On Being, and Being John Malkovich

Keener rolls a joint for Cusack and Diaz in Being John Malkovich

I just saw Being John Malkovich (on Netflix) for the third or fourth time, and I must say, I like it more each time. It's got everything: the most outrageous plot ever, the most comedic settings, the wildest acting....all with metaphysical questions about who's pulling the strings. "I've begun to imagine it as a very expensive suit I enjoy wearing," one soul says of his borrowed body.

A couple of references to pot are in the film: Lottie (Cameron Diaz) convinces her husband Craig (John Cusack) to invite the object of both their desires, Maxine (Catherine Keener) to dinner. "I'll cook my lasagne, we'll smoke a joint, and tensions will just melt away," she counters when Craig mounts an excuse. After dinner, Keener rolls a joint for her admirers.

"Were you stoned?" 

It's Charlie Sheen, playing himself as the friend Malkovich goes to when he's feeling controlled by an outside force, who gets to the heart of the matter. "Were you stoned?" is the first thing Charlie asks, because as he well knows, expanding one's consciousness is an interesting and often instructive thing to do, though it can leave you a little confused. When Malkovich replies in the affirmative, Sheen says, "You were stoned, end of story." 

The film has a rare appearance from Orson Bean, who found his experience smoking marijuana with Lord Buckley in the 1940s "quite wonderful." Keener was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her role, as was writer Charlie Kaufman (he took the BAFTA). Malkovich got an American Comedy Award, and deserved it. Still, I think my favorite moment is when it's revealed why the chimp has post-traumatic stress. "You don't know how lucky you are being a monkey," Craig tells him. "Because consciousness is a terrible curse."

Kaufman's encore Adaptation is also a writing and acting wonder: Nicolas Cage plays both Kaufman and his brainless but strangely successful twin/alter ego. Cage's Kaufman is attempting to write an adaptation of The Orchid Thief for the screen and...I won't reveal the plot except to say when it goes sensational, drugs are involved and Meryl Streep is, of course, superb.

Prominent Women "Woman Up" for Drug Law Reform in Letter to Obama that Addresses Children's Concerns

Actress and Obama campaign co-chair Eva Longoria

What do Eva Longoria, Roseanne Barr, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson, Cameron Diaz, Scarlett Johannson, three Kardashians (Kim, Khloe and Kourtney), Demi Moore, Sarah Silverman, Susan Sarandon, Ani Difranco, Missy Elliott, Jennifer Hudson, Natalie Maines, Nicki Minaj, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and authors Michelle Alexander and Naomi Klein have in common with John Hamm, Ron Howard, Richard Branson and Mike Tyson?

They've all signed an open letter to President Obama calling for an end to the injustice of the war on drugs. Also signing were civil rights leaders and advocates, members of the faith community, business leaders and athletes, all members of a coalition 175 strong lead by Russell Simmons and the Drug Policy Alliance.

The letter says:

"The greatest victims of the prison industrial complex are our nation’s children. Hundreds of thousands of children have lost a parent to long prison sentences for non-violent drug offenses, leaving these children to fend for themselves. Many of these children end up in the criminal justice system, which comes as no surprise as studies have shown the link between incarceration and broken families, juvenile delinquency, violence and poverty....

"Many of those impacted by the prison industrial complex are among your most loyal constituents. Your struggles as the child of a single mother allow you to identify with millions of children who long to be with their parents. We request the opportunity to meet with you to discuss these ideas further and empower our coalition to help you achieve your goals of reducing crime, lowering drug use, preventing juvenile incarceration and lowering recidivism rates. We stand with you, ready to do what is just for America." 

The letter also asks Obama to form a panel to review requests for clemency that come to the Office of the Pardon Attorney. 

Justin Bieber didn't sign but made news when he tweeted support. And the NAACP president told the US to man up and reform the WOD, tweeted the Marijuana Majority. In response to a tweet with a link to this article, MM responded that Ben Jealous also said "woman up" in his excellent interview (well worth a look).

Performing Potheads Party Down at Golden Globes

In a moment reminiscent of Jane Fonda at last years Oscar party, Cameron Diaz was spotted by the New York Post "smoking something more fragrant-smeling than a cigarette" on a terrace at a Golden Globes afterparty.

Diaz called weed "awesome" on Jimmy Fallon's show and was awesome herself in "Bad Teacher". She's joked about buying pot from Snoop Dogg in high school and was photographed passing a joint to Drew Barrymore.

At the ceremony, Meryl Streep took home Best Actress in a Drama and gave a heartfelt acceptance speech. Streep smoked pot on film in 2009's "It's Complicated" and in "Silkwood" (1983). She brought her prodigious acting skills to "Adaptation" (2002), in which she gets high off some plant material. In 1985 she played VIP Isak Dinesen in Out of Africa.

Michelle Williams won Best Actress in the Comedy or Musical category for portraying Marilyn Monroe. A home movie released in 2009 purports to be Monroe smoking a marijuana cigarette, and her friend Jeanne Carmen's biographer confirms the two smoked together.

Skipping the latest Republican debate debacle, I instead caught Monroe in "The Prince and the Showgirl" (1957) on TCM: she's superb in this underrated film.

The Girl's Got Camerones

Cameron Diaz and Phyllis Smith in Bad Teacher

Tokin' Woman Cameron Diaz lights up more than the screen in Bad Teacher (2011), a raunchy but charming comedy a bit in the style of There's Something About Mary (1998), in which Diaz tokes with Ben Stiller as they reunite onscreen. 

Diaz carries the film as a shallow but smart gold-digging woman who's teaching school (as little as she can) while saving for a boob job. When she's caught by a student smoking a "medicinal" pipe in the school parking lot, she couldn't care less. But she takes an interest in a co-worker played by Phyllis Smith ("The Office"), encouraging her to smoke a doobie; next thing you know she's happily groping a cowboy in a bar. 

Casting her former boy toy Justin Timberlake as a nerdy pantswetter who parodies himself singing a love song in pitch-perfect style, her other love interest is played by Jason Segel, who's the stoner in "Freaks and Geeks" and, as Marshall in "How I Met Your Mother," bonds with Ted over "sandwiches" in the “How I Met Everyone Else” episode. 

The film handles marijuana in irony, moderation and jubilation, with a dash of heart, and soul.

Diaz told George Lopez she "had to have" bought pot from Snoop Dogg while both were in high school in Long Beach.

Best note in the new Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas extravaganga: when Danneel Harris (Vanessa) tells Kumar not to stop smoking. The actress told High Times in 2008 she smokes pot; neither John Cho (Harold) or Kal Penn (Kumar) partake (so they say).

Fast Times at Spike TV

Fast Times At Ridgemont High director Amy Heckerling (the only woman in the picture at left) was in attendance to see her film inducted into Spike TV's "Guy Movie Hall of Fame" last night in Culver City, along with castmembers Sean Pean (in his memorable stoner role), Judge Reinhold and Forest Whitaker.

Ridgemont High is a cut above the average "stoner guy" or high school comedy; it's got heart, wit, and a finesse sorely lacking in the usual fare. Heckerling got noticed for the film and went on to write "Clueless" (1995) and the "Look Who's Talking" films, based on her experience as a mother. She pairs again with "Clueless" star Alicia Silverstone in this year's "Vamps," about Vampires in New York and their dating choices.

The female cast of the 1982 movie had better things to do that night. Jennifer Jason Leigh is busy winning raves on Broadway in The House of Blue Leaves with Ben Stiller and Edie Falco. And Phoebe Cates hasn't acted since she married Kevin Klein, had his kids, and opened a boutique in New York.

Also missing from the Spike festivities was Ridgemont High's author, Cameron Crowe ("Almost Famous") and Spicoli's stoner buddies Anthony Edwards and Eric Stoltz. Edwards will play Beat poet publisher Lawrence Ferlingetti in 2012's Big Sur, based on a novel by VIP Jack Kerouac. Whitaker, who played the jock in the film, is set to play Very Important Pothead Louis Armstrong in an upcoming biopic, which is said to include Louis's love of the herb in the script.

Mark Wahlberg, who earlier this year admitted he'd smoked pot but was now afraid to do so around his daughter, won the "Guy of the Year" award. Award winner Jim Carrey hasn't quite come clean, but discussing performing a bungee jumping stunt on TV's "Ellen" (12/17/2008), he said "I’m thinking, If there is a God, How do I explain that trip to Amsterdam when I was 19 and saying Yes to everything?"

VIPs Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz were presenters, and Mila Kunis deservedly took home the "Holy Grail of Hot." VIP Jennifer Aniston also deserved her "Decade of Hotness" award. (Apparently, smoking pot makes you hot.)

The Guys Choice Awards, at which Keith Richards received recognition for his "brass balls", will air on Spike TV on Friday June 10 at 9 PM.

Diaz and Lopez Get Green

Lopez Tonight (midnight on TBS) seems to be the latest place stars come clean about being green. Cameron Diaz guested on 1/19 to promo The Green Hornet and chat about driving a Prius and being a Cuban from the LBC (Long Beach) where she "had to have" bought weed from Snoop Dogg. "So you were green even in High School?" asked Lopez. "Oh yeah," the starlet replied.

Diaz has been photographed passing a joint to Drew Barrymore, and told GQ in December 2007 about her life as a weed-smoking surfer in high school: "It took two hours to get [to the beach] on a bus. You stayed all day, ate corn dogs. We only had two dollars for a joint."

Something (everything?) about Diaz made Ben Stiller chase her across the country in Something About Mary, and when the characters reunite, they smoke a joint together. The stunning actress, who catapulted to fame in her first movie role opposite Jim Carrey in Mask, was surprisingly convincing as the dowdy housewife who suggests smoking a joint with a dinner guest in Being John Malkovich. 

Diaz also joked with Lopez about smelling skunk on Green Hornet co-star Seth Rogen, who she calls a comic genius. But my favorite sequence was then they imitated the Telenovelas while munching Cuban food.

UPDATE: Diaz is the pot-smoking Bad Teacher.