DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
The Bling Ring – Only in LaLa Land
© NaimaLett.com/blog

© The Bling Ring starring Harry Potter’s Emma Watson

I saw a screening of Sophia Coppola’s The Bling Ring last night.
It was eye-opening. Even though we’ve seen most of the events that happen in the movie on the news or blog sites when the story broke in 2009 (so I’m not giving anything away), do you know what I kept thinking throughout the film? “Only in LaLa Land!”

Only in the LaLa

Only in the LaLa would a group of teens from affluent Calabasas (where Justin Bieber, the Kardashians and the Jacksons live) flip through fashion magazines to find celebrities’ styles they like, then “go shopping” in celebrities’ Hollywood homes like Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom and Lindsey Lohan, using TMZ, Facebook and Twitter to find out when those stars would be traveling or out partying.

Only in the LaLa could you gain access to celebrity private home addresses and pictures for a mere $19.99 a month on sites like CelebrityAddressAerial.com.

Only in the LaLa would a celebrity like Paris Hilton leave her house key under the doormat so the Bling Ring waltzes through the front door, on at least 10 occasions, stealing millions of dollars in jewelry, clothes, shoes, and purses (which she doesn’t miss until the last burglary) to then turn around and sell those designer items on Venice Beach.

Only in the LaLa, even more bizarre, would Paris Hilton then allow writer/director Sophia Coppola and her crew to film the actual scenes for The Bling Ring movie in her same house that was burglarized by the original Bling Ring. To top it off, Paris then goes on the press tour for the movie in France and Hollywood, championing the film.

Only in the LaLa could the teen thieves, who became known as the Bling Ring, become celebrities themselves, garnering a book and film to be made about them paving the way for the actors portraying them (mostly unknown with the exception of Harry Potter’s Emma Watson) to now become celebrities themselves.

The actresses on the panel last night marveled that they were on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in France just a week or so ago in the very designer names they portrayed stealing in the film. “How ironic,” one of them commented.

Based on True Events

What makes the film so disturbing as you watch it is that it is based on true events, much of which played out in LA news, blog sites, and a reality show called “Pretty Wild” that stars the real Bling Ring’s Alexis Neiers and her former-Playboy-playmate mother.

The film’s creator is Sophia Coppola (Lost in Translation), the Academy Award winning daughter of Academy Award winner Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather). Sophia based the film on the Vanity Fair article, “The Suspects Wore Louboutins” by Nancy Jo Sales, who has now authored the book, The Bling Ring: How A Gang of Fame Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World.

When I Was Burglarized

When I lived with 2 roommates in a 2nd floor apartment over a little law office on the East Coast, barely a year out of college, making $200 a week in the theater, we were burglarized while we slept. The Lord kept his protective angels around us, but the thief/thieves cleared out our living room, relieving us of our keyboard, video recorder, tech, etc.

I felt violated. It was awful that someone could walk through our home and “go shopping” for things they had not worked for or bought. But then, they came back. Our landlords had secured the windows, so they couldn’t open them. I woke up screaming as my window was busted in the middle of the night by someone who was determined to get in my room. My piercing shrill scared them off, but I ran and got my roommate’s bat, just in case. We called the cops. Then, we moved.

What material possession is so important that you feel the need to break into somebody’s house to take it? What part of “Do not steal” (Lev 19:11) don’t we understand?

Our Teens

If we want to get a better understanding of what our teen generation is going though, this film makes a good case study. Now, it is Rated R. There’s a lot of teen drug and alcohol use and lots of profanity. Mind you, it’s being released as the teen movie of the summer. Yeah.

But there is a moral ending. You can look online and find out what happens to each one of those in the Bling Ring crew. The film follows the real events, and fortunately for all of us, they didn’t get away.

Only in the LaLa though.
Only in the LaLa,
Naima

Rev. Naima Lett, D.MIN, ABD
Author of coming release Confessions of a Hollywood Christian

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DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Why Didn’t We See Will Smith’s After Earth?
© NaimaLett.com/blog

© Sony’s After Earth starring Will Smith & Jaden Smith

Will Smith’s film After Earth opened at $27.5 million in 3rd place.
That’s a 1st (in 20 years).

For indie filmmakers like Tyler Perry/Madea, a $27.5 million opener is a major success.

But for 2-time Academy Award nominee Will Smith, who produced and co-starred in After Earth and actually conceived the film idea as a trilogy vehicle for his son Jaden while producing the re-make of The Karate Kid in China, $27.5 million is a hugely-discussed failure.

Most Bankable Star

The reason for this perceived difference is that Will Smith has been Hollywood’s “most bankable” star for over a decade.

Here are some of the numbers reported before After Earth.

Will Smith has been the:
– only actor with 8 consecutive films (which he stars) opening at #1 in US
– only actor with 8 consecutive blockbusters: films grossing over $100 million in US
– only actor with 10 consecutive films grossing over $150 million internationally
– 16 of his 20 fiction films grossed over $100 million worldwide
– 4 of his films grossed over $500 million worldwide
– $6.36 billion = total global box office gross of his films

That’s a lot of bank.

So, Why Didn’t We Go?

There’s a lot of speculation out there as to why only $27.5 million worth of tickets were bought this weekend for a film that cost $130 million, including the hit/miss record lately of director M. Night Shyamalan, but I think the biggest reason that audiences didn’t go to see After Earth was the story simply wasn’t very appealing.

When I saw the trailer, I wasn’t moved. I didn’t want to see Will and Jaden, with questionable accents, fight digitized baboons from the future. And they looked so sad and serious.

Will’s Appeal

Will’s appeal has always been his likability. As one reviewer noted, “Lighten up. Will Smith, you’ re supposed to be fun.”

Will’s interview and reunion with Alphonso Ribeiro that I shared in the post, Best, Fun Reunion!, was hilarious and amassed almost 15 million hits on YouTube. Why? Because that’s the Will Smith his audience wants to see. Will still has the top grossing romantic comedy of the last decade, Hitch, which grossed over $179 million. Will’s core appeal is the fact that he makes us smile.

© Fresh Prince Will Smith and Alphonso Ribeiro aka Carlton reunite and dance.

Transitions

Will transitioned from 6 years on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air to box office superstar fighting aliens because he had a quality that allowed audiences to laugh with him or root for him. This doesn’t mean he couldn’t do serious roles for Oscar consideration i.e. Ali and Pursuit of Happyness. But it means that this last attempt lost the Will Smith who audiences want to pay $13-20 to see.

Plus, there have been so many strange articles about family rearing and millions given to Scientology. Folks are tired. It might be great to take the Denzel route and enjoy your family and a normal life and only do press tours when there’s a film coming out.

Comeback

The theologian in Ecclesiastes 3:1 surmises that “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Maybe this isn’t the season for a somber science fiction father/son flick about fighting the elements of a post-apocalyptic earth.

If nothing else, this prepares Will for a major comeback! Which shouldn’t be that hard with Bad Boys 3, Hancock 2 and I, Robot 2 set to come out over the next few years.

What do you think about After Earth?
Did you see the film?
If not, why didn’t you go?
Naima

Rev. Naima Lett, D.MIN, ABD
Author of coming release Confessions of a Hollywood Christian

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DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Ready for Summer?
© NaimaLett.com/blog

© LATimes, Hollywood & Highland, photo source

It’s June, Fam!
Which means summer’s here (officially June 21st).
Are you ready?

School is out.
Temps are rising.
Work seems lighter. A little.

Fun, Freedom & Creativity

I originally re-posted the picture above last year. It’s the LA Times’s photo of two sisters, Cassy and Darcy, cooling off in the fountains at Hollywood and Highland, not far from the Walk of Fame.

What I love about this pic is that it captures the feeling of summer in LaLa Land: fun, freedom and creativity.

That’s what I pray for each of you this summer. That you would have fun, freedom & creativity. And that “your joy might be full”.

Full of Joy

I remember that expression from John’s writings several times. First in John 15:11, Jesus tells His disciples that He shares with them His teachings about abiding in Him and loving and walking in obedience so that “your joy might be full.”

John circles back around and uses the same expression when he explains why he’s writing the letter that became 1 John (1:4) and why he wants to visit the church instead of writing the letter that became 2 John (1:12): so that “your joy may be full.”

That full is like complete. That’s what I pray for you. That you have joy that is complete this summer.

You’re welcome in the LaLa

And if you have a hard time choosing a place to va-cay or need 80 degrees with a breeze, you are welcome in the LaLa! We’ve got beaches and palm trees and movie premieres. Take a tour of the studios or walk up Griffith Observatory to see the Hollywood sign.

What are you doing this summer?
Got any ideas to walk in full joy?

Guess we could all do somersaults in the sprinklers… and then go get our “hair did”!
Lots of love from the LaLa,
Naima

Rev. Naima Lett, D.MIN, ABD
Author of coming release Confessions of a Hollywood Christian

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