Larry David is getting a divorce from his wife in real life. So what does he do? He writes this same scenario into his HBO series and is having marital problems there. Here’s what happened back in July:
David’s TV wife, Cheryl Hines, is also an environmental activist. Since his art imitates his life, does that mean she won’t be back for another season? Turning to Hines, David teased, “Oh, it’s too bad you’re going to be off the show in the seventh season. What a shame! It’s a good idea for the seventh season, by the way.”
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20046151,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines
What a guy! I wonder how much pain something like this causes a guy who is in David’s situation. I can remember the problems associated with divorce quite well. Whether it has to do with money or the children the pain is intense and it lasts a long time. But I watched an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm last night and the feeling I got was that it’s not painful so much as it is an inconvenience. What if your cleaning lady goes with your wife? You have to find another one!! Oh, God I don’t know if i can make it.
On the show all of Larry’s friends are choosing his wife and her new boyfriend instead of him. Now there’s a surprise! I want to see if his agent, Jeff, decides to go with his wife on the show. That’s the only thing that isn’t going to be totally predictable. Jeff knows enough to agree with Larry on most issues and sometimes he doesn’t have to try too very hard because he is a jerk in his own right. When the two of them are together you hardly notice that each one of them is insane. They sort of cancel each other out.
So it appears that Larry’s divorces aren’t slowing him down at all. Big Hollywood guys have a line of girls waiting to date them and it’s the same for the girls. This is so different from the reality of the average person it just boggles my mind sometimes when I think about it. We went to a James Taylor concert awhile ago and were talking about him after the show. I told Beth that his life was so different from mine I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like over the past thirty years. I am envious to some degree. But I also realize I am much happier being the person I am today than the one I was thirty years ago. And if it hadn’t been for a lot of pain I never would have changed. That is how we change most of the time. Isn’t it true? Or do we suddenly go through major changes in our personalities and our thoughts and habits without pain?
I am pretty tired of Larry these days and don’t think I would watch him except that Beth likes the show. I have already baled out on her and Survivor. And I don’t watch the dance reality show or the band reality show. I really don’t watch much television and stay glued to the computer where I can fight back and write negative things about Hollywood guys with 200 million dollars. Or 100 million after the divorce. Whatever. It’s still quite a chunk of change and enough money to have anything you want delivered to your house while you relax inside.
I just wonder what it’s going to be like when Larry and the rest of the Hollywood crowd gets really old and suddenly finds its not so easy to buy your way out of your problems. There are medical conditions out there that really don’t respond to anything cash can do. Sure there is medicine but it doesn’t cure anything and things still hurt. And eventually there is the grim reaper who isn’t at all impressed with Hollywood guys or anybody else.
So enjoy it while you can. But what if we really are here to learn something on this earth? What if it matters in some way? I guess it is too much to hope that Larry might do an episode some day where he actually learns something. So that his character is slightly different after that. Because I am getting tired of Larry. And his wife and all his friends are getting tired of him. The world is tired of him but it still tunes in to watch and make him more millions of dollars.
There’s something very odd about all of this. He obviously has figured out something on his way to the bank. And I still don’t have a clue what it is. Do we tune in just to laugh at Larry and pat ourselves on the back because our social skills are more advanced than his? Or do we just want to slow down and watch the human train wreck go about his business? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll try to find an article about Jerry Seinfeld or Kramer and see what they have to say about it. Oh wait. Nix that last thought. We might discover something if we listen to Jerry. But Kramer has his own problems.
Comedians! Can’t live with them. And can’t live without them.
Update: (From TrustedAdvisor associates)
“The fun, of course, is that David is merely more honest than the rest of us. We can laugh at him without directly facing the social pain that his behaviors cause us when we commit them—which we do, all the time. He is our public court jester. He speaks the truth in a socially acceptable manner—as comedy, with a subtext we needn’t publicly acknowledge. But we know it. He’s doing public self-psycho-analysis, and we’re along for the ride.”
“That’s why he’s a hit with mental patients—and with the rest of us too. We’re not qualitatively different—it’s just a matter of degree. “Sanity” is a wispy line; it’s hard to say where the hill ends and the mountain begins.”
. –Charles H. Green
Well there you go! Mr. Green has written an insightful and fascinating essay about Larry. If you are a tortured fan of his show like I am or just a fan you probably will enjoy this article. It can be found in its entirety here:
http://trustedadvisor.com/blog/271/Larry-David–Seinfeld-and-Social-Networking
