Avatar and Titanic director James Cameron is rightfully hailed for his incredible vision, directing, and his determination which has not just generated huge movie grosses but raised the bar on cinematic art by putting on the screen ever drop of creativity that bubbled in his mind. But, as is not unusual in the celebrity world, he is not-so-blessed with some hubris — the hubris of making millions, moving in elite and wealthy circles and then losing sight of the people who spend their hard-earned money on his films who don’t have his bank account or enjoy his top-of-the-world-financial-heap lifestyle. TMV has the video below that shows an example of hubris catching up with him — when he cussed out a fan who dared ask for an autograph.
Perhaps it’s due to the age of the Internet, talk radio, the growth of You Tube, but if Cameron won’t give him an autograph, the fan gives Cameron a piece of his mind telling him the sacrifice he made to go see his flick. Cameron’s words are bleeped out but you can hear the fan’s admonishment. Was it a set up for the video? If it was, then Cameron fell into the trap. NOTE: adult language. The fan’s use of Cameron’s word is not bleeped out.
TMZ also notes:
Just five days before James Cameron called a fan a “f**king a**hole” after refusing to sign an autograph, the “Avatar” director proclaimed that he’d “sign as many autographs as people will line up for.”
FOOTNOTE: Autographs have become ore controversial in recent years than they were several decades ago. In the past, most people who asked for them did so because they had little collections or were in awe of a celebrity. In recent decades some stars later found out that rather than having signed autographs for sentimental fans, they signed autographs that were sold to collectors or put on eBay for big bucks. Autograph seekers can be most insistent, and if the artist haughtily waves them away it doesn’t look good.
So the artist has to decide which is more important: looking like an arrogant self-absorbed creep and refusing to sign one, or signing it and figure there’s a possibility that the autograph will be sold and be one piece of celebrity merchandise from which he/she will not profit.
In Cameron’s case, he opted to not sign it — and then cuss the fan out. Even if the fan was a set up for a video, it shows that Cameron needs to go to lunch with his p.r. person and learn now to deal with a public that is paying to see his work.
Calling them names won’t decrease the overall box office of your films, but it won’t gain converts, and when Variety says “Cameron is big B.O.” people might assume that “big B.O.” means more than “big Box Office.”
OF RELATED INTEREST:
—PROFILE: James Cameron
—Avatar Official Movie website
—AmazingCameron.com
—Avatar: James Cameron deserves the Worst Lefty Award 2009
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.