquist does his dummy. I have fun with it. I think, what will I do with her this year to surprise people? What’ll she wear? What’ll she say?”

A number of celebrities have said they do the same thing in order to manage fame.

Jennifer Lopez Called 1 of Her Co-Stars an ‘A**hole’: ‘It’s Time for the Truth to Come Out’

Emma McKee — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 18:49:00 +0000

Jennifer Lopez has gotten along well with many of her co-stars over the years, but she said there was one actor she just didn’t like. When Lopez worked on the 1995 film Money Train, she said both Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes flirted with her. While she brushed off Harrelson’s advances, she said Snipes was more demanding. She did not appreciate the way he treated her.

Jennifer Lopez found 1 of her co-stars very unpleasant to work with

In 1995, Lopez starred in Money Train with Snipes. She had a boyfriend at the time, but she said he still pursued her relentlessly.

“Wesley — even though I had a boyfriend at the time — went full court press,” she told Movieline in 1998. “He was flirting with me — you always flirt with your costars, it’s harmless — then he just started getting a little more serious. He would invite us all out together and then at the end of the night, he’d drop me off last and try to kiss me. I’d be like, ‘Wesley, please, I’m not interested in you like that.’ He got really upset about it.”

Jennifer Lopez and Wesley Snipes | Tom Wargacki/WireImage

She said Snipes did not handle the rejection well, which lowered her opinion of him.

“His ego was totally bruised. He wouldn’t talk to me for two months,” she said. “I was like, ‘What an a**hole.’ Actors are used to getting their way and to treating women like objects. They’re so used to hearing the word ‘Yes.’ Now, I suppose Wesley will call me going, ‘You b****! How dare you? I didn’t like you.’ It’s time for the truth to come out!”

She did not like filming sex scenes with him

Lopez said she did not like shooting a sex scene with Snipes for the film.

“It was horrible,” she said, per Contact Music. “When you first start working professionally, you push the boundaries of what you should and shouldn’t do, and I didn’t think I had the right to say no, like, ‘No, I’m not doing this, and that’s it.’ So we did it, and it was tough.”

Still, she said Snipes was courteous to her when they shot the scene. He asked her how to make her more comfortable.

“Wesley was wonderful about it in the sense that he was like, ‘What’s gonna make you more comfortable?’ and I was like, ‘Bring music, play it loud.'”

Jennifer Lopez said her other co-star in the film flirted with her

Harrelson also acted in the film and, like Snipes, flirted with Lopez behind the scenes.

Woody Harrelson and Jennifer Lopez | Ke.Mazur/WireImage

“Woody was more playful, but if I’d have gone for it, he totally would have,” she said. “I’d say, ‘Hey, Woody, how are you doing?’ He’d, like, stick out his tongue and flick it at me very nasty. He was really funny about it.”

She said that Snipes and Harrelson tied at making the “clumsiest pass” at her out of all her co-stars.

Dolly Parton Didn’t Think Anyone Would Like Her if She Showed Her True Self

Emma McKee — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 12:56:00 +0000

Dolly Parton has admitted that her public persona is at least partially a character she created. She dresses and styles herself in an exaggerated manner and relies on a cycle of jokes and anecdotes to get through interviews. In the early days of her career, friends said Parton was too afraid to show the public her true self. She feared people wouldn’t like what they saw.

Dolly Parton didn’t think people would like her true self

In order to manage fame, Parton said she created the character of Dolly Parton.

Dolly Parton | Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

Parton’s friend said this was all an attempt to get people to like her. She didn’t believe her fans would appreciate her as she was, so she created a character to appeal to them.

“I think the most important thing in Dolly’s life is that people like her,” a friend told Alanna Nash in the book Dolly. “Because it’s real obvious that she does not think they do. She once told me, ‘If I showed myself just like I was, nobody would like me. No one would think that I was a star.’”

Dolly Parton’s friend thought she had a low self-image

Parton’s friend believed the singer liked glowing attention, which was why she enjoyed spending time around men.

“This woman has been put down quite a lot, but I think most of the putdown came when she was a kid,” her friend said. “I think she gets along better with men than she does with women because she likes to be courted. She likes somebody being overwhelmed by her. Maybe she has this dream of being able to dangle fifty men on a string. Since Dolly’s whole life is fantasy anyway, maybe she sees herself as having all these men who really, really love her and think she’s beautiful, and she can be a capricious b****. No matter how she treats them, they’ll like her anyhow.”

The friend claimed Parton had low confidence and relied on positive attention.

“With Dolly, she wants you to love her, but maybe she doesn’t want to have to give it back,” they said. “She really enjoys the adulation. It helps her. She has a poor self-image. Dolly doesn’t think she’s pretty. If she did, she wouldn’t wear wigs and rhinestones. People making over her is enjoyable to her.”

She shared how she built her character

Parton said that when she’s at home, she’ll wear more casual clothing and go without her towering wigs. In public, though, she sticks to her uniform of sparkling costumes and heavy makeup. She said that she built this image based on a woman in her hometown.

Dolly Parton | Paul Natkin/Getty Images

“My own overexaggerated look came from a serious place I’ve often spoken about: the town tramp in our little country hometown,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “They called her trash, but to me she was absolutely beautiful. She wore colorful patchwork skirts and pretty blouses and showed a little cleavage and had red nails and piled-up blond hair and red lipstick and high heels. She was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. When everybody would say, ‘Oh, she’s just trash,’ I’d say, ‘Well, trash is what I’m going to grow up to be.’ And I guess my look is glamorous trash!”

Parton has stuck with this look for much of her career.

Dolly Parton Was ‘Hypersensitive’ to Any Kind of Criticism

Emma McKee — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 23:36:00 +0000

Dolly Parton is a widely beloved celebrity, but she still deals with criticism. Over the years, Parton’s music, acting, appearance, and personality have been picked apart. While she has said she appreciates publicity no matter where it comes from, those who knew her said any kind of critique used to send her spiraling.

Dolly Parton was sensitive to criticism in the early days of her career

Writer Alanna Nash spent time with Parton while putting together her book Dolly. In their time together, Nash said she “heard [Parton] tell reporters how much she disliked their stories, how they embarrassed her in print, and how, as a result, she and the reporter could never be friends, since she didn’t trust him anymore.” She found Parton to be “hypersensitive” to any kind of criticism. Others who knew Parton agreed.

“She couldn’t even understand if you wanted to sit next to someone else on the bus,” her guitarist, Don Roth, said.

Dolly Parton | Paul Natkin/Getty Images

Her friends said negative coverage could completely ruin Parton’s day.

“A horrendous writer in Green Bay tried to write a negative piece, but it didn’t come off,” reporter Dave Hershey said. “The woman quoted Dolly as saying ‘Ah’ for ‘I,’ and Dolly got a little rankled at that. She said, ‘She tried to make me sound like a country bumpkin.’”

The singer’s friend said she desperately wanted to be liked

One of Parton’s friends said the singer cared deeply about people liking her. The friend claimed Parton shaped her public image into a figure everyone could like. This could be why criticism stung so much.

“I think the most important thing in Dolly’s life is that people like her,” her friend said. “Because it’s real obvious that she does not think they do. She once told me, ‘If I showed myself just like I was, nobody would like me. No one would think that I was a star.’”

Her friend believed this stemmed from Parton’s low self-image.

Dolly Parton said there was only one kind of criticism that upset her

Parton said she got used to criticism the longer she was famous. She didn’t mind the coverage, understanding that it came with her job.

“I set myself up for a lot of it,” she told The Province. “I’m very famous for the boobs, and I certainly don’t do anything to hide them. That makes me appealing on a cover, especially now with this silicone scare. With the way I look, I’m going to be the one that they put on the cover and say those things about, whether it’s true or not.”

Dolly Parton | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Still, she said there was one type of coverage that would always bother her.

“The only time I do get a little concerned about what the tabloids say is when it involves an issue like this that’s so important to women,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know the difference between the real press and the tabs and they believe that I’m sick. When you’re a celebrity, you have millions of fans and you’re like a member of the family. They get afraid when you’re ill. They think you’re going to die and they don’t want to lose you.”

John Lennon’s Wife Shared Why He Always Had ‘the Edge’ Over Paul McCartney

Emma McKee — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 19:12:00 +0000

John Lennon and Paul McCartney spent years competing for control over The Beatles. While Lennon was initially the clear leader, McCartney took more and more control over the years. Cynthia Lennon, who watched The Beatles on their rise to success, believed Lennon never could have made it without McCartney. Still, she thought Lennon always had an edge over his bandmate.

Cynthia Lennon thought John Lennon had an edge over Paul McCartney

When McCartney first met Lennon, he looked up to him. Lennon was older and already in a band; at the time, he was everything McCartney wanted to be.

“In those days, Paul tried hard to impress John, posing and strutting with his hair slicked back to prove that he was cool, because John was very much the leader,” she wrote in her book John. “It was his band, and he had the final say about who got in and who didn’t, and what they played. Then, he was everything Paul wanted to be — laid-back, self-assured, and in charge. As the schoolboy he still was, Paul could only aspire to those things.”

Paul McCartney and John Lennon | CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

As they got to know each other, though, Lennon realized McCartney had a lot to offer and began to view him as an equal. Still, Cynthia believed her husband always had an edge over McCartney.

“As the two became closer, this changed,” she wrote. “John recognized Paul’s musical talent and that he could learn from him. Paul responded by becoming more confident and they came to share decisions and eventually ran the group together. But John, I suspect, always had the edge because he had formed the group, and neither of them forgot it.”

She thought her husband wouldn’t have made it without his bandmate

Cynthia may have believed that Lennon had more of an edge over McCartney in The Beatles, but she didn’t think Lennon would have been a success without his bandmate. She didn’t think Lennon had what it took to be a musician without him.

“He would have ended up a bum … It’s hard to say that now, after what happened, but he wouldn’t have cared that much,” she said in Lennon: The Definitive Biography by Ray Coleman. “I’d have gone out to work, he wouldn’t have any qualifications whatsoever because he was falling foul of the art college, and Mimi would have pushed him in all sorts of directions. He would have needed to learn a trade, or go back to school again, and I can’t see him concentrating. He’d have gone downhill.”

McCartney was always the Beatle who encouraged his bandmates to keep working.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney were very competitive

Though Cynthia believed Lennon had an edge over McCartney, he always felt as though he was in competition with his bandmate. Paul Simon witnessed the two of them together and said the competition between them was breathtaking.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney | Val Wilmer/Redferns

“You have no idea how competitive John Lennon was around Paul McCartney,” he said in the book Paul Simon: The Life by Robert Hilburn. “When I first met them, I felt like someone had taken all the oxygen out of the room. I almost couldn’t breathe, they were so competitive, and that’s what made them so great. They wouldn’t settle for just good. That was me, too.”

They continued to compete with one another after The Beatles broke up.

Jennifer Lopez Still Thought ‘Gigli’ Was ‘Genius’ After it Flopped

Emma McKee — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 16:47:00 +0000

Gigli has been one of the biggest failures of Jennifer Lopez’s career. It went over poorly with critics and general audiences alike. Still, Lopez didn’t let the negative reaction to the film change her opinion of it. She believed parts of it were “genius” and would eventually win audiences over.

Jennifer Lopez was still proud of ‘Gigli’ after its critical and financial failure

After Gigli’s release and box office failure, Lopez was asked how she felt about some of the film’s more ridiculed lines, such as “It’s turkey time-gobble, gobble.” She defended them.

“It’s genius! Look, I thought it was risky, but I also felt it was juicy,” she told W Magazine. “It was tough stuff to work with.”

She also felt that some of the criticism the film received was ridiculous. She didn’t understand how people could claim there was a lack of chemistry between herself and Affleck when they were falling in love behind the scenes.

“People are saying there was no chemistry,” she said. “That’s insane! There’s crazy chemistry! Look, I’m tougher on myself than any critic can ever be. The movie had places where it didn’t work, and that’s fine. Review that. But don’t just be an a** to be an a**, you know?”

She believed that the film would find an appreciative audience when it hit cable.

“I really think it will have a resurgence on cable!” she said. “Now people may look at me and say, ‘She’s totally off her f***ing rocker,’ but hey, that’s my theory.”

Jennifer Lopez believed her personal life led to ‘Gigli’ failing at the box office

Ahead of the film’s release, Lopez began to worry that her high-profile relationship with co-star Ben Affleck would cause problems for it.

“I kept warning my mom,” she said. “I said, ‘Mom, we’re gonna get killed.’”

She believed the film’s performance at the box office proved her right. People were consuming stories about her every day and didn’t want to go to the theater to see more of her.

“Literally, there’s someone shooting into my house with cameras,” she said. “I go out, and I’m going to be followed by six cars. All day long. You say to yourself, ‘It will pass. This is not who I really am.’ But you’re a person, and it hurts. But if you’re in the paper every damn day, people are like, ‘Who cares?’ And then nobody goes to see your movie! It’s like, ‘Why should we? We see her every day,’ and then you’re like, ‘Wait a minute! That’s the only reason I’m doing this!’”

Ben Affleck said the movie was never going to work

While Lopez continued to defend Gigli, Affleck didn’t think the movie worked. He agreed that his relationship with Lopez didn’t do much to help it, but he thought it had many problems beyond this.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez | Albert L. Ortega/WireImage

“[Gigli] didn’t work and we did five weeks of reshoots, which we knew were not gonna work,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It was a movie that didn’t work …”

Still, Affleck said he learned a great deal from his experience on the film.