New York, Sep 6: Joe Eszterhas, the man who gave the world scripts for movies like Basic Instinct, Flashdance, Showgirls and Jagged Edge, is all set to reveal all about some of the famous names he’s worked with, including Hollywood’s leading men and ladies such as Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Val Kilmer, Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Warren Beatty, Liv Tyler and Madonna.
In "The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God", Eszterhas not only labels Top Gun star Val Kilmer an ‘imbecile’ but also Michael Douglas ‘dumb’.
"Val Kilmer is an imbecile. Asked by the Academy to nominate the three best film moments of the century, Kilmer nominated three of his movies. One of them was Batman Forever" the New York Daily News quotes him, as stating in his book.
"Michael Douglas, in my experience, is not brilliant and may very well, in some cases, be dumb. This is the guy who wanted to change the ending of Basic Instinct because it wasn't 'redemptive.' Douglas didn't like that he was the star of the movie and that [Sharon Stone] 'one-ups me at every turn'" he adds.
As for Hollywood legend Robert De Niro, though Eszterhas admits that the actor is “brilliant” on-screen, he insists that for a long time, the actor has no presence off-screen.
"For many years, Robert De Niro, always brilliant onscreen, couldn't even say two words on his own. He'd sit there, not speaking - woefully, miserably, pathetically lost without the words of a script," he writes.
For Bugsy star Beatty, Eszterhas reveals that the actor is famous in Hollywood for hiring multiple people to re-write scripts and then pull out of the project himself.
"The joke in Hollywood is that Warren Beatty, the 'great auteur,' can turn a 'go' movie into a development deal. He'll get involved, work with six writers rewriting your script, then pull out of the project."
Edward Norton comes under similar flack for rewriting all the scripts that he agrees to act in.
"You don't want Edward Norton to star in your movie. He now rewrites all the scripts he agrees to act in."
The ladies also receive much of the same treatment.
In a revelation that is sure to make actress Sharon Stone sick, Eszterhas makes public that her behaviour on the sets of ‘Basic Instinct’ has the crew so annoyed that they peed in the bathtub before she got in for a scene.
"Sharon's 'prima donna' behavior so annoyed the crew on one of her movies that they relieved themselves into a bathtub before Sharon got into it for her scene," he writes.
He also claims that Madonna was so desperate to land a part in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan, that she went to the office of Orion production chief Barbara Boyle, "dropped to her knees and said, 'I'll do anything to get this part.'
When Boyle replied that she was happily married and straight, Madonna replied, 'You should try everything once.'"
As for The Lord of the Rings star Liv Tyler, he says that even though she gave an interview stating that he was desperate to sign her for Showgirls, he had never even spoken to or met her.
"Liv Tyler did an interview in which she said she was the inspiration for Showgirls. She said I had become obsessed with her after seeing her play a stripper in an Aerosmith video. She said, 'He tried to get me to take the lead in the movie, but I didn't want to get into that kind of thing.' It was news to me. I'd never seen the Aerosmith video, I'd never met or spoken with Liv," he adds. (ANI)