This was like if Mitt Romney did an AMA: it came across as robotic and represented an inability to connect with people when it should have been insanely easy to do so.

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But there’s something else at work here: a general misunderstanding of the internet from those whose productions are still reliant on visual media. We are more than a decade into a new millennium, and it seems like the Hollywood crowd still doesn’t understand how to successfully market in the digital age. This is not a universality, of course. There are some more adept at marketing on digital media than others. But the failure of Rampart‘s PR people to effectively market the movie online is clearly symptomatic of a general misunderstanding of how the internet works.

“AMA” stands for “Ask Me Anything.” Some people have the option of going for an “AMAA,” which means “Ask Me Almost Anything.” That second one tells you right off the bat there are certain questions the subject will just not answer, no matter what. But when you agree to having a celebrity come on a forum to answer questions, you should have some idea of what the forum is about. The most cringeworthy aspect of the Harrelson AMA was the disjointed sentences in the replies. Here are pieces of the responses throughout the session to illustrate the point.

well there was a lot of …the great thing about working with Oren is …he gives you an incredible playground. And all the tools… great direction, wonderful words to say…and inside of that he says “go play.”

Especially Brie, who initially that part was much smaller, just by virtue of her…the power of her personality

also you just feel completely safe and protected…Oren, he just won’t let you fail

When people speak, they tend to switch thoughts mid-sentence. Who does that when typing things out? Did they think this would make Harrelson sound more authentic? I read excerpts aloud and realized this is the kind of drivel you could probably hear verbatim if the movie was being plugged on an entertainment news program or late night talk show.

The problem is, the internet is a completely different platform from television. TV is all about creating moments to captivate audiences. Shows branded as “reality television” are perhaps the least realistic programs on the air right now. On the internet, everything happens in real time, and when you appear in a forum like Reddit, you need to come across as authentic and unscripted. The distance of television means politicians and public figures can get away with saying all sorts of nonsense without anyone being able to call them out on it effectively, with the occasional exception. The internet does not give you the same luxury. You need to be willing to speak off the cuff and have your facts on hand, because fact-checking through crowdsourcing is now more common than ever.

As any persuasive writer will tell you, the best arguments are the ones tailor-made to each specific audience. When you’re on Letterman, you crack a few jokes, recite the lines that the studio fed you to plug your project, and that’s it. When you’re interviewed by The New York Times, you speak more intellectually about the acting process and the themes addressed in the movie. And when you’re doing an AMA on Reddit, you drop the act and engage with real people. Some will be fans, some won’t, but if you’re just honest and it doesn’t seem like your answers have been planned out, people will respect you for it.

Of course, this isn’t really about Hollywood or Woody Harrelson or Reddit. It’s about presenting yourself as authentically as possible, because with the high level of skepticism you find on the internet these days, there is a lower tolerance for bullshit or hearing someone’s talking points.

Hollywood is in the business of creating moments, so allowing one to just pop up organically is unheard of. (This also applies to Washington.) That’s why insiders completely misunderstood how SOPA got shelved in the first place. TechDirt’s Mike Masnick explains:

I was amazed at how many people from the legacy music business believe, 100%, that the reason SOPA/PIPA were stopped was because Google stepped up its lobbying efforts. I can’t even begin to count how many conversations I had with people trying to explain to them that Google only played a small role in what happened, really jumping on the bandwagon pretty late in the game. It was a widespread group of internet users who spoke up, and that really has changed the equation. And Hollywood still can’t seem to wrap its mind around that.

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Mesnick adds that Hollywood might be in this state of reactive shock because it’s worried that it “no longer drives pop culture.” And for the most part, that’s true. But the reason people prefer comedians like Ricky Gervais to host award shows is because they’re no longer amused by industry toadies just getting up there, smiling awkwardly for the camera, and pretending the whole thing isn’t about Hollywood pleasuring itself. They want someone more raw and honest who’s willing to bite the hand that feeds them. We are slowly beginning to fade away from an era where we’re perfectly content to see such blatant fakery on television. People are more cynical about the media than ever, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I’m not talking about pure honesty here. That’s a separate issue. But this is the 21st century. People need to learn how to engage with people without the aid of agents or communications directors. In the past few months, candidates for political office have done AMAs on Reddit that worked out very well, because they were willing to answer unconventional questions and drop certain formalities to fit in with the format.

RELATED: Soledad O’Brien Grills Reddit Founder On The Site’s SOPA-Inspired Shut Down

Things began to unravel from the get-go, the very first question asked was about a one-night stand:

I swear this is a true story. I went to a high school in LA and you crashed our prom after party (Universal Hilton). You ended up taking the virginity of a girl named Roseanna. You didn’t call her afterwards. She cried a lot. Do you remember any of this and can confirm or have you been so knee deep in hollywood pooty for so long that this qualifies as a mere blip? (…)

This awkward exchange set the stage for what possibly could be the worst AMA in the history of Reddit.

How bad was it? A sample:




In response to Harrelson’s incomprehensible answer, a user replied with a link that went to this .gif from The Truman Show:

A moderator at AMA tried to explain how something that seemed so right could go so wrong.

“We knew that he wouldn’t have much time to do an iama and I believe that he didn’t quite know what an AMA entitled. He probably thought that it is somewhat like a talk show where you get to plug your movie/book and receive questions about it. It hasn’t been removed, he just isn’t answering more and we are talking to his PR rep.”

A disgruntled user summed up how bad the experience was:

Mr. Harrelson/Mr. Harrelson’s PR agents:

You answered a total of 4 questions here today, and when I say “answered”, I mean that loosely. You have also embarassed Mr. Harrelson in the process. Please inform the rest of Hollywood that Reddit is not a publicity outlet and that Reddittors don’t tolerate this kind of crap.

edit: okay the final count for questions answered is 15 – it was 4 when i originally posted. if you want to read all of his half-assed comments, click on his account name.

Read the original thread here. Redditor jaggazz compiled all of the questions Harrelson “answered” below:

[1] The virgin question
[2] Most difficult role?
[3] What role are you glad you didn’t get?
[4] Vegan question
[5] Did you know about reddit before?
[6] His time is valuable, this is about Rampart
[7] Props for Larry Flynt
[8] Another vegan question
[9] What movie was most fun? Apparently he doesn’t have fun.
[10] Best role? Rampart…
[11] Best improvisation? Blah blah Oren…
[12] Studio plant asking abut Rampart
[13] Does acting take over your life?
[14] What do you do in your free time?
[15] Does acting take over your life? (addendum)

Instead, they’ll be about Adam Lambert‘s hip thrusts, J-Lo’s fall and a near nip-slip. Let’s take a look at the AMA moments you’ll be talking about today.

Adam Lambert simulates some oral sex with both a male and female back-up dancer. ABC decided to cut away from the performance to an awkward audience shot during the male-thrusting:

Jennifer Lopez performed her new song “Louboutins.” Right before her big dance break, she takes a spill jumping off a back-up dancer. The key part was after the performance when they cut to Lopez getting angry in a backstage look-in:

Kate Hudson had either a near nipple slip or an actual nipple slip that ABC blurred out. Either way, it was close, and when she adjusted her dress, the audience laughed in acknowledgment:

> Related: Rachel Sklar looks at “post-sexy”, and the performances of Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert.

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» Follow Steve Krakauer on Twitter

There’s no question that Gaga — and Glambert too — stand firmly on Madge’s muscled shoulders, but after pushing the envelope for so long it seems to have gotten pushed into something different. In this seen-it-all age of the meta, the dramatic, fearless, hyper-sexualized personas of Gaga and Glambert are less transgressive than reflective — two operatic baroque, characters less pushing the envelope than wearing it. Call it “Post-Sexy”: Incorporating and heightening the conventions of a sex-charged culture, so as to move beyond it.

Madonna delighted in shocking (think back to that Like A Prayer video) and revealing (think back to that coffetable Sex book). She loved forcing the
world to look at stuff. With Gaga and Glambert it’s less a reveal than an acknowledgment, of this era in which bootylicious women dance nakedly on boats and Miley pole-dances and Kate Hudson’s dress is commonplace. It’s even there in their nicknames — Glambert and Gaga. They roll easily off the tongue, and for some reason they don’t sound at all goofy when you say them (like “blog” and “Twitter” always will. Or “Mediaite”).

Watching them, you almost forget that they have boatloads of talent. Glambert can wail on a high note like nobody’s business, and the singing, dancing, piano-playing, songwriting Gaga is every kind of threat there is. There’s one kind of threat Gaga has that Lambert doesn’t though: Confidence. Lady Gaga has perfect confidence on stage — not bravado, just a serene comfort in who she is, what she is doing and why she is doing it. Lambert has confidence too, of course, but tonight showed it to be more the aggressive, defiant bravado of the over-confident. Lady Gaga and her dancers were flesh-toned, nearly naked, gyrating on the ground, but that wasn’t the focus, it was part of the whole rather than a distraction from it. That, alas, could not be said of Lambert, whose performance lacked the pure, art-for-the-sake-of-art theatricality of Gaga (or, really, his album cover). It felt a little like a starlet timing her crotch shot just so for the paprazzi. S&M-garbed dancers and that already-infamous head-grab (yes, that one) are not exactly subtle. Or, really, even that edgy; crude gestures are nothing new to rock music, which is part of the in-your-face legacy that Lambert has inherited. Like Gaga, he wore rather than pushed the envelope; he just didn’t wear it well.

Lambert’s talent and presence are equal to far more than that number gave him (or really, that fairly forgettable song) — there’s nothing brave or edgy about being in a suit when everyone else is in S&M gear (indeed, the frame at 2:41 made me think of this). The irony is that Lambert, who counts among his fans the gay, straight and bi-confused of all ilks, was far from his usual thrilling, sexy self, perhaps because the number had such a manufactured, mean edge. It was far, too, from the “unapologetic flamboyance and sexual swagger” of his thrilling Idol performances (that description, incidentally, is Out editor Aaron Hicklin’s, and judging from the lack of freshness and fun in that number, he may have a point).

Despite being given some lame material to work with, though, Lambert is still a star, capable of Gaga-esque heights as soon as he — and his team — trusts himself to do it, with some cheek and risk and authenticity and emotion (he reminded me a bit of Ted Neely in there — see 3:07 — and man, would I love to see him sing that one). “Bad Romance” is an awesome tune, but amid the flames and smashing glass and bare assed-ness of “Speechless” the real star was Gaga and that voice. God I would have loved to have seen something similar from Glambert. Next time.

Compare and contrast below:

By the way, I feel like there must be a connection between the blatant, explicit sexual nature of Gaga and Glambert — whose performances wear the permissive mores of our society like a fancy headdress or a harness — and the repressed, charged, yearnful yet chaste world of Twilight, which is the other thing burning up the Zeitgeist right now. I’m still in the throes of early infatuation for all three — Gaga, Glambert and all things Twilight — so I’m not quite there yet. But, after careful consideration, I will say this: TEAM EDWARD.

(Lady G photos via FYLadyGaga)