Gapers Block has ceased publication.

Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
 Thank you for your readership and contributions. 

TODAY

Thursday, March 28

Gapers Block
Search

Gapers Block on Facebook Gapers Block on Flickr Gapers Block on Twitter The Gapers Block Tumblr


A/C
« MacGruber, Shrek: The Final Chapter, Mother and Child, Princess Kaiulani and Kites Free Bus to the Suburbs for A Porous Space Opening »

Theatre Mon May 24 2010

Sex Marks the Spot: An Interview With Charles Grippo

CharlesGrippo11310[1].JPG

In the world of politics, sex scandals have seemingly become the norm; from local aldermen to the President of the United States and even the women who stand beside them, when it comes to sex and politics, anything and everything goes. Attorney and playwright Charles Grippo discusses the dynamic of politics and sex and his upcoming play, Sex Marks the Spot.

You are an entertainment and motion picture attorney--was playwriting a natural transition for you?

Actually, I started out as a playwright when I was in high school, before I even thought about becoming a lawyer. I was writing plays, short stories and novels, and sending them out to publishers and sending plays out to producers all the time. I did that long before becoming an attorney.

Did you write plays while you were in law school?

Well law school, unfortunately, doesn't give you much time for anything else except for studying. It's a very demanding thing. I actually had to put the writing aside when I was in law school because there just wasn't time to do both. I always planned to go back to it, eventually.

Sex Marks the Spot, your play opening in June, is a story about salaciousness and scandal involving an elected official. This is definitely a topic that we're all certainly familiar with today.

Absolutely.

Why do you think politicians' sex scandals are so fascinating to society as a whole? Cable news and talk shows seem particularly fascinated by them.

Politics and sex are two fascinating subjects. People are always interested in sex no matter where it comes from--politics, Hollywood, or whatever--I mean, even what the neighbor down the street is doing! When you add politicians to it, it becomes even more fascinating because theoretically, we elect them to go to office, supposedly do their jobs and represent us, but somehow, so many of them seem to get sidetracked into other things, like sexual affairs. I mean, just recently, there was a representative in Indiana who resigned over an alleged sexual affair with one of his staffers. It goes on all the time.

They used to be few and far between, but now it seems like every other week or so.

Yes, Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana did the "resignation thing" because he allegedly had an affair with one of his staff members. It's kind of funny because when I read about his resignation speech, it's almost identical to the kinds of things I talk about in the play, you know, the wife standing stoically by the politician's side after he's humiliated the heck out of her and the family, and I think what she'd really like to do is punch him in the teeth! She's just has to stand there and tolerate it! It's just sort of interesting because it's parallel to the subject matter of what my play is all about.

But politicians have been embroiled in these kinds of affairs forever--it's certainly not a new thing. One of the more famous ones was the Marilyn Monroe/JFK affair, but of course, it even pre-dates that.

I would suspect that. You know, there have always been rumors about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other people. I would bet that if the archaeologists went back to ancient Rome and ancient Greece, they would probably find that were political sex scandals even in those days. So yeah, I think it has gone on forever.

What would you say makes a bigger sex scandal--the politician or the circumstances that surround it?

I think it's probably the politician, I mean, because he could just say "No." He doesn't have to do this. I think a lot of them get into these positions of power--they meet so many people, and power is supposed to be an aphrodisiac. It's just like with celebrities. Women are throwing themselves at people in power, but I shouldn't just say women throw themselves at men in power; I'm sure that works in reverse, especially now that we have more women in the political arena. I'm sure there are probably sex scandals going on between women and men on their staff.

Speaking of women, there has to be a female politician somewhere involved, but those stories aren't told as much. Is it just not as sexy a story when it's the other way around?

I think it may not be as sexy a story, or, maybe, I hate to say it, but it's kind of new: Women have not really been dominating politics. It's been mostly a male-dominated arena for so long. I think it's just now that women are starting to come into the forefront where they are getting into positions of real power, like Hillary Clinton, for example. But now that we're seeing more women get into politics, which, by the way, is a wonderful thing. I think sooner or later though, we're going to see more sex scandals involving women.

It'll be interesting to see how the public handles those.

It'll probably be a double standard, though. We'll just have to see.

How are some able to bounce back easier than others? Some you forget about and others stay with you, and their careers are totally ruined.

A lot of it depends on how well they and their handlers can spin it. Again, it's part of subject matter of my play--we actually go behind the scenes of a sex scandal and we show how the politician and his handlers try to keep it under control by manipulating media, the voters, etc. It's all very cynical. But a lot of it depends on how well politicians and their handlers' ability to manipulate and how good they are at spin control. Some of them are simply better than others.

The women involved who "stand by their man" are sometimes ridiculed for it. Lately, it seems to "come with the job."

To be honest, a lot of women who are married to politicians may not outwardly know it, but I think they anticipate that their husbands will have an affair or they get used to it. There could be a variety of reasons why a woman would "stand by her man": love, security, or maybe status. This isn't in all cases, though. In other cases, maybe there are children involved and the woman wants to keep the family together. Or it could just be a combination of all of those reasons.

There are also those who seemingly grab their 15 minutes of fame by appearing on talk shows and such. When Rielle Hunter (involved with Sen. John Edwards) appeared on "Oprah," she even questioned why she did the interview.

That's true. Especially these days. In the past, the woman wouldn't go public--she didn't want to be humiliated--it was a shameful thing and she wanted to keep it all behind closed doors. But I think today in our society, anything goes for those 15 minutes of fame, as you can see based on some of the wild things people do on some of these television shows.

As an entertainment attorney, you've seen your fair share of tales of this kind--is that what inspired or motivated you to write Sex Marks the Spot?

No, I originally wrote Sex Marks the Spot a long time ago, even before the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair. But what motivated me, even at that time, was that almost every election season, there was something going on with a politician being caught with his pants down. And I just thought it was a fascinating subject for a play, and I like to do farce and comedy. I thought it was a fresh topic to actually take this kind of thing and turn it into a farce and see where it goes and where I could take it. I was interested in the sex scandals and politics and what went on behind the scenes. That's what really inspired me to write the play and I just thought it would be fun, too.

You bring a comedic edge to the play, but in real life, for example, with Elizabeth Edwards' health situation, things can sometimes take a serious turn.

You're right. In Elizabeth Edwards' case, it is a particularly tragic situation: You have a woman battling to stay alive but at the same time her husband is doing what he did. The real life part of it is a very tragic situation, especially in a case like that, but I wanted to, as a light piece, poke fun at politicians and the sex scandals. I thought it would be more fun to do it as a farce rather than as a serious, realistic play.

But the cover-up really is the funny part!

And that is exactly what the whole play is about. The senator in my play pulls his press secretary and campaign manager into this elaborate cover-up before things get out of control; however, the more they try to cover it up, the more out of control it gets until finally, the whole thing falls apart at the end on them.

One of the characters is named "Senator Clooney"--is that a riff off a certain, handsome "Clooney" we all know?

[Laughs] You know, he would actually love to hear that!

I just saw the character's name was "Clooney" and wondered...

Actually it pays homage to the playwright Ray Cooney who is from London and who writes all those farces that are very popular there. I didn't want to make it exactly Cooney; I wanted to do something different that wasn't so obvious. That's why I changed the name to "Clooney". But it wasn't until rehearsal when I realized, "Wow, people are really going to think this is George Clooney!"

What do you want audiences to take away from the play?

First, I have to say we have a wonderful director Damian Arnold and also a wonderful cast. And this is an election year, so I especially want people to stop and think, "What are these people selling us? Are they manipulating and lying to us? Maybe we need to look closer before we go into that voting booth." I think one of the biggest problems is that people don't look that closely at what politicians are doing. I think they allow politicians, the skillful ones, anyway, to manipulate them and they fall for a lot of the b.s. that they're putting out. And as a result, we get a lot of politicians in office who really shouldn't be there.

People have indeed been accused of voting for people based on superficial things.

That is very true. And I think that's a very sad commentary about our society and our electorate that people don't take the time to really look at what these people are doing and what they're about before they go in and vote for them. That's why we get people who are elected because they look good, have the right TV commercial, have the right campaign slogan or whatever, and they get into office and do a lot of things we wish they didn't do, instead of doing things for the good of the people.

Well with the way things are going, you may have to write a sequel, no?

[Laughs] We'll see!

Sex Marks the Spot previews Friday, June 11; the official run is June 17 through July 25 at the Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont at 7:30pm, Thurs.-Sat. and Sat.-Sun. shows at 2:30pm. Tickets are $26.00 and can be purchased through Ticketmaster or the theatre box office. For more information, contact 773-327-5252.

 
GB store
GB store

Architecture Tue Nov 03 2015

Paul Goldberger Describes the "Pragmatism and Poetry" of Frank Gehry's Architecture in His New Book

By Nancy Bishop

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger talks about Frank Gehry's life and work in a new book.
Read this feature »

Steve at the Movies Fri Jan 01 2016

Best Feature Films & Documentaries of 2015

By Steve Prokopy

Read this column »

Blogroll

ACRE
An Angry White Guy
Antena
AREA Chicago
ArchitectureChicago Plus
Arts Engagement Exchange
The Art Letter
Art or Idiocy?
Art Slant Chicago
Art Talk Chicago
Bad at Sports
Bite and Smile
Brian Dickie of COT
Bridgeport International
Carrie Secrist Gallery
Chainsaw Calligraphy
Chicago Art Blog
Chicago Art Department
Chicago Art Examiner
Chicago Art Journal
Chicago Artists Resource
Chicago Art Map
Chicago Art Review
Chicago Classical Music
Chicago Comedy Examiner
Chicago Cultural Center
Chicago Daily Views
Chicago Film Examiner
Chicago Film Archives
Chicago Gallery News
Chicago Uncommon
Collaboraction
Contemporary Art Space
Co-op Image Group
Co-Prosperity Sphere
Chicago Urban Art Society
Creative Control
Defibrillator
Devening Projects
Digressions
DIY Film
ebersmoore
The Exhibition Agency
The Flatiron Project
F newsmagazine
The Gallery Crawl...
Galerie F
The Gaudy God
Happy Dog Gallery
HollywoodChicago
Homeroom Chicago
I, Homunculus
Hyde Park Artcenter Blog
InCUBATE
Joyce Owens: Artist on Art
J-Pointe
Julius Caesar
Kasia Kay Gallery
Kavi Gupta Gallery
Rob Kozlowski
Lookingglass Theatre Blog
Lumpen Blog
Marquee
Mess Hall
N'DIGO
Neoteric Art
NewcityArt
NewcityFilm
NewcityStage
Not If But When
Noun and Verb
On Film
On the Make
Onstage
Peanut Gallery
Peregrine Program
Performink
The Poor Choices Show
Pop Up Art Loop
The Post Family
The Recycled Film
Reversible Eye
Rhona Hoffman Gallery
Roots & Culture Gallery
SAIC Blog
The Seen
Sharkforum
Sisterman Vintage
Site of Big Shoulders
Sixty Inches From Center
Soleil's To-Do's
Sometimes Store
Steppenwolf.blog
Stop Go Stop
Storefront Rebellion
TOC Blog
Theater for the Future
Theatre in Chicago
The Franklin
The Mission
The Theater Loop
Thomas Robertello Gallery
threewalls
Time Tells Tony Wight Gallery
Uncommon Photographers
The Unscene Chicago
The Visualist
Vocalo
Western Exhibitions
What's Going On?
What to Wear During an Orange Alert?
You, Me, Them, Everybody
Zg Gallery

GB store

 

Events


A/C on Flickr

Join the A/C Flickr Pool.



About A/C

A/C is the arts and culture section of Gapers Block, covering the many forms of expression on display in Chicago. More...
Please see our submission guidelines.

Editor: Nancy Bishop, nancy@gapersblock.com
A/C staff inbox: ac@gapersblock.com

Archives

 

A/C Flickr Pool
 Subscribe in a reader.

GB store

GB Store

GB Buttons $1.50

GB T-Shirt $12

I ✶ Chi T-Shirts $15