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Clooney's
``Perfect Storm'' reigns at US box office
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES
(Reuters) - George Clooney's maritime disaster picture
``The Perfect Storm'' blew away its competition at the
North American weekend box office, whipping up an estimated
three-day take of $41.7 million, according to studio estimates
issued Sunday.
``The Patriot,''
a Revolutionary War saga starring Mel Gibson, opened in
a distant second with $21.7 million, dousing industry
predictions of a close race between the big-budget duo.
The holiday
weekend's other new entry, ``The Adventures of Rocky and
Bullwinkle,'' opened at No. 5 with a disappointing $6.6
million.
Last weekend's
champion, Jim Carrey's ``Me, Myself & Irene,'' lost
half its opening audience as the comedy tumbled to No.
4 with $12.0 million in its second weekend. The British
claymatian comedy ``Chicken Run'' slipped one place to
No. 3 with $12.8 million, also in its second weekend.
The overall
box office ended its three-week losing streak, in terms
of comparing ticket sales to year-ago results. According
to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co., the top 12 films
grossed $121.8 million, up 5.3 percent from last year,
when Will Smith's ``Wild Wild West'' opened at No. 1 with
$27.7 million.
``The Perfect
Storm'' becomes the third highest July 4 holiday opener
ever (after ``Men in Black'' and ``Independence Day''),
the best opener in Warner Bros. history (beating ''Lethal
Weapon 4'') and the second largest three-day opener this
year (after ``Mission: Impossible 2'').
Directed by
German filmmaker Wolfgang Peterson (''Air Force One''),
the film is based on Sebastian Junger's bestselling book
about an ill-fated fishing boat caught up in a freak storm
pattern off the coast of Massachusetts in 1991.
Playing the
ship's skipper, former ``ER'' heartthrob Clooney proved
a major draw for female moviegoers, who accounted for
53 percent of the audience, said Warner Bros. distribution
president Dan Fellman. Also helping the movie were its
PG-13 rating and the special effects, he added.
With many businesses
closed Monday ahead of the Independence Day holiday Tuesday,
Fellman predicted ``Storm'' would end the long holiday
weekend with about $64 million in the till, ``which is
going to be a spectacular number.''
``Storm'' averaged
$12,440 from 3,407 theaters, and ``The Patriot'' $7,089
from 3,061 theaters.
``The Patriot,''
starring Gibson as a vengeful father who takes up arms
against the English in 1776, has grossed $31 million since
opening Wednesday. A Columbia Pictures spokesman predicted
the R-rated film's tally would rise to about $42 million
after the holiday.
``This is great,''
producer Dean Devlin told Reuters. ``My fear has always
been ... that our competition here was much more of a
standard summer movie and was just going to wipe us out.''
Exit polls indicated
the ``Patriot'' audience was predominantly over 25 and
that they loved the movie. Devlin hoped that by the third
weekend, the movie would attract younger audiences drawn
to budding Australian hunk Heath Ledger.
The last time
the July 4 holiday fell on a Tuesday was in 1995, when
``Apollo 13'' ruled the box office with a $25 million
lift-off. It went on to gross about $172 million, said
Devlin, clearly hoping his movie would follow the same
trajectory.
Devlin's producing
partner Roland Emmerich directed the film. Together, the
pair made ``Independence Day'' and ''Godzilla.''
The live action/animated
``Rocky and Bullwinkle'' failed to overcome critical brickbats
and audiences' unfamiliarity with the source material,
late animator Jay Ward's 1960s television cartoon series
about a flying squirrel and a moose.
``We all knew
that it was going to be a challenge making the material
relevant,'' said a spokesman for Universal Pictures. The
film stars Robert De Niro, who also served as a producer.
It averaged just $2,685 from 2,458 theaters.
After 12 days
in release, ``Chicken Run'' (DreamWorks) has grossed $41.1
million. The film, from the British creators of the ``Wallace
and Gromit'' cartoons, fell just 27 percent from last
weekend, the best hold in the top 10. It averaged $4,490
from 2,851 theaters.
Conversely,
the 50 percent slide for Carrey's ``Irene'' marked the
steepest in the top 10. After 10 days, the comedy has
tallied $47.6 million, said a spokesman for Twentieth
Century Fox. Its average was $3,919 from 3,062 outlets.
New releases
next weekend include ``Disney's The Kid,'' a comedy starring
Bruce Willis; and ``Scary Movie,'' a raunchy horror spoof
directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans.
Warner Bros.
is a unit of Time Warner Inc., Columbia Pictures is a
unit of Sony Corp., Universal is a unit of Seagram Co.
Ltd., and Fox is a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc.
By
George At the last minute, George Clooney changed his
mind.
He had planned to meet the press in Cannes--a good half
an hour from his French Riviera hotel--to talk about his
competition film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a chain-gang
musical adventure set in the 1930s and written and directed
by the Coen brothers. But then, after a few nights of
too much wine and spirits, he ditched waking up early
and decided to bring the press to him.
So, I spent the morning on the grounds of the secluded
Hotel du Cap in a cabana on the edge of a cape jutting
into the sea. Why was the water bluer here than down by
my hotel, I wondered. Offshore, yachts--I mean YACHTS!--bobbed
in the water and kayakers paddled by.
Clooney showed up in a gray cotton sweater and gunmetal
khakis, looking pretty good for a guy with a hangover
so bad it caused him to cancel his a.m. TV interviews.
He admits that the Coens' O Brother is a bit of an odd
choice. The writer-directors came to him in Phoenix while
he was filming Three Kings, to show him the just finished
script. "They showed up at my hotel and put a script on
the table and said, 'We wrote that.' I said, 'Good for
you.' 'We want to know if you want to be in it.' 'Yeah.'
'You want to read it?' 'Not really necessary,' I said.
'When do we start?' "
From that last draft, the script didn't change by more
than a page, Clooney says, and it featured a whopping
collection of songs, including some solo work for Clooney
and his fellow chain-gang escapees, Tim Blake Nelson and
John Turturro. Clooney thought it would be no sweat.
"I can sing," he says. "My family are all singers. I got
a pretty decent voice. I figured, I'll do this--this'll
be fun. If you're going to do something where you're going
to have to sing and dance and do things that take you
away from what people know you as, it's always a little
dangerous. But it's not dangerous if you're doing it with
the Coen brothers--it's fairly safe territory to screw
around in."
Alas, as soon as Clooney--who hit all his notes, he swears--left
the sound booth, the Coen brothers brought in a ringer,
Dan Tyminski, to cover his voice on the great traditional
number "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," which becomes
a key plot point.
George shrugged: "And Glenn Close did all my lines."
By RICHARD HUFF
N.Y. Daily News Staff Writer
George Clooney
returned to NBC's "ER" last night. In what was
the most closely guarded programming secret in years,
Clooney turned up briefly at the end of last night's episode.
As Dr. Doug Ross, he was reunited with lost love Nurse
Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies).
The surprise, pulled off with the precision of a Gulf
War bombing mission, was unknown to anyone outside of
those who worked on the scene and top executives at Warner
Bros. TV, where the show is produced.
So secretive was the production, the executives at NBC
didn't know about Clooney's appearance until late Wednesday
night, when the completed show was delivered to the network,
sources said.
"George came back to help us conclude the six-year
love story between Doug Ross and Carol Hathaway,"
said executive producer John Wells in a statement. "We
shot the 60-second scene several weeks ago in Seattle
before George had to leave to promote his new Ethan and
Joel Coen film
["O Brother, Where Art Thou?"] at Cannes."
Clooney did the work for union scale "a grand total
of $596" and "for old friends and for the many
fans of this long-running story line," Wells added.
Keeping the scene a secret cost NBC's an opportunity to
promote Clooney's appearance. "I wouldn't say we're
upset," said a network source. "Part of us feels
it's fun for the viewers. Part of us says we really wish
we could take advantage of it."
Whether intentional or not, Wells' move prevented NBC's
promotion department from overblowing the importance of
the appearance.
Typically, the production of any series requires contact
between the network and the show producers at several
stages along the way, including the initial script approval
and viewing of rough cuts.
Sources say, however, NBC was presented scripts that included
an alternative ending and no hint of a return of Dr. Ross.
Adding to the intrigue were comments by Clooney himself
in early April that he had never been contacted by the
folks at "ER" about coming back.
Whether Clooney would return to the series has been one
of Tinseltown's biggest party games in the past year.
He left the show in February 1999, though since that day
there has been near constant speculation that he would
return for an episode. That talk came to a fever pitch
as the current season ticked down to the departure of
Nurse Hathaway (actress Margulies is exiting the series).
When Ross left "ER," the story line had him
going to Seattle, leaving behind Hathaway. It was revealed
afterward that she was pregnant with twins. Fans of the
series and some of the cast often said they felt it was
necessary for Ross and Hathaway to get together, if only
for a moment, to bring the relationship to a close.
Last night, viewers saw Hathaway getting on a plane for
a destination not revealed. Then she arrived in Seattle,
where she met up with Ross in the end.
Margulies is the latest member of the "ER" cast
to leave the show. She did so after turning down an offer
worth $27 million to remain for a couple of more seasons.
Yesterday, Margulies told radio morning man Howard Stern
that while "ER" was a great gig, she needed
to move on no matter what the cash offer.
"It couldn't be a monetary decision," she said.
"I couldn't be a rich sad person."
She admitted most people couldn't fathom how someone could
walk away from such a big payday.
"In all honesty, it was a big decision," she
said. "But I'm glad I'm out of it."
Fans of the series shouldn't bank on either Clooney or
Margulies turning up on the drama in the future.
Said Wells: "We wish Julianna all the best in her
future pursuits and neither she nor George will be returning
to 'ER' again."
Clooney makes surprise house call to ``ER''
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor George Clooney made a surprise
returnThursday night to the hit NBC medical drama ``ER''
in an episode marking the departure of actress Julianna
Margulies from the show. Clooney's 60-second guest appearance
on the second-to-last ''ER'' episode of the show's sixth
season, a closely guarded secret by NBC and producers
at Warner Bros. Television, capped one of the most storied
romances in television history. In the scene, shot several
weeks ago, nurse Carol Hathaway (Margulies) is reunited
in Seattle with her estranged husband, Doug Ross (Clooney)
after deciding to leave her hospital job in Chicago to
be with him. ``George came back to help us conclude the
six-year love story between Doug Ross and Carol Hathaway,''
the show's executive producer, John Wells, said in a statement
issued Friday. ``He did the scene for scale, for old friends
and for the many fans of this long-running storyline.''
Wells ruled out any future guest appearances by Margulies,
saying neither ``will return to 'ER' again.'' Clooney,
39, had hinted at a possible return to ``ER'' since departing
the show last year to pursue his movie career on a full-time
basis. Speculation escalated after Margulies, 33, decided
to leave the cast at the end of this season, reportedly
turning down a $27 million offer to extend her contract
for two more years. Clooney, who starred in last year's
Gulf War feature ``Three Kings,'' was last scene on the
small screen April 9 in a CBS live television production
of the Cold War thriller ``Fail Safe.'' Margulies' exit
leaves Anthony Edwards, Eriq La Salle and Noah Wyle as
the only three leading members remaining from the original
ensemble cast of ``ER.'' The tortured romance between
the hunky pediatrician and the head nurse in the emergency
room at Chicago's fictional County General is a story
arc that dates to the premiere of ``ER'' in 1994 and continued
even after Clooney left the show last year. In the Thanksgiving
Day episode last year, Hathaway gives birth to twins fathered
by Ross before he was written out of the script. According
to the story line, Ross moved to Seattle after he was
forced from his job at County General amid a euthanasia
scandal, but Hathaway refused to follow him there because
she was unwilling to leave behind relatives and her career
as head nurse in Chicago. In Thursday night's episode,
Hathaway comes to the realization that Ross is her soulmate
and true love after watching a patient die of cancer,
leaving behind the woman's grief-stricken husband and
two children. Leaving her own twin infants with her mother,
Hathaway hurriedly catches the next plane to Seattle to
patch things up with Ross, and the couple embrace as the
episode comes to a close. The season finale for ``ER,''
the top-rated dramatic series on television, airs next
week with Margulies written out of the show. Reuters/Variety
From E! Online
Julianna Margulies will sleep well in Seattle,
but ER fans may be up pondering some unanswered questions
about her surprising final farewell Thursday night.
Perhaps the
biggest question: How did George Clooney's super-secret
appearance slip under TV gossip-mongers' radar screens?
In what's
already being dubbed one of the tube's best-kept secrets,
the dearly departed Dr. Doug Ross returned to ER Thursday
night, as Margulies' Nurse Carol Hathaway bid adieu to
County General after six seasons to live "happily
ever after" with her long lost soulmate.
NBC suits
say they weren't told about Clooney's 60-second cameo
until Thursday. But even without the benefit of Clooney
pre-hype, ER's farewell to Margulies drew some 32.6 million
viewers (22.1 rating and 36 share), giving the network
a crucial May sweeps win over the Regis-powered ABC.
And it was
a storybook ending for Nurse Hathaway, who had a last-moment
epiphany at County General before hopping a plane to Seattle
and finally tracking down her unshaven, flannel-clad man,
Dr. Ross.
They kiss.
He sweeps her off her feet. Fade to black. Somebody get
us a tissue.
"None
of us knew," says NBC spokeswoman Barbara Tranchito.
"I saw the script, and he wasn't in there."
In an interview
with Access Hollywood, Clooney says the scene was shot
right before he took off for the Cannes
Film Festival (where he's promoting his upcoming project
with the Coen Brothers, O Brother, Where Art Thou?). "We
did it two weeks ago, flew up to Seattle on a jet and
shot it in four hours in the rain," he says.
Clooney's
pay? Union scale: $596. "That's not bad for a couple
of lines," he says.
Still, Thursday
night's ER put a warm, fuzzy bow on their long-dormant
relationship--something fans say was necessary after un-triumphant
goodbyes from both Clooney--whose do-gooder character
left amid a hospital euthanasia scandal last February--and
long-gone hospital regular Gloria
Reuben, who departed
in November.
"It may
not be the most realistic scenario in the world, but it's
one ER has stuck with," wrote one viewer on one of
the show's fan sites. "Doug and Carol were meant
to be together."
But don't
expect them to return. ER executive producer John Wells
says neither Margulies nor Clooney will be making any
future guest appearances.
Overall, Thursday'
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was, for once, no match
for the Peacock's resurgent Thursday night lineup, which
included another Bruce
Willis guest spot on Friends, and a back-to-back hour
of Frasier. The sitcom nabbed a 15.6 rating and 24 share
in the first half-hour--and a 13.8 rating and 21 share
in the second--to beat the juggernaut quiz show (which
got a 14.5 rating and 22 share).
A ratings
point represents just over a million households, or 1
percent of the nation's estimate 100.8 million TV homes.
The share is the percentage of turned-on TVs tuned to
a particular show.
Meanwhile,
it's greener pastures for the 33-year-old Margulies--and
no, we don't mean celebrity spots on Millionaire. The
Emmy-winning actress turned down $27 million to stay on
the show, instead opting to pursue work in film and theater.
She's set to star in the upcoming TNT miniseries, Mists
of Avalon, where she'll play a Druid priestess.
MITCHELL FINK
... NY DAILY NEWS 04/01:
Women Out of Sight, Out of Mind for Clooney
George Clooney says he isn't looking for love right
now.
The hunky former star of "ER" tells TV Guide
that he loves women butcan't have a serious relationship
because he's working so hard.
"I'm a workaholic," Clooney says. "I'm
no good at vacationing, and Ithink that can be a source
of frustration to a girl. I think they hate that. They
say, 'I thought you weren't going to take a job.'"
Clooney, who is producing and starring in CBS' live
remake of the 1964movie "Fail Safe," set to
air next Sunday, says he has plenty of companionship
from eight male buddies he has known for 20 years.
He says he revels in being one of "the boys,"
a group that includes pal Richard Kind of "Spin
City."
"There's something really great about looking over
at the same group of guys for 20 years with this familiarity
and understanding that, win or lose, we sort of made
it through together."
Fail
Safe News
|
Perfect
Storm' Breezes to No. 1
By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Entertainment
Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - George
Clooney's ``The Perfect Storm'' blew Mel Gibson out of
the water at the box office over the weekend.
The movie, based on the true
story of a fishing crew battling a behemoth tempest, took
in $41.7 million to debut at No. 1 at the weekend box
office, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The movie's gross almost
doubled that of Mel Gibson's Revolutionary War spectacle
``The Patriot,'' which took in $21.7 million Friday to
Sunday to finish at No. 2. The animated adventure ``Chicken
Run,'' featuring Gibson's voice, came in at No. 3 with
$12.8 million.
The weekend's other big release,
``The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle,'' opened to
a disappointing $6.6 million for fifth place.
The overall box office was
good news for Hollywood. After three slumping weekends
that put the industry behind last summer's record revenues,
the top 12 films this weekend grossed $121.8 million,
up 5.3 percent over the same period in 1999.
There also was a prospect
that for the five-day weekend through Tuesday, the industry
could approach the $198.3 million Fourth of July record
set in 1996, when ``Independence Day'' opened.
With three big movies premiering,
the Fourth of July had been viewed as the pivotal weekend
for Hollywood's summer season, when studios rake in about
40 percent of their revenue.
As late as last week, industry
observers figured the box-office crown would be a tossup
between ``The Perfect Storm'' and ``The Patriot.''
``I'm surprised by the disparity
between the grosses for 'Perfect Storm' and 'Patriot,'''
said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations,
which tracks movie-ticket sales. ``I didn't think there
would be that wide of a gap.''
``The Patriot'' may have
been hurt by its R rating and two-hour, 40-minute running
time, half an hour longer than ``The Perfect Storm,''
rated PG-13. As a period piece, ``The Patriot'' also had
a tough battle against the digital wizardry that created
the striking wave action in ``The Perfect Storm.''
``It was a really cutting-edge
effort,'' said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner
Bros., which released ``The Perfect Storm.'' ``It was
the first time anyone's been able to generate those kinds
of effects on water.''
Co-starring Mark Wahlberg
and Diane Lane, ``The Perfect Storm'' was the third-highest
grossing movie ever to open over Fourth of July weekend,
behind ``Men in Black'' and ``Independence Day,'' which
debuted with about $50 million each.
'``Perfect Storm' is the
more traditional Fourth of July, big special-effects roller-coaster
ride,'' said Dean Devlin, a producer of ``The Patriot.''
``I'm just happy we weathered the storm. I was really
worried they would wipe us out.''
``The Patriot'' broke a stigma
in Hollywood that movie-goers aren't interested in the
American Revolution, Devlin said. The last such film,
Al Pacino's ``Revolution,'' was a flop in 1985.
``I don't think people are
sitting around saying they can't wait for the next movie
about the American Revolution,'' Devlin said. ``But I
definitely think we have broken that curse.''
Estimated ticket sales for
Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according
to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.:
1. ``The Perfect Storm,''
$41.7 million.
2. ``The Patriot,'' $21.7
million.
3. ``Chicken Run,'' $12.8
million.
4. ``Me, Myself & Irene,''
$12 million.
5. ``The Adventures of Rocky
and Bullwinkle,'' $6.6 million.
6. ``Shaft,'' $6.5 million.
7. ``Big Momma's House,''
$5.5 million.
8. ``Gone in 60 Seconds,''
$5 million.
9. ``Mission: Impossible
2,'' $4.8 million.
10. ``Gladiator,'' $2.4 million.
Perfect Storm' Set
to Blow Into Theaters
June 23, 2000 5:53
pm EST
By Leslie Gevirtz
GLOUCESTER, Mass. (Reuters)
- Everything about the chilling Warner Bros. summer film
"The Perfect Storm" is big.
The Time Warner unit is betting
that the $120 million special-effects-filled film, starring
George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg along with heart-stopping
100-foot waves, will rival box office blockbuster "Titanic."
It is a big task -- the film
about the great liner that struck an iceberg and sank
became the biggest-grossing film of all time, collecting
an estimated $1.8 billion worldwide. But the producers
of "Perfect Storm" are willing to try and have
mounted a publicity campaign as huge as those monster
waves.
Much like the storm itself
-- documented with deadly precision in Sebastian Junger's
best-selling book "The Perfect Storm" -- the
studio's PR machine unleashed wave after wave of television,
radio, print and online reporters on Gloucester.
The down-at-the-heels New
England port, which has been fishing since before there
was a United States, serves as a backdrop and sometimes
a key player in the tragedy.
"The story belongs to
the town," Junger told reporters gathered under a
white tent on a dock next to the recreated, rusting, sword-fishing
boat Andrea Gail. "It belongs to those six guys and
the people who survived," he said, referring to the
six-member crew of the Andrea Gail.
"The Perfect Storm"
is the story of their hair-raising struggle at sea to
survive a furious October 1991 gale: a Halloween tempest
spawned by a rare meteorological combination -- a "perfect
storm" -- that brought monster waves and wind and
spread havoc across the Atlantic seaboard.
"I knew nothing of this,
of the long-line fishing and the life they live and how
dangerous it is," said Clooney, who plays Billy Tyne,
the Andrea Gail's captain.
LOOKING PERFECT
Wearing jeans, a T-shirt
and a baseball cap almost as scruffy as his beard, the
former star of television's "ER" and films such
as "The Peacemaker and "Out of Sight" said
"Perfect Storm" director Wolfgang Petersen asked
the cast to keep the fisherman look until the film's Los
Angeles premiere on June 28.
The movie opens in Australia
on June 29, across the United States on June 30 and in
Europe and Asia in July.
During a three-day publicity
blitz in which he and other cast and crew faced 140 journalists
brought to Gloucester by the movie company from as far
away as Singapore, Athens and London, Clooney laughed
as he tried to explain how he learned to steer the 72-foot
steel-plated, green-hulled vessel.
"I actually pounded
into that dock over there a few times," he said,
pointing to a neighboring pier with the banged-up replica
docked behind him. "But then they asked me to take
it down to the rubber pier where I bounced it for a while."
Filmmakers spent about three
weeks in Gloucester shooting exteriors and some water
scenes but most of the movie was filmed on a specially
reconstructed sound stage on Warner Bros. lot.
"Brutal" is how
Clooney described the filming that required most of the
cast to be cold and wet for six months as they were thrown
from one side of the battered ship to the other.
Wahlberg said he sometimes
"wished there was a SAG rep on the set," referring
to the Screen Actors Guild union. "I got my ass killed
and I was terrified," he said. Sometimes, after a
12-hour day being slammed into bulkheads and blown across
and off the decks by wave machines and water dump tanks,
he said he would go back to his trailer and just cry.
But he, like all the actors
in the film, said they would not hesitate to work with
director Petersen again.
DAS BOOT IS BACK
A German director who first
gained international acclaim with another watery film,
"Das Boot" ("The Boat"), Petersen
conceded he might have "gone overboard with (the
actors). Was it just too much? Maybe with Mark. And I
did not know that because he is such a tough cookie he
would not tell me."
"This is a physical
movie," Petersen said, and the actors all knew that
before they signed up. "This means you only get it
right if the audience feels that you go through hell here,
that you fight the elements and the elements are really
there and the actor goes through hell with these elements.
... They were, at some points, at the end of their endurance."
But Petersen did not test
Warner's financial endurance. "The studio, they really
like me," he said gleefully after boasting he brought
the film in for $600,000 under budget.
"In a film like that,
the studio always braces for at least between $10 and
$15 million over budget, because that's normally what
happens with a film like that, especially with water films.
We all know the 'Waterworld' case or 'Titanic,' and so
on."
"Waterworld" (1995),
starring Kevin Costner, cost $170 million to make, a record
at the time, and barely broke even at the box office.
"Titanic" wound up costing $200 million, but
unlike "Waterworld" it set box office records.
More than half of Petersen's
budget was spent on special effects and most of that went
to George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, whose computerized
special effects create things that are impossible to create
in real life -- like dinosaurs for "Jurassic Park"
-- or things that are too dangerous to re-create in real
life, like tornadoes for "Twister."
The key to doing this film,
both from an economic and safety standpoint, was the computer.
"We had so many computer people, you wouldn't even
know," Petersen said.
"Sometimes you see people
on the Andrea Gail and they're ducking down with the plywood
and they're computer-generated people -- small, but great
actors," he said, laughing. A cast like that keeps
commissary costs down and does not complain. "You
don't need trailers and they work beautifully and they
act beautifully."
From the Scottish Sun
"Superstars George Clooney and Cindy Crawford are
planning to open their
own
hotel. They are teaming up thanks to George's best
pal - Cindy's
millionaire
bar-owner hubby Rande Gerber. Insiders say the trio
have already bid on a
building on the world-famous Sunset Strip in Los
Angeles".
Is it just me - or has anyone else never heard of
Rande whats-his-face ?
"George's best pal" - sure !
And the second article, from the Daily Record (an
exclusive apparently),
which for some reason, I found a little more interesting...
"Just Call Him George Mooney"
"Hollywood prankster George Clooney kept everyone
laughing through
adversity
on the set of his latest movie The Perfect Storm
- by mooning at the
camera
while the photographer was being sick.
The cheeky film star took advantage of the widespread
sea-sickness that
plagued most of the cast on the storm-tossed movie
shoot to add an
unexpected picture to the photographer's film.
Director Wolfgang Petersen said "Our stills photographer
was really pretty
sick and had to run away and bend over the railing.
So George asked
someone
to take a photo with her camera. He dropped his
pants, put his rear to the
lens and then quickly put it all back together".
Petersen said it wasn't
until she had her film developed that the photographer
realised she was in
possession of an exclusive snap of the Hollywood
heartthrob. He explained
"She had no idea and then a couple of days later
when she developed the
material, she found that shot. He did that kind
of stuff all the time. He
was always up for a joke". "
George Clooney May Be 'Unfaithful'
May 31, 2000 8:20 am EST
By Michael Fleming
NEW YORK (Variety) - George Clooney is in talks to star
in "Unfaithful," a drama inspired by French suspense director
Claude Chabrol's 1968 film "La Femme Infidel."
Adrian Lyne (the "Lolita" remake) will direct the Fox
2000 project, with shooting set to begin early this fall.
Clooney would play a man who learns that his wife is cheating
on him. The picture studies the ramifications of his discovery,
and what adversity does to a loving relationship.
Lyne explored these themes in films like "Indecent Proposal"
and "Fatal Attraction." A female co-star is still being
sought.
Clooney also is part of a stellar ensemble that is shaping
up for Warner Bros.' remake of the Rat Pack heist vehicle
"Ocean's Eleven," to be directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts are among those
negotiating to join him.
Clooney is also booked to star for director Danny DeVito
in "Revelation," a Warner Bros. drama about an internal
affairs officer who takes a bullet during the attempted
assassination of a cardinal. His search for the assassin
parallels his own religious journey.
Upcoming are the Coen brothers' recent Cannes screener
"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and WB's June 30 release
"The Perfect Storm."
Oh, Brother, It's George
E! Online
May 12--"Good to be
standing upright." With that, and a hearty handshake,
George Clooney said hello at Universal's celebrity-packed
shindig to honor O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The event attracted writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen,
stars Clooney and John Turturro, Holly Hunter, Girlfight's
Santiago Douglas, director Alan Parker and Greg Kinnear,
who arrived late with his Nurse Betty director
Neil LaBute.
Although O Brother doesn't screen until tomorrow,
buzz is building on the comic drama, loosely based on
The Odyssey and featuring at least one showstopping
number by Clooney. Ethan Coen wonders why George doesn't
do comedy all the time. He could barely stop laughing
to tell me about it: "Damn! We didn't do anything--he
did. If you ever want to have dinner with anyone and have
a great time, he's the guy." Believe me, I'd love
to test that theory.
Clooney's staying at the exclusive Hotel du Cap, where
he spent the previous night at the hotel's bar with Uma
Thurman and Tommy Lee Jones (in town to promote Rules
of Engagement).
"All we did was drink," says Clooney, who didn't
look any worse for the wear. Tan, relaxed and impeccably
turned out in a black suit and open-collared shirt revealing
that tuft of chest hair that drives his fans mad, he's
looking forward to the famed walk up the Palais steps:
"Everybody says it's fun."
Odyssey to Cannes
LA Times 4/15
The latest from Joel and Ethan Coen, "O Brother,
Where Art Thou?," a darkly comic update of Homer's
"Odyssey," has been accepted into competition
at next month's Cannes International Film Festival. "O
Brother" stars Coen brothers' movie veterans John Turturro,
John Goodman, Holly Hunter, Michael Badalucco and Charles
Durning as well as George Clooney and Tim Nelson.
Disney plans an October release under its Touchstone banner
Images link 2 celebrations
Column by Nick Clooney
Appropriate to the calendar rollover, the fireplaces
were 2,000 miles apart. So were the deer.
If one retrospective of the Christmas and New Year holidays
just past is permitted, those are the images that will
remain in my memory.
As I drove home from work on the afternoon of Christmas
Eve, just at the outskirts of our little town of Augusta,
two deer stood right in the middle of Highway 8. These
most beautiful of our wild animals looked at the car calmly
as I came to a complete stop. They then walked to the
shoulder and paused to glance at me again before leaping
gracefully up the snow-covered slope to disappear into
the trees.
That picture was still in my mind when a group of friends
gathered that night at Augusta's Beehive Tavern on Riverside
Drive. A neighbor from out in the country sat at the piano
and played Mozart and Ravel. A visitor recited a poem.
The Beehive's owner and chef, our friend Sean, a wonderful
singer, gave us ''O Holy Night,'' then all the rest of
us joined in for other carols. My wife Nina, her mom,
her brother and sister-in-law and I went out into the
midnight clear with the memory of that warm fireplace
and the voices raised in familiar songs. We agreed it
was among our best Christmas Eves ever.
Sean's fireplace inspired me to get our own going for
Christmas morning. The grate was crackling by the time
daughter Ada, her husband Norm and the World's Only Granddaughter
hand-in-hand with the World's Only Grandson arrived. We
kept the fire going all day and when the family left,
Nina and I looked into the flames, then the embers, until
they were gone.
One week later, Nina and I were 2,000 miles away on a
ranch in California. Our son George was having a New Year's
party for the young men and women who have been his friends
during his nearly 18 years on the left coast. Many were
teen-agers when they first met.
Though George's business has the highest profile in the
world, the majority of these faces were not famous. They
were good people who had stuck around through bad times.
They were gathering to celebrate the triumph of friendship.
Many brought their children. Those without children brought
their dogs. A few even brought their parents. For this
special night, it was thought black tie would be in order,
so everyone dressed up. The restaurant had an open, Western
look with big beams in the ceiling.
And a fire licked at logs in a large fireplace, much like
the one in Augusta. Nina and I sat at a window looking
out at a large expanse of lawn, visible only because of
a sprinkling of small spotlights. At the spotlight nearest
the window, a deer paused, much like an actress moving
into her key light. She might have been a sister to the
one who stared me down outside Augusta. In a moment, I
could see there was another deer at her feet, skirting
the pool of light, visible only in silhouette. Two. Just
like Christmas Eve.
There was no formal engagement. With this group, it would
have been superfluous. The conversation was lively. Because
of the once-in-a-lifetime nature of the evening, the children
were allowed to stay up. There was dancing. Young couples
moved with easy grace. Mothers danced with diminutive
sons. Fathers danced with tiny daughters. It was an altogether
charming scene. And the fire crackled. And the deer watched
through the window. We were the only channel they could
get.
As the clock struck midnight, we toasted one another and
the new year. A friend introduced our host, George, who
does not take easily to speeches. But this time he had
something he wanted to say. ''I was thinking of some who
aren't here,'' he said as he looked out at faces he knew
so well. ''Some who got us through this amazing century,
but didn't make it to the big day.'' He picked out one
friend. ''Your dad, Mike.'' He caught another eye. ''And
both your mom and dad.'' And another. ''Your mom.'' He
glanced at Nina and me and I knew he was thinking of Uncle
George. He looked at the other two older couples. ''To
the great generation that made everything possible.''
All lifted their glasses.
The fire was burning down. The deer strolled
off into the dark. Nina and I had an early flight the
next day, so we left a few minutes later. But we didn't
go to sleep right away. Too many freeze frames to flash
through our minds. Sean singing. Allison on her new bike,
little Nick and his battery-powered car, Dica laughing
at her great-grandson. George playing jokes on his pals.
Ada assembling toys Santa had misaligned, Nina decorating
the tree.
And fireplaces and deer, not really 2,000 miles apart
after all. As close as family and friends.
Clooney
Pulls Off
'ER' Surprise
NBC bigs caught off guard
by star's top-secret return
By RICHARD HUFF
Daily News Staff Writer 05/12/2000
George Clooney returned to
NBC's "ER" last night. In what was the most
closely guarded programming secret in years, Clooney turned
up briefly at the end of last night's episode. As Dr.
Doug Ross, he was reunited with lost love Nurse Carol
Hathaway (Julianna Margulies).
The surprise, pulled off
with the precision of a Gulf War bombing mission, was
unknown to anyone outside of those who worked on the scene
and top executives at Warner Bros. TV, where the show
is produced.
So secretive was the production,
the executives at NBC didn't know about Clooney's appearance
until late Wednesday night, when the completed show was
delivered to the network, sources said.
"George came back to
help us conclude the six-year love story between Doug
Ross and Carol Hathaway," said executive producer
John Wells in a statement. "We shot the 60-second
scene several weeks ago in Seattle before George had to
leave to promote his new Ethan and Joel Coen film ["O
Brother, Where Art Thou?"] at Cannes."
Clooney did the
work for union scale — a grand total of $596 — and "for
old friends and for the many fans of this long-running
story line," Wells added.
Keeping the scene a secret
cost NBC's an opportunity to promote Clooney's appearance.
"I wouldn't say we're upset," said a network
source. "Part of us feels it's fun for the viewers.
Part of us says we really wish we could take advantage
of it."
Whether intentional or not,
Wells' move prevented NBC's promotion department from
overblowing the importance of the appearance.
Typically, the production
of any series requires contact between the network and
the show producers at several stages along the way, including
the initial script approval and viewing of rough cuts.
Sources say, however, NBC
was presented scripts that included an alternative ending
and no hint of a return of Dr. Ross.
Adding to the intrigue were
comments by Clooney himself in early April that he had
never been contacted by the folks at "ER" about
coming back.
Whether Clooney would return
to the series has been one of Tinseltown's biggest party
games in the past year. He left the show in February 1999,
though since that day there has been near constant speculation
that he would return for an episode. That talk came to
a fever pitch as the current season ticked down to the
departure of Nurse Hathaway (actress Margulies is exiting
the series).
When Ross left "ER,"
the story line had him going to Seattle, leaving behind
Hathaway. It was revealed afterward that she was pregnant
with twins. Fans of the series and some of the cast often
said they felt it was necessary for Ross and Hathaway
to get together, if only for a moment, to bring the relationship
to a close.
Last night, viewers saw Hathaway
getting on a plane for a destination not revealed. Then
she arrived in Seattle, where she met up with Ross in
the end.
Margulies is the latest member
of the "ER" cast to leave the show. She did
so after turning down an offer worth $27 million to remain
for a couple of more seasons.
Yesterday, Margulies told
radio morning man Howard Stern that while "ER"
was a great gig, she needed to move on no matter what
the cash offer. "It couldn't be a monetary decision,"
she said. "I couldn't be a rich sad person."
She admitted most people couldn't fathom how someone could
walk away from such a big payday. "In all honesty,
it was a big decision," she said. "But I'm glad
I'm out of it."
Fans of the series shouldn't
bank on either Clooney or Margulies turning up on the
drama in the future. Said Wells: "We wish Julianna
all the best in her future pursuits and neither she nor
George will be returning to 'ER' again."
BERLIN (Billboard)
- Actors George Clooney and Sophie Marceau and director
Wim Wenders will be among the recipients of Germany's
Golden Camera Awards on
Tuesday. Director Volker Schloendorff ("Rita's Legend")
and German producers Horst Wendlandt and
Artur Brauner will receive honor awards. Other German
stars will receive awards in 13 categories. The Golden
Camera is sponsored by the TV guide "Hoerzu"
and gives
awards to media personalities every year at a gala in
Berlin. With no nomination process, however, the
awards serve primarily as a promotion platform, both
for the "Hoerzu" and for the celebrities' new
projects
- both Clooney's "Three Kings" and Wenders' "The
Million Dollar Hotel" will open in Germany in late
February.
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Will
Clooney return to "ER"?
From
the 1/17/00 Virginian Pilot
TV columnist Larry Bonko is reporting from the twice-yearly
television critics press tour in
Pasadena, Calif.
WILL THE PRODUCERS of "ER" puh-leeze ask George Clooney
to do the season finale in May -- the episode in which
Julianna Margulies bids adieu?
The man is dying to return for one final hour as Doc Doug
Ross. I heard him say it with my own two ears.
"I'd go back in a minute if . . . "
If what, George?
"If they asked me. If they gave me something that's fun
to do. If they wrote the script so that my return wouldn't
do damage to the show or to the characters we've been
playing. I'll be happy to give Julianna a proper send-off."
Hear that, producers of "ER"? Are you listening, NBC?
Wearing a blazer, jeans, dark knit shirt and a baseball
cap with his company's name, Maysville Pictures, on it,
Clooney appeared before a gaggle of out-of-town TV writers
to beat the drum for "Fail-Safe," which he will produce
and star in for CBS in April.
The network says this is event television, because "Fail-Safe"
will be done live and in black and white -- homage to
the 1964 film about the U.S. on the brink of nuclear war.
Clooney as Air Force Col. Jack Grady thinks he has orders
to bomb Moscow. Off he goes, and nobody in the Pentagon's
War Room can stop him.
"We intend for it to be cinematic," Clooney says.
He's asked his buddy on the basketball court, Noah Wyle
of "ER," to join the cast.
"He's got no jump shot," says Clooney of Wyle.
Despite that affront, Wyle said yes, he'd do "Fail-Safe."
"I'm thrilled and honored to be part of it," he says.
Clooney and Wyle once did an "ER" episode live. It was
stiff and awkward. Awful.
"We hoped for something better," Clooney says.
When "Fail-Safe" airs April 9, Clooney promises to do
it right. Walter Bernstein, who wrote the film's screenplay
based on a novel by Harvey Wheeler and Eugene Burdick,
is assisting Clooney and co-executive
producer Laura Ziskin.
After patiently and politely listening to
Clooney hype "Fail-Safe" as if it were breakthrough TV,
we jackals of the press got back to the BIG STORY, which
is Clooney's possible return to "ER."
What will it take to return you to "ER," to give friend
Margulies a proper farewell?
"Having Julianna take off her clothes in the final scene
might do it," he says.
Get serious. The buzz here is that you've been offered
$2 million to return.
"Yeah, I'd go back for $2 million. I'm not an idiot. But
I've never been asked formally and officially about going
back. It's never come up except for a talk I had some
time ago with (producer) John Wells about doing the episode
when Nurse Hathaway gave birth."
That would have been nice, but it didn't happen.
Short of plucking off the NBC Peacock's feathers and giving
them to him, what must happen for Clooney to slip into
the green scrubs of County General one more time?
Somebody needs to write a really good script.
"It wouldn't be wise for me as a ratings thing to come
back for one scene, scoop up Julianna and the twins,
and walk out."
"ER" continues as TV's highest-rated show post-Clooney.
His swagger is missed, but not terribly so.
How come, George?
"Because it's a smart show that's well-written. It survives,
but it will be a big loss when Julianna leaves -- a far
bigger loss than when I left -- because while Anthony
Edwards is the heart of the show, her character
is the soul of 'ER.' She's the nurse who keeps things
running, keeps things moving. She's very important."
As the result of luck or insightful scheduling,
who should pop up on the midwinter press tour 24 hours
after Clooney but the cast and producers of "ER."
Wells and his partner, Lydia Woodward, heard the question
right out of the chute.
Do you intend to ask Clooney to be part of the episode
in which Margulies as Nurse Hathaway leaves "ER"?
Wells to TV press: It's none of your business.
"I won't discuss it."
Unlike her boss, Margulies talked freely about Clooney.
She's heard that some viewers see Clooney's Dr. Ross as
a creep who walked out on Nurse Hathaway and their twins.
"That upsets me some," Clooney says. "You have to remember
that it was Hathaway's decision not to leave the hospital,
not to leave Chicago, and follow him west. He's not a
deadbeat dad. . . . Hathaway was not willing
to go with him."
Wells says he has no actress in mind to replace Margulies.
Margulies is leaving "ER" for precisely the same reason
Clooney packed up when his contract expired. "I need to
spread my wings," she says. "It's time to jump."
Says Clooney: "I was running out of ways to reinvent my
character after five years. I found myself limited as
an actor, thinking of something different to do, short
of standing on my head. Working on 'ER' was the best time
of my life, the best thing for my career. I'm proud to
have
been a part of it. But I have no regrets about leaving."
Clooney moved on before he did grave damage to his character.
His words. Margulies has the same concern.
"I love Hathaway, love playing her," she says. "I'll miss
that very much. I'll miss the cast and crew that's become
my second family. But I'd best leave before I end up killing
her."
It's been reported she turned down a three-year contract
worth $27 million. Asked to comment about that, she says,
"It wasn't real money."
To which co-star Eriq LaSalle chimes in, "Oh, it's real."
By virtue of the show's long run on NBC Thursday nights
at 10, and a recent deal struck with the network by Warner
Bros., the original cast members are already millionaires.
Margulies' glowing face was framed in a bulky
knit turtleneck. That is the face of a movie star of the
future, my friends.
Clooney is already there. In a flood of advertising, he
is being pushed for an Oscar nomination by Warner Bros.
for his role in "Three Kings." The Hollywood billboards
say his "stirring" performance is worthy of a best-actor
Academy Award.
To all of this hoopla, he says, "I was surprised at the
financial success of the picture. I didn't expect it to
make a dime. But I see no Oscar in it for me. The Oscar
voters should be paying attention to the director and
those who worked on the screenplay."
Nice guy, Clooney.
Like virtually all others in the "ER" cast -- Wyle, Edwards,
Alex Kingston, Kellie Martin -- Margulies appears younger,
fresher off camera. Martin, playing medical student Lucy
Knight, will follow Margulies out the big, wide emergency
room doors this year.
In real life, she has another year of college ahead of
her.
"It's time to move on," Martin says. Wells and Woodward
wish her the best. "Working with Kellie has been a joy,"
Wells says.
Her future and that of Margulies, as well as Gloria Reuben,
who left a few weeks ago, is uncertain. Clooney's life
after "ER" transformed quickly to movie star and TV producer.
Three Clooney movies, including a remake of "Oceans 11,"
are on the way. He'll soon be seen in theaters in "The
Perfect Storm'' and "O, Brother, Where Art Thou?" His
company has three TV shows in development.
Clooney's The Boss.
"I look to producing as a matter of survival, a place
to be when the studios say they're tired of me as an actor,"
he says. "I want control over what I do and when I do
it. There's a lot of fun stuff going on in my life."
He's 38 and already independently wealthy. It's not likely
he'll go back to being Doug Ross on "ER" even for an hour
unless . . . the producers make it very interesting.
If Wells pitches the idea to Clooney, it shouldn't take
long. Clooney's office at Warner Bros. is next door to
the "ER" soundstage on the Burbank movie lot where Bette
Davis and Humphrey Bogart once trod.
|
Clooney
Readies Live TV Gig,
Leaves ER on Hold
Mr. Showbiz January 14, 2000
King Arthur hunted the Holy Grail, X-Files fans
hope for an eighth season, Hannibal watchers await news
of an official Clarice casting, and ER enthusiasts still
pray for George Clooney, a k a Dr. Doug Ross, to return
to the NBC medical drama.
We can't yet say whether any of these mythical quests
will ever be a reality, but we have news about Clooney's
return to NBC. The answer: Maybe.
Julianna Margulies, whose nurse Carol Hathaway is due
to leave at the end of this season, is still saying she's
eager for a Clooney rematch, but, once again, the actress
is speaking out of turn.
There's no official word from the show's brass, although
producer John Wells tells the New York Daily News he "has
had conversations" with ER staffers about a reunion, but
still no one seems to have asked the guy most necessary
for a Doug Ross guest shot: George Clooney.
Thursday, Clooney told the Daily News that no one has
talked to him about an ER guest shot in months. He did
say that both the script and circumstances would have
to be right for him to return. With his usual humility,
he
pointed out, "Julianna leaving will be a big enough story
line, I think."
Fans of the NBC show must agree with Margulies that it
would be nice for Doug to see Carol off the show, especially
since he didn't make it to the birth of their twins in
that Thanksgiving episode. Margulies says that
before she leaves the show in May, she'd like viewers
to know that Ross isn't a "deadbeat dad."
"Ultimately, I think it would be fantastic if Carol found
Doug and just showed up with her suitcases and said let's
go," the actress says. "I want to leave the gate open
where Carol can go back to him. I'd like to see these
characters end their relationship the way they should."
Her ex-TV lover doesn't necessarily see it that way. Clooney
told the Daily News, "I don't know that it's necessarily
smart for me to come back for one
scene and scoop Julianna up and walk out."
Since leaving ER, Clooney's scored moderate success at
the box office, with more critics than moviegoers flocking
to Three Kings and Out of Sight. The second-generation
showbiz vet is making plans for a fallback career should
his hunk status ever be revoked. Clooney, who dreamt up
the live episode of ER, is spreading his wings as a a
TV producer.
"It's about survival," Clooney says. "People get tired
of you eventually — and I get tired of me.
"So I want to have other jobs later on," he tells the
New York Post. "But it's also about having control over
the things that you're doing."
As part of a deal with CBS, the actor is producing and
starring in a special, two-hour live restaging of the
1964 Cold War drama Fail-Safe, set for an April air date.
Old ER chum Noah Wyle also takes a role in the drama.
The actor, whose dad, Nick, is a TV vet of his own and
now introduces movies on American Movie Classics, is talking
about staging other live TV shows, including new versions
of the Twilight Zone. He admits to a fascination with
live television. "There was a period during the '50s and
'60s when writing was really good," Clooney says. "We
would want to sort of treat those like [they are] our
Shakespeare. Mostly it just seems like a challenge, and
if we do it right, maybe we can open up a different sort
of door for television."
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