Hey, Angelina, Sign This!

Angelina Jolie came off like the world's biggest diva Wednesday when she tried to make reporters sign Stasi-style "contracts" if they wanted to talk to her to promote her new movie.

Yawn. Could this news be any more old?

Stars and their handlers have been brandishing interview "contracts," issuing edicts as to what questions can and can't be asked, refusing to hand over interview tapes and, in some cases, banishing uppity members of the press from movie "junkets" and red carpet premieres for years.

Not too many people have any idea what it entails to cover Hollywood -- other than it's probably a big joke since the most visible "entertainment reporters" are often starstruck, gushing hacks wearing low-cut tops on TV.

I doubt too many people will believe me when I say some of the types you come up against in Hollywood make Karl Rove look like Florence Henderson.

I've been in, and heard of, interview situations where the tension between star, publicist and interviewer reached North Korean levels -- all over a movie whose title by now is long forgotten.
Sometimes the star has been, as well.

In fact, there are some excellent journalists who cover Hollywood -- but at a distance. They'd never interview stars at a junket or on the red carpet. Some of them began in hard news. They ought to be in the White House press corps but it wouldn't be enough of a challenge.

I've covered both hard news and entertainment news. Hanging out with Dominican drug dealers in Washington Heights for a month for a story on the crack epidemic was about as tense as a beach barbecue -- at least when compared to being on the receiving end of a psychotic outburst from one of Hollywood's finest.

Or, even worse, being quietly blackballed from some martinet who publicizes, assists or manages a star. The scariest divas in Hollywood are rarely the stars.

I was once banned (it's called "disinvited") from one studio's movie junkets for several months while at MSNBC and I had no idea why. I finally found out it was because I had made a comment about the 1997 movie The Postman while at another network three years earlier that had "offended" someone. I never even saw The Postman. One day, the ban was lifted and that was that. I had no say in the matter.

Basic but sometimes overlooked fact: There's no public right to know in Hollywood. You can't make a Freedom of Information Act request, say, to find out if Jett Travolta is indeed autistic or he just has "Kawasaki Syndrome."

Hollywood is one big company town -- and it's private.

What goes on there, strictly speaking, is none of our business -- except when Hollywood wants it to be our business, when it has something to promote. That's when the "entertainment reporter" becomes a valuable arm of the studio publicity machine and the star's as well.

Angelina Jolie has the right to demand whatever she wants of the reporters who want to cover her. If she wants her people to shove a contract in your face and tell you to sign it if you want the privilege of an audience with her -- that's her prerogative.

And that's the problem: Angelina Jolie or whatever star promoting his or her movie that week is always the prom queen or king. The entertainment reporter is always the band geek. I can say this since I have been among them.

Band geeks don't always know that the word "no" is complete sentence. They need a Norma Rae in their ranks but they're too full of Groucho Marxes to admit her into their club.

That's why it was so great to read Roger Friedman's account on Foxnews.com that indicated some of the entertainment press balked at signing Angelina's contract. I'm sure some did sign -- but the fact that this made news and some people said no is progress.

Fight the (star) power!