October 30, 2000
A Month at the Top for "Meet The Parents"
In less than a month, Robert DeNiro's sidesplitting film Meet The Parents has already earned over $100 million at the box office, holding down the number one position a fourth straight week. Movie sources expected Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows to knock the DeNiro comedy out of first position, but to no avail. The horror flick brought in a far less than anticipated $13 million, landing the number two spot in the top ten.
The last time a film stayed in the number one position for four consecutive weeks was last year's Sixth Sense, which lasted five weeks.
Celebs Design Greeting Cards For Charity
Crossing over into the art world, dozens of actors, models and athletes have gone into the greeting card biz for charity. Celebrities such as Christian Slater and Marlee Matlin's artwork was recently displayed in USA Weekly. Other celebrity artists include boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, actors Ashley Judd, Greg Kinnear, Jenny McCarthy and Rosie Perez as well as supermodels Cindy Crawford and Heidi Klum.
The greeting cards, which will benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, go on sale Nov. 12.
Quentin and Uma Teaming Up Again
Kill Bill is the name of the latest Quentin Tarantino project, a script Tarantino says he is writing for Uma Thurman. Tarantino will direct the film, and together with partner Lawrence Bender's A Band Apart will produce the project, which is expected to be distributed by Miramax Films.
The last time Tarantino worked with Uma Thurman was the Academy Award winning cult classic Pulp Fiction.
Pacino Set To Play Napoleon
Sources inside Hollywood are curious how Al Pacino will pull off the French accent for his next project, Betsy and the Emperor. The New York actor has been signed up to play the part of French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte. Director Patrice Chereau will direct the drama, which according to Variety is loosely based on the emperor's exile from France.
Pacino was drawn into the idea of playing Napoleon after reading an adaptation of the script written by Jean-Claude Carriere, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
October 23, 2000
Actor's Strike Finally Reaching An End
A tentative agreement was finally made between the actors unions and the advertising industry, bringing to a close a nearly six month strike in Hollywood. The actors went on strike in May and was the first Hollywood walk-out in over a decade.
SAG officials say details of the 36-month contract between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and a group representing agencies and advertisers, will be released early this week. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the agreement is subject to a vote of the unions' boards and then by the rank and file members. If approved, actors could be back to work as early as next week.
Hutton Takes A Spill
Supermodel and actress Lauren Hutton crashed her motorcycle during the 100-mile celebrity ride this past weekend. According to Assoctiated Press, the 55 year old actress was treated for multiple leg fractures, scrapes and bruises after she crashed near Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada. Authorities say Hutton was wearing her helmet, and the cause of the accident is currently under investigation
The motorcycle event was intended to celebrate the Las Vegas opening of the Hermitage-Guggenheim Museum, and featured such celebrity riders as Dennis Hopper and Jeremy Irons.
Gibson Not Thrilled About "Million Dollar Hotel"
Though it won the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, Mel Gibson is claiming his next potential North American release is as "boring as a dog's ass" and does not want to be held responsible for The Million Dollar Hotel, if it ever finds a distributor in the U.S.
Gibson knocked the Icon Productions venture at a news conference held in Sydney last week. The actor is much more inclined to discuss the upcoming release of What Women Want, where Gibson plays a man who can sudddenly read women's minds.
Minnelli Diagnosed With Brain Disease
Legendary actress, singer and dancer Liza Minnelli has been diagnosed with encephalitis, a potentially deadly disease of the brain. According to The New York Post, paramedics were called to the house in Fort Lauderdale where Minnelli has been staying on Oct. 8 after her bodyguard and chauffeur found her suffering from what looked like a stroke. The 54-year-old Minnelli, has been hospitalized several times throughout this past year, according to sources close to her.
Minnelli, daughter of Hollywood legend Judy Garland, won her notoriety from the Broadway hit Cabaret, but is remembered fondly for a string of 80s films including Arthur, King of Comedy and Rent A Cop. Minnelli more recently has been noted for her major contributions in the fight against AIDS.
October 16, 2000
Gere Pushes For Dalai Lama To Visit U.S.
Longtime Buddhist and supporter of Tibetan culture,actor Richard Gere, has written a letter of appeal to South Korea's President Kim Dae-jung asking that he allow Tibet's Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, to visit the United States next month. Gere, head of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, told reporters that in his letter he states that "To not do so would send an unfortunate signal to the rest of the world and undermine (South) Korea's unique authority in Asia".
According to CNN, President Kim Dae-jung says he fears a visit by the Dalai Lama could hurt relations with China, since they have warned against providing the religious leader a forum to promote Tibetan autonomy. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998, has been in exile in India since 1959, after China annexed Tibet by force in 1950.
"Titanic" Star Makes A Little Splash
Titanic starlet Kate Winslet and her brand new baby girl are doing great after a smooth delivery, according to the British actress' publicist. Baby Mia weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds, 9 ounces, entering the world on Thursday at a London hospital. This is the first child for 25-year-old Winslet and her husband, Jim Threapleton.
Winslet, who worked the bulk of the summer on Enigma, a British film set during World War II, has said she is planning to take a well-deserved, seven-month maternity hiatus.
Fonda Makes Hefty Contribution To Atlanta
Actress and long-time Atlanta resident Jane Fonda wants to be sure the young people of Atlanta are taken care of. To ensure the city has a ``state-of-the-art'' adolescent health service, Fonda wrote a check to Atlanta-based Grady Health System's Adolescent Reproductive Health Service to the tune of $1.3 million.
The funds will be used for reproductive health education, consolidating reproductive health services at one medical facility, and expanding classes to include young adults, especially men.
Fonda founded the nonprofit Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention in 1995.
Silverstone Not Clueless About Milk
Actress Alicia Silverstone is more than a little bugged about the dairy industry's popular "Got Milk?" ad campaign. She has stopped consuming dairy products altogether.
Animal activist Silverstone recently wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, asking them to look into health claims regarding the consumption of dairy products. A Washington-based activist group known as the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine has been circulating Silverstone's letter, and agrees that the dairy ads are misleading because they don't indicate the potential side effects of drinking milk - including the increased risk of heart disease and obesity.
October 9, 2000
A Devilish Role For Hewitt
Good girl Jennifer Love Hewitt hopes to shed her image with her next devilish role opposite Anthony Hopkins.
The 21-year-old actress will portray a Satanic seductress in a remake of Stephen Vincent Benet's classic story, The Devil and Daniel Webster, also the directorial debut for actor Alec Baldwin. Filming is scheduled to start early next year.
Hewitt is best known for her television work, in such shows as Party of Five, and in the horror flick I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Franco's On A Role
The actor's strike has just broken the record for the longest work stoppage in Hollywood history, entering the 155th day of the strike waged by Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA) against advertisers. In 1988, the Writers Guild of America's strike lasted six months and delayed the start of the fall TV season.
Industry members were hopeful last week that SAG and AFTRA would reach a deal and return members to work, but talks fell apart due to major conflicts over cable rates and Internet jursidiction. According to Variety the unions calculated that their final offer represented a 7.4% pay increase over three years while the ad industry's proposal amounted to a 4.4% hike.
Stunt Veteran Farnsworth Ends The Pain
80-year-old actor Richard Farnsworth,the oldest actor to be nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday night in Lincoln, N.M. Lincoln County Sheriff Tom Sullivan released a statement to media Friday night saying the actor died at his home in Lincoln, 250 miles southeast of Albuquerque.
The former stuntman had been diagnosed several years ago with terminal cancer, which had left him partially paralyzed. Those close to Farnsworth say he struggled with the pain while working on David Lynch’s The Straight Story, the film which earned him the nomination. The actor/stuntman had been involved in filmmaking for more than 60 years.
Blair Witch 2 Webfest
Artisan Entertainment, the studio behind Blair Witch Project, has announced a three-day online Webfest on the sequel's official site starting Oct. 18.
What some might call a Blair Witch convention, the around-the-clock Webfest will include live chats, live music, auctions of the film's props through amazon.com, sneak peek footages of the film and 64 hours of original streamed programming. The one difference between the two movies, according to Hollywood.com is the method in which the original movie played with the balance of reality versus fiction. The sequel, which opens October 20th, is meant to come across much more a film and less a documentary.
October 2, 2000
Touchdown For "Remember The Titans"
Talk about a touchdown! Denzel Washington made the score of his career with a record breaking weekend at the box office. Snagging an impressive $21.2 million dollars, Remember The Titans is the biggest opener to date for Washington, topping the $18.6 million launch of the 1995 submarine thriller Crimson Tide
The Exorcist re-release and Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous hold the second and third positions grossing between 6 to 8 million dollars each. Record crowds are expected to head to theatres for next weekend's highly anticipated opening of Sylvester Stallone's Get Carter.
SAG/AFTRA Strike Breaks Writer's Guild Record
The actor's strike has just broken the record for the longest work stoppage in Hollywood history, entering the 155th day of the strike waged by Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA) against advertisers. In 1988, the Writers Guild of America's strike lasted six months and delayed the start of the fall TV season.
Industry members were hopeful last week that SAG and AFTRA would reach a deal and return members to work, but talks fell apart due to major conflicts over cable rates and Internet jursidiction. According to Variety the unions calculated that their final offer represented a 7.4% pay increase over three years while the ad industry's proposal amounted to a 4.4% hike.
Leary Brings Celebs Together For Hockey Benefit
A benefit hockey game brought in celebrity friends of comedian Denis Leary in honor of six firefighters killed last year in a Boston warehouse fire, one of whom was Leary's cousin, Jeremiah Lucey. Boston Bruins alumni faced a Hollywood team that included Elizabeth Hurley, Party of Five's Scott Wolf, Tim Robbins, George Wendt of Cheers fame, as well as the ailing Michael J. Fox, who received a standing ovation for his participation, despite the fact he is fighting Parkinson's Disease.
Though the celebs gave the Bruins a run for their money, the Boston team edged Hollywood out 15-14. The game Sunday raised $200,000, which will go to the families of the victims and the Worcester Fire Department for new equipment.
Crudup Signs Up With Blanchett for "Charlotte Gray"
Hot on the heels of his recent success Almost Famous, Billy Crudup has signed to star opposite Cate Blanchett in the Warner Bros. and FilmFour project Charlotte Gray. Set to be directed by Gillian Armstrong, shooting is scheduled to start in February with a $20 million-plus budget.
The film, according to The Hollywood Reporter, will be based on Sebastian Faulks' best-selling novel of the same name and tells the story of a young Scottish woman who rescues her Royal Air Force boyfriend by joining the French resistance. Blanchett worked under Armstrong's direction before in Oscar and Lucinda.
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