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TALK, TALK, KISS, KISS, CHOP, CHOP
4.10.02

The stars have been talking to the magazines and kissing and telling, and walking from their day jobs. CHER tells OUT Magazine that she would go into politics if she could turn back time. She also revealed that she has been asked to direct an episode of OZ, the gritty prison drama on HBO. What special insight and vision she could bring to a bunch of tatooed criminals, drug addicts, rapists and gang-bangers is beyond me. CHER also took the courageous step of criticizing industry darling QUEER AS FOLK. She feels it does a disservice to gays and lesbians, with which this writer tends to agree. She apparently doesn’t feel that way about WILL & GRACE, as she will make a repeat appearance on the show’s finale this season… And finally, MAME the musical will began shooting this year, with CHER playing the lead role immortalized by ROSALIND RUSSELL. JERRY HERMAN, the legendary songwriter says "CHER’S voice is the only one that will make it sound new and contemporary." We’ll see…CHRISTINA RICCI tells JANE Magazine that she learned to be an anorexic form watching TV movies on the subject. "There was one on HBO, starring CALISTA FLOCKHART…She’d vomit into Tupperware containers and keep them in her closet. It was so crazy to me for some reason it was appealing." Okay…JENNIFER LOPEZ tells COSMOPOLITAN that SEAN PENN is the best kisser of the actors she has had. "I’ve never come across a bad kisser. All actors have their thing, But I would have to say SEAN PENN, who I kissed in U-TURN was the best."…and SALLY FIELD was not granted certiori by ABC and the powers that be at DISNEY. Her drama THE COURT was cancelled after it only just premiered on March 26. FILED played a Supreme Court Justice on the show, which I never even got to see. What is the sense of investing development money into a television series if you can’t give it more than 2 or 3 airings to make it big? Makes no sense to me, and it’s not always right, but it is real, from the red carpet in REEL HOLLYWOOD.

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SPACE STATION 3D
4.15.02

Each weekend a battle wages for the hearts and minds of moviegoers across the nation. The studios roll out their latest fare in a war of million dollar proportions. CHANGING LANES wins this week’s contest, taking in nearly $18 million knocking JODIE FOSTER and PANIC ROOM off the block. But the funny thing is, for all this competition, the product put out by the studios is rarely worth the 2 hours spent sitting and watching.

Such is not the case for the offerings put out on a regular basis by the IMAX people. Their latest release SPACE STATION 3D is a fantastic journey aboard the international space station being built nearly 300 miles in orbit above the earth. We have come to be lackadaisical about the project, indeed we rarely take note of a Space Shuttle launch, or the construction effort in space when a new piece is attached to the structure. As a matter of fact, this week, as we were watching this film, there was a launch and a critical addition to the station, all of which no doubt would have escaped my noticed but for the press screening for this in your face 3-d film.

Aside from the experience of being on the orbiting laboratory, we get to experience weightlessness, and all the fun that accompanies a state of zero gravity. Water becomes a living, morphing being floating through the air before being gulped up like mutant Jell-O. Perhaps the most exhilarating moment I’ve ever experienced in a movie theater happened as we were placed upon the platform for the launch of a Russian rocket. The camera is somehow safely encased behind a glass barrier giving the audience a front row seat for the unbelievable force and thrust upon takeoff. Debris surrounds you, the exhaust engulfs you, as the missile rises from the launch pad. My jaw was agape, and I nearly fell out of my seat as the barrier protecting the camera burst from the impact. It was and is amazing. Surely worth the effort of seeing this film.

But there is so much more. Despite being a documentary, SPACE STATION 3D is entertaining in ways so unlike most science films. The astronauts are likeable characters in this story, and we get up close and personal in ways not possible in traditional films. We are there, sharing the challenges and rewards as they perform their duties aboard the space station. We feel what it’s like to wear the suits, to walk in space, and to adjust to new station mates, as they make their arrivals. I, myself, wanted to be there with them, even more so than the film allowed. And of course there are the views of the Earth from space, which are truly amazing.

Mostly, though, it is a basic function of the movie experience at which SPACE STATION 3D, and most other of the IMAX films succeeds. And that is, the film for a short time, transforms you from your everyday experience, and takes you away to another world, on an adventure you never imagined you’d be on. This particular one throws us into orbit, on an exciting ride with the international crew of the space station. And boy is it fun!

Besides, how many times have you left a theater wishing the movie could have been longer? I, myself, can’t wait for the next one.

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ANOTHER REVELATION ABOUT WWII
By Sashya Waterman

In the new thriller, ENIGMA, director MICHAEL APTED exposes a stealth operation that effected the Allied victory in World War II adapted by TOM STOPPARD from ROBERT HARRIS’ 1995 best-selling novel. Set in 1943 at Britain’s Bletchley Park British agents can no longer decipher the Nazi submarine codes. All they know is that the United States is sending supply convoys across the Atlantic and the ships are heading straight for German U-boats. So, time is of the essence in this race to crack the new code before lives and precious cargo is lost. The enigmatic drama unfolds as a tale of love, heroism, and revenge.






Jericho (DOUGRAY SCOTT) has been heartbroken by Claire (SAFFRON BURROWS), who has been missing for 14 hours. He has four days to figure out the new system and the mystery behind the disappearance of his tormentor. He gets a little help from Claire’s best friend, Hester (Kate Winslet) and a lot of brutality from Detective Wigram (played by the devilishly handsome and talented JEREMY NORTHAM), the chief of security at Bletchley and leader of the official investigation. Both men go on an adventure to find out how the Germans knew to change the code? And what happened to the desirable Claire?

Jeremy Northam talks about the film that was made two years ago and produced by MICK JAGGER’s Jagged Films. Northam reveals that the rock star turned movie producer actually owns one of the Enigma machines that caused all of the confusion for the Bletchley engineers during the mid-twentieth century. Northam says of Jagger, "he’s a huge enthusiast for this period of history."

Northam also explains how today’s audience can make connections between the events of WWII and today’s global battles, "(use the story to) connect the personal with the global and the responsibility of individual action and morality and how that effects global events." He goes on to say, "(the movie is) something from the past to enlighten us about our present situation, not just educate us about the events of World War II. It’s good to have a story about a time in recent history where we had to collectively work together to reach a common goal."

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Anna Nicole Smith
Playing By Her Own Rules

by Tonie Moses



If you were asked to describe Anna Nicole Smith, you would probably say Voluptuous,

Anna Nicole Smith

Marilyn Monroe, Playmate, Guess Jeans Model, Gold Digger, and Billion-Dollar Babe. Of course, when you are one of the most recognizable blondes on the planet, enough to capture the attention of an 80 year-old billionaire tycoon, you have to ask yourself, is this a true Cinderella story, just plain luck, or something altogether different.

Despite all the publicity, good and bad that has plagued Smith throughout her career, she has managed to pull through even when it seemed as though she may not recover.

From her six-year battle over her late husbands estate to the constant media scrutiny over her reasons for marrying someone old enough to be her great-grandfather, to the infamous breast implants that burst , to her cartoonish sex appeal she, seems to still have it all in perspective, somehow.

Life for Anna Nicole Smith hasn’t always been peaches and cream. Born Vickie Lynn Hogan on November 28, 1967 in Mexie, Texas, during the early stages of her life she endured struggle and constant abuse. Abandoned by her father at an early age, custody was split between her mother and her aunt.

At the age of 17, Anna married Billy Smith, age 16, who was a cook, and that same year she had her first son, Daniel Bruce Smith. However, she soon realized marrying at such an early age was not what she wanted, so looking for a fresh start she moved to Houston.

At the age of 24, she was already divorced, and the mother of a six-year old son. With no money the only work she could find was that of a topless dancer, and she soon found herself living from pillar to post. Back then she did not have the voloptuous figure she has today.

Anna went from one failed relationship to another, often times resulting in physical abuse. "I had no idea what direction my life was heading in at that time," said Smith in an interview with CNN back in 1994. "I really did not have anyone to turn to. I had a small son and had no place to live," she said.

All that changed for Smith when a chance meeting with a photographer who had seen one of her strip tease performances asked if she would she be interested in posing nude for a calendar. Unbeknownst to her, the photographer submitted her photos to Playboy and less than a year later she was crowned Playboy’s Playmate of the Year. Her voluptuous 5’11 (39-27-39) proportions put her in a league with Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, and Jane Russell. She was selected to represent Guess, a true feat for a woman of her size, because we must remember she was the only full figured model to ever grace the cover of Playboy, and model for a major clothing line.

Everything for Smith seemed to be heading in the right direction. Aside, from her modeling gigs, she appeared in several movies including Hudsucker Proxy(1994) and Naked Gun 33 1/3 The Final Insult (1995), where in one scene she did the famous Marilyn Monroe move from the movie "Seven Year Itch" where the wind blows under her dress.

Despite her success, Smith found herself to be a joke in the media world. From her infamous breast implant which exploded while on a photo shoot, which left her semi-dependent on pain killers, to the constant rumors that it happened as a result of a botched implant surgery,Things turned for the worse when at the age of 26 she married J. Howard Marshall, a man 63 years her senior after meeting him in a strip club.. It was publicly speculated that she married the wealthy oil tycoon for a promise of half of his billion dollar estate. Accusations followed by her first husband that Anna was on drugs and neglecting their son. Marshall died in 1995 after 14 months of marriage
Smith battled her step- son, E. Pierce Marshall, in what was one of the longest legal battles in California history. Marshall from day one contended that Smith only married his father for money, and that during his last days she virtually ignored him. A Los Angeles Federal judge awarded the blonde bombshell $475-million dollars back in September 2000, but Marshall refused to believe that his late father would leave that much of his estate to someone of her caliber.

"From the beginning she never cared about my father," said Marshall. Marshall was successful in getting the probate trial moved to Texas where a probate judge ordered that Smith was not entitled to her late husband’s fortune, and he ruled against her., But there was still the original $475-milliom dollar judgement awarded to Smith that both sides still was still fighting over.

Smith’s Attorney Philiph Boesch said the trial was far from over and that he was confident that the federal judge would be fair. "Marshall was upset that his father fell in love with a young woman, and viewed Anna as a threat to both his ego and his inheritance," said Boesch."

After the long legal battle on March 7, 2001, a Los Angeles Federal judge ruled in favor of Smith awarding her $44.3 million in punitive, and $44.3 in compensatory damages, which replaced the original ruling. Apparently $88 million dollars wasn't enough for Anna, because on Monday, her attorney, asked the Federal Judge for an additional $30 million dollars in interest. We'll see what Marshall thinks about that.

We caught up with Anna at the Night of a Hundred Stars party at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Oscar night. Smith seemed to be soaking it all in and didn’t stop short in expressing how much she missed her late husband. "Everyone talks about me, but my husband will always be treasured in my heart," said Smith as she partied the night away. She went on to say that she wanted to get back to work and that she was ready to start dating.
Meanwhile, the $88 million dollar award is expected to be appealed by Smith’s son. Stay tuned, the Anna Nicole Smith story is not nearly over yet. In fact, it may just be beginning.


tonie@manmademultimedia.com

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