Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi by Bob Woodward

Author:Bob Woodward [Woodward, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2015-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

The next morning, Monday, September 14, John was back in New York to begin promoting Continental Divide. Universal was releasing two other movies and had arranged a massive press junket so that reporters could cover all three from the Saint Moritz Hotel on Central Park South.

The Hollywood Reporter, a movie industry trade journal, was already in with a review that began: “John Belushi plays it basically straight . . . [but] it also makes for a super-hard sell for Universal, like tub thumping a film in which Pavarotti doesn’t sing, or Bo Derek stays covered.”

John did seven television interviews between 9 A.M. and 11 A.M., broke for three hours of rest and lunch and then came back for three hours of print interviews, moving from table to table in a crowded room.

Blair Brown, who was pregnant, was also there. She noticed that John had gained weight again. That made them less likely candidates to fill the Tracy-Hepburn legacy in American movies, she felt, but the myth was being pushed by the Universal promotion department.

In a private moment, John acknowledged to her that he had tried to fuck her up in the beginning of shooting in Colorado. She said she knew that.

As they moved from interview to interview, Brown sensed that John felt uneasy answering questions about his work. He snapped off his replies, often lying, offering set routines. It was apparent that he wanted to deck the reporters, at least verbally, but he was sitting on his aggressions.

After the press junket, Brown, Michael Apted and John agreed that they would get a good box office and bad reviews.

The next night, Tuesday, September 15, John and Judy went for a 6 o’clock screening of the latest rough cut of Neighbors at the small Magno Penthouse screening room at 1540 Broadway. Avildsen had arranged to let the others see what progress he had made since August. Aykroyd, Brillstein, Zanuck and his wife and David and Helen Gurley Brown were also there.

Belushi was seated between Zanuck and Brown. Columbia executives, including production president John Veitch, filed into a row in front of them. Zanuck could tell that Belushi was not in good spirits. He was squirming and made an ugly crack about Avildsen in a loud voice.

A number of people turned around.

“John,” Zanuck whispered, “shut up, for Christ sakes!”

The lights were lowered and the film began. Almost at once John began loudly criticizing the selection of takes and the way they were edited and spliced. “No!” “Fuck!” “Shit!” he yelled.

Both Zanuck and Brown tried to calm him. He lowered his voice but started hitting his armrest with his fist—bang, bang, bang—when he didn’t like something. The whole row of seats shook. He reacted to every fragment of the movie as if he were hooked up to an electric charge. Zanuck wanted to crawl under his seat and out of the room, but he had to try to keep John under control.

As the movie progressed, Zanuck saw and heard some funny things. But Belushi

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