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I’m told that senior execs in Sony’s marketing / advertising / distribution departments will be rewarded with bigger titles in coming days. It’ll involve “a lot of promotions”. I can confirm, however, that one exec who’s not being upped (but is not being shown the door, either) is Josh Goldstine, the prez of creative advertising who reports directly to Sony Pictures Entertainment vice-chairman Jeff Blake. Goldstine has been at Sony since the Peter Guber era when, according to buzz I’d heard, he was hired in the marketing department fresh out of Harvard in the early 1990s because his father was Sid Ganis’ shrink. But Goldstine became infamous in 2001 when Columbia suspended him and an underling after it was revealed they had created a fictitious film critic to lavish praise on several of the studio’s films. He oversaw some huge campaigns like Spider-Man 1,2,3. He’s now on Hancock. But he wanted a title bump.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Dana Precious and Neil Dick – world class ass kissers. Good job guys.
my partner, mike ockhurtz, and i are a little concerned with the porn references.
Ah, I see you’ve caught on to my clever scheme.
Get fired from Sony. Wait six years during which time I have no contact AT ALL with Josh. THEN when everyone least expects it, I shmooze him when he is least able to give me a job. You’re right! I can’t believe someone didn’t see through my plan before! Kudos, Drew!
Seriously, though. I expected someone to make that observation. Because after all, this is Hollywood — and why would anyone do anything if there wasn’t something in it for them? In this town, its the first and, sadly, natural thought.
But maybe, just maybe, I wrote here because it was the decent thing to do. It’s called humanity, people. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. If not, maybe there’s a movie you could see that would school you up on it.
I’m no big fan of David Poland, or even a little fan. I don’t think he’s analytical or insightful, but he doesn’t have better grammar than most bloggers so he comes off as more professional. He is a fan of Hollywood, and that is his problem. Too much of what he writes comes off as rationalization, and he is afraid of giving any real criticism.
And that brings us to the van Galder-Sony discussion. Because of this blogging thing or maybe how Hollywood in general has devolved, the terms ‘genius’ and ‘skill’ as Poland shouts them out are meaningless. I can almost see him in a cheerleader outfit, poppoms and a Columbia sweater high-kicking his way into another premiere.
None of what he wrote as skill or genius was either. I was in Cannes when the Da Vinci Code ad-wrapped train arrived, and it was the source of mocking by every European for the week, as well as being an unnecessary expense. Sony’s trick has not been to hire great marketers, but to increasingly make movies that don’t need marketing, just some advertising. Part of this is the publicity/TMZisation of entertainment and part of this is sheer cowardice. No, interesting movies aren’t being made any more, movies that fit the advertising spreadsheet are being made. Van Glder had no challenges with Spider Man, Da Vinci or even Hancock (except to bury the reviews but then it’s all about the opening weekend now anyway). It is not a mark of talent to sell movies like that. Same with the genre movies he listed as ‘skill’…not talent, just process. I can appreciate the business, but am offended when ‘journalists’ like Poland can’t tell the difference between process and proclivity. ‘Running With Scissior’ and ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ are much more representative of what she/screen gems/her staff are capable of. The rest is following someone else’s spreadsheet. Opening ‘Resident Evil’ is no challenge or mark of talent.
He can’t name a movie she sold that was talent, that was skill or even marketing artistry, and there is such a thing. In the olden days in the 70s when I was starting out, there were marketers who could sell ice to eskimos. Now those positions are filled by people with the sweetest kissass pucker and brightest bleached teeth, and the easiest way to cover their asses is to control what sort of movies are made, so more genre and more too-huge blockbusters are made. All that means less risk to sell, and less talent marketing executives need to have.
Dana, the air must be pretty thin up there on your high horse. Why don’t you get down and rest awhile. EVERYONE in this business is posturing in some way. Stop acting like you’re any different. It’s marketing for pete’s sake!
Having said that, I too am upset at what is happening to Josh for the simple reason that he gave his everything to that studio and this is crummy way to be repaid.
By the way, “humanity” might be a lesson Josh could’ve learned a long time ago. He possibly could have avoided this situation. People obviously don’t like him for a myriad of reasons.
Yes, Dana; “humanity.” Not his strong suit.
Like I said before, if you have the creative chops, people will forgive a lack of tact, manners, et al. Talent is forgiven for many sins.
How about an example: Dawn Taubin is a lovely, classy person who is not creative at all. AND, she was not needed to be. She had others under her who were and it was a nice balance. Remember when Dawn and WB parted ways? There were not any negative comments on this site about her. Again, where there’s smoke….
I’ve read all the comments. Some made me laugh. Some made me cringe a little. But overall, so many people have made some excellent points. Josh is being overlooked by his superiors because he’s not the “flavor of the month” anymore. There is no question is anyone’s mind that he is an excellent and savvy marketer. Yes, he’s pompous and arrogant and far too self-important for his own good, but he’s a Harvard guy – they’re all like that. The real sin here is that VVG has risen to the top like a floating turd. She is one of the least creative people in Hollywood, but she happens to be someone’s flavor of the month. It will end eventually like it did when Dana Precious was a creative executive. She was one of the single most inane and inept marketers in the business. Thankfully for her, VVG has not taken that crown.
I have been in many “corners” of the Sony offices with some of the people that are commenting on this issue..two in particular.. whos comments regarding Josh..to me and to MANY others publicly would be far too scandalous even for this site….
and what about Bill Loper?
why even comment on Bill Loper. he’s a bumpling idiot who somehow manages to stay employed….least respected marketing exec in the business..the delivery guy has better creative instinct than that mess.
to all of you who seem to have nothing better to do than malign hard working executives, wouldn’t it be more productive to put all of this energy into doing something positive? it obviously is thrilling to be able to anonymously vent frustration that people you don’t like are succeeding. i would guess that none of them are spending this much time thinking about you.
After hearing of this blog and looking at it for myself, I am struck by how disrespectful and cruel people can be towards somebody they do not know on a personal level at all. First off, I have a particularly biased perspective here because I am Josh Goldstine’s little brother. Secondly, I was initially going to ask my brother if he would be comfortable with me saying this, but I have decided that I need to for myself, and so this is being posted entirely without his knowledge.
To Drew and Oh brother, you don’t know a single thing about Josh Goldstine, and you should be ashamed of the slanderous way you have written about him. However he first got a job at Sony back in the early 90′s, it was his creativity and hard work that has brought him as far as he has come. For either of you to say that he is without “humanity” offends me very deeply. He is and has been as loving and supportive towards my sister and me as any big brother could ever be, and he is a devoted father and husband. He is also one of the most modest people I have ever met; nobody in my family had any idea about a whole bunch of awards his trailers won a few years ago until a family friend mentioned it to my parents days later. Josh is the most kind and good-hearted man I know, and his success comes from his diligence–I’d hardly consider ambition and dedication character flaws. It is the two of you who lack humanity.
I am very touched at Ben Goldstine’s eloquent defense of his big brother.
No one has had such nice things to say about Josh’s work since David Manning.
Everybody’s gotta do what they gotta do to do what they have ta’ do. (In other words – let he without sin throw the first stone.)
While I understand how a lot of folks can have their beak tweaked by being asked repeatedly on a 7pm call deliver something at 9am, I am taken aback by the hateful remarks that have bombarded this comments section.
One inside piece of info. relevant to many of these scathing critiques is that Josh consistently goes out of his way to help people that have worked with him over the years. He doesn’t have to do it. Often they are people who can’t do a thing for him; but I find that willingness on Josh’s part to be a very kind, human, selfless, unpolitical thing to do.
It’s very easy to get caught up in the maligning of another individual. Perhaps it makes us feel better about ourselves if we’re able to do it to someone who’s historically been at such a level of power and influence. What’s difficult and shows a great deal of character is to come to someone’s defense when the rest of the industry has decided to “dog pile on the rabbit.” (Props to you, Dana.) Yes, sometimes certain individuals make it even more difficult to come to their defense or to send out a hand of support during these times because they might have had certain proclivities that irk us – they might have been downright jerks at times. But they’re all human beings, with bills to pay and people who care about them. And there are always things going on behind the scenes that you probably don’t know about and thus, can’t understand.
If you ever have the opportunity to sit down with someone, not at one of the industry events, but over a cup of coffee or something, do it. It’s a lot harder to be a hater, if you’ve really attempted to get to know the person and understand them better.
(P.S. Obviously, I’m not trying to be too covert with my “name.” I’ve just had the opportunity to get to know more of you on a one on one basis than most. And I know that so many of you are capable of more than what this comments section shows. Bring on the critique. Just let it be more intelligent, well-supported and humane.)
Yes, of course, Scumbag Headhunter, et al. Josh is a very nice guy and very talented. How could so many of us gotten this wrong?
To those of you that are upset because you feel Josh showed you a lack of respect, your behavior on this site only proves that his assessment of you was correct.
I’ve been working in this business for almost 20 years as a lowly vendor. Ive worked with everyone who has been mentioned in these comments and what bothers me is that everyone keeps talking about these studio execs as if they come up with these campaigns all by themselves. Josh Goldstine has made it as far as he has because he knows how to hire people who make him look good. He works ridiculous hours not because he’s hardworking and coming up with ideas but because he’s waiting for some poor schmuck to get up on the fiber and save his ass. Most of these studio people who everyone thinks are so brilliant just spend a lot of money hiring vendor after vendor to solve their problems. Valerie Van Gelder, Josh Greenstein, and Tony Sela aren’t creative they just hire people who are. The only execs who are actually creative all come from the vendor side. Tommy Gargotta’s trailers are cool because he used to be an editor at intralink. Maria Pekurovskiya (ant farm) has original ideas and even cuts her own trailers. If more studio people spent hard time in the edit bay they’d be better at their jobs and wouldn’t have to spend so much money waiting for someone else to do their job.
Rocketman:
But the studio people are not required to be truly creative. It’s a bonus if they do, but first they must know how to navigate the political waters at a studio and deal with filmmakers expectations. The studio’s response to our work is based on testing for the most part; if the trailer/spot doesn’t test the way the studio wants it to test, it’s back to the drawing board for us vendors.
All the studios have creative ad execs with a mix of strength: Sony has Tommy who’s very creative and Loper who is political. Uni has Frank C. who is creative. Maria is sort of ok on the creative and very political. The other one there, Keri Moore,has no discernible skills. Why she is anything but an assistant is a wonder…Anyway, they work for Adam Fogelson, who is very savvy and will no doubt follow in Schmuger’s footsteps and be president of the motion picture group. The point is, all the studios have people with a complimentary mix of talents. It’s essential for getting the work done.
So, Rocketman, you’re sorta right about the specifics, but in the larger picture you’re missing the point.
How Maria Pekuravskya gets any sleep..working all day at the studio and cutting her own trailers with her boyfriend at night..whew getting money from one end and also on the other..must be nice….that is political..ha!
Bitter people… here’s the reality…
Studio marketing budgets are insane. There is no other industry where creative companies make over $10k a tv spot from working about 5 hours- and if it goes beyond version 3 sometimes $25k. The studio marketing executives are given movies, most of the time, impossible to market, but because the studio has spent an enormous amount of money to make the project, every meeting they have, with over 25 people in the room, the creative advertising execs are singled out and asked… “what does the creative look like and how come our tracking sucks”…
It is no wonder that during a period when a movie is not tracking well and studio executives literally have meetings every other day to show that there is light at the end of the tunnel (because when a movie doesn’t open well it is never the produciton exec fault)… the question is… with the amount of money we throw at agencies, the time spent in studio meetings and the number of suggestions (from the production asst., marketing pres., prod. exec, etc) of maybe what we all missed in order to produce a good piece of material, we’re not on your ass to come up with every idea suggested, also our own, and trying to get your input that fallls in line with our marketing direction (PS… artistic matrerial does not open movies) , to come up with something the next day to say… “hey we solved it… it’s going to be ok.”
Every exec. you mentioned above, in good or bad spirit, has to deal with this stress while trying to open these inane movies and still keep the relationships they have with the vendors strong… because we know that you’re the ones through thick and thin they want to be with at 10pm at night… they can count on… knowing they have to show a piece of material the next day that will subside the head of the studio’s fears.
We’re all guilty… but whether too political or too creative, we all have the same stress and still pay the same amount of $$ to get the work done… a version 22 pays a lot more $$ than a version 1… tell your kids that.
Dana wasn’t so high-horsed when she was handing out kickbacks on Godzilla….. Just sayin’. Her husbands agency made a killing on that one.
My memory of Josh is him being the only person on the lot (practically… it was the Guber years) wearing a tie. Of course it was always a HARVARD tie, as he was quick to point out.
For what it’s worth, Maria was Dana’s assistant back in the day. They both reported to Marc Scmuger.
This is so ridiculous.
As a marketing exec at one of the studios, lets not forget how much money all the vendors make…hopefully doing something you love.
sorry it is so awful for you guys..
I’ve been to a few parties at your houses..one young agencey owner in particular..Ive never seen such an estate…..shit maybe I should move to your side and deal with all this so I can live like him…
can we end this now..and get back to 3rd period..