Hollow Promise

Unfortunately, this reporter was unable to get access at all during the online junket. Plagued with technical problems, I frantically tried to get in touch with someone at DNA or CUSeeMe, but no real-time tech support was available from either. I could only imagine what provocative, insightful insider banter I was missing. The following Monday, Weinstock apologized for the difficulties -- apparently only one other journalist had failed to get onto the site. Weinstock and his staff made certain that I could download the unedited footage of the roundtable later that afternoon. And, as it turned out, I hadn’t missed much: ”Kevin, what was it like working with such an opinionated director?“ and ”What distinguishes Hollow Man from previous [invisible-man films]?“ was the level of softball inanity that prevailed. At one point, Bacon appeared visibly upset that he had been asked, ”If you could turn invisible, what would be the first thing you‘d do?“ ”Not answer that question,“ he snipped back.

Bacon had no problem fielding the first question, which was about the nature of the interview itself. ”This kind of situation is exciting,“ he responded. ”I can see something like a junket ending up being mostly Internet-driven eventually.“

But given just how perk-addicted much of the mainstream entertainment press has become, there would probably be a wholesale, open revolt if the studios put an end to the traditional press-junket circuit. In the case of iJunkets, convenience and access are the perks used to entice lesser-known Web sites hoping to lure visitors with high-profile celebrity names. But caveat emptor: You pay for that access by accepting whatever prepackaged tripe the studios choose to shove down your bandwidth.