News from outside Hollywoodland

If you must know, Temp X was at a wedding and not keeping up on everything Hollywood. So please forgive the extended survey about Brendan Fraser. I'm not sure whether I was right or wrong Brendan on overload. The Mummy made $42 million in the U.S., coming in second to Batman: Redux. But the foreign box office was a whopping $59 million. Perhaps the next Jerry Lewis is sitting right under our collective noses? But enough industry talk.

Those of us buried under the backsides of the insiders spend too much time engaging in industry chat. Now having spent five days outside the Hollywood bubble, here's what the rest of America isn't talking about:


Nielsen Ratings: Nary a blip on the conversational radar that the season premiere of Mad Men delivered ratings that thumped last year's season average (although only marginally better on a YOY basis). In fact most people seemed blissfully unaware that AMC is even a network, with many still thinking the acronym is that of American Motors Corporation, the inventor of the Jeep.

What people are discussing instead: That they went to the park last evening and played around until sunset at 8:30 pm.

TMZ, Defamer, Perez Hilton or Nikki Finke: It appears the blogosphere has geographic boundaries as the obsession with everything Hollywood appears to be limited to...well...only within Hollywood.

What people are discussing instead: Real news, like what they saw on CNN, heard on NPR or read in the local paper (or, when prompted in the Hollywood Temp Diaries).

Rick Nicita leaving CAA: No one cared that someone they've never heard of is going to run a studio whose most significant contributions to the arts are Battlefield Earth, Freejack and the upcoming Ace Ventura movie.

What people are discussing instead: The election, the economy and that their employers are freezing salaries and cutting bonuses.

Miley Cyrus: Discussions of the teen queen, her penchant for dressing up in bikinis and taking photos of herself, her heated rivalry with Selena Gomez continue to not dominate news outside Hollywoodland.

What people are discussing instead: Their own children.


And with that update I can unequivocally say, it's good to be back. All that intellectual discourse was too much for my tiny little brain.