You have to take some of The Randall Scandal:Love, Loathing & Vanderpump with a grain of salt. The documentary on Hulu through the LA Times Studio doesn’t have any interviews of Randall Emmett, a profilic Hollywood producer, to argue the allegations against him. But what you do have is a systemic pattern that has been set in place for decades that’s finally been exposed by the controversies surrounding Harvey Weinstein and Scott Rudin.
This begs the question – why do people put up with this behavior? I was having breakfast one morning at a Denny’s in Muskogee when this older man behind me was talking to a friend. I guess he had relocated to the area from Los Angeles or was visiting. I might be hard of hearing in my right ear but I heard him say, “Joel Silver is a son of a bitch!” Silver became famous for producing movies like the Lethal Weapon movies, The Matrix movies and the first two Die Hard movies before a fall-out with Bruce Willis on the set of The Last Boy Scout kept him away from the returning to the last three Die Hard movies.
Speaking of Willis, he is mentioned in this documentary. As it’s been reported, Willis is suffering from asphasia and dementia. He made several movies for Emmett which have been called “Geezer Teasers” in which they feature actors who aren’t as popular anymore receiving big paychecks for only a day or two of work. Willis retired in 2022 but for the final few years of his career, he churned out multiple direct-to-video movies Emmett produced. One of those was Midnight in the Switchgrass, which Emmett also directed.
The movie became controversial even before the revelation of Willis’ condition because it was one of many movies released in 2021 with critics saying he looked bored and tired. Now, we know. Willis had to wear an earpiece and be fed his lines. A prop master on the movie sit of Midnight says that she had to pretend to be a waitress because Willis thought he was in an actual restaurant while filming a scene. Alicia Haverland with the crew says Willis would tell her he didn’t want any more coffee when she had to refill a cup. So, she told him that he had ordered a refill.
I have a lot of issues with Willis over his past behaviors on movie sets and with people. But this is elder abuse the way Emmett continued to exploit Willis. Haverland and others say that on set Willis was very nice and cordial but they could tell there were problems. It’s not just Emmett but others should’ve noticed issues with Willis. Chris Rock once said of his late SNL co-star and friend Chris Farley, producers only want to get actors clean of their substance abuse enough so they can shoot their scenes.
Emmett rose to prominence being a personal assistant to Mark Wahlberg in the late 1990s and then helping him get the HBO show Entourage off the ground. He would go on to producer some of Wahlberg’s other movies such as 2 Guns and Lone Survivor. He would even go on to work with Martin Scorsese producing Silence and The Irishman. But he would also produce a lot of awful movies, most going direct-to-video. He did so because it was easier to sell them in foreign markets.
Emmett was also involved in a relationship with Lala Kent of the reality show Vanderpump, which I was surprised was an actual show. This part of the documentary is the least interesting as it implies Emmett is a sleazy two-timing creep. This part of the documentary feels more like a silly high school drama. But the crux of the documentary is hearing how much of a dick Emmett is to other people.
Emmett, by no means, is a nice guy. He treats his own personal assistants like slaves insisting that they should pay out of their own pockets for his expenses. One of his former assistants say they’re still paying off the credit card debt. Another personal assistant, Martin G’Blae, filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against him that was settled. G’Blae gets too upset and emotional at one point and walks away from the interview.
A lot of people can criticize that these people knew what they were signing up for. Writers and crew members are being forced to share cheap motel rooms on location while Emmett lives an extravagant lifestyle. But it also shows you the problem with Hollywood while the Writers Guild strike enters its sixth week as the SAG-AFTRA has authorized a strike itself. Why don’t more people put their foot down around people like Emmett, Silver, Weinstein or Rudin? Maybe that they hope that it will lead to something better down the road.
It’s like the story of the person who has to clean up the elephants feces at a carnival circus. One circus visitor sees the hard work he’s doing in a disgusting environment. He walks up to the person and asks, “Have you thought of another line of work?” The person looks to the visitor and replies, “What, and give up show business?!”
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 