Does Reality Belong In A Script?

Several months back, I reviewed the Roku Netflix Player here on PVC.  Well, the name needs to be changed, because just last week the entire contents of the Amazon Video-On-Demand service became available on the Roku.  This is a spectacular addition to the Roku box, which also recently became hi-def enabled.  But that’s not really what this post is about, just the vehicle that drove me here.

So I’m scrolling through the thousands of movies, TV shows and other things available to me now on the Roku through Amazon, looking for a movie I hadn’t managed to see in a theater but still seemed interesting.  I came across “Iron Man,” the Robert Downey Jr. superhero tour-de-force that was a big hit last summer.  I figured all the action in the movie would be a good test of my rather puny 3Mb/sec (on a good day, with the wind at it’s back) AT&T DSL service I use at home.  And the hardware worked perfectly - not a stutter, no blocking, nothing.  I sit back and start to to really enjoy the MOVIE.  It’s great to shake the geek off your shoulders once in a while.

So if you are one of the three dozen folks in the USA that haven’t seen “Iron Man” yet, allow me a bit of a spoiler:  Tony Stark (Robert Downey’s character) is a weapons manufacturer and playboy that has a bit of an awakening in a war zone.  On his return to the USA, he announces that Stark Industries will no longer manufacture weapons.  In the reaction that follows, the financial world goes crazy, with guess who leading the braying?

Jim Cramer, on his CNBC set of “Mad Money,” screaming that this totally fictitious company is going to drop 40 points because of this announcement.  Yes, the same Jim Cramer that got slapped silly by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show just last week (and, IMHO, totally deservedly so.)  Let me say this again, because this is the crux of the biscuit:  A real-life financial show host, on his real-life set, screaming about an imaginary company.  Am I the only one that finds this a bad idea?

Of course, this is not an isolated incident - almost all news organizations have lent their logos and their reporters to theatrical films in the past.  This blurring of the lines between fact and fiction cannot be a good thing when reputations are on the line.  The business office will likely see it the other way, citing “branding” or “product placement” or whatever, but it was the juxtaposition of Jim Cramer getting pantsed on The Daily Show and my viewing of “Iron Man” - in the same week - that really brought this home for me.

Hey screenwriters!  Is it really just too much work to create a fictional network?  Who remembers who “Network”‘s Howard Beale worked for?  (UBS.)  Who employed Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks and William Hurt in “Broadcast News”?  (Tell you the truth, I can’t even remember.)  In these times of infotainment and constant blurring of the lines between journalism and pure fantasy, I think backing away from using real journalists and their brands in fictional situations would be a good idea.

What do you think?

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