January 16, 2007

• America’s Most Influential Export

  Traveling the world, I’ve learned many things over the years. One constant however, is the influence that our movies and television shows have on the rest of the world. Warren Beaty talked about it (seemingly endlessly) last night when he accepted a Lifetime Achievement Golden Globe from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. I’m always amazed by the questions I get asked when I go to other countries and speak to people who’ve never been to the United States. When they hear I’m from Chicago, they ask about Oprah. When they hear I live in Hollywood, it’s all about who I’ve “seen” (and I’m never shy about revealing that information.  My friends will tell you I’m a star f****r, but they exaggerate!!). On a deeper level though, Hollywood (and unfortunately George W. Bush to a great extent) forms most foreigners opinion of America and Americans (see “Perceptions“). I can’t tell you how many people have asked me if I live close to “Melrose Place” or if “Wisteria Lane” is a real street (???). Speaking of Wisteria Lane, I just read that Desperate Housewives shows in 202 countries around the world, some of which are listed below (the names are amusing). It has been setting ratings records everywhere (except China, but more about that in a minute) in countries as diverse as Germany, South Africa and Singapore.

  Country	Local Title	Literal Translation	Network
  France	Desperate Housewives	Desperate Housewives	Canal +M6
  Hungary	Született feleségek	Natural Born Wives	TV2
  Italy	Desperate Housewives: I segreti di Wisteria Lane	Desperate Housewives: The Secrets of Wisteria Lane	Fox Life (cable tv) Rai Due (public tv – 6 months after cable tv end of season run)
  Poland	Gotowe na wszystko	Ready for Everything	Polsat, Fox Life
  Portugal	Donas de Casa Desesperadas	Desperate Housewives	SIC
  Spain	Mujeres Desesperadas	Desperate Women	TVE
  Latin America	Desperate Housewives	Desperate Housewives	Sony Entertainment Television
  Chile	Esposas Desesperadas	Desperate Wives	TVN
  Thailand	สมาคมแม่บ้านหัวใจเปลี่ยว	Lonely Housewives Club	Star World
  French Canada (Québec)	Beautées Desespérées	Desperate Beauties	Société Radio-Canada (SRC)
  Germany	Desperate Housewives	Desperate Housewives	ProSieben, Premiere
  Austria	Desperate Housewives	Desperate Housewives	ORF1
  Mexico	Esposas Desesperadas	Desperate Wifes	TV Azteca
  Turkey	Umutsuz Ev Kadınları	Desperate Housewives	CNBC-e

  Now I must admit that I do joke with my cousins who live in Orange County, that they should try out for the “The Real Housewives of Orange County“. But honestly people, movies and television take liberal artistic license. Shows like “Desperate Housewives”, “Lost” and “24″ and movies like “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” connect with most people in the world today who need an escape, and some mindless entertainment (though one could argue that “Lost” is hardly mindless. My head hurts trying to figure out that show sometimes, and many of my friends in Europe and Asia can’t wait to download the latest episodes, and ask me for spoilers.

  Interestingly however, Desperate Housewives was a ratings failure in China. Some blame the timeslot, and the fact that they ran the whole first season in one week (dubbed with expressionless Chinese actors and much censoring), but Raymond Zhou of China Daily writes:

  On a deeper level, life on Wisteria Lane, the fictional California community in Housewives, is too far removed from ordinary Chinese, even the burgeoning middle class. A Chinese teenager would never, in her right mind, advise her single mother on the etiquette of dating. When Chinese housewives get into an adulterous mood, they would not turn to teenaged gardeners, who are usually migrant workers in rags, but to people with deeper pockets and higher ranks. A Chinese woman may act as fastidious as Bree Van De Kamp, but she would not take on the arch-conservative stance of an American Republican. A Chinese super-mom, in a country with family planning policy encouraging for one child, faces challenges very different from tending four unruly kids. Simply put, the show fails to connect with the vast number of television viewers here because it implicitly requires prior knowledge of the US middle-class lifestyle, exaggerated for dramatic effect of course. That shouldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of those who crave for quality programming, but its target audience shrinks from the culturally curious to the culturally adventurous.

  My friend Ethan from Taiwan recently made me watch one of his favorite Chinese dramas, a show called “Hana Kimi”. It’s all the rage in China and Taiwan, and I think I even saw it once playing in Koreatown Plaza, but this is the idea of Chinese melodrama:

  LOL, and I thought American soaps were bad!  And the Golden Globe for Worst Acting goes to the boy in the shower with the nosebleed.

  Speaking of worldwide phenomenons, American Idol starts tonight, so there goes the next five months of my life.   I don’t like the beginning as much as the end. I know it’s funny and all, but sometimes it crosses the line to mean or mean spirited. We all watch though, and the reason is certainly not limited to America. The Germans call it Schadenfraude, simply put it’s taking pleasure from someone else’s pain.

  Anyway, I’m glad Jennifer Hudson and America Ferrera and Helen Mirren and Babel and Dreamgirls won Golden Globes last night. I actually won the pool we had. The only major category I missed was Forest Whitaker’s (haven’t seen the movie yet), who was really long shot, and obviously moved (literally beyond words) by his win. It always amazes me how our best actors give the worst acceptance speeches, but when someone wins an Oscar for “Best Lighting in a Documentary about Llamas” or something equally absurd, they give the most tear jerking eloquent speeches. What’s up with that??

  I was a bit disappointed that Beyonce and “Listen” didn’t win best song, but it’s got to win the Oscar right? I was also really hoping that Will Smith would win best actor (and thank Tyson for teaching him how to solve the Rubik’s Cube  ); and Leonardo DiCaprio can never seem to get a break either, poor guy (cue the violins).

  I didn’t go to the Golden Globes to take pictures last night like I usually do, because my camera is still out of commission. Plus Santa Monica Blvd. was a nightmare with all the limousine traffic. I would have walked to the Beverly Hilton anyway, but without my camera I was content to watch it at home.

  That’s all from Hollywood.  Have a good week everyone!

  • 10:08 pm
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