Joe Eszterhas

Joe Eszterhas
Born	November 23, 1944 (1944-11-23) (age 64) Csákánydoroszló, Hungary
Official website

József A. "Joe" Eszterhas (born November 23, 1944) is a Hungarian-American writer, best known for his work on the pulp erotic films Basic Instinct and Showgirls. He has also written several non-fiction books, including an autobiography entitled Hollywood Animal.

Early life

Eszterhas was born in Csákánydoroszló, Hungary, the son of Maria (née Biro) and Istvan Eszterhas.^[1] He was raised as a young child in a refugee camp in Austria. Eventually his parents moved to New York City, and then to poor immigrant neighborhoods in Cleveland, where he spent most of his childhood. His mother had a mental illness which estranged her from the family while he was entering adolescence. His father was a Roman Catholic newspaper editor and author.

Eszterhas attended Ohio University, but did not graduate. He became a National Book Award nominee for his nonfiction work Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse in 1974. Prior to his involvement with screenwriting, he was a reporter with the Cleveland Plain Dealer and, later, a senior editor from 1971 to 1975 for Rolling Stone.^[2]

During his stay at the Plain Dealer, he gained his first touch of notoriety due to his handling of color photos of Vietnam's My Lai Massacre, which depicted American soldiers murdering Vietnamese civilians. Although he was annoyed at his newspaper’s apparent lack of belief in the authenticity of the photos, the paper permitted Eszterhas to try and sell them for $125,000. Some media outlets, however, used the photos without permission, causing the photos to decline in value. He ended up receiving only $20,000 from Life magazine.

Another touch of notoriety concerned a Cleveland Plain Dealer editor who singlehandedly sailed a small sail boat from the United States to England. The Plain Dealer would not sponsor the editor's trip. However, as the gentleman neared the culmination of his trip, the "Plain Dealer" chartered an airplane to fly low and drop "Cleveland Plain Dealer" sweat shirts to the editor. According to the account Eszterhas wrote, the editor retrieved the sweat shirts and when he saw what they were, tossed them overboard. Eszterhas was subsequently relieved of his duties at the newspaper.

Screenwriting and fame

Eszterhas' first screenplay to be produced was F.I.S.T., directed by Norman Jewison, and although it was stated by star Sylvester Stallone that he himself rewrote the majority of the film, Eszterhas denies this assertion, and Stallone's lack of screenwriting credits suggests he may have been exaggerating. He then contributed to the script of 1983's highly successful Flashdance. Other films he wrote include Jagged Edge, Jade, Betrayed, and Sliver.

Eszterhas re-entered the limelight in 1992, writing the screenplay for the major hit Basic Instinct. The screenplay resulted in his being accused of homophobia and misogyny, although he supported changes made to the film's dialogue requested by gay rights groups. He was paid three million dollars for the screenplay (the highest amount of money paid for a screenplay at the time).

In 1995, he wrote Showgirls. His screenplay won that year's Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay. Eszterhas' own explanation of the failure of that film, according to his recent book^[3] was that it was ruined by the sexual affair between its director and its female star. The film enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals^[4] and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.^[5]

He turned his eye to producing following Basic Instinct, making two films in 1997, both of which he wrote. The first one, Telling Lies in America, was generally well-regarded by critics and audiences, but was not a great box office success. The second was the flop An Alan Smithee Film Burn Hollywood Burn, which won several Golden Raspberry awards, of which Eszterhas won two: another Worst Screenplay and one for Worst Supporting Actor (a cameo in which a caption described him as a "penile implant").

None of Eszterhas' screenplays were produced from 1997 to 2006; his latest project, Children of Glory, was released in 2006 (it was also entered by invitation in the official section of 2007 Berlin Film Festival).

He has written several best-selling books, including American Rhapsody, an autobiography about politics in Hollywood^[6] which superimposes his life as a young World War II refugee in America on his life as a powerful Hollywood player. A third book, The Devil's Guide to Hollywood, was published in September 2006.^[7]

His latest book, Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith, was published on September 2, 2008 by St. Martin's Press. The release tells the story of his return to the practice of Roman Catholicism and his newfound devotion to God and family.

Personal life

In his book The Devils Guide to Hollywood (p. 370), he describes his personal life:

English is my second language. Some critics said I butcher it. I stole cars and carried a knife as a kid; I almost killed another kid with a baseball bat and almost went to jail. I flunked both algebra and biology in high school and had to go to summer school two years in a row. I was a C student in high school. I didn't graduate from college because I was on both academic and desciplinary probation. I was a D student in college, although I won every writing contest I entered.

At age 56, after a lifetime of wild living, during the summer of 2001, Eszterhas reached a breaking point. For the first time since he was a child, he prayed: "Please God, help me".^[8]

The New Jersey anti-tobacco youth group REBEL awarded him the Fight the Good Fight award in 2004.

References

External links

• Joe Eszterhas at the Internet Movie Database
• Article in Slate
• Article in The Plain Dealer
• Article in The Christian Post