Watch this New York Times video which tells us about the difficulties that an entertainment reporter, infatuated with Hollywood's most famous starlets, has to find real love.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
The activity is suitable for intermediate 2 students.
1 The reporter was 20 years old when he started working.
2 The reporter has dated some of the actresses he has interviewed.
3 Movie stars use similar strategies to those of politicians to gain people's favour.
4 The reporter sometimes forgets the faces of the actresses he interviews.
5 When the reporter met his wife, he had the feeling she wanted something from him.
Movie stars are incredibly charming people, that’s how they become movie stars. For 20 years I was a writer for Entertainer Weekly. The starlets I’ve interviewed are Nicole Kidman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, oh my god!, that’s Julia Roberts, three feet away from me.
The experience of sitting there and talking to these people and laughing with these people and dining with these people, you know, for all intents and purposes it is a date, there is really no other difference other than you don’t have a chance of a good night kiss.
As professional charmers there are some techniques that movie stars have that aren’t unlike politicians’ in a way: repeating your name, touching your shoulder or touching your hand, they’re trying to play you a little bit, but it’s still fun, that’s the thing, it’s still fun having Meg Ryan smile at you and Angelina Jolie let you fondle her elbow. You can’t help it, you know, you’re a human being, I think anybody would enjoy fondling Angelina Jodie’s elbow, it’s a nice elbow.
One of the most challenging parts of being a celebrity interviewer is that, you know, you spend all this time with these really celebrated amazing women. You sit down with somebody, you have a dinner with them for two hours and then a week later you can run into them at a party or something and they have no idea who you are, and then you get back to your real life and you go out on a real date and, you know, I’ve had real dates with wonderful women, but they’re not Julia Roberts.
I know with my wife I got the same sort of buzz of this person is really incredibly charming and smart and funny, but there wasn’t this ‘she wants something from me’. This is the difference between reality and fantasy, really. She was my ultimate cure from celebriphilia.
Key:
1F 2F 3T 3F 5F
