Hollywood Feuds Are Having a Moment, Thanks to Clooney, DiCaprio, and Downey Jr.

Let me tell you a story. Two Girls And A Guy grew out of very specific circumstances. I wanted to make a movie. I hadn’t made a movie in a while and was getting restless. Downey [was just] getting out of prison and knowing most of those guys—it’s true of Mike Tyson too—when they’re getting out of prison is the best time to get them.

In the case of someone like Downey, who was filled with these sort of precious cute fake mannerisms, they’re purged of them. You know now Downey can’t have an authentic moment if you fucking sit there for three weeks. He’s not capable of it. He goes on Jimmy Kimmel, everything’s fucking air, it’s all, “Yes maybe that could be. I was with the Mrs. the other day...” I mean everything is just completely phony bullshit from beginning to end. But right after 11 months of prison with about 200 dicks sucked in return for a lot of crack, you know there’s a totally different reality and that Downey is fascinating to watch.

• Too many interviews. Perhaps George Clooney could only resist recounting that Russell Crowe feud with 1,000 journalists, before cracking under the questioning of the 1,001st reporter who tried to pry the truth about that long-forgotten beef. Or maybe he grew tired of offering journalists the same charming subject-changers. If hell for an actor is “answering the same interview questions” over and over again, their junket infernos are only getting worse with proliferating outlets and so-called reporters. Maybe it is up to the actors, then, to find ways to spice up this media monotony.
  
• Savvier interviewers. Maybe the change of pace has less to do with the interview subject and more to do with today’s S.E.O.-versed reporters, who walk into an interview with a blue print designed to organically move their conversation from the project they are hawking to the holy grail of page-clicks: relationship or colleague dirt. 
  
• Award season. We hate to be cynical but Clooney, Thompson, and Howard all have films that are being pushed this early in the Oscar lead-up—Gravity, Saving Mr. Banks, and The Butler. Perhaps the three actors were acutely aware that tossing off a bit of gossip chum to the media sharks could work in their favor. After all, increased headline mentions, regardless of the outlet or the sensational headlines, could subconsciously sway Academy voters.
  

Maybe it is up to the actors, then, to find ways to spice up this media monotony.