Entry 17:

Andy,

When my friend and I were talking about this yesterday, I tried to argue that since the really-big-words-on-a-wall technique of conveying information is something gallery artists took from advertising, MTV copping Kruger just represents advertising's revenge. (Did you see Jon Stewart on 60 Minutes this weekend? Asked where he and his Daily Show crew get off mocking the Fourth Estate, he basically said, "Well, if the media's going to act like part of the entertainment industry"--through shows like Dateline NBC, etc.--"it's open season for entertainment to make fun of the media." I'm paraphrasing and probably twisting it a little, but that was the gist.)

Be that as it may, though, there's something unsettling about a cultural climate in which everything, including art and/or public service announcements originally designed to help educate people about an epidemic like AIDS, can be flipped around and used to sell something. I think we're defining "culture" differently, or maybe I'm talking about a moral standpoint that supersedes the right of pop culture to goof around with things.

I don't know if I get what you're saying about PSAs co-opting aesthetic/cultural values, so you're going to have to explain a little further. (Although there's a mindbogglingly ugly and probably completely ineffectual anti-tobacco campaign running in a lot of magazines right now that definitely offends my aesthetic sensibilities. Inspiring tag line: "Tobacco Is Whacko If You're a Teen." The other sure-fire way to get 16-year-olds to do something is to use slogans like that one. Aside from the fact that the ad is apparently trying to "speak to kids in their language," coming off stiffer than Bill O'Reilly at Hedonism 2 in the process, they spell "wacko" the way philistine copy editors make you spell it, and that's just empirically not right.)

Re the talented Mr. Downey, sure, he's swell on Ally and in Two Girls and a Guy--hell, he was even pretty good in US Marshals. But I think you and your lunch companion are both missing the point--the reason he doesn't need our help is that he doesn't particularly seem to want it. I think Ol' Dirty Bastard's a genius, too, but if he asked permission to crash on my couch for a couple of days I'd probably tell him to go elsewhere.

My media-land hero and former officemate David Carr wrote a caustic and insightful piece about Ol' Downey Bastard for Inside.com back in February. It's mostly about the voyeuristic/codependent psychology behind Downey press coverage, but he also points out that while addicts "generally change their behavior when they are sufficiently annealed by consequence," Downey can still get work. (It's all I can do to not quote huge chunks of this piece here; you should all go read it.)

I'm going to miss Larry Paul, OK, but maybe David E. Kelley's doing Downey a favor by writing him out.

AP