re: #127 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

Remember the studio wanted Reagan in The Maltese Falcon because they had him under contract. Wouldn’t that have been lovely?

That’s right up there with a story in a book I just read.

The Book is Let’s Go Crazy: Prince and the making of ‘Purple Rain’, and the story was about the first pitch meeting with Warner Brothers. The director sat down with a WB Executive VP, who listened to his pitch and then offered a ‘suggestion.’

The VP said that WB wasn’t sure if Prince could carry a feature film and asked if the director would consider replacing him with John Travolta in the lead role.

Let that sink in a minute, and imagine Travolta trying to play Prince’s role.

The director got up and walked out of the meeting, and a week later WB apologized for making the suggestion.