1994: YEAR IN REVIEW : THE YEAR IN QUOTES

A Day Without O.J. Is Like a Day Without Live Team Coverage of Absolutely Nothing, Soon to Be a Movie of the Week

“Somebody’s in the back! ... Somebody’s in the back! ... I can’t see who it is! ... Now they’re pulling away! ... No ... that’s a woman I can’t identify!”

--KTLA-TV reporter Ron Olsen, in reportage typical of that from those on watch outside O.J. Simpson’s mansion the day he disappeared (Calendar, June 19).

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“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a reprieve. I get (more time) to cut the movie.”

--Robert Lovenheim, executive producer of Fox’s made-for-TV O.J. Simpson movie, on the network’s decision to delay its airing until the jury is sequestered (Calendar, Aug. 29).

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“If you can’t suppress ‘em, join ‘em.”

--Times critic Howard Rosenberg on Judge Lance Ito’s decision to be interviewed by Tritia Toyota for KCBS-TV (Calendar, Nov. 16)

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“The sirens of mythology pale in comparison to the lure of seeing yourself on CNN. The results, however, can be about the same.”

--Judge Ito, in pretrial advice to fellow judges (The Times, Nov. 15).

M-I-C, K-E-Y ... Why? Because We’re Leaving You!

“Jeffrey has a better job than I do. He has all the fun stuff.... He is still the best golden retriever I ever met.””

--Disney chairman Michael Eisner, on studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg (Calendar, July 24).

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“Eisner called Jeff a golden retriever in the L.A. Times. You don’t use that term for a 43-year-old man responsible for the highest-grossing film in the history of the studio. His golden retriever is going to turn into a Rottweiler.”

--Unnamed screenwriter (Entertainment Weekly, Sept. 9).

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“I’ll start up a company, and later you’ll buy it. Then I’ll end up working for you.”

--Jeffrey Katzenberg, recounting what he jokingly told Eisner upon resigning from Disney (Time, Sept. 5).

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“People ask me what I’m going to do now. I’m going to Disney World. I really am.”

--Katzenberg, on serious immediate post-resignation plans (Newsweek, Sept. 5).

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“Maybe I’ll go over to Dive! and make sub sandwiches.”

--Katzenberg (Time, Sept. 5).

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“Jeffrey Katzenberg’s exit will be Michael Eisner’s Machiavellian loss--and Corporation X’s El Dorado.”

--Steven Spielberg, future co-founder of that very same Corporation X (The New Yorker, Sept. 26).

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“It’s about a father not being able to accept a son.”

--Katzenberg, asked to allegorize the big breakup (Time, Sept. 5).

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“The first change I’m going to make is not having a target of how many pictures to do. We’ll start from, ‘How many good ideas can we make?”’

--New Disney Studios head Joe Roth, painting a sharp contrast between his policies and Katzenberg’s (Entertainment Weekly, Sept. 9).

All I Have to Do Is Dream ... and Raise Billions in Venture Capital

“I look at the three of us, and think, ‘This has got to be the Dream Team.”’

--Jeffrey Katzenberg, giving informal name to the new-studio troika formed with David Geffen and Steven Spielberg at a press conference (The Times, Oct. 25).

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“This is as if Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio got together.”

--Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein (The Times, Oct. 13).

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“The first call I got was from Michael Eisner, who couldn’t have been more gracious and excited.”

--Katzenberg, at the October “Dream Team” press conference.

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“Did you believe him?”

--Waggish reporter, asking obvious follow-up question.

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Politics and Loathing in Los Angeles

“Y’all said it is difficult to be a conservative in Hollywood. It’s a little difficult, but I always remember that statistics prove that one out of three Hollywood conservatives goes on to be President of the United States.”

--Rob Long, a “Cheers” writer, at an extremely rare conservative media summit sponsored by the National Review (TV Etc., Nov.).

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“A few minutes later, CAA shogun Michael Ovitz introduced the second most powerful man in the room: ‘The President of the United States!”’

--Ted Casablanca, recounting a Creative Artists Agency bash honoring President Clinton (Premiere, Feb.).

Now If Only Jane Could Fool the New Congress Into Thinking They’re Funding the N.R.A...

“Any move by the NEA in the last six years can easily be construed as being motivated ... to avoid controversy. If this had happened in 1990, there would have been an outcry in the community. I’m not seeing that happen this year, which is disturbing to me. It’s the frog being (slowly) boiled in water.”

--Christine Robbins, executive co-director of the New Langston Arts, after the NEA announced $1.65 million in funding cuts (The Times, Oct. 26).

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“I’m disappointed that it’s happening now under Jane Alexander’s tenure. You would hope that at this point under the Clinton Administration, with Jane as a leader, that the leadership could be found to make sure we don’t continue to demonize artists. Obviously, it’s the same old game.”

--Adolfo V. Nodal, general manager of L.A.’s Cultural Affairs Department (The Times, Oct. 26).

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“The public should be able to expect to attend a publicly funded performance without being exposed to HIV-infected blood.”

--Letter sent by Sens. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Don Nickles (R-Okla.) to the NEA, suggesting that the agency’s funding could be “in serious jeopardy” after news of a bloody performance art piece by Ron Athey in Minneapolis--funded to the tune of $150--raised a ruckus (The Times, June 21).

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“It’s really outrageous when one performance is used to overshadow the extraordinary programs that this agency has put into place.”

--NEA director of public affairs Cherie Simon (The Times, June 21)

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“I’d rather focus on the plethora of grants that everybody can agree on.”

--NEA Chairman Jane Alexander (The Times, April 16).

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Darkness on the Edge of Town

“I still see stuff (in the press)--’Kurt Cobain, the whiny, complaining, neurotic, bitchy guy who hates everything, hates rock stardom, hates his life.’ And I’ve never been happier in my life.... I’m really thankful, and every month I come to more optimistic conclusions. I just hope I don’t become so blissful I become boring.”

--Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain, giving meaning to his “Teen Spirit” coda “a denial” (Rolling Stone, Jan. 27).

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“I haven’t felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music ... for too many years now. I feel guilty beyond words about these things.... The fact is, I can’t fool you, any one of you. It simply isn’t fair to you or to me.... I need to be slightly numbed in order to regain the enthusiasm I had as a child.... I’m too much of an erratic, moody person, and I don’t have the passion anymore, so remember, it’s better to burn out than to fade away.”

--Cobain’s April suicide note, as quoted by wife Courtney Love.

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“He left a note. It’s more like a letter to the (expletive) editor.... He’s such an (expletive). I want you all to say ‘(expletive)’ really loud. This note should be pretty easy to understand. The wording’s all from Punk Rock 101.”

--A bitter and tearful Love, preparing to read her husband’s final missive to thousands of grief-stricken fans gathered at a Seattle memorial service.

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“The big question (I always get) is, nobody can be that depressed. Well, I’m writing about certain things, and I’m trying to stay within the parameters. With this record I had something I wanted to say. If I had written a happy friggin’ song about smokin’ pot and shootin’ cops, I wouldn’t have put it on the record anyway; it wouldn’t fit... But, as I would think a lot of writers are, I’m more motivated by certain extremes than I am by feeling, ‘Oh, I woke up and it’s a nice day today and I feel OK, I’m gonna write a song about that.’ There’s enough of that out there that I don’t think I could eloquently comment on anything that Paul McCartney hasn’t already said. I doubt he could write a song about wanting to kill yourself as well as I could, but who knows?”

--Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor (Calendar, March 6).

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“Someone wrote a letter the other day about ‘Eddie (It’s So Hard to Be a Rock Star) Vedder.’ Well, I just want to clarify. It’s not hard to be a rock star. If you want to go around (expletive) women and cleaning a bunch of teen-agers out of all their dough because they like your band and charge them up the ying for T-shirts and concert tickets, that’s easy. What’s hard is trying to stop playing the game ... to try to treat people fairly and with respect.”

--Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder (Calendar, Nov. 20).

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Beaten to a Pulp

“You usually don’t hear a music cue when something horrible is about to happen. Real-life violence isn’t that way. It’s more like one minute you’re waiting for a bus and the next minute people are chasing each other with baseball bats. That’s how I try to play it in my movies.”

--Quentin Tarantino (Calendar, Sept. 11).

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“Violence is a color in Quentin’s palette. Some work with musical numbers. Quentin works with violence. But unlike most filmmakers, he shows its impact. In his movies, violence is hyper-real. It’s not just a style thing.”

--”Pulp Fiction” co-exec producer Stacey Sher (Vanity Fair, July).

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“When I’m getting serious about a girl, I show her ‘Rio Bravo,’ and she better (expletive) like it.”

--Tarantino (Vanity Fair, July).

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“As much as I like John Travolta, I couldn’t bring myself to watch some (expletive) talking-baby movie. But I’ve seen everything else he’s done.”

--Tarantino, on the limits to being a fan (Vanity Fair, July).

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“I played myself in both games. And I won. Both games.”

--John Travolta, on being coerced by Tarantino into playing actual vintage “Grease” and “Welcome Back, Kotter” board games with the director as a condition of being cast in “Pulp Fiction” (Vanity Fair, July).

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“I was thrown off my game on ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ because I normally play Barbarino.”

--Tarantino, justifying his loss (Premiere, Nov.).

Speaking of Games: Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, or, QT Takes On Ollie

“Any time you try to get across a big idea, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. First, you need to make a good movie. And in the process, if there’s something in it that comes across, that’s great. And it shouldn’t be this big idea. It should be a small idea, from which everyone can get something different. I mean, if you’re making a movie and your big idea is that war is bad, why do you even need to make a movie? If that’s all you’re trying to say, just say it. It’s only two words: WAR IS BAD. Wait, wait. That’s three words. Two words would be even better: WAR BAD.”

--Quentin Tarantino (Playboy, Sept.).

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“Basically, (Oliver Stone) and I are pretty much at odds as far as our sensibilities and styles are concerned. I like things unexplained. He’s obviously not into that.... His biggest problem is that his obviousness cancels out his energy and his energy pumps up his obviousness. He’s Stanley Kramer with style.”

--Tarantino, who thoroughly disowned “Natural Born Killers,” Stone’s very reworked adaptation of an original Tarantino script (Premiere, Nov.).

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“I was saying, ‘Quentin, you’re in your 20s. You’re making movies about movies. I’m making movies about the life that I’ve lived to my 40s. I’ve seen more violence than you’ve ever seen in your life. I’ve been in Vietnam. I’ve been shot. If you want to talk about violence, let’s get real.”’

--Stone (Premiere, Nov.).

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“I thought it was a good first draft.... There’s a cult of personality for (Tarantino), but that’s such an inside thing, such an in-joke that it doesn’t have much meaning to me. At the end of the day, who’s going to know who he was? ... Tarantino cultists will say there’s no humor in my film. But sit with an audience, they laugh--and the movie’s doing very well, way more than our projections, and probably a lot better than any Tarantino film will ever do.... No one in the history of movies has had as much press as he’s had, with no success.”

--Stone, in the period between the releases of “NBK” and “Pulp Fiction”; at last count in the contest, Tarantino’s film had racked up $58.8 million to Stone’s $49.5 million (Empire, Dec.).

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“I have a ‘Platoon’ game. I really would love to play the ‘Platoon’ game with Oliver Stone. But me and him are too much on the outs.”

--Tarantino (Premiere, Nov.).

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“Yeah, I’d be glad to play the game with him.”

--Stone (Premiere, Nov.).

The Best of Dana Delany

“There’s something about white Jockeys that’s so male and gross that I like. There’s something dirty-sexy about them. And if they have stains on them, that’s better.”

--Dana Delany (Us, Sept.).

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“When I told (my friends) I planned to portray the mistress of a resort on a mythical tropical island who initiates guests into the world of S&M; sex, they said, ‘Finally, the real you!”’

--Delany on “Exit to Eden” (Premiere, July).

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“I went to a few private homes with (a dominatrix) and observed some scenes. There is something wonderfully, um, existential about standing in the bedroom of a man whom you don’t know, with his naked rear end ...and you’re spanking it.

--Delany (Premiere)

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“I’d like to say that I am not turned on by the centerfold anymore. I like the ones from the ‘60s.... Big breasts and spanky pants, I’m telling you! Most men I know feel the same way.... It bothers me that boys growing up now--and girls, because girls read Playboy, too, and they compare themselves--are going to think that that’s what a body looks like. Of course, I’m lucky to have big boobs, so I don’t have to worry about that.”

--Delany (Playboy, July).

Hooked On Online

“I just hope it’s not one guy downloading it over and over again.”

--Teri Hatcher, whose computerized photos have been downloaded 12,000 times by America Online subscribers (People, Dec. 19).

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“It was the only person I talked to for months. I just got caught up in it. It was the void that you talk to. And since I didn’t speak to anybody else, I had to get in trouble some way.”

--Courtney Love, proud Mac owner, on her famous tell-all America Online computer postings (Rolling Stone, Dec. 15).

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

“We are heterosexual and monogamous and take our commitment very seriously. Reports of a divorce are totally false.”

--Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford, in an ad taken out in the London Times a few months before they separated

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“Home is where your toothbrush is.”

--Publicist Stan Rosenfield, cryptically denying separation rumors about then-client Shannen Doherty and her husband of five months, Ashley Hamilton (Us, March).

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“After the DNA test I went my own way, and I see she’s saying things like ‘In the eyes of heaven it’s his.’ Well, have the church pay your rent! Have the Pope pay your car rental!”

--Sylvester Stallone, on ex-girlfriend--but not mother of his child--Janice Dickinson (Details, Nov.).

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“I am a classic battered and abused wife ... (Tom Arnold) hit me, struck me, threw objects at me, pushed me against walls.”

--Roseanne, in divorce papers filed in April.

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“I must apologize for letting nasty gossip and lies break me down. I just lost it.”

--Roseanne, dropping divorce proceedings three days later.

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“Tom Arnold’s penis is three inches long. OK, I’ll say four, ‘cause we’re trying to settle.”

--Roseanne, in a standup performance at the Comedy Store on Nov. 19, where she also discussed her impending marriage to bodyguard Ben Thomas.

Oscar Talk

“This is the best drink of water after the longest drought of my life.”

--Steven Spielberg, clutching his best picture Oscar (Calendar, March 23).

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“I told Steve, if I’d known how famous he was going to be, I’d have had my uterus bronzed.”

--Leah Adler, Spielberg’s mother (Calendar, March 23).

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“I know that my work in this (movie) is magnified by the fact that the streets of heaven are too crowded with angels. We know their names, they number a thousand for each one of the red ribbons that we wear here tonight. They finally rest in the warm embrace of the gracious creator of us all, a healing embrace that cools their fevers, that clears their skin and allows their eyes to see the simple, self-evident common-sense truth that is made manifest by the benevolent creator of us all and was written down on paper by wise men, tolerant men in the City of Philadelphia 200 years ago. God bless you all, God have mercy on us all and God bless America.”

--Tom Hanks, accepting his best actor Oscar for “Philadelphia”.

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“We’ve got dogs, we’ve got dinosaurs back there. The whole backstage is covered with newspaper. Finally they found something to do with the L.A. Calendar sections.”

--Oscar host Whoopi Goldberg, in one of many digs at The Times.

What’s Wrong with Hollywood, in Three Easy Steps

“I’ve been brought just about every TV show imaginable. Last week somebody came into my office pitching the Baldwin brothers as ‘My Three Sons.”’

--Producer David Permut (Time, May 30).

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“I was in a theater the other night when a trailer came on for a film that’s probably going to be the No. 2 summer movie at a major Hollywood studio. And when it was over, some guy in the back of the theater yelled out, ‘Video!’ And half the theater applauded. I got a chill down my spine, because that could have been one of my films.”

--Joe Roth of Disney (Calendar, April 24).

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“I recently lost 60 pounds. Here I was eating a low-cal diet, and every time I went to the movies I was getting three days’ worth of fat.”

--Roger Ebert, one of millions dismayed about the alarming study on popcorn and coconut oil (Entertainment Weekly, May 13).