On Monday, a rumor spread that controversial NY Press film critic Armond White had been "blackballed by Focus Features at the request of [director] Noah Baumbach and his producer Scott Rudin." Consequently, a quite entertaining and profane email was written!

Jerry Portwood at the NY Press made some calls and found that White had apparently been banned from a screening of Greenberg at the request of PR maven Leslee Dart, who didn't like reviews White had written in the past. Typical evil PR maneuvering. The following email had already gone out, from an anonymous film critic to a bunch of his colleagues, blasting Baumbach and Rudin and publicists and the entire Hollywood machine. In an entertaining fashion! Enjoy:

From: John Doe
Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2010 20:35:34
To: [Film Critics]
Subject: Support Your Fellow Film Critics

You may not have heard that Armond White has been blackballed by Focus Features at the request of Noah Baumbach and his producer Scott Rudin from seeing Noah's latest "masterpiece" GREENBERG. [Noah, maybe you should make better films. Scott, go throw a cellphone at some PA you thin-skinned pussy.]

Some of you may think that Armond is a pretentious pompous fool who has no idea what he's talking about, but he is still a fellow film critic. [Hail Todd McCarthy, fired by Variety today so they can save some shekels.]

Publicists are akin to Nazis. Remember what Hitler said, "Who remembers the Armenians?" As publicists blacklist each of us one by one we will be left with the Paul Wunders of the 21st Century aka blogger hacks who can't spell or write a comprehensive sentence.

I suggest we all do three things:

1. DO NOT review Greenberg, if you are ordered to by your superior make a reference to the Gestapo tactics of the distributor, filmmaker and producer.

2. Complain directly to the President of Focus Features, James Schamus who prides himself on being a writer and supporter of the written word. This is his email address: [Redacted]

3. Write directly to Scott Rudin and tell him you will not review any of his upcoming films.

[Address]

Upcoming Films: Margaret (Fox Searchlight), The Social Network (Columbia - 10/15)

Hail the First Amendment. Fuck the talentless hacks.

Film Critic 1138

[Pic via]