Photo: Getty Images
Just How Abrasive Is Former New Line Head Bob Shaye?
Today’s L.A. Times offers a hearty farewell to Bob Shaye, the deposed head of New Line Cinema, and turns it into an elegy for the old-style Hollywood exec — the tanned, speaks-his-mind, rumpled-shirt-wearing iconoclast who doesn’t take no shit, not even from the corporate parents. Such an “entrepreneur” needs to be pretty hardheaded to make it in the world, and we’ve heard many a story about Shaye’s belligerence. The Times takes pains to underplay his abrasive personality, but you might not know just how much they’re underplaying it until you read this hilarious clause, which leads into a description of how Shaye alienated many of the filmmakers who worked for him, and which might never have been typed before in the history of the world:
“Never blessed with the glad-handing skills of Harvey Weinstein…”
We’re trying to think of an analogue here.
“Never blessed with the cannon throwing arm of Ty Detmer…”
“Never blessed with the shrewd fashion sense of Bai Ling…”
“Never blessed with the squeaky-clean reputation of Eliot Spitzer…”
Nah, these fall short. Give us your suggestions in the comments!
Hollywood’s endangered entrepreneurs [LAT]
Note: “On the other hand, Harvey optioned Wolf Boy, so he’s okay in our book!”
Just How Abrasive Is Former New Line Head Bob Shaye?
