In Hollywood, ad execs are losers

It must be written in a screenwriter’s manual somewhere that the quickest way to make it clear your character is a loser is to make him an ad exec. This is the only reasonable conclusion one can come to—particularly after reading the (generally tepid) reviews for Derailed, starring Clive Owen as Charles-the-loser-ad-exec and Jennifer Aniston as the other woman. Says The New York Times, “An adman, Charles is one of those rumpled types sagging under the weight of work woes and an unhappy family life, complete with a snappish wife (meaning no sex) and a sick kid (money worries).