The Descent into "Toilet humor"...or in other words...Kidman's career!

Although I have been pretty much loathing of commenting on ANYTHING that has to do with Nicole Kidman's career for the past year or so...current events only solidify my belief that she her career is over. 

The past weeks saw the premiere of not just one, but two of her current "films" at the Cannes Film festival..."The Paperboy" and HBO's "Hemingway and Gellhorn." A sneak peek of "The Paperboy" held on March 22 for "potential buyers and select critics" met with mixed reviews....

http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes-buyers-attend-sneak-screening-of-the-paperboy-will-it-sell-before-its-thursday-premiere#

CANNES: Buyers React to Sneak Screening of Lee Daniels' Pulpy 'The Paperboy'

"Early reactions suggest the film has more in common with Daniels' "Shadowboxer," an arty action film that left critics' jaws agape, rather than the crowd-pleasing "Precious."

...yet as it's official premiere arrived 2 days later on the 24th...NO buyer for the film manifested itself as a result of the "preview" showing...DESPITE a twitter "claim" that the film got a "10 minute ovation"...which then turned into a "16 minute ovation"...to it's eventual "20 minute ovation. But it wasn't until it's official premiere was the scene that kidman "urinates on co-star Efron's face and chest" was revealed...and of course turned into the "sensation" of the festival. No, more like a "sideshow" of the festival! Sure there was talk for a day or two...but no win for the film or kidman...as the film WAS in competition. Now almost two weeks later...NOT much talk, just the usual "PR BS" being spread on the innertubes...BUT most importantly...STILL NO buyer or distributor! 

  Now, as to the other film that was also premiered at Cannes..."Hemingway and Gellhorn"...that film was   hyped by the torrid of "explicit sex scenes" by kidman and Clive Owen. Well, that filmed eventually debuted on HBO on May 28, memorial day at 9:00 PM...the same time as The History Channel's "Hatfields and McCoys!" Well, H&M drew a record 13 million viewers...and H&G? Well that went on to draw a VERY pathetic 500,000 viewers! And that IS bad...even for HBO...which "Made for HBO" films usually drawing at least 1 million viewers! So this film is an unmitigated failure. 

  So, the results of these two films are not very surprising to me. I had kidman through in the business years ago. She's gone from 100 million dollar budgeted films and $15mil to 17mil paydays....to $10-$15mil budgeted films and $65,000 paydays. She is reduced to getting son's of Bollywood producers...still attending UCLA film school to learn "film making" to finance her film about Grace Kelly. Kidman is like a hooked fish...thrown onto the dry land...and is simply flopping around trying to find the water again. Unfortunately, just as the orb is reduced to the "small pond"of Australian tv...that water for kidman will be mighty difficult to find!


UPDATE: 
Late last week I posted over at the E! orb thread the ratings for the HBO broadcast of "Hemingway and Gellhorn" from this webpage...


http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings/2012/05/30/mondays-cable-ratings-hatfields-and-mccoys-heat-celtics-big-for-history-espn-267510/cable_20120528/


...which revealed those ratings for H&G at a dismal 548,000 viewers. Since that number was SO ridiculously low, I was determined to find ANOTHER source...a confirmation. Well, ratings have been VERY scarce for the film. It's almost like there is a CONCERTED effort to IGNORE the numbers! Well, I've just now finally found another source...


http://www.vulture.com/2012/06/game-of-thrones-gets-its-biggest-ratings-yet.html

Game of Thrones Gets Its Biggest Ratings Yet

"Not everything on HBO does Iron Throne–worthy Nielsen numbers. If you haven't seen any ratings stories about last Monday's big HBO original film Hemingway & Gellhorn (the one with Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen), that's because the pay network didn't have much to brag about. Airing on Memorial Day, the film averaged a mere 548,000 viewers in its initial telecast. By comparison, earlier this spring, Game Change drew 2.1 million, HBO's best long-form numbers in 8 years."

As I also mentioned...those are EVEN worse numbers than orb's dismal album sales numbers! But...JUST barely. I take it that will be the first...AND LAST film kidman will star in for HBO! Well, there's always Australian tv...AND the orb already waiting for her...with UNbated breath!