(Business Insider Interview of Home Alone Director Chris Columbus)
After the success of “Home Alone,” you directed the sequel, “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.” Out of all the sequels that would follow in the franchise, this is the most memorable because Donald Trump has a cameo. What do you remember from shooting the Trump cameo?
(Chris Columbus)–“Like most locations in New York City, you just pay a fee and you are allowed to shoot in that location. We approached The Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time, because we wanted to shoot in the lobby. We couldn’t rebuild The Plaza on a soundstage.
Trump said OK. We paid the fee, but he also said, “The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie.” So we agreed to put him in the movie, and when we screened it for the first time the oddest thing happened: People cheered when Trump showed up on-screen. So I said to my editor, “Leave him in the movie. It’s a moment for the audience.” But he did bully his way into the movie.”
So this 3-year-old interview of “Home Alone” Director Chris Columbus somehow just caught the attention of Donald Trump. Of course, the narcissist couldn’t just ignore Columbus’ recount of the situation, his ego just wouldn’t allow it. Even though Columbus gave Trump somewhat of a compliment, Donald couldn’t leave well enough alone. So not only did Trump deny the fact that he bullied his way into his cameo. He then suggested the movie’s success was due in part because of his lone scene.
What Trump failed to mention was that the original “Home Alone” is considered one of the most popular Christmas movies ever made. This had much more to do with the success of the sequel than his shoe-horned appearance. His reaction should come as no surprise, this is the same guy who loves taking credit for the invention of the COVID-19 vaccine after he decided to dismantle Obama’s Pandemic Response Team that caused the outbreak of the coronavirus in the first place.
Speaking of Trump’s movie roles, according to Howard Stern, Trump was scripted to be the villain in his “Fartman” superhero movie that never got made. Stern said of the Trump character “If you had a chance to read the full script, it was crazy. I (the Fartman character) worked for like, kind of a Village Voice newspaper, and the newspaper was failing. It was just not doing well, and I wanted to turn the paper into an investigative kind of newspaper. And lo and behold, I find out that the real Donald Trump was trying to buy up Central Park, to turn it into expensive condos, and, like, Central Park wouldn’t be part of New York anymore, and you had this whole sinister plot.
“So he was going to be like Dr. Evil, Goldfinger, something like that. And I would have had the real Donald Trump do it. And I’m sure Donald would have been thrilled to do it. It was kind of a cool part … And I was just like, ‘Oh my God, how great would it be that the president of the United States was in this movie, playing an evil …’ It just would have been so great, you know? … they could have used that film as a goof. It just would have been perfect.”
What Stern fails to realize is, if that “Fartman” movie was ultimately made with Trump as the bad guy, taking debilitating farts from the hero Stern. Then Trump’s political career most likely would never have gotten off the ground. Not even his staunchest sycophants could have supported his candidacy after such a humiliating role. So in an alternate reality Stern’s “Fartman” could have actually saved America and the world from Donald Trump’s wrath. As the saying goes “Behind every villain lies a broken heart wind”
For the full Business Insider interview with Home Alone Director Chris Columbus click the link below
https://www.insider.com/home-alone-30-anniversary-chris-columbus-trump-cameo-2020-11
For the NJArts.net article featuring the Howard Stern quotes click on the link below
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