Coincidentally, I had a conversation with a childhood friend today to wish him merry merry and he brought up something I had completely forgotten about and it relates to this thread. I am aware that this is public and will be viewed by many in the entertainment industry, so I will try to be succinct. Did you guys know you were kind of famous? You are scanned frequently by bloggers, tabloids, etc....
Anywho, my friend was let go from Miramax last summer after 18 years of service; he was there when Harvey & Bob Weinstein still owned it. When I asked him last year what happened he said, "The Bounty Hunter". Some here have speculated as to why no one will let TBH go, so I will try to explain from someone who was there.
For most people, a movie is a movie, but for Jen TBH was her ticket to being the Queen of Hollywood. Her career is built on deals with everyone she can find to keep her relevant and powerful. Team Aniston developed a 50/40/10 formula to make Jen one of the most famous and powerful people in the industry. Her power (and fame) is based on 50% - Brad/Angelina, 40% - the guy she is dating, just broke up with or rumored to be dating, 10% - Jen's hot, her hair, diet, make-up, etc... If you take a close look at her press since 2004, this is what she has used as leverage and has been able to dominate the media to the point where she has become inescapable.
Jen did not have the juice to make the leap to Queen status on her own, but realized that Gerry did have enough for her. She was able to negotiate billions of dollars worth of deals from the end of 2008 through 2009, with the promise that she would deliver Gerry. It was her usual MO of making the long-term deal of dictating when the dating would begin, when the break-up would start, etc... But, this time, Gerry would not agree so extreme, career-threatening pressure was applied. He still would not bend because he knew that eventually his career would be destroyed anyway. When it was all over March 31, 2010, more than a bad movie was left behind.
Jen was the spokesperson for the girly-girls and acted as a conduit of information for them. Through her deals with the media, Saint Anniston, as bluebutterfly calls her
, had a free reign of terror, which she used to hurt many, many, many people. Her message of "just flick your hair, be hot, manipulate men, kids are bad, relationships are worse, throw your legs up as often as possible and you can be just like me", was never questioned because it empowered so many people. That message, along with "men are stupid oafs just waiting to be used", was about to become their slogan, but she needed proof. Bagging the biggest "whale/alpha male" in Hollywood was what she needed, but in the process it became personal for her; a one-sided relationship, if you will, and a thirst for fame that became an obsession.
The MoneyJen convinced Miramax that she could deliver Gerry, but she would need money to do it. A LOT OF MONEY. The campaign started with Love Happens, where she was given an unprecedented amount of promotion for a rom-com to the tune of about $100 million. The movie made roughly $40 million, but everybody knew she was chasing Gerry, which was the point; not that the movie made money. The press for TBH lasted for over a year, which was too long for anything that hadn't happened yet, but it was never about the movie, it was that Jen was going to deliver Gerry. There was more than twice the amount spent overall on TBH than Love Happens, but that's not the whole story.
The one thing that has gone completely unnoticed, which my friend had to remind me of, was an unprecedented cable deal that Miramax/Disney made, which was to last through to The Switch. They made deals with several cable companies to run Jen/Gerry movies back to back, 24 hours a day, including banner ads, basic and premium channels from February 1st, 2010 to August 2010. When I say non-stop, that's exactly what I mean. I don't know if anyone else noticed it, but it irritated me to no end. However, that cost Miramax millions of dollars per day, so you do the math. It also meant that all resources went to Jen's movies, to the detriment of namely, Clive Owen, who lost out on a potential Oscar nomination for The Boys are Back, because there were no promotional dollars left for him.
TBH made $158 million (?-correction), which was a pittance in terms of recompence for Miramax/Disney. At no time did Jen, the media or the studios believe that Gerry could withstand the screws being put to him, so there was no plan B. Gerry has carried the brunt of the blame publicly, but Jen has carried it behind the scenes. When he walked away from her and the deal the industry was offering him (which Bradley Cooper took, by the way), the beginnings of the corporate firing began.
The media had essentially fallen into a vacuum without Jen's inane musings and image to use, which gave rise to Beiber Fever and the Kardashians, to name a few. They are losing money everyday with that toxic cocktail. That is one of the reasons Gerry does not appear on any of the afternoon entertainment shows; they are unforgiving even though it's their fault that they believed Jen even when he told them no. More significantly, Gerry provided cover for Brad and Angie to FINALLY get away from her, while Gerry was planning his escape as well. No man with any kind of juice would come near her, either personally or professionally. Remember, Jen's movies only make money if there is someone with big box office with her.
After the TBH debacle, Disney finally unloaded Miramax onto a consortium of investors and their first order of business was to clean house. They made an announcement that they would not be making any new movies for the foreseeable future, which is how my friend lost his job. Disney also announced that they would no longer be making fairy tales. They were still tied to Jen and were forced to (again) give her additional moneys to push The Switch, which flopped horribly, too. But, they got rid of her, at the cost of having to change their ideology (princesses were no longer in vogue).
All of Jen's movie deals following TBH were made while she was still in the glow of Hollywood's favor, but she hasn't been able to get a gig since. Her prestige film, Goree Girls was replaced with her upcoming February movie, which is her last. If you check IMDb, for the first time in 20 years, Jen is UNEMPLOYED!! Since she lost 90% of her press, she is useless to everyone, which explains her sudden move to New York.
So, to paraphrase it all, Gerry has affected many entities including the media overall (especially the tabloids), NBC/Universal, Miramax, Disney, Smart Water, her perfume; did I miss any? You can't walk away from that no matter whom you are. It's almost as though he took down the entire establishment in one swift move. I have unbelievable respect for this man. He took them all on and he's still standing, which is more than I can say for them, especially Jen. He is also more respected amongst his peers than the public knows because he stuck it to them, which I suspected, but I now know for sure.
I did NOT intend to write this much, but once it started to come out, I couldn't stop. I am so, so, sorry.