What could be worse than getting fired by Woody Allen? This is the guy who said, “80 percent of success is showing up.”
When actress Annabelle Gurwitch showed up, she said, Allen described her performance as “retarded” and fired her.
“In the workplace, you like to believe that you are better than your boss,” Gurwitch told me. “But when you are fired by a cultural icon, it can be crushing.”
Gurwitch swears she’s over it, but I don’t believe her. Who writes a book and produces a movie about getting fired if they’re over it? Her documentary “Fired!” opens in Denver at the Starz Film Center on Friday.
Gurwitch, 45, is best known as the former co-host of “Dinner and a Movie” on cable network TBS. She’s also played on “Seinfeld” and “Boston Legal,” and she’s had roles in “The Shaggy Dog,” “Daddy Day Care” and other films.
Despite her successes, I suspect she is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, the bizarre psychological response of victims forming emotional attachments to their tormentors. It happens in hostage situations. It happens in the workplace, too.
I informed Gurwitch that there were a million guys in New York who are every bit as neurotic as Woody. It’s just that Woody somehow articulates it on film. Gurwitch immediately came to his defense:
“Working for Woody Allen, for actors, is like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Everybody still wants to work with Woody because they remember the movies like ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ ‘Annie Hall’ and ‘Sleeper.’ The contributions he’s made to the world of comedy in his movies is pretty undeniable.”
Also undeniable are Woody’s contributions to real-life comedy. In 1992, when he was in a long-term relationship with one of his leading actresses, Mia Farrow, he got caught with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi, who is 35 years younger. They married, and Farrow went from Woody’s lover to his mother-in-law.
In 2003, Woody fired Gurwitch from “Writer’s Block,” his off-Broadway play. After he criticized her, she got a call from one of his associates: “Mr. Allen has decided to go in a different direction.”
“This is the same call that you get from HR when they say the company is repositioning itself,” Gurwitch said.
Getting fired is universal for anyone in the entertainment industry, which is why Gurwitch interviewed actors and comedians, including “Home Improvement” star Tim Allen and Jeff Garlin of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” She also included fired minions from across the nation, former Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, her rabbi and gynecologist.
Gurwitch said every other industry is becoming just like the entertainment industry. A handful of stars make all the money while others labor in obscurity.
“People in the entertainment industry are experts in the field of rejection,” Gurwitch said. “People in other industries could really benefit from seeing how much failure goes into every success.
“You have to become entrepreneurial,” she said. “You have to become inventive. That’s what people in show business do all the time. They reinvent themselves.”
CEOs of top companies make more than 400 times that of their average workers – and when they get fired, there’s a payoff that buys them years to reinvent themselves. Workers who lose their jobs often just land in lower-paying gigs.
“People want to get away from you when you are fired,” said Gurwitch. “People are afraid you’re contagious, and they don’t want to catch it.”
We live in an age when thousands of workers are laid off in a single press release and Donald Trump makes a shtick of firings on TV. Last year, RadioShack laid off 400 people via e-mail. For Gurwitch, they are all potential customers.
“I would like to make my movie available to everyone who has been fired in just the last year, and that would be several million people,” she said.
Gurwitch isn’t holding her breath, though, that Woody will watch her film, even though she owes it all to him.
“If I ever saw Mr. Allen, I would thank him,” Gurwitch said. “But he wouldn’t remember me. He would just say, ‘Why is that girl thanking me?”‘
Al Lewis’ column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Respond to him at denverpostbloghouse.com/lewis, 303-954-1967 or alewis@denverpost.com.
