Image and Brand

I have to wonder if John Malkovich and Sarah Palin sat down for a cup of coffee together and both decided to say “Screw it. Let’s just go for it.”

Because once upon a time it used to be that people had an image to protect.

For instance, many years ago, a movie star would never consider appearing in a tv show because movies were up here!!!



While television was down here ,,,

To some extent that hierarchy still exists today because it’s unlikely you’ll see recently crowned Academy Award winners Sandra Bullock or Jeff Bridges starring in their own television show next year.

To be blunt, when you were a movie star, you were on the top of the entertainment food chain.

Appearances on talk shows didn’t count because the stars only came out late at night in order to hawk their latest movies. And hosting Saturday Night Live has become the same thing, with the host appearing because of a new album/movie/major project to promote.

Some actors manage to make the transition from the small screen to the big screen – Bruce Willis, Bill Murray and Clint Eastwood for example – and these days there are people such as Steve Carrell and Tina Fey who are incredibly successful with their tv shows and are also being welcomed to motion pictures.

Brad Pitt, Robin Williams, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts – all have been willing to make guests appearances on hot television shows, but it’s usually as they poke fun at themselves or stretch their acting range in a dramatic cameo.

Because it used to be that celebrities would do their one thing and do it well: a singer would sing, a dramatic actor would do dramas, a comedian would remain funny. Sometimes there would be an attempt to dip a toe into the other pond (Meryl Streep in the comedy “She-Devil” with Roseanne Barr; Bill Murray in the drama “The Razor’s Edge”, Madonna in “Castaway”) but the results were often painful and the audiences would usually stay away in droves.

The transition from drama to comedy can happen, but if the shift from tears to laughter is too successful, sometimes there’s no turning back. Rare is the actor like Tom Hanks who can do drama and comedy (although recently Meryl Streep has managed to overcome the previously mentioned Roseanne Barr travesty and added comedies *and* musicals to her list of accomplishments. But she is the exception. After all, she is Meryl Streep.)

After years of dramatic work, the “Airplane” and “The Naked Gun” movies completely re-wrote the career of Leslie Nielsen.

It could be said that the same has happened to Robert DeNiro. The success of “Analyze This” and the “Meet the Parents” series (and the disasters that were “Showtime” and “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”) have re-invented and re-invigorated his career as he parodies and parlays his tough guy image into comedy. But the cost of that success is that DeNiro’s funny side has overshadowed his dramatic stature. It’s now difficult to see him in a drama without finding him a little bit funny.

Elvis Presley hurt his music career with movies. Eddie Murphy bruised his comedy career with music. And Jim Carrey seems intent on sabotaging his career with drama. There is a huge risk involved with going to the other side.

Which brings us to John Malkovich.

Best known for “In the Line of Fire” opposite Clint Eastwood and for his work in “Burn After Reading”, “Empire of the Sun” and “Dangerous Liaisons”, Malkovich has built a career on playing strange yet captivating characters.

His image is so strong that an entire film was built around his quirky and powerful persona: “Being John Malkovich” showed how everyone would love to live someone else’s life, especially if it was the life of John Malkovich.

So perhaps the last thing anyone would have expected was for Malkovich to accept a role in the next “Transformers” movie.

While Malkovich has lent his talents to comedies and special effects-oriented films in the past (“Eragon”, “Johnny English”, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”) the decision to join the next Michael Bay rumpus is a stunning move towards a motion picture genre that barely makes room for an actor to appear on-screen unless they’re filling time until the next robot attack. Once the robots arrive, the actors (often quite literally) get shoved off the screen.

Perhaps the reasoning is that if John Turturro can do it, why can’t John Malkovich do the same? The money is presumably good and worth the calculated risk.

Perhaps “Transformers” won’t tarnish his image. Perhaps he can take the role, play the part, and then walk away richer and with his head still held high. More people will probably see him in “Transformers” than his last five films combined. And maybe the additional exposure will help him when he gets back the roles for which he is best known.

It is, however, a huge role of the dice: a career built upon risky and powerful performances could be destroyed with the slap of a giant robot’s mechanical hand.

This is why I have to wonder if John Malkovich and Sarah Palin have the same agent.

Palin is shopping around a reality show and rumour has it that the U.S. based Discovery Channel has won a bidding war to get the show.

At a cost of $1.5 million an episode.

Palin has a bestselling book.

Palin is a commentator on Fox News.

And now she’s going to star in a nature program about Alaska.

Palin obviously feels she can expand from politician to writer to commentator and now to tv star without The Sarah Palin Brand being damaged. One can imagine that there must have been family members, advisors and committees that would analyze, discuss and examine every aspect of every move she wants to make.

Or maybe she does it all by gut.

Being a politician isn’t enough for Sarah Palin. Not when she can be everything she wants to be and the public will follow her any and every where.

Because it must have been determined that all things Palin is all things wonderful to the world.

The brand will survive. And maybe that’s what it is now: a brand. It’s no longer just an image to protect; it’s a brand to expand.

Years ago, it used to be that it was either dramas or comedies. That a movie star was a movie star. That a tv star was a tv star. That a singer was a singer.
And that a politician was a politician.

I hope that John Malkovich can move from the big bang, special effects extravaganza of a “Transformers” movie back to the sort of roles that he does so well. I hope that “Transformers” is just a tiny step off the path in order to grab a big paycheck. And I hope that his journey to robot land is a short visit and not a plan to stay there for a long time.

And I hope that Palin has now decided that her role in life, that her one true calling, is to be a celebrity. She will be well paid for a bunch of years. And eventually her star will dim as her lack of talent becomes more apparent and people tire of her egocentric bizarrities. And eventually she will make the unavoidable journey to “Celebrity Apprentice”.

So while I hope that Malkovich’s trip into the land of robots is a short visit and that he does not plan to stay their for a long time, I’m also hoping that Palin’s journey into the wilderness is the first step of a permanent voyage away from here.

Because, while I don’t expect it from politicians, I guess I do expect it from actors: I want just a little bit of integrity.