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Hollywood Hype Machine: Difference between revisions
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The [[Hollywood Hype Machine]] refers to the massive set-up that is in place to create said new stars, or new TV shows, books or movies. An aspiring, good-looking young actor or actress, after getting a few noteworthy roles in indie films, TV shows, or [[Limey Goes to Hollywood|their home country]] under their belt, will be chosen by a studio to be the "Next Big Thing" (or "It Girl" if they're female) and will thus get a major headlining role. They'll immediately appear in celebrity magazines and on entertainment programs and be touted as the Next Big Thing, and they'll give interviews in every medium possible. Several new roles will be announced at once. Tabloids will start following them around. Men's/women's interest magazines will be lining up to offer them [[Public Exposure|a sexy photo shoot]]. They'll show up to host ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''. They'll make ''People'''s list of the 50 Most Beautiful People and, if they're female, the "Top 100 Hottest Women" list of any men's magazine. Meanwhile, failed stars will suddenly drop off these lists. Did they suddenly become less good-looking? No, they're just not worth pushing any more.
If the resulting push succeeds, great. [[Star-Derailing Role|If it bombs...]]? Well, the star will linger for a year or two before disappearing, as people wonder "what the hell ever happened to...?". At best, they will continue working in indie flicks, low-key studio pictures, and television, and may even be able to [[Career Resurrection|mount a comeback later]]. At worst, they will be in rehab, unemployment lines, and "Where Are They Now?" specials ([[Bleached Underpants|or]] [[The Internet Is for Porn|worse]]). Sometimes the actors [[Celebrity Is Overrated|reject Hollywood]] for a normal life, get overwhelmed and suffer public burn-outs, or become too associated [[I Am Not Spock|with a particular role]].
The Hollywood Hype Machine is very fickle, but has a never-ending supply of willing young stars and starlets ready to take the place of the old one. The reason that magazines, tabloids and TV shows (even ones unaffiliated with Hollywood studios) get into it is because, by pushing these new big stars, they can have big headlines and have paparazzi follow ''them'' around, thus selling more magazines and getting higher ratings.
Not even the might of the Hype Machine can determine what the public's tastes are going to be and while it can be powerful, it requires a certain delicacy of touch; trying ''too'' hard to make someone the Next Big Thing is a very good way of [[Hype Backlash|making the public sick of them very quickly]]. Still, The very existence of Hollywood and the television industry depends on fresh young talent. It's likely that every major star of today, good and bad, has at one point benefited from this.
Women seem more affected by this than men, perhaps as a result of roles and stardom coming to the most recent pretty new girl on the scene. As the female stars age, Hollywood decides they aren't [[White Dwarf Starlet|pretty enough anymore]], and casts the new young thing. Male stars, meanwhile, are offered a lot more leeway with their looks, and can even be downright unattractive (and can therefore get known for things besides their bodies), so they are less affected and are generally less replaceable. The main exceptions are, of course, young [[Bishonen]] actors whose main purpose is to make young women [[Squee]] their way to the theater. For every [[Leonardo DiCaprio]] who makes it to the top, there are countless young studs off of [[The WB]] or [[The CW]] who don't.
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* Marion Davies is a famous historical example, since it was William Randolph Hearst who financed her bid for movie stardom. While her looks were as good as people expected from a former Ziegfeld girl, and she was far more talented and off-screen amiable than her [[Roman à Clef]] opera singer counterpart in ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', Hearst kept pushing for her to be cast in heavy-duty "respectable" dramatic roles when [[Comedy Ghetto|she was much better at comedy]].
* [[Jessica Biel]] seems to be headed this way, much to her fans' chagrin. Despite a lot of hype early on from ''[[7th Heaven|Seventh Heaven]]'', an amazing fitness-girl body that frequently shows up in magazines, constantly dating other stars (like [[Justin Timberlake]]), and several potential break-out roles, she has had a string of critically trashed box-office bombs like ''[[Blade (film)|Blade: Trinity]]'' and ''[[Stealth]]'' (a massive critical and box office bomb that also sank Jamie Foxx's post-''Ray'' hype), and when she finally got naked in a "serious" movie (hoping for the extra career boost that it usually provides hot, young, fading actresses), it was a straight-to-video stripper role (''Powder Blue'') that earned her zero legit cred - and sadly for all concerned is more likely to be remembered as [[Patrick Swayze]]'s final film. To date, despite being on tons of magazine covers, she's still just a minor star.
* Denise Richards started out with mostly mediocre movies, but got breast implants and an all-star nude role in ''[[Wild Things]]'', making her a household name ([[Ms. Fanservice|amongst men]]) overnight. A bit of the Hype Machine got underway, but most of her subsequent films were trashed by critics and weren't too successful at the box-office (with the exception of ''[[The World Is Not Enough]]'', and [[James Bond|that was hardly down to her]]), she stopped doing nudity and basically vanished from Hollywood within the year. A failed marriage to [[Charlie Sheen]] later, and she's now more tabloid-bait than an actual star.
* Kate Bosworth had bit parts and a cancelled-after-one-season TV show on [[The WB]] called ''Young Americans'' before her starring role in ''Blue Crush''. Once that hit, she was catapulted to the position of It Girl, hyped as the greatest and most beautiful actress of her generation (sometimes this phrase was used pretty much verbatim), and she became a regular tabloid and fashion mag staple because she was dating the premiere heartthrob of the time. Fast forwarding to 2010, and just about every film since ''Blue Crush,'' with the exception of maybe ''[[Superman Returns]]'', has been a critical and/or commercial failure, though not for lack of trying for that great comeback.
** Rachel Bilson, Bosworth's co-star in the upcoming film ''BFF and Baby,'' which no one seems to expect much from, was something of a TV It Girl during her days on ''[[The OC]]''. Once that ended, Bilson did a few underperforming films and forgettable TV appearances and, like Bosworth, is now mostly known for attending various Hollywood functions and getting paparazzi photos of herself performing mundane daily tasks. However, she did score a TV series with ''[[Hart of Dixie]]'', which did at least get renewed for a second season.
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* The younger actors in ''[[American Beauty]]'', [[Thora Birch]], Wes Bentley, and Mena Suvari. The three got huge pushes from the movie but none of them ever really amounted to anything. Suvari was probably the most successful (as she also got major hype from ''[[American Pie]]'') but all in all is not that big of a star.
** As for the other two, Birch had already established herself before the film but had a [[Star-Derailing Role]] in the form of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (film)|Dungeons and Dragons]]''. She won acclaim for ''[[Ghost World]]'' but threw any momentum away when she refused to part ways with her father, whose [[Stage Mom]] tendencies cost her major roles.
** Meanwhile, Bentley got some notable roles but an out of control drug habit seemed to have destroyed his career. However, he has no less than six films scheduled for released in 2012, including a role in the highly anticipated film version of ''[[The Hunger Games]]'', so only time will tell if he can [[Career Resurrection|make it work]] or disappear into oblivion.
* Dougray Scott got a lot of hype after his role as Prince Charming in ''[[Ever After (film)|Ever After]]'' and soon became the frontrunner for roles such as [[X-Men (film)|Wolverine]] and [[James Bond]]. But after ''[[Mission Impossible]] II'' went over schedule, he was forced to give up the Wolverine role to a little-known Australian actor named [[Hugh Jackman]]. While Jackman became a huge star, Scott's career fell into a tailspin as he's spent much of his career toiling away in TV movies, short-lived TV series (plus a single season on ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'', just as the show was beginning its long descent in ratings and buzz) and little-seen movies (his possible low point being the 2011 film ''Love's Kitchen'', which grossed just £121 at the UK box office).
* Emile Hirsch was an rising star who had built up much acclaim from films such as ''[[Into the Wild]]'' and ''[[Alpha Dog]]''. Then the failure of ''[[Speed Racer (film)|Speed Racer]]'' (an attempt to turn him into a big star) more or less led his hype to dry up, as he would not appear in another lead role until the 2011 flop ''The Darkest Hour''. Though he still has the occasional supporting role, Hirsch's time seems to have passed.
* After appearing in a number of well-regarded supporting appearances in various films and TV shows, Brandon Routh got a massive push when he was cast in the role made famous by Christopher Reeve in ''[[Superman Returns]]'' in 2006. His [[Star-Making Role]] ended up being a dead end when the film received mixed reviews, general viewer apathy and (despite making $400 million at the box office) negative profit due to prior production costs. Routh then disappeared for two years before landing a pair of cameo roles in a couple of films (''[[Zack and Miri Make a Porno]]'', ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'') and a guest spot on the third season of ''[[Chuck]]'', all of which failed to make much impact with audiences. His intended comeback in ''Dylan Dog: Dead of Night'', based on a bestselling comic series, also flopped at the box office ($4 million against a $20 million budget). Barring a major hit, it seems like he'll be stuck making small indie projects for quite some time.
* Mike Myers was one of the bigger stars of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' at the turn of [[The Nineties]], especially after a movie based on the ''[[Wayne's World]]'' sketches he toplined was a hit. The sequel and ''So I Married an Ax Murderer'' weren't as successful, but a few years after those he struck gold with the first ''[[Austin Powers]]'' film and [[Acting for Two|his two highly quotable characters in it]]. Though not a box-office blockbuster, it proved so successful on the video market that the 1999 sequel ''was''. His star rose even higher after he voiced the title character in ''[[Shrek]]''. But he developed a reputation for being egotistical and tough to work with, walked out of a planned movie adaptation of the ''SNL'' "Sprockets" sketches, and the ''Austin Powers'' sequels were met with frostier critical reactions (primarily due to [[Refuge in Vulgarity]] and [[Sequelitis]]) than the original had. A [[Star-Derailing Role]] came with his critically roasted turn as ''[[The Cat in the Hat]]'' in 2003, which was so terrible that [[Franchise Killer|Dr. Seuss' estate has prohibited any more live-action adaptations of his works]], and it was his last live-action leading role for five years. In the interim he continued with the ''Shrek'' franchise, but ''that'' went into decline with the third installment. 2008's ''[[The Love Guru]]'' was intended as a comeback vehicle but bombed spectacularly. With the ''Shrek'' saga closing out quietly in 2010, and no leading roles in the pipeline, early hopes that he would be the second coming of [[Peter Sellers]] have proven unfounded.
* [[Martin|Martin Lawrence]] was one of the fastest rising comedian stars of [[The Nineties|the '90s]]. His sitcom, ''Martin'', was incredibly popular and then in 1995 he starred along with Will Smith in ''[[Bad Boys]]'', which was the [[Star-Making Role]] for both actors.<ref>For extra irony, Lawrence was actually the top billed actor at that.</ref> Unfortunately, real life drug issues and a sexual harassment suit would cause the ending of the popular sitcom. On the film side, while [[Will Smith]] went on to star in other [[Men in Black|smash]] [[Independence Day|hits]], Lawrence stuck with acting in comedies that only produced lukewarm responses (the first ''Big Mamma's House'' film and ''[[Wild Hogs]]'' arguably being exceptions).
=== Examples that ''did'' hold up: ===
* [[Angelina Jolie]]. Years of indie-cred roles in ''[[Gia]]'', ''[[Hackers]]'', and other films paid off with a big push from ''[[Girl, Interrupted]]'' in 1999, which won her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and resulted in a near-endless push that got her big roles in such films as ''[[Lara Croft: Tomb Raider|Lara Croft Tomb Raider]]'' and ''[[Mr. and Mrs. Smith]]''. When the latter got her together with [[Brad Pitt]], the "Brangelina" media juggernaut was born. Clearly a major success story for everyone involved, as her films do generally well (though she stopped making them so quickly and focused on her home life and activist work), and the magazines get to make money off of her image (proof that being tabloid-bait isn't ''always'' a bad thing -- only if that's ''all'' you're known for). Ironically, Jolie has stated on several occasions that she wants to give up acting for her growing family.
* [[Tom Cruise]] got a big push in [[The Eighties]], and tons of film roles. Virtually every one proved to be a success. Obviously, he kept on being famous and having huge box office smashes until he royally screwed up and [[Creator Breakdown|went crazy]] in the mid-2000s, with the infamous couch-jumping incident on ''[[The Oprah Winfrey Show]]'' being the telltale sign of his downfall. Twenty years? A pretty good run. Currently, he and the Hype Machine are going into overdrive to re-make him as a successful A-Lister, as he [[Adam Westing|pokes fun at himself]] with humorous roles, and tries to fit back into the "romantic Action Hero" archetype once again. Now that ''[[Mission Impossible (film)|Mission Impossible]] IV'' is out to rave reviews, a [[Career Resurrection]] may not be far away.
* [[Nicole Kidman]] received a big push after earning critical praise for her role in ''To Die For'', and her career has held up pretty well since then. Though her career didn't really take off until Tom Cruise dumped her and she won an Oscar for her role in ''[[The Hours]]''.
* [[Heath Ledger]] started out as this in a big way, to the point where they even made a joke about it in ''[[Josie and the Pussycats (film)|Josie and The Pussycats]]''. However, the reclusive Ledger went back to having a low profile until ''[[Brokeback Mountain]]'' established him as an actor to truly be taken seriously. Sadly, he then experienced the greatest career surge of all -- [[Dead Artists Are Better|a premature death]]. ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'' helped establish his legacy, and the very least, he will be more remembered for his latest work than for being a [[Teen Idol]].
* [[Leonardo DiCaprio]]. Being the romantic, [[Bishonen]] male lead in [[Titanic|the highest-grossing film (before inflation) of the 20th century]] will turn anyone into a star. However, while ''[[Titanic]]'' wound up getting hit hard with [[Hype Backlash]] and became [[Deader Than Disco]] in less than a decade, DiCaprio's career and reputation managed to come out almost fully intact, thanks mainly to his work with [[Martin Scorsese]], as well as the fact that, post-''Titanic'', he did very few movies to avoid over-exposing himself.
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** [[Anne Hathaway]], for instance, became an acclaimed actress only after ''leaving'' the Disney machine and going for legit cred in ''[[Brokeback Mountain]]'' and ''[[Rachel Getting Married]]''.
** [[Zac Efron]] has so far achieved the most success out of any of his ''[[High School Musical]]'' castmates. Despite that, [[17 Again|he's only had one bonafide hit.]] So time will tell whether he can successfully make the transition.
** Ironically, [[Shia LaBeouf]] - who ''didn't'' get the hype machine from Disney like his contemporaries - has had the most post-Disney success due to being the star of the ''Transformers'' series. He's now in a similar predicament to Orlando Bloom, whether he'll find success outside of the major franchise that put him in the public eye.
* The cast of the [[MTV]] reality show ''[[Laguna Beach]]'' fell under this. When it premiered, ''Laguna'' was the first teen-oriented reality series on the network, and rode a wave of commercial acclaim, teen mag appearances and ratings domination. The teenage cast members all attempted to parlay their exposure into different avenues (to various levels of success), with most falling into obscurity after high-profile appearances in series or films. Lauren Conrad made the jump to her own successful spinoff, ''[[The Hills]]'', but left the program after several seasons to unsuccessfully try her hand at a fashion line. Kristin Cavallari took up Lauren's spot as the main character of ''The Hills'', but she mostly does DTV films now. Jason Wahler is more well-known for his guest stint on ''Celebrity Rehab'' than any of his prior work. Audrina Patridge's self-titled spinoff didn't last long. Only Stephen Colletti from the first season (who parlayed his fame into a long-running role on ''[[One Tree Hill]]'') has had a relative degree of success.
* [[Jennifer Lopez]] practically became an A-list star overnight after her performance in ''[[Selena]]'' was praised by critics, and she followed it up with several critically acclaimed films such as ''[[Out of Sight]]'' and ''[[The Cell]]''. She also became noteworthy for being one of the few thespians who was able to successfully juggle both a singing and acting career. Though some critics were disappointed when she later switched over to starring in middling romantic comedies like ''The Wedding Planner'', ''[[Monster-in-Law]]'', and ''[[Maid in Manhattan]]'', but her films were still successful box-office wise for the most part, and even the critically mauled ''Gigli'' didn't seem to stall her career much. But then she took a four-year break from her film career, and her first film since her break, ''The Back-Up Plan'' received worse reviews then any other film she's starred in so far, so while Lopez is still getting work in films ([[American Idol|and television]]), it's pretty likely she'll never return to her former A-list status.
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* [[Ryan Reynolds]], who had the fortune/misfortune of coming along when Hollywood had a dearth of young leading males. After getting his big break in the ABC series ''[[Two Guys, a Girl And A Pizza Place]]'', Reynolds starred in a number of well-regarded comedic roles. However, most of his films from the late '00s and early '10s (with the exception of ''Buried'') received mixed reviews at best. His intended dramatic breakout performance in 2011's ''[[Green Lantern (film)|Green Lantern]]'' was also a critical and commercial underperformer. It's hard to say how well his career will turn out at this point, though the success of his 2012 film ''Safe House'' (though Denzel Washington was obviously the big draw, and there's a lot of debate about how much Reynolds' presence really contributed) could help him regain momentum.
* The boys of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]].'' Both [[Jensen Ackles]] and [[Jared Padalecki]] have gotten incredible praise for the show (including helping to raise it above the [[Sci Fi Ghetto]]), and for being a couple of members of "Young Hot Hollywood" who can actually act instead of relying on being solely [[Estrogen Brigade Bait]]. However, both of their attempts at film careers after starting ''Supernatural'' (Jensen in the ''[[My Bloody Valentine (film)|My Bloody Valentine]]'' remake and Jared in the new ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the 13 th]]'') went nowhere. The big test will be when they branch out of the sci-fi/horror genre, and when ''Supernatural'' ends and they can be choosier about film roles (since right now they are limited to what they can do while ''Supernatural'' is on break).
* Patrick Dempsey had a serviceable but unremarkable film career for awhile. Once ''[[Grey's Anatomy|Greys Anatomy]]'' became successful, Hollywood started trying to promote him as the next big thing. Of the leading-man roles he's had since then, only ''[[Enchanted]]'' was really a critical and / or commercial success, and that one was arguably helped by having the Disney name behind it as well. His other roles haven't really set the world on fire.
* Gemma Arterton began being hyped as the next big UK starlet after a [[One-Scene Wonder]] role as Strawberry Fields in ''[[Quantum of Solace]]'' (managing to overshadow even lead female Olga Kurylenko). However, none of her post 007 roles (''[[The Disappearance of Alice Creed]]'', ''[[Tamara Drewe]]'', ''[[Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time|Prince of Persia the Sands of Time]]'', ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'') have managed to meet the hype. There's still a slight chance that she could pull it off but it's looking very unlikely.
* [[Justin Timberlake]]: A lot of ups and downs for this pretty boy. His entrance into Hollywood was rough: ''[[Alpha Dog]]'' had mixed reviews, but his performance was mostly praised. Then ''[[Southland Tales]]'', ''[[Shrek]] the Third'', and ''[[The Love Guru]]'' pretty much ruined the careers of everyone involved, including him. Nobody cared for ''The Open Road'', but then ''[[The Social Network]]'' gave him a massive career boost. From then on it was bumpy again: voicing [[Yogi Bear|another CGI character]], picking [[In Time|the wrong sci-fi thriller]] to star in, and being [[Friends with Benefits (film)|hit]] or [[Bad Teacher|miss]] with the rom-com genre.
* [[Seth Rogen]] has been dancing around this trope for a while. He's been acting since the late nineties but he got his biggest push from ''[[Knocked Up]]'' in 2007. Like Michael Cera, He was then on the receiving end of criticism for playing the same character (The vulgar but loveable slacker) too many times in films that weren't successful or were despite his presence. Though he earned back quite a bit of cred with his surprising dramatic performance in ''50/50'' which have made people view him in a better light.
* [[Amanda Seyfried]] was seemingly on a streak of success in becoming a top box-office draw (with hits such as ''[[Mean Girls]]'' and ''[[Mamma Mia!]]''). But in an eleven-month period from 2011 to 2012, she had three major flops in a row (''[[Red Riding Hood (film)|Red Riding Hood]]'', ''[[In Time]]'' and ''[[Gone (film)|Gone]]'') with some reviews for the third one questioning if she even had appeal or talent in the first place (though others reviewers contened she was better than the material.) She's now on the fence and with her next film (a biopic on Linda Lovelace designed solely to beat another one with Malin Akerman into theatres) not likely to win her much cred, she could end up disappearing. She's also playing Cosette in the upcoming ''[[Les Misérables]]'' film, which could end up going either way depending on how well it (and she) performs.
* Emily Blunt became known outside of the UK in 2006 with her performance in ''[[The Devil Wears Prada]]'' and a Golden Globe win for the drama ''Gideon's Daughter''. But since then, her career has been a rollercoaster of critical hits (''[[The Adjustment Bureau]]'', ''Sunshine Cleaning'', ''[[Salmon Fishing in the Yemen]]'') and major misfires (''[[The Wolf Man]]'', ''The Five Year Engagement''). She still has a shot of having a big hit outside of her native country but outside of the arthouse crowd, she likely to remain best known as John Krasinski's wife.
* Julianne Hough is pretty much touted as "The Next Big Thing" by The Machine, and American is being subjected to the ''[[Dancing With the Stars]]'' performer's films left and right for the next several years (including a successful re-release of ''[[Footloose]]''), until she either hits it big, or they give up.
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