Gavin Polone Author Archive
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Gavin Polone

See all their articles from across New York Magazine
  1. fame
    Polone on Paid Friends in HollywoodIt is such a prevalent aspect of life that it almost feels natural—although the most salient characteristic of paid friendships is that they’re not natural at all.
  2. relationships
    Meet the Women Who Run Hollywood (and the Slacker Husbands They’re Over)“It’s harder for women to get to the top than men, so you’re a little more proprietary about your money.”
  3. how to make a movie
    Polone: To Fix Hollywood, Studios Need to Act Like IndiesComparing the budgets of an $85 million movie and a $10 million movie is an eye-opening look at needless studio waste.
  4. making the sausage
    Polone: Why Animal Practice Is Animal CrueltyThere’s nothing funny about the way Crystal the monkey is used for laughs.
  5. making the sausage
    Polone: The Main Reason TV Is Now Better Than MoviesThe plague of unoriginal studio movies has its roots in Hollywood’s greenlight process.
  6. making the sausage
    Apocalypse Nikki: Polone Challenges the Power of the Vengeful FinkeAre Hollywood execs right to be afraid of her? There’s only one way to find out.
  7. Polone: Why Stars Don’t Matter — and Never HaveOur columnist takes the contrary position.
  8. making the sausage
    Polone: Reality TV Isn’t Real, and Why Viewers Don’t CareProducers won’t cop to it being staged, per se, but acknowledge that the players know all too well the drama that’s expected of them.
  9. making the sausage
    Polone: Why Everyone in Hollywood Is Paying More for a ManagerEveryone used to be fine paying 10 percent for just an agent. Now they have to pay twice that to get the same career advice.
  10. making the sausage
    Polone: The Perils of the Disgustingly Big Hollywood EgoMany directors and showrunners think they can treat people like crap because they are a creative genius. Wrong.
  11. making the sausage
    Polone: The Unglamorous, Punishing Hours of Working on a Hollywood SetTwelve to sixteen hours are the daily norm, and that’s gotta stop.
  12. making the sausage
    Polone: Why Sacha Baron Cohen Deserves the Nobel PrizeHe sneaks political and social messages into outrageous comedy, tricking audiences into hearing them.
  13. making the sausage
    Polone: The Folly of Having Focus Groups Judge TV PilotsThe fate of a show can be decided by three cranky, biased people complaining to a moderator.
  14. making the sausage
    Polone: How I’d Fix DisneyHe has a new development plan and some candidates to take the ousted Rich Ross’s place as chairman.
  15. making the sausage
    Polone: Hollywood’s Most Important Phone RuleThe ones who last the longest on top are the ones who return calls.
  16. making the sausage
    Polone: All TV Should Be More Like Game of ThronesIt makes morally abhorrent behavior wildly entertaining through the power of great writing and acting.
  17. making the sausage
    Polone: Who Really Determines the Fates of Aspiring Screenwriters?Dreaming of a studio exec personally discovering your unique voice? Wake up.
  18. making the sausage
    Polone: Why Key Lionsgate Execs Got Fired Just Before Their Hunger Games Blew UpWere there better people for the jobs, or were they sacrificed to land the Summit acquisition?
  19. making the sausage
    Polone: Three Actors Reveal the Awkward Truth of Shooting Sex Scenes“After we finished it was awkward and I was thinking, Was his dick touching my leg, and where is my robe?
  20. making the sausage
    Polone: So How Much Do Hollywood Players Make?Here’s what top agents, lawyers, and movie and TV execs can expect to pull in. Considering a new career now?
  21. making the sausage
    Polone: Four Star Screenwriters Talk About Rewrite Hell“My emotional response [to being rewritten] is a mix of disgust and horror, no matter what side I’m on.”
  22. making the sausage
    Polone: The False Circular Logic Behind Hollywood’s Resistance to Black EntertainmentThere are three reasons why there are so few African-American-centered movies and TV shows. Two are crap, one can be fixed.
  23. making the sausage
    Polone: How Pilot Season Ensures That Great Actors Rarely Land the Right ShowsGet a glimpse into the exhausting and nonsensical schedule of one actress running around from network to network.
  24. making the sausage
    Polone: It’s Been a Shameful Month for Animal Cruelty in EntertainmentYoung chimps were pimped in a Super Bowl ad, endangered wolves were demonized in The Grey, and Joan Rivers was kibitzing in a fur coat.
  25. making the sausage
    Polone: Why I Don’t Miss My Life As a Ruthless AgentIt was a gladiatorial, kill or be killed life of big money, but not good for the psyche.
  26. making the sausage
    Polone: Why I’m for SOPA, and How the Entertainment Industry Blew ItInstead of just politicking Congress, the MPAA should have publicly debunked four Internet myths about the anti-piracy bill.
  27. making the sausage
    Polone on the Great Oscar FarceThe awards aren’t just meaningless, they also work as a detriment to moviemaking.
  28. making the sausage
    Polone: Why There Are No Sure-Thing Movie Stars Anymore, But Hollywood Pretends There AreIt’s about the movie, not the star, but the star provides deniability.
  29. making the sausage
    Polone: What I’m Thinking When One of My New Shows DebutsAnd how, after having done eleven shows, it’s different from what his first-time partner and young star are thinking.
  30. making the sausage
    Polone: The Three Ways a Studio Can Screw Up Your Movie ReleaseBad release dates and marketing can break a producer’s heart.
  31. Polone’s New Year’s Resolution: Kick the Dumb Reality-TV HabitWhen he finds himself thinking way too much about the Kardashians, he realizes there is a problem.
  32. making the sausage
    Polone: I’m Tired of Paying for Cable Channels I Never WatchAnd if you don’t like sports but pay big cable bills, you should be irate, too.
  33. Polone’s Four-Step Plan for Saving NBCShows like The Walking Dead are beating many of the Peacock’s series, so why not swipe AMC’s game plan?
  34. making the sausage
    Polone: How Shame Gives Me Hope That Good Movies Can Be MadeThis daring film does four things that 99 percent of all other movies are afraid to do.
  35. making the sausage
    Polone: Stop the ‘You Stole My Movie Idea!’ LawsuitsAs someone sues him and Sony for allegedly stealing the idea for Premium Rush, he argues that wrongful cases would fade away if there was more risk for a plaintiff.
  36. making the sausage
    Polone’s Hollywood Cost-Cutting Solution No. 2: Stop the Pricey Producer Deals These super-producers get paid millions to bring projects to their home studio when those execs could get the projects anyway.
  37. making the sausage
    Polone: Why Studios Need to Slash Extravagant Star Perk PackagesWe have an actual star’s list of demands (private jet, nutritionist, hairstylist, etc.) that could be worth up to $2 million.
  38. making the sausage
    Polone: What L.A. Should Learn From Paris About Making TV and MoviesWhile shooting his new TV show, Polone was shocked at what his French crews did … versus being told a single shot in Beverly Hills would cost $25,000. $25,000 to take one shot; in Paris
  39. making the sausage
    Polone: Why Taxpayers Get Screwed When Every State and Canada Fights to Lure Movie ShootsThe money spent by places other than California to lure movie shoots just never pays off.
  40. making the sausage
    Polone: Why TV Networks Don’t Need to Worry About Netflix and Hulu’s Original ProgrammingJust hiring David Fincher or the ‘Arrested Development’ team doesn’t mean you know how to make a hit.
  41. making the sausage
    Polone: Why the Simpsons Salary Standoff Was a Sign of the New Hollywood EconomyIn these days of Occupy Wall Street, the voice actors who once had public opinion on their side now just seemed overpaid and underworked, leaving Fox to collect all the profits.
  42. making the sausage
    Polone: Why Stars Act Crazy (and Why People Like Me Share the Blame)“I’m as much of the problem as any of the other cogs in the machine — which is why I am able to keep working, I guess.”
  43. making the sausage
    Polone: Why TV Shouldn’t Be So Afraid of the Word Fuck’Two and a Half Men’ can be filthy, but has to stop at a word that is all over YouTube.
  44. making the sausage
    Producer Gavin Polone on Why Remakes Are Killing the Movie BusinessThe ‘Zombieland’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ producer says pointless rehashes are the reason that the movie audience is shrinking dangerously.