Tag: Sharon Stone

Actress Sharon Stone’s Hollywood Lesson

It was the 1990s and Sharon Stone was on top of the world.

She was one of the most popular movie stars of her times.

Her big breakthrough came when she landed a part in the 1990 science fiction action film “Total Recall.”

In 1992 she catapulted to international stardom when she appeared in the big-screen thriller “Basic Instinct.”

Later she would play a role in the 1995 epic crime drama “Casino,” which ended up delivering the best reviews of her career, along with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Numerous films would follow, cementing her position as a top Hollywood actress.

Her life was going exceptionally well with her career soaring, due in large part to the Oscar nomination, which credentialed her as a serious actress.

Her personal life was blossoming too. She and her then-husband adopted a child, experiencing the joy and fulfillment that new parenthood brings.

Unbeknownst to Stone, her world was about to turn upside down. Within a few months, life would take a sudden and tragic change for the worse.

She suffered a type of stroke in which a vertebral artery ruptures. For nine straight days bleeding was occurring in her brain, and she was given only a 1 percent chance of surviving.

Sadly, at a time when she needed them the most, her Hollywood friends and acquaintances all but abandoned her. The only person who really stood by her side in this most difficult time was her devoted Dad.

“My father was there for me, but I would say that was about it,” Stone shared.

After the terrible health crisis, she faced further personal and professional challenges. Her marriage disintegrated and the Hollywood phone eerily stopped ringing.

“I lost everything,” she said. “I lost all my money. I lost custody of my child. I lost my career. I lost all those things that you feel are your real identity and your life.”

Stone’s Hollywood experience provides the opportunity to examine the changes that have taken place in our cultural attitudes and behaviors with regard to celebrity.

Stone was a genuine movie star, the kind that in these continuing digital revolution times seems to have disappeared.

Lost, in large part, is the sense of mystique that Hollywood stars of the past possessed. Lost oftentimes, too, is the basis for admiration given.

So who are today’s stars? And has the arc of fame been irretrievably altered?

The answers to these questions seem to depend chiefly on the medium as well as the manner in which entertainment is presented to and consumed by an anticipated audience.

Over the last several years the changes that have taken place within the entertainment business have no doubt been profound. Movie theater attendance has significantly declined. And for lack of a better word, so have “conventional” movie stars.

At the same time there has been a rise in the actual number of celebrities as well as the types of venues in which fame can be attained.

We now have multiple categories of film stars, television stars, music stars, sports stars, political stars, preacher stars, internet stars, social media stars, etc., all of whom vie for the public’s attention and the varying levels of fame that accompany it.

The opportunity for people to achieve Andy Warhol moments has expanded exponentially. And so it is that anyone with a smart phone and an internet connection can potentially claim their 15 minutes of fame.

While there may be a lot more famous faces around, it is also much more difficult for those faces to maintain their celebrity status over time. In other words, fame seems to be even more fleeting than it was in the past. And the arc of fame seems to have been altered in length and breadth.

For an individual, life in the fame lane can take you from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.

Stone has lived it.

She shares her story of survival and serves as an example of the triumph of the human spirit.

She does offer the following admonition, though. “If you want to live with solid citizens, don’t come to Hollywood.”

Don’t know if anyone is going to stop chasing fame, but it’s worth thinking about for at least an LA minute.

Michael Rapaport at the Crossroads of Hollywood and Politics

In addition to enjoying some big-time name recognition as a Hollywood actor, Michael Rapaport is also famous for expressing aloud exactly what is on his mind.

He is a celebrity of the “woke” kind, and for years he has gone about establishing his bonafides by taking positions that line up perfectly with his liberal Hollywood colleagues.

Having appeared in scores of films and an assortment of television fare (including the wildly successful “Friends,” “Prison Break,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and “Boston Public”), Rapaport is currently featured in the Netflix offering “Atypical.”

Intriguingly, he seems to have recently made a u-turn with regard to his perspective on the Biden administration.

The actor shared, via Twitter, some of his heavy duty frustration with the Biden administration’s present approach to the addressing of public health concerns and issuing of attendant recommended protocols.

Those who have already received seemingly protective shots “… are spreading Covid! That’s the new news of the day! I’m ranted out,” Rapaport writes.

In an additional tweet that appears to take direct aim at his otherwise esteemed mentor Dr. Anthony Fauci, Rapaport sounds more like fellow thespian Kirstie Alley than Hollywood-minded colleague Ted Danson.

He encourages people to take a trip down Memory Lane and try to recall a time “… when Phil Jackson left the Lakers? Bill Parcels left the Giants?”

Then he implies that now may be the time for Dr. Fauci to exit the spotlight, adding, “It’s all white noise at this point.”

The culmination of his frustration was on display in a TicTok video that he posted on his Twitter account, one in which he appears to experience a fairly dramatic emotional meltdown.

The title caption of the post reads: “Am I a Hero or a Super Spreader?”

Making no effort to suppress his feelings, he boldly blurts, “Figure this sh** out!”

In the video footage, Rapaport appears to be both angry and appalled to discover that information he had previously been relying upon was incorrect.

Continuing with a profanity laced outburst, he laments his personal predicament, which has been created by the mixed messages and shifting recommendations coming from myriad public health officials.

He also talks about falling from hero status to the rank level of a super spreader, using expletives to apparently lend more power to his emotion-packed words.

His change of attitude may have been brought on by the Biden administration’s reversal of its mask policy.

National mask mandates had been lifted in May of this year. However, public health leaders pivoted and recommended that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people wear face masks indoors in specified regions across the country.

Dr. Fauci indicated that the change was due to the Delta variant’s alleged increased transmissibility. The doctor also revealed that recent data indicate, when a vaccinated person becomes infected with the Delta variant, the level of virus in the upper part of the pharynx, which is connected to nasal passages, is about 1,000 times higher than when infected with the initial Alpha variant.

Reactions to Rapaport’s comments caused a Twitter explosion on both sides of the political and ideological aisles.

Still, he isn’t shying away from sharing his views with fellow Hollywood neighbors and others.

Interestingly, though, the actor is in the thick of a quasi-political power struggle for a leadership position in Hollywood’s most influential organization, the celebrity drenched labor union SAG-AFTRA.

Involvement as a union leader is actually what led the late great President Ronald Reagan to enter the world of politics.

Two major “parties” currently exist: The incumbent “Unite for Strength” party, whose ticket is headed by sitcom actress and SAG-AFTRA presidential hopeful Fran Drescher; and the upstart “Membership First” party that offers actor Matthew Modine as its presidential contender.

National board candidates for “Unite for Strength” include outgoing union president Gabrielle Carteris, and actors Shari Belafonte and Camryn Manheim.

“Membership First” candidates who are running for seats on the national board include actors Sharon Stone, Stephanie Powers, Sean Astin, Brad Garret, and Rapaport himself.

As part of the “Unite for Strength” party, Rapaport, in his official campaign statement, warns voting members of the following: “SAG-AFTRA is OUR UNION! We need to protect it and ourselves.”