Harry Knowles
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Harry Jay Knowles (born December 11, 1971 in Austin, Texas) is an online film critic best known for his movie news and review website, Ain't It Cool News. He also appears in Sky Movies News for Sky Digital, and as of April 2006, he's the film critic for Penthouse magazine.
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[edit] Biography
Knowles's early years were spent traveling the Southwest and Mexico with his parents, Jay and Helen, who did light shows for touring rock bands. His parents then settled in Austin and began trading comic books and movie memorabilia from the upstairs floor of their Victorian era house. Knowles's parents also produced the Austin Fantasy Film Fest in 1976, one of the first science fiction conventions in Austin. Knowles spent many hours watching B-grade horror movies as well as other genres from mostly bootlegged 16 mm prints.
In 1983, Knowles's parents divorced and his mother received custody of him and his younger sister Dannie Helen Loraine Knowles. The kids lived with their mother on her family's ranch in West Texas. His mother took possession of the comics and films also. With nothing better to do on the ranch, Knowles spent more time immersed in reading comics and watching movies. Knowles's other activities included scouting and he attained the rank of Eagle Scout.
At age seventeen, Knowles moved back in with his father. His mother died shortly thereafter in a fire.
In 1994, Knowles fell while pushing a cart down a ramp at a convention, and was subsequently run over by the cart with its 1200lb load of memorabilia. The accident injured his back and left him virtually bedridden. With money from his mother's life insurance, he purchased a top of the line computer and a friend arranged for Internet service allegedly so they could play Doom online together. After teaching himself how to navigate the Internet, Knowles began frequenting newsgroups to exchange gossip and rumors with other fans about upcoming films. After being chastised by future film critic Mike D'Angelo for posting binary image files to the newsgroups, Knowles launched the website that would become Ain't It Cool News. A principle offering was Harry's colorful movie reviews, but the secret weapon was the insider news. People went to the site for secret news received from Knowles' alleged 'spies' inside the industry.
Due to the popularity, or perhaps the notoriety, of the website, Knowles was sought out by the mainstream media, including magazines, newspapers, and television news programs. In 2000, he was ranked #95 in the Forbes Power List. This is in recognition of the influential power of his website. Due to his unorthodox style of journalism, Quentin Tarantino referred to Knowles as "the Wolf Blitzer of the Internet." Knowles has made guest appearances on Siskel & Ebert & the Movies and Politically Incorrect.
On March 15, 2003, Knowles's place in the pop culture pantheon was solidified when he was impersonated by Horatio Sanz in a sketch on Saturday Night Live, wherein he was referred to as "that chubby guy from Ain't It Cool News." Knowles feigned offense on his website at being called "chubby." "I'm morbidly obese," he quipped on his site, "and I've worked hard to get there!". More recently a non-flattering pastiche on Knowles' character named R.J. Spencer was featured on the HBO hit comedy series Entourage in the episode "I love you too", demanding a hefty bribe to abstain from smearing the series lead, Vincent Chase, and his upcoming studio movie, Aquaman on his website. The Spencer character eventually settles for a session with three pornstars wearing rather large strap-on dildos.
[edit] Controversy
In 2002, Knowles was shown early cuts of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones by Lucasfilm’s licensing head, Howard Roffman. Prior to posting the early spoiler-filled review on his site, Knowles boasted of the “leak” to Matt Drudge and long time friend and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. While attending the Austin Film Festival Knowles told Rodriguez that the leak originated “from the top.” Lucasfilm released a statement to the press on 10/9/02 claiming that an arrest had been made in connection with the leak, but no charges were ever filed. On 10/15/02 Knowles posted his own reply to the crime disassociating himself from the man arrested. No one was ever charged with the crime.
Knowles attends events offered to the press, paid for by the movie studios, including visits to movie sets and premieres. Questions have sometimes emerged about the resulting impartiality of his articles and reviews. For example, he was flown to the premiere of Godzilla, and gave the movie a wildly positive review, while a vast majority of critics disliked the film. Knowles later reversed himself and panned the film after the ensuing outcry. Knowles and his defenders, however, have noted that he has given mixed reviews to movies for which he has been sent to junkets and premieres, and in any case is often out of step with mainstream critics.
Knowles has also been the subject of a fair bit of controversy for actions that would not be considered ethical if performed by mainstream journalists. In 1999, he wrote an article praising a script by Drew McWeeny. He failed to mention, however, that McWeeny was a contributor to the site, writing under the pseudonym "Moriarty." This and other alleged lapses were reported in a series of articles in Film Threat magazine [1].
Perhaps his most egregious—and inauspicious—lapse of ethics occurred in early 2000 when Knowles posted materials stolen from an ABC staffer's home computer, which Knowles believed to be the Oscar nominees for the Academy Awards—a day before the official announcement. When the actual nominees were announced the following day, it was discovered that his finalists in almost every category were incorrect. Knowles posted several excuses for this action when it became clear he was wrong, including the IP address of the ABC staff person in question. [2]
[edit] Resources
- Harry Knowles, Paul Cullum, Mark Ebner. (March 5, 2002). Ain't It Cool? Hollywood's Redheaded Stepchild Speaks Out (1st edition). Warner Books. 0-446-52597-9.
