Film Buff Friday: Shortcut To Happiness

File this one under things that make you go Hmmmmm....

SHORTCUT TO HAPPINESS: After eighteen long years from production to release Shortcut to Happiness finally makes its debut on Blu-ray and DVD on July 16, 2019. Originally "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (the film's original title when it was in production in 2001) was to be the directorial debut of star Alec Baldwin. According to a 2007 Entertainment Weekly article, "production was vexed by alleged money problems and the FBI's bank-fraud investigation of a reported investor". According to a 2007 article in The Guardian, the movie grinded to a halt "during post-production when the FBI seized the investors' assets, including the film, in the course of a bank fraud investigation." Due to this and other rumored creative differences, Baldwin had his director credit removed from the film and replaced with the pseudonym "Harry Kirkpatrick". Baldwin's producing partner Jon Cornick told Entertainment Weekly in 2003, "We spent a lot of time and effort shooting the movie... It's not the movie that we intended to make." 

Producer Bob Yari rescued the film from bankruptcy court and finished the film without Baldwin's participation which received limited theatrical screenings in 2007. Years later the film aired on Showtime and Starz channels but had never received a proper release on home video. 

"I was presented with opportunity to license Shortcut To Happiness," according to MVD Entertainment Director of Acquisitions Eric D. Wilkinson. "Despite the movie's checkered past, I liked it. It reminded me of the high concept romantic comedies of the 1980's and 90's. It has a great cast and production values and I think fans of the genre will more than enjoy this film. So after eighteen years since the movie first started production, I'm excited to finally give Shortcut To Happiness a proper release on disc and digital".

 

Set in New York's literary world, Shortcut To Happiness is a contemporary re-telling of the classic short story ''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' featuring an all-star cast that includes Academy Award® Nominees Alec Baldwin (The Departed) and Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters), Academy Award® Winner Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs), Jennifer Love Hewitt (Heartbreakers), Kim Cattrall ("Sex and the City"), Bobby Cannavale (Ant-Man), Amy Poehler ("Parks and Recreation") and Darrell Hammond ("SNL").

 

Jabez Stone (Baldwin), a down on his luck writer, sells his soul to the devil (Love-Hewitt) in exchange for fame and fortune. But when things don't turn out as planned, Stone ultimately decides that he wants his old life again and enlists the help of Daniel Webster (Hopkins) in order to win his soul back from Satan, herself!

The Horror: Margaret Cho Speaks To The Dead

Margaret Cho

That's right people, she does. Did you happen to see her guest starring on the Jennifer Love Hewitt show "Ghost Whisperer" where she played Occult Anthropology Professor Avery Grant who was quite taken off guard that her teachings had some truth to them with the help of ghost visitations and a Ouija Board?

Well she did indeed speak to the dead on the show, Boo! Interestingly enough Margaret has an extensive collection of Ouija Boards, yes that's correct, one of the most popular stand-up comics on the planet loves her some Ouija's -  so it being the Halloween Season and all, I asked Margaret to tell me her scariest experience with one.

Margaret Cho & Jennifer Love Hewitt on "Ghost Whisperer"

Tell us about it, Margaret ...

"We have Ouija Boards all over my house, and once I looked at one of the very vintage boards - probably from the turn of the century or before, and it seemed that the planchette  was moving on its own. It's kind of an Egyptian/art deco thing, and no one was touching the planchette, it was just circling the board by itself, like it had a motor or something. Then I found out my husband had rigged the board with a battery operated planchette! No ghosts from the afterlife trying to contact me. Just a 9 volt battery strapped to the inside - but boy it was scary looking!"

Ouija Board

That would be scary and what great Halloween prank!

Margaret is currently on tour with her stand-up show "Mother" and is also doing her podcast "Monsters of Talk" with Jim Short.

Don't be afraid, for "Mother" tour dates & updates log onto:

http://www.margaretcho.com/

Go "Monster" for "Monsters of Talk" at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-talk-podcast/id594033255

TV Watch: Jennifer Love Hewitt Proves How Handy She Is On "The Client List"

"Riley is a single mother living in a small Texas town and leading a shocking double life. Her secret would send shockwaves through the community and possibly land her in jail if it was ever exposed. Riley's taken a job at a seemingly traditional day spa, but soon realizes that the parlor offers a little more than just massage therapy. It's not the happy ending she was expecting but it does open her eyes to a world she's never seen before" - 

So goes the synopsis for the Lifetime series "The Client List" starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. While bored with everything on TV one night and having pretty much exhausted all of the things on my On Demand feature, I saw this listed on Lifetime and decided to give it a shot.

Now I know I am coming into season two (I was aware of the show, just never saw it before) and may have missed a lot of set-up from the first season, but as it turns out "The Client List" is much like tuning into a daytime soap you have not been following, not that hard to fill in the blanks and fit the pieces together as so you know what is going on. 

What can I say about this show, it is one of those things that is a guilty pleasure, like a plateful of cheese smothered nachos, you know it's bad for you, but damn it's fun!

Cybill Shepherd on The Client List

I happened upon the second episode of season two. The opening scene proves just how handy Jennifer Love Hewitt can be, literally. As Riley Parks the now owner of the abovementioned spa we see Ms. Hewitt giving a client a half hour long hand job and having having issues with wrist and shoulder fatigue in the process, that scene alone would have made the episode worth watching. 

Grudgingly I admit to being a fan of JLH, there is something very appealing about her, she is a good actress, but let's face it she's got a nice pair of assets and she is adorable even while giving a hand job. Thus her casting, I am sure, in the lead role, after all who is going to get offended by JLH being bad? No one, you actually sympathize and root for her, even while she is pressing high heels into the back of a public official. JLH brings humor, sexy and likability with her to every role she plays. 

BTW, can we talk about Cybill Shepherd as Riley's Mom "Linette Montgomery" who is blissfully unaware (although I'm not so sure) of Riley's double life.

Loretta Devine with Jennifer Love Hewitt "The Client List"

And the great Loretta Devine as "Georgia Cummings" Riley's best friend and former owner of the spa that Riley started at and now owns....

PS - there are plenty of hot guys on the show, but the female characters are definitely in charge!

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive" - Sir Walter Scott

Get your guilty pleasure on, and tune in to "The Client List" on Lifetime...

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/the-client-list