You Must Remember This

In Glitter & Might, a new series exploring the intersection of show business and politics, bestselling author Shawn Levy unpacks the story of Lew Wasserman, the shadowy legend who lorded over Hollywood for half a century. He was a feared deal-maker, credited with breaking the impasse that ended the 1960 actors’ and writers’ strike. Wasserman oversaw seismic innovations in the entertainment business, but none as impressive as the way he connected it to Washington. Every president from Kennedy to Clinton took his calls. And he was as comfortable dealing with gangsters as with politicians.

Through original research and interviews with Wasserman's associates and the journalists who observed him, we learn how this mystery man definitively ruled many worlds.

Joe Eszterhas’s tenure as the hottest screenwriter in town ended with two notorious 1995 flops: the NC-17 rated Showgirls (directed, like Basic Instinct, by Paul Verhoeven) and Jade (produced, like Sliver, by Robert Evans), We’ll analyze why these films failed to connect with audiences in 1995, and, more importantly, why the media at the time seized on them as major embarrassments for the industry. 

(00:00) Joe Eszterhas Ascendant 

(08:51) Robert Evans, Sherry Lansing, and William Friedkin

(22:12) Jade Bombs

(26:29) Reuniting with Paul Verhoeven and Writing the Script

(34:12) Showgirls as a Revenge Film

(47:53) When the Fun Disappears

(55:51) Can Hollywood Make an NC-17 Blockbuster?

(01:04:55) Selling Showgirls

(01:13:01) Eszterhas Turns On Verhoeven and Showgirls

(01:23:34) Showgirls Sends the Industry into “A Collective Cringe”

The 90s were obsessed with what magazine writer Tad Friend would describe as “do me feminism” – and the attendant fear that men could be victims of female sexual aggression. Two films from 1994 married these anxieties to the still-lingering bugaboo of the 80s, the powerful career woman. But though the female stars of The Last Seduction and Disclosure (Linda Fiorentino and Demi Moore) were styled almost identically, the films had very different points of view on the panic over female power. 

(00:00) “Do Me” and “Slut” Feminism

(08:07) What Happens in The Last Seduction

(15:00) Fiorentino and Fighting the “Straight to Cable” Stigma

(21:28) Too Much of a Femme Fatale?

(31:10) Michael Douglas in the 90s

(41:18) The Male Anxiety of Disclosure

(54:38) Anita Hill and Female Ambition

(01:01:01) Demi Moore and Disclosure Discourse

Sharon Stone and Joe Eszterhas’s post-Basic Instinct reunion film was one of the most troubled productions of the 90s. A post-Hitchcock tale of sexual surveillance given a technological update for the 90s, after a long battle with the MPAA the sanitized, R-rated version of Sliver was rejected by critics and audiences, but the movie and the juicy gossip leaked from its production (which included a love pentagon involving both actress and screenwriter) only enhanced Sharon Stone’s aura as an old-school Hollywood star for a decade that didn’t know what to do with her.

(00:00) Magic Johnson, Spin Magazine, and AIDS Denialism

(10:44) Sharon Stone, Feminism, and Movie Stardom

(20:47) Following Up Basic Instinct and Taming Robert Evans

(29:10) The Messy Glory of Sliver

(38:49) A Very 90s Update of Gaslight

(48:48) The Male Gaze, Male Nudity, and Reshoots

(01:00:09) Infidelity, Bad Press, and a Love Pentagram

Are men okay? Several films from 1993 answered that question with a resounding no. One of the highest grossing movies of its year, Adrian Lyne’s Indecent Proposal was misunderstood as a gimmick, and its insight into toxic masculinity and male sexual insecurity got lost in a media frenzy, much of it sparked by feminists. What had changed since Lyne’s Fatal Attraction, in Hollywood and in the culture? We’ll also talk about Proposal star Demi Moore as the controversial “diva” of the moment.

(00:00) Adrian Lyne: Backlash Poster Boy?

(10:25) Creating and Casting Indecent Proposal

(23:16) The Titular Indecent Proposal

(32:51) A 1990s Version of the 1930s

(49:16) The Rise of Demi Moore

(54:26) Adrian Lyne and Demi Moore’s Body

(01:04:53) Indecent Box Office

(01:17:18) The Elusive 90s Female Movie Star

In the early 90s, Madonna was the biggest pop star in the world, and she used – and in the minds of some, squandered – her star capital to launch a multi-media exploration of sexuality: the album Erotica and its companion book Sex, followed by her starring role in the much-maligned erotic thriller Body of Evidence. What was Madonna really trying to do in 1992-1993, how was it perceived and misunderstood at the time, and how does the blowback she experienced then relate to how she is being criticized today?

(00:00) The Persistence of Madonna

(07:50) Justify My Love and a Transformation

(21:17) A Coffee Table Book Called ‘Sex’

(28:11) The Gay Nineties

(35:47) Body of Evidence and the Bad Girl

(45:35) Revenge of the MPAA

(53:21) Revenge of the Critics

(01:02:18) Pushing One Button Too Many

(01:13:39) Erotica and Madonna’s Legacy

While the MPAA’s confusing and hypocritical ratings decisions were leaving filmmakers flummoxed in the early 90s, cable TV was opening up new possibilities for erotic content. Today we will offer a brief history of sex on TV, and then focus on Red Shoe Diaries, the cheesy-but-charming late night softcore soap that was the brainchild of 9 ½ Weeks writers/producers Zalman King and Patricia Knop. 

(00:00) 90210, NYPD Blue, and Sex on Network TV

(08:41) Midnight Blue and the Birth of Premium Cable

(18:49) Zalman King and David Duchovny

(34:23) Jake’s Story and Red Shoe Diaries

(45:12) A Family Business

(52:14) TV Turns On

(57:44) The Audience Evolves and the Internet Arrives

Culture in the 90s was obsessed with the sex lives of teenagers. This is a theme we will come back to several times throughout the season. In this episode, we’ll talk about Drew Barrymore, who became a massive star at age 7 in E.T., went to rehab at 13, became an emancipated minor at 15 and immediately started pushing buttons with naked photo shoots and her comeback role as a murderously seductive teen in Poison Ivy. With teenaged Drew scantily clas in magazines and on screen – and “Long Island Lolita” Amy Fisher making headlines for shooting her adult lover’s wife – the media was eager to exploit the precocious sexuality of other teen girls. But while she made her film debut in the Poison Ivy-esque The Crush, Alicia Silverstone vocally pushed back on being branded “the next Lolita”.

(00:00) The Normalization of the 90s Lolita

(12:31) Drew, Emancipated

(xx:xx) Having It Both Ways

(29:46) Making Poison Ivy

(39:15) “The Long Island Lolita”

(48:03) Drew Barrymore Grows Up

(56:53) Alicia, Aerosmith, and Clueless

(01:04:48) “Why Can’t This Teenage Girl Get with the Program?”

(01:11:04) Pitting Alicia Against Drew

In the early 90s, one of the biggest scripted shows on TV was Murphy Brown, starring 40-something Candice Bergen as a product of the 60s whose high-powered career precluded marriage and family. When the character became a single mother, and was criticized for it by vice president Dan Quayle, a massive conversation about “family values” began that would change the culture – and, arguably, American politics. Off-screen, Bergen was married to French filmmaker Louis Malle. While his wife was in the middle of the “family values” maelstrom, Malle was making Damage, one of the most sexually intense films of the 90s, and one which used sexuality to explicitly critique the hypocrisy of politicians.

(00:00) 1992 and Entering the Clinton Era

(12:29) When Candice Met Louis

(18:24) A Bi-Contintental Marriage 

(24:30) Murphy Brown and Family Values

(34:50) Dan Quayle Doubles Down

(40:15) Murphy Brown Fights Back

(54:37) The Politics of Damage

(01:09:28) The Critics and the Damage Done

One of the biggest hits of 1992, Basic Instinct was sold as Michael Douglas’s return to Fatal Attraction territory, but its success owed to an alchemy of three other creatives: a writer (Joe Eszterhas) who was driven to become the highest-paid scribe in movies; a director (Paul Verhoeven) who was determined to redefine the amount of sex considered acceptable in a Hollywood movie; and a female lead (Sharon Stone) who had waited a long time for her breakout role, and finally found it in a bisexual murderess with the sheen of a Hitchcock blonde. We’ll talk about all of that, detailing the extremely messy production that was protested by LGBT activists – and its screenwriter – virtually from beginning to end, and examine Basic Instinct as a collision of toxicity and commerce that was emblematic of just-pre-Clinton era. 

(00:00) The Origins of Basic Instinct

(10:01) The Camp ‘Vertigo’

(24:24) Where Sharon Stone Came From

(34:05) Queer Nation and Location Protests

(42:47) The Most Famous Shot In Basic Instinct

(52:56) "It has to be an R. The risk is too big."

(01:00:02) Sharon Stone’s Victory Lap

(01:08:52) Misogyny, Homophobia, and Critical Analysis