Facebook | Geno Scala: Random Thoughts #38- Just Being "Random", I Guess!

Facebook Geno Scala: Random Thoughts #38- Just Being "Random", I Guess!

Facebook | Geno Scala: Screenwriting Update

Hi everyone! Over the next several months, you may want to keep you eyes and ears open for a couple of films that might be coming to your neighborhood in 2010, 2011, or 2012. These are scripts written by yours truly and have been receiving quite a bit of attention of late. "Junior Simple" is the story of the village "simpleton" who accidently becomes a multi-millionaire and helps his fellow townspeople save their farms. "Junior Simple- a man of simple values, simple means- who simply saves his town!".Also look for "Heart of a Man", the proposed sequel to "Scent of a Woman". This story catches us up on two of the most memroable characters in film from twenty years earlier- Colonel Slade and Charlie Simms. You may recall that Al Pacino won his last Oscar for his magnificent potrayal of Colonel Frank Slade from Bo Goldman's amazing, award winning script. "Heart of a Man" shows us that "In friendship, it's never too late to pick up where you left off!"My current script, being written for the ScyFy channel is called "Death Pool". It is the story of an alien shark-like beast who emerges from the ocean outside of San Diego, CA. This unique beast- part alligator, part shark, is visible in water, yet invisible when dry. It also is able to walk on land, creating havoc in the heavily-populated neighborhoods. You see, what makes this beast most deadly is that it feeds on people swimming in their own backyard pools! I hope this movie with do to pools what "Jaws" did to ocean swimming.See you at the movies!

Random Thoughts #37 (reprinted from unknown)- "Yes, We Noticed..."

President Obama: Mr. President, it's time we had a talk... During your campaign, Americans watched as you made mockery of ourtradition of standing and crossing your heart when the Pledge of Allegiancewas spoken. You, out of four people on the stage, were the only one nothonoring our tradition. YES, "We noticed." During one of your many speeches, Americans heard you say that you intendedto visit all 57 states. We all know that Islam, not America has 57 states. YES, "We noticed." When President Bush leaned over at Ground Zero and gently placed a floweron the memorial, while you nonchalantly tossed your flower onto the pilewithout leaning over. YES, "We noticed." Every time you apologized to other countries for America 's position on an issue we have wondered why you don't share our pride in this great country.When you have heard foreign leaders berate our country and our beliefs, you have not defended us. In fact, you insulted the Flag and the British Crown beyond belief. YES, "We noticed." When your pastor of 20 years, "God-damned America " and said that 9/11 was "America's chickens coming home to roost" and you denied having heard recriminations of that nature, we wondered how that could be. You later disassociated yourself from that church and Pastor Wright because it was politically expedient to do so. YES, "We noticed." When you announced that you would transform America , we wondered why. With all her faults, America is the greatest country on earth. Sir, KEEP THIS IN MIND, "if not for America and the people who built her, you wouldn't besitting in the White House now." Prior to your election to the highest office in this Country, you were a senator from Illinois and from what we can glean from the records available, not a very remarkable one. YES, "We noticed." All through your campaign and even now, you have surrounded yourself withindividuals who are basically unqualified for the positions for which youappointed them. Worse than that, the majority of them are people who, likeyou, bear no special allegiance, respect, or affection for this country andher traditions. YES, "We noticed." You are 9 months into your term and every morning millions of Americanswake up to a new horror heaped on us by you. You seek to saddle workingAmericans with a health care/insurance reform package that, along with capand trade, will bankrupt this nation. YES, "We noticed." We seek, by protesting, to let our representatives know that we are not in favor of these crippling expenditures and we are labeled"un-American","racist", "mob". We wonder how we are supposed to let you know how frustrated we are. You have attempted to make our protests seem isolated and insignificant. Until your appointment, Americans had the right to speak out. YES, "We noticed." On September 11, 2001 there were no Republicans or Democrats, onlyAmericans. And we all grieved together and helped each other in whateverway we could. The attack on 9/11 was carried out because we are Americans. And YES, "We noticed." There were many of us who prayed that as a black president you could help unite this nation. In six months you have done more to destroy this nation than the attack on 9/11. You have failed us. YES, "We noticed." September 11 is a day of remembrance for all Americans. You propose to make 9/11 a "National Service Day". While we know that you don't share our reverence for 9/11, we pray that history will report your proposal as what it is...a disgrace. YES, "We noticed." You have made a mockery of our Constitution and the office that you hold. You have embarrassed and slighted us in foreign visits and policy. YES, "We noticed.." We have noticed all these things. We will deal with you. When Americans come together again, it will be to remove you from office. Take notice.

Random Thoughts #35: "Reality T.V. Has Run Its Course, Don'cha Think?"

I think it is time for television executives to get their writers together and start creating new TV shows- non-reality shows, actually. While I am not a big fan of 1/2 hour comedies or hour-long hospital dramas, the market needs fresh shows, while at the same time we need to stop making "stars" out of classless, uneducated nobodies. I will admit, I may be the biggest reality show fan of everyone I know. I not only base my schedules around shows like "Survivor", three nights of "Idol", "Big Brother" and "Amazing Race", I've also engaged in guilty pleasures like "Real Housewives (fill in the blank)", "Top Chef", "Top Model", "Surreal House", "I'm a Celebrity- Get Me Outta Here!", the Kardashian and the Denise Richards "Our Lives Are a Slow-Motion Train Wrecks" series.I think I've watched at least one episode of every reality on every channel- HBO, MTV, VHS, TLC, TNT, TBS, etc. I've watched people win scream-acting roles for "Saw VI"; I've seen people lose 250 pounds in 12 weeks; I've seen one-bedroom lean-to's turned into Beverly Hills mansions, and I've seen ugly swans turned into uglier swans, only with bleached teeth, fake boobs and hair extensions. I swear, at times it feels like we've elected our President through a reality show premise; see which contestant can convince a larger number of people through lies, deceitful promises and fancy speeches and win the largest financial reward in the world- the opportunity to screw up one of the world's largest economies. The time has come for these reality shows because the damage is now outweighing any social good it may have claimed to have early on. Because they do not require acting skills whatsoever, the "stars" are just people who walked off their jobs in order to get their 15 minutes of fame. Many of them have no careers whatsoever, and only hope that the exposure gleaned from a show gives them an opportunity to bare it all for Hustler or Playboy. Nice career planning! That success might even lead to info-mercials, or better yet- porn! Many of the contestants have very little background investigations done, and as a result, two men who have been recent RS "stars" have been charged with murder. Many have lied to get on these shows- married people looking for love with Bret Michaels- while many still have ulterior motives in their pursuit, whether it is a screenplay, a novel, or just old-fashioned acting gigs. Most recently, we've endured that sick Colorado family whose sole purpose in life the last several years has been trying to get a reality show gig. To achieve this, the parents were willing to fake the possible death of their own son and then market the family's dysfunction. They instructed their children to lie to authorities including the police and F.B.I. in order to cover-up this fake balloon caper, and it affected the child so much, he threw up on national television. The only reason cretons like this family are even in the news is because of people like me who tune in to watch them eat cow testicles, or hold on to a tractor until they pass out, etc. I am through with them, and the studios should be looking to getting back to the paying skilled actors, who at least have dedicated some part of their life to the craft. Meanwhile, another hospital drama where their patients consist mostly of hospital staff members who at some point feel better enough to go to work, only to have more seizures until the doctor who was about to release the patient, suddenly realizes that they were mis-diagnosed now have some potentially fatal and contagious disease. Happens every show.

Random Thoughts: Letterman Threw Spitballs From His Own Glass House (reprinted)

Turns out David Letterman doesn't just live on a TV show. He also lives in a glass house, where for years he's hurled comedy zingers at misbehaving politicians, even as he brashly engaged in hanky-panky of his own. In March 2008, Letterman was taking potshots at Eliot Spitzer, then governor of New York, who was embroiled in an investigation into a high-end prostitution ring. "It's so sunny and bright outside that, earlier today, Eliot Spitzer came out of a brothel squinting," Letterman cracked in a monologue. But in Spitzer's case, he didn't stop at lampooning. During an indignant rant, he called for the scandalized governor to step down. "I mean, can you imagine," said Letterman, "if this happened to me how fast they'd have my ... (backside) out of here?" Unlike Spitzer, who resigned, Letterman seems secure in his job as host of CBS' "Late Show," nearly a week after his bombshell revelations of having had sex with women on his staff (a disclosure prompted by an alleged $2 million blackmail threat against him). But in light of his acknowledging past "creepy" behavior, it's kind of creepy to revisit a joke such as this one from a March 2008 show: "Let me ask you a question. Do you think it's too soon to be hitting on Mrs. Eliot Spitzer?" In another monologue, Letterman had tweaked Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican whose telephone number was found in 2007 among those called by an escort service that prosecutors said was a prostitution ring. Vitter "admitted he's been dating prostitutes," said Letterman. "And he was very generous with one girl: He paid her with a new highway project in her home state." Perhaps Vitter, like many other embarrassed politicians, had set himself up for ridicule. But hasn't Letterman set himself up for payback, now? Vitter chose not to return fire at Letterman's glass house. When asked by The Associated Press for comment, Vitter's office declined. So did former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart, whose run for the presidency was derailed by a sex scandal in 1987 and who became the butt of many of Letterman's jokes. "Big weekend for Gary Hart," cracked Letterman when the Hart scandal broke: "He was campaigning his brains out." Chris Smith, Hart's spokeswoman at the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs, said Hart had no comment. Most of the targets of Letterman's jokes approached by the AP chose not to weigh in on the current woes of the talk-show host. But South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford offered Letterman his best wishes. "Both my thoughts and my prayers are with him," Sanford said Tuesday after a speaking engagement at a Rotary Club meeting in Easley, S.C. In June, Sanford seemed fair game for comedy after he disappeared from the state (and his wife) for a five-day rendezvous with an Argentine woman he called his soul mate. Sanford "didn't really enjoy this year's Fourth of July. He left his favorite firecracker in Argentina," Letterman joked soon after. "There's a lot more introspection and soul-searching on the way down than there is on the way up," said Sanford, who is under investigation by South Carolina's Ethics Commission, in addressing his dilemma as well as Letterman's. "He can be a better person for it." Letterman has made comic hay of the troubles of Larry Craig, a former U.S. senator from Idaho who in 2007 was arrested by an undercover police officer conducting a sting operation against men cruising for sex at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Noting that Craig was arrested in an airport men's room, Letterman said, it "gives new meaning to the word 'caucusing.'" Both during and after his White House years, President Bill Clinton remained a reliable source of Letterman's humor. Another favorite target: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, with whom Letterman had a run-in over sexually suggestive jokes made at the expense of her teenage daughter in June. In July 2008, Letterman turned his sights on former presidential candidate John Edwards, who confessed to an extramarital affair. No. 1 on Letterman's "Top Ten Signs Barack Obama Is Overconfident": "Been cruising for chicks with John Edwards." Letterman, like many other comedians, took glee in the disgrace of Mark Foley in 2006, after a scandal involving salacious e-mails that were sent by him to underage teens ruined his political career. "How about that Florida Congressman Mark Foley?" cracked Letterman at the time. "Whoa! At least the Democrats wait until the interns are 18." Foley is now a talk-radio host in Florida. "I feel sorry for Dave, I take no glee," Foley said Tuesday. He voiced concern for Letterman's 5-year-old son, Harry, and for the child's mother, Regina Lasko, whom Letterman married in March after many years together. "Nobody is above making tragic mistakes. Some never get discovered; some do, in a very public way," said Foley, adding pointedly that Letterman "can keep apologizing until the cows come home. But he's now found his own life the subject of late-night comedians."

Associated Press Writers Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Fla.; Jim Davenport in Easley, S.C.; and Colleen Slevin in Denver, and news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York City contributed to this report.