Amazon MGM Studios just greenlit a tennis rom-com built around a premise that would get a regular person flagged by security at the US Open — and audiences are already calling foul.
The film, Love Love, centers on a struggling tennis phenom who falls for a local ball boy at the US Open, with their romance supposedly powering her run to the final. The problem: ball boys and ball girls at Grand Slam tournaments are typically 13 to 18 years old, recruited through local clubs and schools. Hollywood either doesn't know this or doesn't care — and either answer tells you everything about who's greenlighting entertainment for the rest of us.
According to Essentially Sports, writer-director Joey Power co-wrote the script with Daniel Sweren-Becker. RK Films' Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum are producing alongside 3 Arts Entertainment's Ari Lubet and Jonathan Berry. Tyriq Withers, 27, and Isabel May, 25, will star and executive produce. Withers has been rising fast, with two NAACP Image Award nominations for his horror debut Him and roles in I Know What You Did Last Summer and the Colleen Hoover adaptation Reminders of Him. May is known for Paramount's 1883 and is set to appear opposite Jennifer Lopez in The Last Mrs. Parrish.
The casting only underscores the absurdity. Withers is nearly 30 playing a role that, in real tennis, belongs to a teenager. Fans spotted it immediately. "Ballboy? He's pushing 30 lol pretty sure they've never seen a tennis match," one wrote. Another: "Aren't those ball boys usually 13 years old or something?" Another fan put it plainly: "He's a great actor, but about a 10-12 years too old for this part. Guess no one in casting has watched a tennis match."
There is exactly one tournament on the professional circuit that recruits adult models as ball crew: the Madrid Open, which uses them on main courts to attract attention. Traditional teenage ball boys and girls work the outer courts. One fan noted the exception: "Real tennis fans know that this could only happen at Madrid Open."
So the writers either based their premise on a notorious publicity stunt famous for objectifying women — or they didn't bother with five minutes of research. Neither is a good look for an industry that lectures Middle America on morality every awards season.
This is the same Hollywood that can't figure out why audiences keep shrinking. Amazon MGM pumps resources into a project whose central concept makes regular people uncomfortable, and the industry will act baffled when the box office underperforms. The market is speaking. Hollywood just refuses to listen.
The question isn't whether Love Love will get made — it's whether anyone outside the 310 area code will watch it.
