When did Hollywood stop making movies that take ambition, or just plain JOBS, seriously?

Dear Luke Wilson,

A few moments in Blonde Ambition might have prompted you to think hard about whether to sign on to this project. The first is when Ms. Simpson cracks wise about a thick-waisted girl with flat, greasy hair and glasses. Pretty girls making fun of homely ones is not “comedy gold.” A pretty girl making fun of an ugly girl in a movie produced by the pretty girl’s father doesn’t even live in the same state as “funny.”

The second moment is when the fat black secretary squeaks “Oh, lawd, here come [sic] trouble!” at the sight of an approaching colleague. Also not funny! Maybe if this character had been named, oh…Aunt Jemima, the retrograde racial stereotyping might have been more…of a piece. But as is, no.

Honestly, though, most troubling was when Ms. Simpson falls on her face in a crowded Manhattan office lobby and no one stoops to help her. I’ve witnessed stumbling, stinking, Bowery drunks helped up in this town. That lobby scene asks us to suspend disbelief for no good reason. New Yorkers also never snatch the cab you’ve just hailed out from under you — as happens three times in this film. So these attempts to position Ms. Simpson as a vulnerable innocent in a mean, indifferent city instead prompted me to think, “You know, Showgirls was a better movie than most people remember.”

Kind Regards,

Megan

PS. Did you see this? Papa Joe Simpson speaks in the DVD bonus material. On Jessica’s work in Blonde Ambition:

“This is a great moment for America.”

On director Scott Marshall:

“You know, the first time we sat down, I told him, I said, ‘What your father did in Pretty Woman is what I’m looking for in this movie. I’m challenging you to look beyond the script and find those things that are just natural for Jessica and if we can put that together with what’s happening in the script, I think we’ll be successful.’”