Melpomene and Thalia
The world of theatre is represented by two masks - Melpomene is the tragedy mask (a.k.a. Muse of Tragedy) whereas Thalia is the comedy mask (a.k.a. Muse of Comedy). In Hollywood, there are a series of unspoken rules which are collectively referred to as the social contract. One example of a rule is don’t make light of someone’s tragedies or they will do the same to you. That’s if you’re an actor. If you’re a TV writer, you can get away with lampooning their tragic life because you are a faceless commodity who is actually working alongside a team of writers where usually only one name is given credit. It may look like they’re hogging the limelight, but they are also taking one for the team.
As a storyteller, you can blend comedy and drama in a way that’s consistent as long as a character’s mood is consistent whether it be consistently despondent or consistently jovial. It’s how you pull the rug underneath the audience so that they can’t predict what’s going to happen next. It’s also an ideal way to create suspense if you are making a funny horror. Believability is crucial. A horror movie with a sense of humour is bound to be funnier than a horror comedy where the horror is played for laughs too much (thereby rendering the entire story as a farce that’s most befitting the realm of parody). The word “satire” was derived from a Greek mythological creature named Satyr. With horns and a huge erection, this gave birth to a new kind of play. A Satyr play is a parody of tragedy with rude humour.
Hollywood has been often described as the modern embodiment of Sodom and Gomorrah - two cities destroyed by God because of their ribald hedonism. There is rampant sodomy in Hollywood, not least because of how many male homosexuals populate the industry whether it be the world of legitimate acting or the world of erotic entertainment. Sex has a lot to do with what compels a person to work in Hollywood; money and nonsexual adulation can only take you so far as motives. What makes the desire evil is the potential for duplicity whether it is taking pleasure in keeping things hidden or actually wanting someone to find out about an infidelity so that you can see them heartbroken and powerless about not being able to do anything about it (or at least in a way that won’t result in repercussions for you).
Duper’s delight depends on how many times that you can duplicate the duplicity. A liaison can be enjoyed when knowing that it’s supposed to be a secret until the moment comes when you want the whole world to know that they did not know about the secrecy. This might enhance the popularity of two closeted actresses but not equally closeted members of the opposite sex. Sleeping with the enemy is best embodied when a liberal has sex with a republican. It sounds like a work of fiction, maybe even fan fiction, until you get a liberal black celebrity like Justin Sylvester confess in an episode of E! News: Daily Pop that he has enjoyed sex with conservatives. Director Stanley Kubrick was onto something with the masked orgy cult gimmick of Eyes Wide Shut. The irony is that such a risqué party like that is one where the masks don’t come close to how theatrical that the facial expressions are during sex.
Melpomene is almost a homophone in that it rhymes with melancholy. Perhaps this is one of the things that compelled Mel Gibson to be an actor, although Mel is not known for being mellow. A 1998 interview that he did for Mike Figgis has become a viral sensation in recent years, not least because of how Christopher Walken was portrayed as Satan personified. Many YouTubers have commented on how he could have been responsible for the death of Natalie Wood on that fateful night with Robert Wagner. Imagine how scary that it would be to be tormented by one person who’s angry and another who is happy with their malice. In that case, there would be a third mask - a scornful one. A rape scenario would always be made scarier if the rapist is not just happy nor solely furious. In light of the Me Too era, imaginations have ran riot with enough speculations to fuel the fire of the feeding frenzy by the National Enquirer periodical. From a creative writing standpoint, envision Natalie Wood’s final night in a gender-reversed setting.
Mel Gibson made a comment to Mike Figgis about sexual urges by using spiritual metaphors which some have taken rather literally. It doesn’t help that there are a lot of religious nuts who perceive Mel’s comments in general as an extension of his directorial feature, The Passion of the Christ. Worse still are the people who have taken his comments out of context on the basis of someone else’s film, Sound of Freedom. While he did, indeed, endorse the film, his appraisal has been repurposed with words being put in his mouth about his own intentions. With an agenda like that, no wonder that Crispin Glover wants to write a book on propadanda. Back to what Mel told Mike, the former conjured the image of Trojan condoms whose brand evoked the memory of the Greek army: “It's always pounding at the walls - it's these little heathens with no soul downstairs with horns on their heads with a battering ram trying to beat your walls in...but that's your own devils, you know.”
The sleaziness of mainstream entertainment has allowed members of the adult film world to make transitions, although you rarely get transitioning from members of the vice-versa party (unless we’re talking about leaked sex tapes). The awareness of Hollywood’s social contract has been publicized by the interview that Mike Figgis had conducted with Mel Gibson. Mike remained silent on what the contract consisted of whereas Mel remained brief and misleading in a way that suggested it was like a secret club whose handshake is equally secretive (not necessarily because it was a handjob). Many have observed that the interview looks heavily edited. In his 1999 book, Projections 10, all of Mike’s filmed interviews were presented uncut. Mike told Mel what his agent, Jeff Berg, claimed was the essence of the contract: “Don’t take it personally, shut up, stop making f#cking trouble.”
As an actress, it’s easy to take things personally when you have other actresses who treat casting like prostitution. Besides the casting couch, an actress can do something as simple as dress provocatively to gain roles. In Projections 10, Figgis interviewed actresses who complained about the casting process. In one interview, you get the sense that an actor’s agent is like a hooker’s pimp. Even Mel felt that doing an audition was like being a prostitute. Nevertheless, not airing dirty laundry is part of the social contract. You never criticize your producers because their hands fed your work, as Mike Figgis once told The Guardian (British newspaper) in 2012. In his 2014 book called Digital Film-making, Mike’s perspective of what the contract stipulated is as follows: “I will buy a house in L.A. I will abide by the rules of the L.A. community. I will not argue with the studios. I will embrace the good life here above all else. I will not mention Godard or other such directors as a reference to anything in Hollywood...”
The irony is that not all “Hollywood” films are filmed in Hollywood even if the studios are based there. Hollywood is usually a place where a film is made in post-production. The Hollywood sign might as well be a shrine, especially one that is worshipped by those who are aware of the social contract. In episode 7 of his podcast (circa June 2022), Mike Figgis spelled out what the contract dictated: “Be a good boy, do what you’re told, get paid a lot of money, buy a house to show you mean it - that you’re not just commuting (which is what I did). Give all the signs that you’re prepared to join the club and abide by the rules. If you do that, you’ll make a ton of money and you will never have to worry again in your life.”
Bruce Feirstein is a screenwriter whose take on the contract is: “Friendships are based on the promise that you can help each other. Once you can’t, it’s over. If you’ve got nothing else to sell, you can always sell someone out. Nothing is ever your fault. Blame the director, blame the studio, blame the star. They’ll all blame the writer.”
One particular rule is hide everything under a smile so that nobody sees your pain. If you’re on the red carpet or any other kind of event, a smile will stop people (even journalists) from projecting onto you. Acting has been described as lying, and there is definitely some truth to it. It’s a two-faced profession where two enemies have to pretend to play lovers or where two friends must pretend to be rivals. But then you have the case of two people, possibly singers, who pretend to be sworn rivals so that no-one can suspect that they’re having an affair. As far as money goes, what you stipulate is reflected in a stipend. But there is a difference between what you tell the paid and what you tell the public. Bribery is rarely an open secret. If your foe shares the same enemy as you, bribery is not necessary unless one of you needs convincing.
Allegiances get murkier when the world of acting and music collide. Soundtracks and music videos allow for all kinds of possibilities in terms of either collaborations, infidelities and grudges. Unlike the world of Hong Kong cinema where an actor can be a respected singer, it’s rare for the two professions to successfully coalesce for the U.S. equivalent. Nowadays, people can accept a singer who can act well rather than an actor who can sing well…unless the actor is singing in a context that’s for storytelling purposes. Music is also a mask. How you feel isn’t necessarily reflected in what you sing or play: foul mind/happy song or happy mind/foul song. The Masked Singer is the best example of this.