03/24/03’s illustrious band:

Alan Smithee

Brought to you by artful dodgers everywhere.

“Alan Smithee” is the pseudonym a movie director uses if he or she to disown a project, usually when the project was taken away from that director and heavily altered against his or her wishes. (Producers, screenwriters and even actors also occasionally hide behind the name.) It’s the only directorial pseudonym permitted by the Directors Guild. If you notice the name Alan Smithee (or variant spellings thereof) on the credits, it’s a red flag that this film is not what its director intended and is probably not any good. Alan Smithee has directed over two dozen films to date.

“Alan Smithee” is a anagram for “The Alias Men,” and some people feel that’s how the name came to be. Others maintain that Smithee’s creators originally planned to use the more common name Alan Smith as a bad-rap deflector shield, but then added the double E so as not to defame any real Alan Smiths.

Yeah, I’ve got a couple projects I wish I could have credited to Alan Smithee. Not too many, though. My parents taught me early that it’s best not to do anything you wouldn’t sign your name to, and so far that has proved to be excellent advice.

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