"To Introduce our Guest Star, that's What I'm Here to Do..." The Hensonverse Fan Contribution Thread
- Thread starter Geekhis Khan
- Start date
NHL relocations since the PoD:
1980: Atlanta Flames->Calgary Flames
1982: Colorado Rockies->New Jersey Devils
1995: Quebec Nordiques->Phoenix Coyotes[1]
1996: Winnipeg Jets->Colorado Avalanche
1997: Edmonton Oilers->Houston Roughnecks
2000: Pittsburgh Penguins->Atlanta Thrashers[2]
2002: Buffalo Sabres->Portland Navigators[3]
2008: New York Islanders->Cleveland Monsters[4]
2011: Florida Panthers->Edmonton Oilers[5]
Notes:
[1]The Nordiques were purchased by Peter Karmanos in 1994 and moved to America West Arena(which was built for hockey ITTL). Due to Karmanos’s obsession with all things Red Wings, their jerseys will look something like this(the shoulder patch will be two hockey stick-shaped cacti crossed). Sorry for butterflying the Kachinas.
[2]Because the NHL only adds two teams here, Columbia purchases the Pens out of bankruptcy in 1999.
[3]Paul Allen purchased them from the NHL in 2002; attendance was declining because of the Mariners’ move to Buffalo.
[4]After Norm Green sells the North Stars to Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner in 1992, the league implements stronger background checks on prospective owners. This means John Spano never buys the Islanders, so without the lucrative TV deal he signed, they move in 2008.
[5]The Panthers go bankrupt in 2009.
1980: Atlanta Flames->Calgary Flames
1982: Colorado Rockies->New Jersey Devils
1995: Quebec Nordiques->Phoenix Coyotes[1]
1996: Winnipeg Jets->Colorado Avalanche
1997: Edmonton Oilers->Houston Roughnecks
2000: Pittsburgh Penguins->Atlanta Thrashers[2]
2002: Buffalo Sabres->Portland Navigators[3]
2008: New York Islanders->Cleveland Monsters[4]
2011: Florida Panthers->Edmonton Oilers[5]
Notes:
[1]The Nordiques were purchased by Peter Karmanos in 1994 and moved to America West Arena(which was built for hockey ITTL). Due to Karmanos’s obsession with all things Red Wings, their jerseys will look something like this(the shoulder patch will be two hockey stick-shaped cacti crossed). Sorry for butterflying the Kachinas.
[2]Because the NHL only adds two teams here, Columbia purchases the Pens out of bankruptcy in 1999.
[3]Paul Allen purchased them from the NHL in 2002; attendance was declining because of the Mariners’ move to Buffalo.
[4]After Norm Green sells the North Stars to Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner in 1992, the league implements stronger background checks on prospective owners. This means John Spano never buys the Islanders, so without the lucrative TV deal he signed, they move in 2008.
[5]The Panthers go bankrupt in 2009.
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@newsgeeking: please do not post partial contributions here. The NHL stuff is fine, but please take it to a PM until you have a fully completed post before putting it here. This thread is for completed posts only, not running drafts.
War (good God, y'all) What is it Good For? The Hollywood Box Office (say it again)!
Top 10 War Movies of the 2000s
From Five and Five: Top and Honourable Netsite, July 7th 2020
5) Chosin (2005)
Released by Columbia Pictures and directed by Edward Zwick, this historical epic/war film tells the tale about a squad of US Marines and their fight to escape a Chinese encirclement during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, in spite of the challenges posed by the difficult terrain, the bitter Korean winter taking it’s toil on both man and machine as well as the prejudices many of the characters hold towards three of the main characters, Terrence Howard’s Private First Class Henry Travis, Tyrese Gibson’s Private Nathaniel Jameson and Derek Luke’s Private Cameron Franklin, in spite that the US military is undergoing a desegregation process, with Arliss Howard’s Captain Aldrich very intolerant, with even Brad Pitt’s Gunnery Sergeant Fuller, Steve Zahn’s Corporal O’Malley and Sean Patrick Flanery’s PFC Durand, who are not outright full-on bigots, displaying varying casual attitudes of intolerance mixed in with respect for their skills as Marines.
The violence is intense, with characters not only sustaining horrific injury from enemy fire, but there’s a scene (which we don’t recommend anyone eat anything while watching) with Marines being treated for frostbite, and doctors cutting off the frozen limbs.
But no words can describe how the Hans Zimmer score just makes your heart sour when Durand, wordlessly, embraces Franklin, relieved to be alive, after Durand and Franklin (who having been forced to survive together) manage to escape and fight their way back to friendly lines.
Although historians will debate over the varying degrees of historical accuracy, Chosin is a great film, and a great look into what many considered a long forgotten conflict[1].
4) Samar (2008)
Released by 20th Century Studios and directed by Shaun Bakerson-Drake, this depiction of one of the greatest last stands in history, during WW2’s Battle of Leyte Gulf, is stunning to behold, with amazing production design and cinematography, intense battle sequences and an amazing score by James Horner.
Produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau, with Cameron’s production company Lightstorm Entertainment cooperating with Bakerson-Drake’s production company, The Torch Entertainment Productions, Samar focuses on multiple viewpoints, one on the Japanese high command as they plan to attack the American landings at the Philippines by luring away Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet, one on the perspective of Haruhiko Yamanouchi’s Admiral Takeo Kurita as he makes his way with his fleet towards Leyte, one on the perspective of Scott Glenn’s Clifton “Ziggy” Sprague as he leads “Taffy 3”, one on Zahn McClarnon’s Ernest Evans as he commands the USS Johnston, one on James Marsden's Petty Officer Second Class Patrick Van Cleave as the audience's view amongst the crew of the Johnston and one on Colin Hanks' Lieutenant Gordon Brooks, pilot of an Wildcat on board the USS Gambier Bay.
Like with Cameron’s Titanic, the film does a spectacular job in bringing the USS Johnston, the central ship of the story, to life by using authentic sets (built with the help of scans of the USS Kidd museum ship), miniatures developed by Thunderbird Studios and the CGI of Digital Domain.
And despite the multiple characters, the script did manage to balance them out well and make good use of the 176-minute runtime, making a great hit and adding another feather to Bakerson-Drake’s cap, although many critics tried to poke holes at any little bit they could find, including at how “Hollywoodized” many lines and actions were in the film (despite the fact that much of the events in the film really actually happened and the quotes in the film were actually said at the battle!)[3].
3) Angels of Death (2002)
Released by Warner Bros. Pictures and (the second one on this list) directed by Shaun Bakerson-Drake, it was the first theatrical production produced by his The Torch Entertainment Productions after it was founded the previous year.
Set on the Eastern Front of the Second World War, Angels of Death gets the look and feel of the Eastern Front right and is inspired by real events with many of it’s characters taking inspiration from real Soviet snipers, as it tells the story of Rachel Weisz’s Tatiana Komova, who suffers tragedy when the Germans arrive at her town and kill her family, before she joins the Red Army, in which she eventually becomes a sniper under the guidance of Natalya Shakirova (played by Sophie Marceau), and Alexei Vavilov (played by Jamie Bamber).
Of course, after Tatiana and Natalya becomes renowned in their efforts, the Germans aren’t taking their actions lying down and send in Major Erik Wolf (played by Christopher Lambert), a German sniper who is tasked by his superior Colonel Roland Adler (played by Karel Roden) to take out the titular “Angels” in the midst of the Battle of Stalingrad, leading to a game of cat-and-mouse as Tatiana seeks the opportunity to take out Adler, who she identifies as being responsible for killing her family.
An atmospheric, thrilling, if somewhat dramatised film, it does quite a good job at bringing to attention events on the Eastern Front, an event rarely covered in Western media[4].
2) Going Over the Top (2009)
A co-production between Working Title Films, StudioCanal, Constantin Film AG, and Universal Pictures, this WW1 film directed by Paul Greengrass depicts two British (Daniel Radcliffe as Henry Marson and Thomas Brodie-Sangster as William Collings) and two German soldiers (Daniel Brühl as Georg Moldenhauer and David Kross as Johannes Petermann) as they experience combat and life within the Trenches of the Western Front from their sides.
Greengrass manages to cave a magnificent story as we watch both sides, with the movie cutting from the British side to the German side at varying times in the film to give perspective on how despite the fact that the two sides are opponents to each other, they actually have a lot in common, in that they were kids who signed up for the adventure of serving their country, only to be brought into what can only be described as “hell on Earth”. And oh boy, does Greengrass manage to capture the conditions correctly. Worth putting on your list of favourite WW1 films if you have one[5].
1) Trafalgar (2005)
Produced by Scott Free Productions, StudioCanal and Pathé and distributed by Paramount Pictures and directed by Ridley Scott, this depiction of the events of the most infamous battle in naval history, on the 21st of October 1805, rightfully takes the top spot on this list due to it’s authentic portrayal of Napoleonic warfare at sea and it’s uniqueness.
There’s just no other film quite like it and only a director such as Ridley Scott would have been able to pull off such a movie, with such high praise by the critics for it’s performances of Guy Pearce’s Horatio Nelson, Brian Cox’s Thomas Hardy, Tchéky Karyo’s Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, Alfred Molina’s Federico Gravina[6] as well as the intense battle sequences, it’s production design, the cinematography, the impressive Hans Zimmer score and the authentic look, feel and sounds of Napoleonic warfare at sea[7].
Five Honourable Mentions:
[1] Chosin (the same one mentioned here) receives positive reviews and is a box office hit, not to mention earning accolades (the Academy Awards especially) and sparking a surge in more Korean War films to be greenlit.
[2] Other cast members of Samar include Mark Rolston as Rear Admiral Ralph Ofstie, Tom Sizemore as Commander Leon S. Kintberger, Eion Bailey as Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland, Donnie Wahlberg as Commander William Dow Thomas, Michael Fassbender as Lieutenant Robert Hagen, Lucas Till as Gunner’s Mate Third Class Paul Henry Carr, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Jisaburō Ozawa, Clyde Kusatsu as Shōji Nishimura, Jun Kunimura as Kiyohide Shima, Sonny Chiba as Tomiji Koyanagi and Hiroyuki Sanada as captain of the Yukikake.
[3] Receives positive reviews and makes a decent profit, not to mention being quite received well by historians for it’s depiction of the Battle of Samar (despite the odd one or two historical inaccuracy here and there) as well as winning Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and nominated for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards.
[4] Received mixed reviews, in which critics will take note on the acting not being up to scratch, and thus will barely make $98 million out of it’s $68 million budget.
[5] A commercial and critical success which earns many accolades from the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards.
[6] Other cast members include in the main cast include Jeremy Irons, Orlando Bloom, David Thewlis, Jude Law, Kenneth Branagh, Clive Owen, Michael Sheen and Heath Ledger.
[7] Critically well received and earning many accolades from the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards, the film will be make around $216 million out of it’s budget of $150 million.
[8] Pretty much the same film as OTL.
[9] In OTL, this film was in discussion as late as August 2000, and Fincher stating that he wanted to direct it in January 2009, with Brad Pitt attached to play the role of Fertig.
[10] Cast members of this Midway (which is pretty similar to OTL, but with a few scenes changed and different scenes included) include Zachary Quinto as Richard “Dick” Best, Karl Urban as C. Wade McClusky, Hugo Weaving as John S. Thach, Dennis Quaid as Edwin T. Layton, Woody Harrelson as Chester Nimitz, William Baldwin as Raymond Spruance, Mark Rolston as William Halsey, Hiro Kanagawa as Isoroku Yamamoto, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Chūichi Nagumo and Yuji Okumoto as Tamon Yamaguchi.
[11] Yes this passion project of Roland Emmerich had been in his mind since the 1990s and William Goldman was interested in the project, but when executives at Sony Pictures balked at the proposed budget, he instead had to direct The Patriot and put the project on hold until he had to raise the money independently, and thus only began development in 2017.
[12] In OTL, Tom Clancy had been in negotiations with Universal Pictures in 1992 to write his first screenplay, 73 Easting, the rights of the story being secured by Vecchio Productions, who was set to have been co-produced with McTiernan's own Tongue River Productions.
From Five and Five: Top and Honourable Netsite, July 7th 2020
5) Chosin (2005)
Released by Columbia Pictures and directed by Edward Zwick, this historical epic/war film tells the tale about a squad of US Marines and their fight to escape a Chinese encirclement during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, in spite of the challenges posed by the difficult terrain, the bitter Korean winter taking it’s toil on both man and machine as well as the prejudices many of the characters hold towards three of the main characters, Terrence Howard’s Private First Class Henry Travis, Tyrese Gibson’s Private Nathaniel Jameson and Derek Luke’s Private Cameron Franklin, in spite that the US military is undergoing a desegregation process, with Arliss Howard’s Captain Aldrich very intolerant, with even Brad Pitt’s Gunnery Sergeant Fuller, Steve Zahn’s Corporal O’Malley and Sean Patrick Flanery’s PFC Durand, who are not outright full-on bigots, displaying varying casual attitudes of intolerance mixed in with respect for their skills as Marines.
The violence is intense, with characters not only sustaining horrific injury from enemy fire, but there’s a scene (which we don’t recommend anyone eat anything while watching) with Marines being treated for frostbite, and doctors cutting off the frozen limbs.
But no words can describe how the Hans Zimmer score just makes your heart sour when Durand, wordlessly, embraces Franklin, relieved to be alive, after Durand and Franklin (who having been forced to survive together) manage to escape and fight their way back to friendly lines.
Although historians will debate over the varying degrees of historical accuracy, Chosin is a great film, and a great look into what many considered a long forgotten conflict[1].
4) Samar (2008)
Released by 20th Century Studios and directed by Shaun Bakerson-Drake, this depiction of one of the greatest last stands in history, during WW2’s Battle of Leyte Gulf, is stunning to behold, with amazing production design and cinematography, intense battle sequences and an amazing score by James Horner.
Produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau, with Cameron’s production company Lightstorm Entertainment cooperating with Bakerson-Drake’s production company, The Torch Entertainment Productions, Samar focuses on multiple viewpoints, one on the Japanese high command as they plan to attack the American landings at the Philippines by luring away Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet, one on the perspective of Haruhiko Yamanouchi’s Admiral Takeo Kurita as he makes his way with his fleet towards Leyte, one on the perspective of Scott Glenn’s Clifton “Ziggy” Sprague as he leads “Taffy 3”, one on Zahn McClarnon’s Ernest Evans as he commands the USS Johnston, one on James Marsden's Petty Officer Second Class Patrick Van Cleave as the audience's view amongst the crew of the Johnston and one on Colin Hanks' Lieutenant Gordon Brooks, pilot of an Wildcat on board the USS Gambier Bay.
Like with Cameron’s Titanic, the film does a spectacular job in bringing the USS Johnston, the central ship of the story, to life by using authentic sets (built with the help of scans of the USS Kidd museum ship), miniatures developed by Thunderbird Studios and the CGI of Digital Domain.
And despite the multiple characters, the script did manage to balance them out well and make good use of the 176-minute runtime, making a great hit and adding another feather to Bakerson-Drake’s cap, although many critics tried to poke holes at any little bit they could find, including at how “Hollywoodized” many lines and actions were in the film (despite the fact that much of the events in the film really actually happened and the quotes in the film were actually said at the battle!)[3].
3) Angels of Death (2002)
Released by Warner Bros. Pictures and (the second one on this list) directed by Shaun Bakerson-Drake, it was the first theatrical production produced by his The Torch Entertainment Productions after it was founded the previous year.
Set on the Eastern Front of the Second World War, Angels of Death gets the look and feel of the Eastern Front right and is inspired by real events with many of it’s characters taking inspiration from real Soviet snipers, as it tells the story of Rachel Weisz’s Tatiana Komova, who suffers tragedy when the Germans arrive at her town and kill her family, before she joins the Red Army, in which she eventually becomes a sniper under the guidance of Natalya Shakirova (played by Sophie Marceau), and Alexei Vavilov (played by Jamie Bamber).
Of course, after Tatiana and Natalya becomes renowned in their efforts, the Germans aren’t taking their actions lying down and send in Major Erik Wolf (played by Christopher Lambert), a German sniper who is tasked by his superior Colonel Roland Adler (played by Karel Roden) to take out the titular “Angels” in the midst of the Battle of Stalingrad, leading to a game of cat-and-mouse as Tatiana seeks the opportunity to take out Adler, who she identifies as being responsible for killing her family.
An atmospheric, thrilling, if somewhat dramatised film, it does quite a good job at bringing to attention events on the Eastern Front, an event rarely covered in Western media[4].
2) Going Over the Top (2009)
A co-production between Working Title Films, StudioCanal, Constantin Film AG, and Universal Pictures, this WW1 film directed by Paul Greengrass depicts two British (Daniel Radcliffe as Henry Marson and Thomas Brodie-Sangster as William Collings) and two German soldiers (Daniel Brühl as Georg Moldenhauer and David Kross as Johannes Petermann) as they experience combat and life within the Trenches of the Western Front from their sides.
Greengrass manages to cave a magnificent story as we watch both sides, with the movie cutting from the British side to the German side at varying times in the film to give perspective on how despite the fact that the two sides are opponents to each other, they actually have a lot in common, in that they were kids who signed up for the adventure of serving their country, only to be brought into what can only be described as “hell on Earth”. And oh boy, does Greengrass manage to capture the conditions correctly. Worth putting on your list of favourite WW1 films if you have one[5].
1) Trafalgar (2005)
Produced by Scott Free Productions, StudioCanal and Pathé and distributed by Paramount Pictures and directed by Ridley Scott, this depiction of the events of the most infamous battle in naval history, on the 21st of October 1805, rightfully takes the top spot on this list due to it’s authentic portrayal of Napoleonic warfare at sea and it’s uniqueness.
There’s just no other film quite like it and only a director such as Ridley Scott would have been able to pull off such a movie, with such high praise by the critics for it’s performances of Guy Pearce’s Horatio Nelson, Brian Cox’s Thomas Hardy, Tchéky Karyo’s Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, Alfred Molina’s Federico Gravina[6] as well as the intense battle sequences, it’s production design, the cinematography, the impressive Hans Zimmer score and the authentic look, feel and sounds of Napoleonic warfare at sea[7].
Five Honourable Mentions:
- Downfall (2004). Released by Constantin Film AG and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, this film about Hitler’s final days in the the Führerbunker in Berlin, while still debated, is notable for Bruno Ganz’s critically acclaimed performance as the infamous dictator, Bernd Eichinger’s screenplay and of course, the numerous parody videos on the internet[8].
- The Red Badge of Courage (2007). Released by MGM and directed by Ron Howard, the third adaptation of Stephen Crane’s 1895 war novel, starring Shia LeBeouf as Henry Fleming, is just spectacular to behold in it’s battle sequences and it’s critically acclaimed performances.
- They Fought Alone (2009). Released by TriStar Pictures and directed by David Fincher, starring Brad Pitt in a biopic about Wendell Fertig, the civil engineer turned resistance leader in the Philippines during the Japanese invasion[9].
- Midway (2006). Released by Columbia Pictures and directed by Roland Emmerich, an all-star cast[10] populate this passion project[11] about the Battle of Midway.
- 73 Easting (2003). Released by Universal Pictures and directed by John McTiernan, Tom Clancy finally gets around to his first original screenplay about three US captains (who clash with their Vietnam veteran superiors) leading the assault on the Republican Guard at the Gulf War’s Battle of 73 Easting, “the last great tank battle of the 20th century”[12].
[1] Chosin (the same one mentioned here) receives positive reviews and is a box office hit, not to mention earning accolades (the Academy Awards especially) and sparking a surge in more Korean War films to be greenlit.
[2] Other cast members of Samar include Mark Rolston as Rear Admiral Ralph Ofstie, Tom Sizemore as Commander Leon S. Kintberger, Eion Bailey as Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland, Donnie Wahlberg as Commander William Dow Thomas, Michael Fassbender as Lieutenant Robert Hagen, Lucas Till as Gunner’s Mate Third Class Paul Henry Carr, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Jisaburō Ozawa, Clyde Kusatsu as Shōji Nishimura, Jun Kunimura as Kiyohide Shima, Sonny Chiba as Tomiji Koyanagi and Hiroyuki Sanada as captain of the Yukikake.
[3] Receives positive reviews and makes a decent profit, not to mention being quite received well by historians for it’s depiction of the Battle of Samar (despite the odd one or two historical inaccuracy here and there) as well as winning Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and nominated for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards.
[4] Received mixed reviews, in which critics will take note on the acting not being up to scratch, and thus will barely make $98 million out of it’s $68 million budget.
[5] A commercial and critical success which earns many accolades from the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards.
[6] Other cast members include in the main cast include Jeremy Irons, Orlando Bloom, David Thewlis, Jude Law, Kenneth Branagh, Clive Owen, Michael Sheen and Heath Ledger.
[7] Critically well received and earning many accolades from the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards, the film will be make around $216 million out of it’s budget of $150 million.
[8] Pretty much the same film as OTL.
[9] In OTL, this film was in discussion as late as August 2000, and Fincher stating that he wanted to direct it in January 2009, with Brad Pitt attached to play the role of Fertig.
[10] Cast members of this Midway (which is pretty similar to OTL, but with a few scenes changed and different scenes included) include Zachary Quinto as Richard “Dick” Best, Karl Urban as C. Wade McClusky, Hugo Weaving as John S. Thach, Dennis Quaid as Edwin T. Layton, Woody Harrelson as Chester Nimitz, William Baldwin as Raymond Spruance, Mark Rolston as William Halsey, Hiro Kanagawa as Isoroku Yamamoto, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Chūichi Nagumo and Yuji Okumoto as Tamon Yamaguchi.
[11] Yes this passion project of Roland Emmerich had been in his mind since the 1990s and William Goldman was interested in the project, but when executives at Sony Pictures balked at the proposed budget, he instead had to direct The Patriot and put the project on hold until he had to raise the money independently, and thus only began development in 2017.
[12] In OTL, Tom Clancy had been in negotiations with Universal Pictures in 1992 to write his first screenplay, 73 Easting, the rights of the story being secured by Vecchio Productions, who was set to have been co-produced with McTiernan's own Tongue River Productions.
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Actual quotes from the Battle of Samar:
“This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can.”
“Brace yourselves boys, we’re sucking them into ack-ack range!”
“(when Johnston is crippled and near sinking) Fire on that cruiser. Draw their fire on us and off the Gambier Bay.”
“(as the Japanese Centre Force finally calls it a day and runs) Damn it, they’re getting away!”
The fact that OTL Hollywood isn’t all over this fight is either baffling or disappointing.
“This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can.”
“Brace yourselves boys, we’re sucking them into ack-ack range!”
“(when Johnston is crippled and near sinking) Fire on that cruiser. Draw their fire on us and off the Gambier Bay.”
“(as the Japanese Centre Force finally calls it a day and runs) Damn it, they’re getting away!”
The fact that OTL Hollywood isn’t all over this fight is either baffling or disappointing.
So… media consolidation (5 companies owning the entire industry) still happens?
Cool tables @newsgeeking!
Hey guys, I'm thinking of maybe doing a guest post for the 30th anniversary of Neptune. Would you guys be interested?
@Plateosaurus?
Hey guys, I'm thinking of maybe doing a guest post for the 30th anniversary of Neptune. Would you guys be interested?
@Plateosaurus?
Remember to Let Her Into your Heart
New
Interview with Judith Barsi and Heather O'Rourke
From Fresh Air with Terry Gross, first aired August 15th, 2009
Guest post by @MNM041 with assistance from @Plateosaurus and @nick_crenshaw82
Barsi and O'Rourke attending the 2005 Academy Awards.
TG: Hello and welcome again to Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross. With me today is actress Jude Barsi, who most recently lent her voice to Disney's Haunted Mansion, as well as her partner, Heather O'Rourke[1], who also contributed to Haunted Mansion having written a large chunk of that film's screenplay. We’re here to talk about their work and the story behind their relationship. Jude, welcome back. Heather, thank you for joining us.
JB: Thanks for having us Terry.
HO: Hello.
TG: We last spoke with Jude back in ‘96 and it's obvious to see that quite a bit has changed since then.
JB: Nah, I'm still pretty much the same. (Laughs)
TG: Jude, you've also recently ventured into writing and directing with Damsel, a deconstruction of classic fairy tale tropes, which came out in 2002. What was the experience like there?
JB: That's right, Damsel was probably one of the funest experiences I've had while working on a movie. I just loved getting the chance to write and direct for the movie. I loved getting to work with Steve Buscemi, he was awesome. It was just incredible and I loved every second of it. I especially loved playing the only Disney princess to have tattoos, that [bleep]ing awesome.
TG: Indeed, if you don't mind me asking, how similar would you feel you are to your character Rebekah?
JB: Well, as I'm one of the people who came up with Rebekah I'd say pretty similar. I mean, I probably don't have the capabilities of pulling off the scams she's pulled, but that's about it.
HO: She's only saying that because she doesn't want to be suspected by the police.
JB: (Laughs) Oh, hush you.
TG: The same year Damsel was released, you also made a rare appearance in a live-action project, with Meet The Joneses: The Guest. That was when you two came back into each other's lives.
JB: Yeah, while I didn't have to wear any oversized tentacles on my head, it certainly was another example of why I prefer doing voice work. Studios need to learn that not everything needs to be a goddamn franchise.
HO: That right there is the same thing Don Mancini told me when I asked him why he wasn't coming back.
TG: Is it true that you two became an item while filming that movie?
JB: We've never been a fan of describing it that way but yeah, things started between us around the end of production. We'd known each other long before that, given she's Drew's best friend[2], but I didn't know much about her before working on that movie.
TG: I see, she's another "survivor of child acting" as you once put it.
JB: That health scare she had was a blessing in disguise.
HO: I'll be the first to tell you that I had it much easier than a lot of my friends.
JB: She never had to deal with creeps who wanted to see her tits the way I or Samantha did. I think at first I was kind of jealous of her, in the same way I was with Samantha, that she had the life I wished I had.
HO: In a weird way, I always felt kind of bad for that. Like whenever I listened to one of my friends vent about the horror stories. I know that sounds insane but that's how I felt.
TG: So Jude, what led you to star in one of her movies then?
JB: I just got over it. (Laughs) I mean, Heather always tried to be nice whenever we hung out and a part of me just felt so bad that I was resentful. She's like this big, excitable kid that you can't help but feel happy around her. So, when she offered me a role, I figured, “If Drew likes her, I should at least be nice to her.”
TG: And how exactly did you become a couple?
HO: This woman saved my life.
JB: (laughs) I wish you would stop saying it like that.
HO: Why? It's pretty much what happened.
JB: You're so dramatic sometimes.
TG: What exactly are you both referring to?
HO: Okay, so I've talked about this before but I suffer from real severe imposter syndrome[3]. Having a lot of people chalk my success up to luck, it affects you.
TG: And you worried that they may be right?
HO: Exactly. Even after Meet The Joneses came out, and I had people comparing me to these horror legends, I had this fear that I didn't deserve it, and I just started pressuring myself that my follow up had to be great. This eventually led me to start drinking to calm my nerves. I hid it well enough that I didn't even think anything was wrong. I always thought that since I wasn't showing up to the set drunk it wasn't affecting me. I wanted to be a director people took seriously. I also have this desperate desire for people to like me and as a result, I refused to let anyone see how stressed I was getting.
TG: Was the fact that Jude had recently come off her own directorial debut a factor in this?
HO: Yeah. Around this time I was also slowly starting to realize I was bi, which also made some early interactions between us weird, because I couldn't tell if I was into her or if I wanted to be her.
JB: (laughs) You really are the only person that would ever say that.
HO: Jude is blessed with the ability to not give a [bleep] about what anyone thinks about her. It's one of the many things I love about her.
JB: Well, either way, Heather may have been good at hiding her issues, but that doesn't mean I couldn't see it.
TG: And you felt like you had to help her?
JB: Yeah, I could tell Heather was having issues, and I wanted to be there for her.
HO: She could tell I was spiraling and reached out to me more times than I probably deserved.
JB: Don't talk like that.
HO: I would basically try to shut down any attempt from her to get close to me, until one day, towards the end of production, in August I wanna say, she just went to my hotel room with Drew, and found me drunk off my ass. I saw the writing on the wall that the movie probably wasn't going to do well, and I was basically crying because I was scared that I was gonna be a joke forever.
JB: Eventually, Drew and I managed to get Heather to a point where she admitted she needed to quit drinking. I ended up being by her side throughout a lot of it just because my own family history with alcohol made me worry about her, but eventually I realized I started to realize that it went deeper than just worry.
TG: That was when you realized you had feelings for her?
JB: Yeah, and I think that realization was terrifying for both of us.
HO: It was especially terrifying for me because I had only ever dated guys, and I found myself worried about all the ways I could screw it up.
TG: In what ways?
JB: I told you about this before but Heather knew about my “type”, how most of the people I dated were too much like my dear old Dad.
HO: Long story short, because of this, I kept worrying that I might [bleep] this up somehow and I don't want to be the reason someone I care about is going to therapy. Then there was the fact that I was technically still Jude's boss at the time, and I didn't want the press to hound her about that.
JB: I had to keep reassuring her in the early days. We ended up finding out eventually that Heather has ADHD, which results in her brain often going a mile a minute. As a result, she'd overthink every little thing and worry about what she could be doing wrong.
HO: Jude ended up getting me into marijuana, which has helped me regulate things. She's just about the one person I know always has faith in me.
TG: Heather, your relationship with Jude also led you to becoming a mental health activist as well.
HO: Yeah, it was part of why I ended up directing those PSAs Jude did with Kurt [Cobain][4]. I think before Jude and I started dating, I kept looking at the comparatively privileged upbringing I had compared to Jude and Drew, and I thought I didn't have a right to complain.
JB: Which I made sure to tell her was complete bull[bleep]. It's not a competition. If you have problems, you shouldn't be afraid to get help for them[5].
HO: I know that she finds it annoying when I say this, but she really did save my life. I've been sober for about seven years now.
JB: I do find it annoying, but I never get tired of how much of a romantic she is.
TG: Did your involvement with Jude play any factor in your decision to sign on for Haunted Mansion as a writer?
HO: Yes, and-
JB: She wrote all my [bleep]ing best lines.
HO: Well, I don't know about that, but I will say that it was a big part of the reason. Writing funny lines for Jude was fairly easy, especially considering I think she's the funniest woman in the world.
JB: Oh, you are such a sap.
HO: You love it.
JB: (Laughs) Sometimes, I feel like I'm dating a Disney princess, so you can certainly see why she was a great fit for Haunted Mansion.
TG: On the subject of family films, you two have recently announced that you were working on one together.
HO: Yeah, A Dinosaur In Central Park - which I’m co-directing with Shawn Levy. It’s a spiritual follow on to my episode of Primeval. It's about a young boy who finds a baby dinosaur in Central Park - Jude plays the main character’s mom.
JB: When you first described that premise, I fully thought it was going to be an animated movie and I was gonna voice the dinosaur.
HO: (Impression of Stryker from Land Before Time) Yeah, but I knew you were starting to get sick of doing voices like this.
JB: (Laughs) Sometimes I regret showing you how to do that voice.
HO: It also came from the fact that Jude and I are moms now.
JB: Yeah. God, that's still so weird to say.
TG: I was just about to get that. Many people were shocked when Jude announced her pregnancy back in 2007[6].
JB: Yeah, I know. It was weird for us when it happened. We'd been living together for a few years by that point. I came by the set for The Wendigo and I saw Heather with the child actors. She's really good with kids, which is always something I really liked about her. I remember I came to set, and I think I saw Heather personally climbing up a tree to help one of the kid actors who had climbed up and was too scared to climb down on their own.
HO: I told them not to wander off like that.
JB: I'd never thought about having kids. My own childhood was so [bleeped] up that it never really felt like a logical step forward… but Heather once told me she wanted to be a mom, and after seeing her with the kids, I ended up thinking that I could see myself having kids with her.
HO: When she told me that, I panicked. We both knew adoption would be an uphill battle because we're not married and surrogacy wouldn't be an option with my health history.
JB: I suddenly blurted out that I'd be willing to do it. After a few months of planning, we were preparing to become Moms.
TG: And how did your pregnancy affect your home life?
JB: Well, Heather already worships the ground I walk on, but during my pregnancy she basically treated me like I was made of glass and she was worried I'd shatter. I'd normally think that was annoying, but it made me feel better about my decision, because I kept thinking, “She's going to be a really good Mom.”
HO: She randomly told me that at one point, and I think I cried when I heard that.
JB: You definitely did.
HO: Well, it was just important to me because I wanted you to feel like it was worth it to just go through all that.
JB: I know, I love you for that.
HO: I think becoming parents was part of what inspired us when it came to writing Dear Old Dad last year, at least on my end.
TG: How so?
HO: Well, I had this fear that I was going to turn into the main character at some point. I already work a lot and I think the notion that I would end up missing out on Jonah's life, it terrified me.
JB: And to clear, she really is a good mom. She had no reason to be worried about becoming that.
HO: Thanks honey.
TG: Jude, if you don't mind me asking, did you ever have similar worries about how you'd be as a parent.
JB: Yeah, I mean, I had this worry that I was just too damaged to connect with a kid. Heather kind of helped me through that.
HO: I wouldn't really say I did much. I just pointed out that there are a lot of young people in the industry who saw Jude as a mentor figure. Especially former child stars. Bridgette is a big example.
TG: That's Bridgette Andersen[7], right?
JB: Yeah, I met her while we were both working on an episode of High School Sucks back in ‘96, three weeks after our first interview now that I think about[8].
HO: Yeah, I suppose I should mention that I'm far from the first person Jude's helped out of a dark place. Whenever Jude sees someone who's struggling, she always tries to reach out.
JB: You make me sound like I'm Wonder Woman.
HO: She could tell that Bridgette was having issues and she helped get to go to rehab.
JB: Then I got Heather to agree to put her in a few of her movies.
HO: Bridgette is an absolute trooper by the way. She actually told me exactly how she wanted to die in both of her appearances in the Meet The Joneses movies.
JB: I think she's got a future behind the camera too.
HO: Yeah, she really does.
TG: Back on topic, Heather, are your fears of being absent in your child's life the reasons behind your comments about wanting to take a break from filmmaking.
HO: Yeah. I suppose I should clarify that I'm not planning on doing that immediately, I still have a few projects lined up, but between those fears and all just not wanting to go through burnout. I still got a bit left before that too. I'd say it also had a bit to do with something Karen told me.
JB: Oh right, did I forget to mention that my girlfriend is just casually friends with Karen [bleep]ing Carpenter. She's actually the reason I got to meet her. It was [bleep]ing cool.
TG: How did that come about?
HO: How'd we become friends or how'd I play a part in her meeting Jude?
TG: Both if you don't mind.
HO: Well, when I was a still a student at NYU, I ended getting a job as a set designer for one of 7 Year Bitch’s music videos, we were shooting in Long Island for reasons I can't really remember, but because of that, Karen Carpenter and Debbie Harry ended up dropping by the set. I knew they were mostly there to talk to the band, because I knew they worked out the production deal for them, but I couldn't resist the urge to introduce myself.
JB: Didn't you say one of them knew who you were?
HO: Vaguely. At one point during the conversation Karen looked me up and down and said, “Hey, aren't you the little girl from Poltergeist?” I think I almost fainted after that.
JB: Which was also my reaction when you took me backstage to meet her after one of her live shows in 2005.
(Heather and Jude both laugh)
HO: Back on topic, Karen and I became friends through our working relationship. I've used her music for three of my movies so far, and since she owns the masters to all her music outright. She is without a doubt, one of the nicest people I've ever met.
JB: She [bleep]ing rules.
TG: So, you said your friendship with Carpenter influenced your desire to step back eventually?
HO: Yeah, she told me she was worried I was overworking myself. She told me, “You keep working yourself like this, you and Jonah are gonna have a lot of catching up to do.” I do think she meant to make me worried about how present I am, but that ended up being what happened. I think it ended up being a wake up call for me because it made me reexamine how much parenting duties both covered.
JB: Yeah, so I'll end up being the breadwinner pretty soon.
(Heather and Jude laugh)
HO: Terry, I'm just going say it right now. God willing, I'm going to marry this woman some day[9].
JB: Yeah, I know I started this interview by saying that I'm a hell of a lot happier than I was back in ‘96.
TG: I certainly can tell. We'll need to take a short break. We’ll be back in a few minutes to speak more with Jude and Heather. This is Fresh Air on NPR.
— — — —
[1] This is a sort of sequel to a post from the main timeline, entitled Hey Jude.
[2] This was mentioned in a previous post about Heather. During the hiatus she had after a health scare, Drew was essentially the only famous friend she maintained contact with.
[3] This is an idea I came up with due to the fact that I had unintentionally given Heather a lot of lucky breaks, and felt like it would be fairly easy for someone in her position to fall into these traps.
[4] Credit to @Geekhis Khan for that idea.
[5] A message to anyone reading this: take care of yourself, no matter what they are, your problems are valid.
[6] Jonah ends up being born December 27th of that year, sharing a birthday with his other Mom.
[7] This person: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgette_Andersen
[8] Anderson appears as one of the young girls Jude's character “baited” as it was put in the original “Hey Jude” chapter.
[9] @Geekhis Khan had indicated that same sex marriage is likely legalized around the same time. Since Jude and Heather live in California, that day for them ends up coming in 2013.
From Fresh Air with Terry Gross, first aired August 15th, 2009
Guest post by @MNM041 with assistance from @Plateosaurus and @nick_crenshaw82
Barsi and O'Rourke attending the 2005 Academy Awards.
TG: Hello and welcome again to Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross. With me today is actress Jude Barsi, who most recently lent her voice to Disney's Haunted Mansion, as well as her partner, Heather O'Rourke[1], who also contributed to Haunted Mansion having written a large chunk of that film's screenplay. We’re here to talk about their work and the story behind their relationship. Jude, welcome back. Heather, thank you for joining us.
JB: Thanks for having us Terry.
HO: Hello.
TG: We last spoke with Jude back in ‘96 and it's obvious to see that quite a bit has changed since then.
JB: Nah, I'm still pretty much the same. (Laughs)
TG: Jude, you've also recently ventured into writing and directing with Damsel, a deconstruction of classic fairy tale tropes, which came out in 2002. What was the experience like there?
JB: That's right, Damsel was probably one of the funest experiences I've had while working on a movie. I just loved getting the chance to write and direct for the movie. I loved getting to work with Steve Buscemi, he was awesome. It was just incredible and I loved every second of it. I especially loved playing the only Disney princess to have tattoos, that [bleep]ing awesome.
TG: Indeed, if you don't mind me asking, how similar would you feel you are to your character Rebekah?
JB: Well, as I'm one of the people who came up with Rebekah I'd say pretty similar. I mean, I probably don't have the capabilities of pulling off the scams she's pulled, but that's about it.
HO: She's only saying that because she doesn't want to be suspected by the police.
JB: (Laughs) Oh, hush you.
TG: The same year Damsel was released, you also made a rare appearance in a live-action project, with Meet The Joneses: The Guest. That was when you two came back into each other's lives.
JB: Yeah, while I didn't have to wear any oversized tentacles on my head, it certainly was another example of why I prefer doing voice work. Studios need to learn that not everything needs to be a goddamn franchise.
HO: That right there is the same thing Don Mancini told me when I asked him why he wasn't coming back.
TG: Is it true that you two became an item while filming that movie?
JB: We've never been a fan of describing it that way but yeah, things started between us around the end of production. We'd known each other long before that, given she's Drew's best friend[2], but I didn't know much about her before working on that movie.
TG: I see, she's another "survivor of child acting" as you once put it.
JB: That health scare she had was a blessing in disguise.
HO: I'll be the first to tell you that I had it much easier than a lot of my friends.
JB: She never had to deal with creeps who wanted to see her tits the way I or Samantha did. I think at first I was kind of jealous of her, in the same way I was with Samantha, that she had the life I wished I had.
HO: In a weird way, I always felt kind of bad for that. Like whenever I listened to one of my friends vent about the horror stories. I know that sounds insane but that's how I felt.
TG: So Jude, what led you to star in one of her movies then?
JB: I just got over it. (Laughs) I mean, Heather always tried to be nice whenever we hung out and a part of me just felt so bad that I was resentful. She's like this big, excitable kid that you can't help but feel happy around her. So, when she offered me a role, I figured, “If Drew likes her, I should at least be nice to her.”
TG: And how exactly did you become a couple?
HO: This woman saved my life.
JB: (laughs) I wish you would stop saying it like that.
HO: Why? It's pretty much what happened.
JB: You're so dramatic sometimes.
TG: What exactly are you both referring to?
HO: Okay, so I've talked about this before but I suffer from real severe imposter syndrome[3]. Having a lot of people chalk my success up to luck, it affects you.
TG: And you worried that they may be right?
HO: Exactly. Even after Meet The Joneses came out, and I had people comparing me to these horror legends, I had this fear that I didn't deserve it, and I just started pressuring myself that my follow up had to be great. This eventually led me to start drinking to calm my nerves. I hid it well enough that I didn't even think anything was wrong. I always thought that since I wasn't showing up to the set drunk it wasn't affecting me. I wanted to be a director people took seriously. I also have this desperate desire for people to like me and as a result, I refused to let anyone see how stressed I was getting.
TG: Was the fact that Jude had recently come off her own directorial debut a factor in this?
HO: Yeah. Around this time I was also slowly starting to realize I was bi, which also made some early interactions between us weird, because I couldn't tell if I was into her or if I wanted to be her.
JB: (laughs) You really are the only person that would ever say that.
HO: Jude is blessed with the ability to not give a [bleep] about what anyone thinks about her. It's one of the many things I love about her.
JB: Well, either way, Heather may have been good at hiding her issues, but that doesn't mean I couldn't see it.
TG: And you felt like you had to help her?
JB: Yeah, I could tell Heather was having issues, and I wanted to be there for her.
HO: She could tell I was spiraling and reached out to me more times than I probably deserved.
JB: Don't talk like that.
HO: I would basically try to shut down any attempt from her to get close to me, until one day, towards the end of production, in August I wanna say, she just went to my hotel room with Drew, and found me drunk off my ass. I saw the writing on the wall that the movie probably wasn't going to do well, and I was basically crying because I was scared that I was gonna be a joke forever.
JB: Eventually, Drew and I managed to get Heather to a point where she admitted she needed to quit drinking. I ended up being by her side throughout a lot of it just because my own family history with alcohol made me worry about her, but eventually I realized I started to realize that it went deeper than just worry.
TG: That was when you realized you had feelings for her?
JB: Yeah, and I think that realization was terrifying for both of us.
HO: It was especially terrifying for me because I had only ever dated guys, and I found myself worried about all the ways I could screw it up.
TG: In what ways?
JB: I told you about this before but Heather knew about my “type”, how most of the people I dated were too much like my dear old Dad.
HO: Long story short, because of this, I kept worrying that I might [bleep] this up somehow and I don't want to be the reason someone I care about is going to therapy. Then there was the fact that I was technically still Jude's boss at the time, and I didn't want the press to hound her about that.
JB: I had to keep reassuring her in the early days. We ended up finding out eventually that Heather has ADHD, which results in her brain often going a mile a minute. As a result, she'd overthink every little thing and worry about what she could be doing wrong.
HO: Jude ended up getting me into marijuana, which has helped me regulate things. She's just about the one person I know always has faith in me.
TG: Heather, your relationship with Jude also led you to becoming a mental health activist as well.
HO: Yeah, it was part of why I ended up directing those PSAs Jude did with Kurt [Cobain][4]. I think before Jude and I started dating, I kept looking at the comparatively privileged upbringing I had compared to Jude and Drew, and I thought I didn't have a right to complain.
JB: Which I made sure to tell her was complete bull[bleep]. It's not a competition. If you have problems, you shouldn't be afraid to get help for them[5].
HO: I know that she finds it annoying when I say this, but she really did save my life. I've been sober for about seven years now.
JB: I do find it annoying, but I never get tired of how much of a romantic she is.
TG: Did your involvement with Jude play any factor in your decision to sign on for Haunted Mansion as a writer?
HO: Yes, and-
JB: She wrote all my [bleep]ing best lines.
HO: Well, I don't know about that, but I will say that it was a big part of the reason. Writing funny lines for Jude was fairly easy, especially considering I think she's the funniest woman in the world.
JB: Oh, you are such a sap.
HO: You love it.
JB: (Laughs) Sometimes, I feel like I'm dating a Disney princess, so you can certainly see why she was a great fit for Haunted Mansion.
TG: On the subject of family films, you two have recently announced that you were working on one together.
HO: Yeah, A Dinosaur In Central Park - which I’m co-directing with Shawn Levy. It’s a spiritual follow on to my episode of Primeval. It's about a young boy who finds a baby dinosaur in Central Park - Jude plays the main character’s mom.
JB: When you first described that premise, I fully thought it was going to be an animated movie and I was gonna voice the dinosaur.
HO: (Impression of Stryker from Land Before Time) Yeah, but I knew you were starting to get sick of doing voices like this.
JB: (Laughs) Sometimes I regret showing you how to do that voice.
HO: It also came from the fact that Jude and I are moms now.
JB: Yeah. God, that's still so weird to say.
TG: I was just about to get that. Many people were shocked when Jude announced her pregnancy back in 2007[6].
JB: Yeah, I know. It was weird for us when it happened. We'd been living together for a few years by that point. I came by the set for The Wendigo and I saw Heather with the child actors. She's really good with kids, which is always something I really liked about her. I remember I came to set, and I think I saw Heather personally climbing up a tree to help one of the kid actors who had climbed up and was too scared to climb down on their own.
HO: I told them not to wander off like that.
JB: I'd never thought about having kids. My own childhood was so [bleeped] up that it never really felt like a logical step forward… but Heather once told me she wanted to be a mom, and after seeing her with the kids, I ended up thinking that I could see myself having kids with her.
HO: When she told me that, I panicked. We both knew adoption would be an uphill battle because we're not married and surrogacy wouldn't be an option with my health history.
JB: I suddenly blurted out that I'd be willing to do it. After a few months of planning, we were preparing to become Moms.
TG: And how did your pregnancy affect your home life?
JB: Well, Heather already worships the ground I walk on, but during my pregnancy she basically treated me like I was made of glass and she was worried I'd shatter. I'd normally think that was annoying, but it made me feel better about my decision, because I kept thinking, “She's going to be a really good Mom.”
HO: She randomly told me that at one point, and I think I cried when I heard that.
JB: You definitely did.
HO: Well, it was just important to me because I wanted you to feel like it was worth it to just go through all that.
JB: I know, I love you for that.
HO: I think becoming parents was part of what inspired us when it came to writing Dear Old Dad last year, at least on my end.
TG: How so?
HO: Well, I had this fear that I was going to turn into the main character at some point. I already work a lot and I think the notion that I would end up missing out on Jonah's life, it terrified me.
JB: And to clear, she really is a good mom. She had no reason to be worried about becoming that.
HO: Thanks honey.
TG: Jude, if you don't mind me asking, did you ever have similar worries about how you'd be as a parent.
JB: Yeah, I mean, I had this worry that I was just too damaged to connect with a kid. Heather kind of helped me through that.
HO: I wouldn't really say I did much. I just pointed out that there are a lot of young people in the industry who saw Jude as a mentor figure. Especially former child stars. Bridgette is a big example.
TG: That's Bridgette Andersen[7], right?
JB: Yeah, I met her while we were both working on an episode of High School Sucks back in ‘96, three weeks after our first interview now that I think about[8].
HO: Yeah, I suppose I should mention that I'm far from the first person Jude's helped out of a dark place. Whenever Jude sees someone who's struggling, she always tries to reach out.
JB: You make me sound like I'm Wonder Woman.
HO: She could tell that Bridgette was having issues and she helped get to go to rehab.
JB: Then I got Heather to agree to put her in a few of her movies.
HO: Bridgette is an absolute trooper by the way. She actually told me exactly how she wanted to die in both of her appearances in the Meet The Joneses movies.
JB: I think she's got a future behind the camera too.
HO: Yeah, she really does.
TG: Back on topic, Heather, are your fears of being absent in your child's life the reasons behind your comments about wanting to take a break from filmmaking.
HO: Yeah. I suppose I should clarify that I'm not planning on doing that immediately, I still have a few projects lined up, but between those fears and all just not wanting to go through burnout. I still got a bit left before that too. I'd say it also had a bit to do with something Karen told me.
JB: Oh right, did I forget to mention that my girlfriend is just casually friends with Karen [bleep]ing Carpenter. She's actually the reason I got to meet her. It was [bleep]ing cool.
TG: How did that come about?
HO: How'd we become friends or how'd I play a part in her meeting Jude?
TG: Both if you don't mind.
HO: Well, when I was a still a student at NYU, I ended getting a job as a set designer for one of 7 Year Bitch’s music videos, we were shooting in Long Island for reasons I can't really remember, but because of that, Karen Carpenter and Debbie Harry ended up dropping by the set. I knew they were mostly there to talk to the band, because I knew they worked out the production deal for them, but I couldn't resist the urge to introduce myself.
JB: Didn't you say one of them knew who you were?
HO: Vaguely. At one point during the conversation Karen looked me up and down and said, “Hey, aren't you the little girl from Poltergeist?” I think I almost fainted after that.
JB: Which was also my reaction when you took me backstage to meet her after one of her live shows in 2005.
(Heather and Jude both laugh)
HO: Back on topic, Karen and I became friends through our working relationship. I've used her music for three of my movies so far, and since she owns the masters to all her music outright. She is without a doubt, one of the nicest people I've ever met.
JB: She [bleep]ing rules.
TG: So, you said your friendship with Carpenter influenced your desire to step back eventually?
HO: Yeah, she told me she was worried I was overworking myself. She told me, “You keep working yourself like this, you and Jonah are gonna have a lot of catching up to do.” I do think she meant to make me worried about how present I am, but that ended up being what happened. I think it ended up being a wake up call for me because it made me reexamine how much parenting duties both covered.
JB: Yeah, so I'll end up being the breadwinner pretty soon.
(Heather and Jude laugh)
HO: Terry, I'm just going say it right now. God willing, I'm going to marry this woman some day[9].
JB: Yeah, I know I started this interview by saying that I'm a hell of a lot happier than I was back in ‘96.
TG: I certainly can tell. We'll need to take a short break. We’ll be back in a few minutes to speak more with Jude and Heather. This is Fresh Air on NPR.
— — — —
[1] This is a sort of sequel to a post from the main timeline, entitled Hey Jude.
[2] This was mentioned in a previous post about Heather. During the hiatus she had after a health scare, Drew was essentially the only famous friend she maintained contact with.
[3] This is an idea I came up with due to the fact that I had unintentionally given Heather a lot of lucky breaks, and felt like it would be fairly easy for someone in her position to fall into these traps.
[4] Credit to @Geekhis Khan for that idea.
[5] A message to anyone reading this: take care of yourself, no matter what they are, your problems are valid.
[6] Jonah ends up being born December 27th of that year, sharing a birthday with his other Mom.
[7] This person: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgette_Andersen
[8] Anderson appears as one of the young girls Jude's character “baited” as it was put in the original “Hey Jude” chapter.
[9] @Geekhis Khan had indicated that same sex marriage is likely legalized around the same time. Since Jude and Heather live in California, that day for them ends up coming in 2013.
Last edited:
There are a couple of things I noticed that might need a bit of tweaking...
Alright, could you message me about them or would you rather just tell me here?
Say, did Barsi ever go back for the Land Before Time sequels in this TL? I think Ducky was one of her favorite roles.
I'd assume so, but my understanding is that Ducky wasn't named Ducky ITTL.