by Nadia Cohen
‘David O. Russell is one of my closest friends and we have an amazing collaborative working relationship. I adore this man and he does not deserve this tabloid malarkey. This movie is going great and I’m having a blast making it!’ she declared.
The actress’s announcement came after a source told TMZ that she and Russell were loudly screaming and swearing at each other on set. The website alleged that the argument began because Jennifer was unhappy with how he was directing a scene. But producers told TMZ that the screaming – which apparently scared onlookers – was simply method acting as he was helping Jennifer to get riled up before they shot a scene in which she had to lose her temper at another actor.
TMZ also alleged that Jennifer had invited studio boss Harvey Weinstein on to the set to discuss the problem, but that Russell had ordered him to leave as soon as he reached her make-up trailer. Later it emerged that the meeting had been pre-arranged, and was nothing to do with the supposed argument. It was also confirmed that both actress and director were aware that Weinstein was due to visit, and that he went to see Jennifer to discuss a project with her for an hour, also presenting her with a handbag from his girlfriend’s fashion label, Marchesa.
Meanwhile, Fox 2000’s representative confirmed that Russell had an argument with a different Fox executive, but denied reports that he made the woman cry. And the head of the production company Annapurna Pictures also weighed in on the feud: ‘The only thing happening on set between David Russell and Jennifer Lawrence is an extraordinary collaboration,’ explained Megan Ellison. ‘One I’m proud to be a part of.’
Either way, the long-running and fruitful artistic relationship between Jennifer and Russell looked set to continue, although it was not the first time he had allegedly argued with an actor in one of his movies. He famously fell out with George Clooney on the set of 1999’s Three Kings – they criticised each other’s work openly, and even got into a physical fight.
Footage also surfaced in 2004 of the director and Lily Tomlin screaming at each other while working on I Heart Huckabees – with Russell knocking over props and Tomlin swearing at him. The actress told the Miami New Times three years later: ‘I love David. There was a lot of pressure in making the movie – even the way it came out, you could see it was a very free-associative, crazy movie, and David was under a tremendous amount of pressure. And he’s a very free-form kind of guy anyway.’
A couple of months later, however, Russell’s reputation was further damaged in a spate of leaked emails sent between journalist Jonathan Alter and the director’s brother-in-law, Sony CEO Michael Lynton. In the emails, Alter enquires as to the company’s future plans with the director: ‘Are you guys doing anything else with him?’ Alter asks. ‘I know he’s brilliant but we have someone on our show who worked closely with him on American Hustle and not only are the stories about him reforming himself total bullshit but the new stories of his abuse and lunatic behavior are extreme even by Hollywood standards.’
Alter brought up the feud with George Clooney, adding: ‘Apparently he behaved on The Fighter but acted so crazy on Hustle that it’s another Clooney situation where a lot of people won’t work with him again.
‘He grabbed one guy by the collar, cursed out people repeatedly in front of others and so abused Amy Adams that Christian Bale got in his face and told him to stop acting like an asshole.
‘He treated the crew like shit, demanded his own bathroom at all times and frightened people, as he famously had on Three Kings.’
Whatever the rumours regarding the talented director, he and Jennifer have clearly struck up a prolific and fruitful professional relationship which has already spawned two fantastic films in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle – and more is on the horizon.
Joy was expected to go head to head with Sandra Bullock’s rival biopic of another groundbreaking woman, Tupperware promoter Brownie Wise, who famously inspired housewives to earn their own money through Tupperware parties. Both she and Joy Mangano were trailblazing businesswomen who reached the top of their professions through hard work, talent and charisma. By coincidence, their unusual life stories were being brought to the big screen in separate films, which earlier in 2015 was being billed as the Battle of the Domestic Goddesses.
Bullock’s film is based on the book Tupperware Unsealed, written by Bob Kealing, in which he explained how Earl Tupper developed the food storage containers, applying for a patent in 1947. Tupper was at a loss as to how to market the products and discovered Wise, a divorcée and mother, who had a prodigious talent for selling and was a ‘dazzling, intelligent and outgoing woman’. In the postwar baby boom she set up parties for stay-at-home mothers, showing them how to ‘burp’ the lid to force air out of the colourful bowls and create a vacuum. Sales took off, as previously women had had to resort to putting shower caps over dishes to prevent food from spoiling. Throughout the 1950s, thousands of women became Tupperware hostesses, rewarded with incentives that ranged from sets of steak knives to Cadillacs and mink coats. In 1954, Wise was the first woman to appear on the cover of Business Week magazine, when the company’s estimated sales had reached $100 million.
But Tupper came to resent his employee’s success; in 1957 Wise was fired from the multimillion-dollar company she had helped build. She held no company stock and was given a pay-off of a year’s salary of $30,000. Afterwards she tried – and failed – to start a cosmetics company, dabbled in property and had a pottery studio. In 1992 she died at the age of seventy-nine.
‘She was one of the most important businesswomen of the twentieth century, the prototype for all these Facebook and Google women who are leaning in,’ wrote Kealing. ‘I’m glad she will finally get the recognition she deserves.’
Joy Mangano’s rags-to-riches story is equally uplifting. The former waitress used her own savings to develop a mop that could be wrung out without the user getting their hands wet. In 1990 she made 100 mops and sold them to shops in Long Island. She sold a further 1,000 mops to the QVC shopping channel, on condition that she would take them back if they did not sell. The mops moved slowly but when Mangano went on air to sell the product herself, she sold 18,000 mops in twenty minutes. Today, they still sell by the million.
The blonde and bubbly Mangano also invented Huggable Hangers, which save space in wardrobes, and she broke a selling record on the Home Shopping Network in 2010 by selling 180,000 of her Forever Fragrant air fresheners in a single day.
She sold her company, Ingenious Designs, to HSN and now works there as an executive. Her daughter, Christie Miranne, told the Observer that her mother was ‘excited and honoured’ to be portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence. ‘She’s worked really hard all her life. We’re all looking forward to seeing the film. It’s going to be quite an experience,’ she said.
Some critics are sceptical that the two women’s life stories, which include their complicated love lives, will be strong enough to draw audiences but others believe they will be hits, with cinemagoers weary of non-stop action and fantasy films.
Jennifer, meanwhile, seemed to settle into life in Boston, and was spotted trying to live life as normally as any Hollywood actress could. She went shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue, and somehow managed to slip unnoticed into a Flywheel exercise class: ‘She normally sneaks in the back door, walks into class late after the lights go down, and sneaks out early before they go on,’ a source told People magazine. She attended the class with her assistant, and even brought her dog Pippi, who waited patiently outside the class. ‘When she brings her dog, which she has done a few times, her bodyguard watches him,’ added the source.
From Boston the production moved on to Wilmington, Massachusetts, where Jennifer was spotted filming alongside her co-star Édgar Ramírez. And she told friends she was delighted to be teaming up with Bradley Cooper once again, as the smouldering chemistry between the pair was undeniable and had delighted critics in their previous movies.
Jennifer had also formed a close friendship with Bradley’s then g
irlfriend, British model Suki Waterhouse. Bradley and Suki first met at the 2013 Elle Style Awards in London: ‘We were introduced and hit it off almost immediately,’ the model told Rollercoaster magazine. ‘We were dancing at the after-party, and he asked me if I fancied going to a club. We went to Cirque le Soir in London – and he’s a ridiculously good dancer.’
Suki struck up a friendship with Jennifer, and together the two women went to watch Cooper’s Broadway debut in The Elephant Man in December 2014.
In the revival of Bernard Pomerance’s drama at the Booth Theatre, Cooper played Joseph Merrick, a nineteenth-century British man who becomes the star of the travelling freak show circuit. A fellow theatre-goer excitedly tweeted during the performance: ‘Jennifer Lawrence is sitting across the row from us at The Elephant Man’, with several shocked face emojis following it. And Jennifer’s appearance at the theatre sparked speculation that she might have plans to take to the stage herself, if her filming commitments would allow it.
Although the two women appeared quite friendly that night, it has also been reported that Jennifer was a ‘little jealous’ of Suki. A source told gossip website Radar Online: ‘When Bradley and Jennifer made Silver Linings Playbook and Serena together they were inseparable. But now Bradley has been spending his free time with Suki, and she feels like she’s lost her partner in crime.
‘They haven’t been hanging around each other as often as they used to.
‘Bradley flew Suki over from London to Boston and he took her on a tour of the city. Then, he flew to Paris to see her the moment he had a break in filming.
‘Because he’s spending all his free time with Suki, Jennifer’s only really seen Bradley on set and she’s grown a little jealous about it.’
Bradley and Jennifer had been forced to deny rumours they were dating, but it was not the most convincing denial as he claimed Jennifer was too young for him – before going on to date Suki, who was even younger!
Jennifer had previously claimed she was tired of trying to arrange dates for Bradley. ‘I feel like all I’ve been doing lately is setting him up,’ she said. ‘I was like, “You know what? I’m gonna save time and just get you a booklet with pictures of my friends. You just go through and pick them out, because this is getting exhausting.”’
And while she kept away from the Oscars in 2015, Bradley took Suki as his date, following his nomination for Best Actor in American Sniper. As well as losing out on the night to Eddie Redmayne, he also had to put up with Suki feeling jealous about another of his gorgeous female friends. According to OK! magazine, Bradley’s girlfriend had some negative feelings towards actress Sienna Miller, who made a glamorous appearance at the Academy Awards, looking stunning in a black Oscar de la Renta dress.
A source told the magazine: ‘Suki is so fed up with Bradley’s relentless gushing about Sienna’s talent, it has caused some huge fights. Suki told him that if she walks by Sienna at the Oscars, she is going to tell her to stay away from her man.’
Since Bradley had been romantically linked to Sienna in the past, it was perhaps understandable that Suki should be annoyed, especially as the couple hardly spent any time together in the run-up to the high-profile awards ceremony. However, the model refused to discuss their relationship. During an interview with Elle magazine she said: ‘I don’t talk about my boyfriend because it’s boring. At least, that’s what I decided to tell you when you asked. I’m not one of those girls who goes on about their boyfriends. I do think whatever I say will sound weird. But the truth is, if I start talking about him, I probably won’t be able to stop. And I don’t really want to talk about him, you know?’
But in April 2015 it emerged that Bradley had cooled his two-year relationship with Suki because she was not supportive of his career. Page Six claimed that he felt neglected during his Broadway stint in The Elephant Man between November 2014 and February 2015. The column also reported that a source close to the actor said that Bradley was upset that Suki chose not to spend Valentine’s Day with him in New York, preferring instead to enjoy a girls’ weekend away in Texas – sharing on Instagram a series of photos of herself in bikinis.
Bradley also had professional problems. In the spring of 2015 fans were eagerly anticipating the delayed release of Serena, based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Ron Rash and directed by Oscar-winner Susanne Bier. Jennifer and Bradley play a couple whose happiness is almost ruined when Lawrence’s character finds out that her husband already has a child. The film’s release was delayed for almost two years while it languished in the editing suite and when it finally came out in March 2015, it was to terrible reviews.
The movie, set in the early 1920s, follows two newlyweds, George and Serena Pemberton (Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence), who found a timber business in the North Carolina mountains. Serena proves herself a formidable outdoors-woman, hunting rattlesnakes and even saving a man’s life in the wilderness (a rough-and-tumble role harking back to Jennifer’s breakout role in Winter’s Bone). Yet their marriage begins to unravel as Serena discovers George’s hidden past and is forced to face up to an unchangeable fate of her own.
Although the film itself was slated, some critics praised Jennifer’s performance, and credited Susanne Bier with bringing out the best in her. ‘Lawrence constructs a well considered and thought out performance that makes sense of the character’s extremes,’ wrote the Houston Chronicle. ‘At times, you can feel Bier relishing what this actress is capable of, as when she films Lawrence in close-up, reacting to bad news in one unbroken take. Her face is still, then she starts to cry, and then her face gives way to sobbing. Very few people are capable of doing this with a camera two feet from their face. Even fewer could make you want to watch.’
According to Sony’s head of acquisitions Joe Matukewicz the film was ‘very disappointing’. He wrote in a leaked email to his boss: ‘It’s set in a logging town in the Smoky Mountains of the 1920s. Cooper runs a timber company, marries Lawrence, but after she loses their unborn baby she mentally unravels, having three locals killed who she perceives as threats. Even with this star power, the bleak story, setting, tedious pacing and tonally challenged film make it one we should steer clear of. Not only because the reviews will be rough, but also for the talent relationships.
‘It’s probably best to let it go.’
The website Zimbio also slammed the film as ‘a yawn’, saying: ‘The movie’s best moments feature Lawrence in emotional overload. One, where she slowly breaks down after the miscarriage, is filmed in tight close-up and will send chills down your spine. This is what’s so frustrating. Serena should be full of moments like this, but Lawrence is only given half a character.
‘Meanwhile, Bier lays it on with heavy strings and slow motion. This passes for character development. The long, soulful looks between Lawrence and Cooper add little and the film’s PG-rated sex scenes are a yawn.
‘Filmed mainly in Prague, the production design is stellar and vivid, a hard vision of a worker’s life. And it seems like the environment affected the film.
‘Apart from Lawrence, the actors all look like they’d rather be home in bed, like they knew they were working on something that wasn’t working.’
Despite the mixed reviews that plagued Serena, Jennifer and Bradley were still widely considered to be box-office gold and even though this particular film proved a rare flop, it is safe to say that Jennifer’s future in the movie business is guaranteed, since she is already set to be busy for years to come.
She forged a strong bond with the director and agreed to reunite with Susanne Bier again in the movie adaptation of Claire Bidwell Smith’s memoir entitled The Rules of Inheritance. As well as starring, Jennifer also intended to tackle producing for the first time in the film about coping with grief and the challenges that come with losing a loved one.
At the time of writing she was also set to take lead roles in the movies Burial Rites, East of Eden, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 and The Ends of the Earth. For both Buria
l Rites and East of Eden – a remake of the 1955 film starring James Dean – she was teaming up again with Hunger Games director Gary Ross. In the second adaptation of a John Steinbeck’s seminal novel East of Eden she was set to star as Cathy Ames, who murdered her parents by setting fire to their house while they slept.
In Burial Rites Jennifer was to play a woman charged with murder who is sent to a remote farm while she awaits execution.
For The Ends of the Earth, she was to be reunited with the director of the third and fourth instalments of the Hunger Games franchise, Francis Lawrence, for a fact-based love story about a powerful oil tycoon who loses everything after being caught up in a torrid affair.
And she and Francis Lawrence had plans to team up again for a romantic drama called The Dive. According to The Hollywood Reporter the film, which Avatar and Titanic director James Cameron has been developing since 2002, centres on the relationship between true-life figures Francisco ‘Pipin’ Ferreras and marine biologist Audrey Mestre.
Jennifer will play Audrey, a scuba diving enthusiast who became interested in the sport of free diving (which involves diving to the greatest depths on a single breath of air) in the mid-nineties. She trained under, and later married, the legendary free diver, Pipin. In November 2002, while attempting to break the world record dive of 531 feet set earlier by her husband – without breathing apparatus – Audrey encountered an issue with a lift balloon. Pulled from the water nine minutes later, efforts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful and she died at the age of twenty-eight.
Two very different accounts of the tragedy have since emerged. In 2006 Pipin was directly blamed for his wife’s untimely death by dive co-organiser Carlos Serra in his book called The Last Attempt, amid allegations the record attempt failed to adhere to standard safety procedures. However, the film follows the title of Pipin’s own 2004 book, The Dive: A Story of Love and Obsession, which takes a different view.
