Kurt Andersen

Back around 1989, when he was only a great director and not yet an Academy-certified Best Director, I had a meeting with Martin Scorsese. I was co-editor of Spy, and had gone to him to pitch an idea.

We wanted him to create a five-second-long flipbook “film” that we would shrink wrap with an issue of the magazine. The star would be a smirking white-faced mime, who would form the fingers of one hand into a gun shape, raise the hand to his temple and fire. And through the magic of special effects, the mimed finger/gun-barrel would actually fire, blowing the mime’s brains out.

Scorsese laughed. He said he’d like to do it. But then the 1990 recession kicked in, we couldn’t get an advertiser to underwrite the cost of producing the flipbook, and the project never went forward.

When people ask if I have any large professional regrets in life, I’ve always said no, definitely not. But last night, watching the Oscars, I realized that I have exactly one.