Hung Up Goes to The Movies
Watch The King of Comedy with me at Metrograph on Friday!
There’s a scene in The King of Comedy that I think about all the time. This not a spoiler at all, it’s a scene of random cacophony. A half-dozen lawyers and handlers and network executives try to triage a kidnapped late-night host. How to proceed? An executive says the network needs a show to put on the air, a detective discourages the suits from negotiating with the host’s captors. An agent is incredulous, and a lawyer is irate.
“That’s it,” one of them stands up and announces. “We’re suing.” A chorus of confusion: Who is this man, who is he to you, who is being sued, and when. “What do you mean who am I? I’m the one who’s suing, I’m the lawyer. That’s who I am.” It’s not even half of a scene, almost an afterthought to keep the plot moving, and none of these characters even have real names, but I laugh every time I think about it. There are so many people in showbusiness — paper and social contracts between fans, stars, lawyers,…
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