|
| 27 June 2009 |
| FOR MICHELLE PFEIFFER, AGING GRACEFULLY IS HER ROLE |
Michelle Pfeiffer insists it was all in the "lighting."
The 51-year-old actress is discussing an arresting scene in her new film, "Cheri," where she literally seems to age a decade, all under the unflinching eye of the camera. It's one take -- no cuts, no special effects. Clearly lighting helped, as did director Stephen Frears, who insisted that her character, an aging French courtesan, smile luminously throughout the early part of the film, purposely saving the shock of what Pfeiffer calls the "droopage" for that moment. "When your face is in repose, everything drops and you age," she explains, with a chortle. "I'd like to say that we used prosthetics but we didn't."
What she glosses over is the utter pathos she brings to the scene, that of a beautiful woman staring into the abyss of age and loneliness.
For those who grew up on Pfeiffer's icy beauty in "Scarface," or watched her writhe on top of a grand piano in "The Fabulous Baker Boys," or giggled during " Batman Returns," when, as Catwoman, she snapped her whip with sadomachistic glee, a senescent Pfeiffer is almost an unimaginable concept. In person, she appears as a beautiful, mature woman of indeterminate age. The skin is still creamy, the cheekbones curvy and pronounced, the eyes that eerie green-blue. Over tea at the Four Seasons, she is dressed for anonymity, arriving in a gray top, black slacks, and black Jackie-O glasses that almost completely obscure her famous visage. Yet, when the glasses come off, she is unexpectedly straightforward.
"Cheri," which opened Friday, certainly dives headfirst into the feminine dilemma of the aging beauty. Based on a pair of novels by Colette and set in pre- World War I France, "Cheri" tells the story of the professional siren Lea de Lonval, who falls unexpectedly in love with a much younger, slightly vapid, but exceedingly beautiful young man, played by Rupert Friend. It's the tale of a refined cougar written about 90 years before cougardom entered the cultural lexicon, and the new film pairs Pfeiffer again with her "Dangerous Liaisons" director Frears and screenwriter Christopher Hampton.
"It certainly was walking into the eye of the storm, in terms of the whole issue of aging. I turned 50 on the set," Pfeiffer says. She was happy that she was working, so she didn't have time to dwell on crossing the 5-0 rubicon, although she notes, "Honestly, there's certainly a mourning that takes place. I mourn the young girl, but I think that what replaces that is a kind of a liberation, sort of letting go of having to hold on to that. Everyone knows you're 50. So you don't have to worry about not trying to look 50. And then it becomes, 'Hey, she looks good for her age.' "
For Frears, his short list of actresses for the part essentially consisted of one person: Pfeiffer. "What's good about her [in the part] is she is extremely hard-headed and she's very touching and very vulnerable," he says. "She was always very, very good about her age. She wasn't endlessly whispering into the cameraman's ear."
If anything, she says, it was cinematographer Darius Khondji who consistently balked when told to make Pfeiffer "look my worst."
Pfeiffer works relatively infrequently these days. She took off five years after 2002's "White Oleander" to devote to her family, her two teenagers and husband David E. Kelley, the creator of such TV shows as "Ally McBeal" and "L.A. Law." Even now she and her agent, Chris Andrews of Creative Artist Agency, have a code name for worthy scripts. They call them "dead of winter" as in good enough projects that they "warrant me leaving my family during the middle of the school years and knowing they can't come with me actually," she explains.
"Cheri" was one of those rare projects. Pfeiffer was sitting in the makeup chair on her film "Personal Effects" (a little-seen effort with Ashton Kutcher) when her hairdresser got a call and handed the phone to the actress. It was Frears -- whom Pfeiffer hadn't spoken to you in long time -- telling her about "Cheri."
"He couldn't have just called my agent, you know?" she says, laughing. He sent her the script, which she loved so much that she kept "waiting for the for the other shoe to drop because movies fall apart all the time.
"When I started out, super low-budget movies were the exception to the rule. And now, it's not. And now movies are being financed in all sorts of weird creative ways," she says. "I don't even know where the money comes from, and I don't really want to know. But all of a sudden you've got 30 producers on a film because they all gave $5. And they're all visiting. It's just crazy; you never want to leave your trailer."
Pfeiffer can be delightfully blunt -- which is partly why several years ago, she gave up her production company. "The process is too heartbreaking for me," she says about making movies on the other side of the camera. "It's years out of your life and mostly a lot of dead ends. And I also don't think my temperament is right because I'm really a straightforward person. I call it as I see it. I expect people to deal with me in the same way. And when they don't I get really angry. When I ended the company I kind of had this rebirth for my love of acting."
She and Kelley also moved to the Bay Area for a life "that was just ever slightly slower." When she's not working, she is perfectly content to hang out with her kids. "I'm not like one of these moms who can't, like, wait for school to start in the fall so they can get rid of their kids," she says. "I hate school. I hate getting up in the morning. I hate the homework. I like summer days with my kids. I have fun with them."
But when she does work, her focus is complete, as she demonstrates in "Cheri." Her character has long ago forsworn love as an occupational hazard. Or as Pfeiffer says, she knows that "if she fell in love that would be the end of her career. I think she's incredibly independent. She would never tolerate anyone controlling her. She wants someone malleable and young that she can control. It's interesting at the end of it when he decides he doesn't want to be controlled anymore."
Pfeiffer admits that when she takes on a role, it's hard for her not to become consumed. Her new character intoxicates, seeps into her, obsesses her unconscious psyche.
With her latest outing, it was film's examination of timeless themes -- the high price of love, the power dynamics between men and women, and the deterioration of beauty -- that got under her skin.
"It's been a year almost to the day that I stopped filming 'Cheri,' " Pfeiffer says, "and I still haven't recovered."
|
| Source: Rachel Abramowitz, LOS ANGELES TIMES, June 27, 2009 |
| |
| 19 June 2009 |
| PFEIFFER AT 50 - I'm really headed into the eye of the storm here, aren't I?' |
Michelle Pfeiffer has been dreading this moment. A couple of years ago, when she first read the script for Chéri, the romantic drama opening next Friday, she immediately recognized parallels between herself and the main character. Based on a novel by Colette, the film centres on Lea de Lonval, a 49-year-old belle époque courtesan who, seeing both her career and beauty on the wane, takes a young lover to forestall her growing sense of mortality. While Pfeiffer has long been happily married to a man of her own vintage, she quickly anticipated the annoying questions she'd get from journalists while promoting the film.
“I said, ‘Well, I'm really headed into the eye of the storm here, aren't I?'” Pfeiffer recalls, an amused trill in her voice. “I said to myself, ‘Okay, everything's going to be about turning 50, the issues of your fading beauty, and all those questions you hate, hate, hate.'”
Can you blame those who might ask the questions? Pfeiffer, after all, is almost infamously beautiful: that porcelain skin, the long neck, the lithe figure, those wide-set cornflower blue eyes that unsettle the soul. For more than a quarter century, she has practised a kind of voodoo with that ridiculous beauty, using it to beguile onscreen partners (and, not coincidentally, certain swaths of the movie-going public) while keeping them off balance with a quicksilver mix of icy aggression and emotional vulnerability. Now, having passed the milestone of her 50th birthday last year, Pfeiffer is confronting the reality that she may be moving into an uncertain new phase of her professional life.
Not that she doesn't look fabulous. Today, she is in a soft, peach-hued sweater and properly distressed 7 For All Mankind jeans, both of which hug her small frame. In Chéri , she parades across the screen in a series of sumptuous period costumes; sometimes, the camera lingers on Lea in bed, her blond curls cascading across the sheets. In one scene, wearing something resembling a Grecian gown while watching her young lover lounge in the bath, she looks like Aphrodite herself.
It would be ironic if Pfeiffer, like Lea de Lonval, found her prospects shrinking, for she is contemplating returning to work on a more frequent basis. After first breaking out as the cocaine-addled gangster's moll, Elvira, in Brian De Palma's hysterical Scarface in 1983, she went on to prove her acting chops opposite such heavyweights as Jack Nicholson ( The Witches of Eastwick ).
Starting in the late eighties, she rattled off three Oscar-nominated performances in five years: as the virtuous target of seduction in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), as a washed-up lounge singer in The Fabulous Baker Boy s (1989), and as a 1960s housewife obsessed with Jackie Kennedy in Love Field (1992). But about a decade ago, Pfeiffer slowed down her pace to one leading role a year in order to dedicate herself to raising her two children, who were born in 1993 and 1994.
“When they were little, I would just throw them in a suitcase and we'd go everywhere, and once they got in school I didn't feel that was fair to them,” she explains, sitting earlier this week in the corner of a room at the Four Seasons Hotel, legs casually tucked under her on a chair.
“My daughter's 16, and it really hit me how little time I have left with her, and my son, he's 14, I only have four years left with him.”
“There are things only a mother notices,” she continues. “So you can't be away for too long. I'll leave, and people are there, and taking care of things, and they're running great, and I come back – everybody's happy, things are running smoothly – and I'm out of sync, you know? There's this sort of rhythm that's happening, and you're not a part of it. It takes a while to fall back in.”
Pfeiffer says she isn't sure what she'll do when the kids leave home. “I don't know if I'll direct, I don't know if I'll go back to school and do something else, I don't know if I'll act more, just do more movies. … It'll be interesting. I know I'll have serious empty-nest syndrome.”
Taking the role of Lea meant being away from her family during a shoot in France, but it was an opportunity to reunite with Stephen Frears and Christopher Hampton, the director and writer, respectively, of Dangerous Liaisons .
Pfeiffer, who went to college for only one year, had never read Colette, and in conversation she gives the impression of being more intuitively than formally educated: She says she had never heard the phrase ‘May-December relationship' until a few days ago, and she is unsure of the proper way to describe a gap of two decades in age between lovers. “She's 20 years … do you say ‘senior'?” she inquires.
“I was a bit daunted when I learned [ Chéri ] was from French literature,” Pfeiffer admits. “I went: ‘Oh boy,' and prepared to plod my way through the material.”
But Hampton, who began working on the project seven or eight years ago, says the list of actresses who fit the bill for the lead role of Chéri was short: “You needed an actor who was about 50, who was clearly very beautiful, and was sufficiently relaxed in herself to give herself to the story and not be made anxious by it. It's a tough subject for a woman turning 50 … and Michelle had absolutely no provisos about being shot in a way that made her look as if she was aging.”
Pfeiffer says that's not entirely true. “I don't like it, you know?” she nods. “As a person. But as an actress? You have to sort of separate the two, it's just important. It was really an integral part of the piece.”
Reaching a certain age was not the only thing Pfeiffer shared with Lea. The character initiates her relationship with the 19-year-old Chéri as a diversion, but when six years pass and the two are still together, their feelings for each other have grown without either entirely realizing it. Nevertheless, Chéri's mother arranges a marriage for her son, leaving Lea adrift and lamenting: “Being with someone for six years is like following your husband to the colonies. By the time you come back, you've forgotten what to wear and nobody remembers who you are.”
Pfeiffer admits Lea's social dislocation reminded her of when she broke up with her first husband, actor-director Peter Horton, whom she had married in 1981 at age 23. “I remember when I was married the first time and we separated – ugh, you know? It never occurred to me, the sort of comfort level that I had, or the ease of being with someone – you take it for granted – of being with somebody for years who knows your body, who accepts all your imperfections, and you meet them at a certain age when you're young. And 10 years later, or whatever, the idea of this new person, you know, seeing all your flaws, it makes you really vulnerable.
“And being single is a different lifestyle. It's like functioning in a social situation. All of a sudden, now you're single and it's scary at first,” she continues. “I mean, for better or worse, unknowingly, you kind of take on a different role when you're a married person. So I do think that is, um, really, it's scary. Does that make sense?”
Five years after her divorce with Horton was finalized in 1988, Pfeiffer married again, to television producer David E. Kelley ( The Practice , Ally McBeal ). “I think it's one of the things that makes my marriage work, that we're both in the same business,” she says.
“I'm really glad he's not an actor, because as much as you might have an empathy for each other, that creates a whole other dynamic that's kind of complicated. But you know, if you aren't in our industry, you really don't understand what it takes out of you. When I go to work, he even said to me, ‘There's a little part of you that kinda goes away, that kinda disappears, we kinda lose you a little bit.' And he tolerates that, you know? Because he knows I'll be back.” |
| Source: THE GOLBE AND MAIL, June 19, 2009 |
| |
| 10 February 2009 |
| PFEIFFER SAYS MATURE ACTRESSES GET BETTER ROLES |
BERLIN (Reuters) - Mature actresses pairing up with decidedly younger men is a healthy development for the film industry, American Michelle Pfeiffer said on Tuesday after the world premiere of her film "Cheri" at the Berlin Film Festival.
Pfeiffer said she felt "liberated" when she turned 50 last year, saying the roles now offered are more interesting than before. That some films put aging actresses with young men is better than Hollywood putting them out to pasture, she said.
"It's a positive step, a step in the right direction," she told a news conference after "Cheri" became the third older such film in this year's festival after "The Reader" and "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee." Two years ago Cate Blanchett's "Notes on a Scandal" featured a teacher's affair with a teenage boy.
"It seems my leading men keep getting younger the older I get," Pfeiffer said. "It seems people have an aversion about casting me with men my age. Lucky for me; I don't really mind."
Pfeiffer, who plays an aging courtesan who falls in love with the son of a rival high class prostitute in "Cheri" set in Paris's "Belle Epoque," said it has long been tough for older actresses in Hollywood -- but not necessarily for older actors.
Pfeiffer, who won a Berlinale best actress Silver Bear in 1992 for "Love Field," said she sensed the rules are changing.
"They do allow you to get older in Hollywood. Some of us continue to work. This film is a good example. It's still true the older you get the fewer parts there are. But there are fewer movies being made overall and fewer parts for actors in general.
"The roles become more interesting the older you get," said Pfeiffer, who took a four-year break to spend time with her family before returning with two films in 2007.
"It's also at a time in my life when I'm not wanting to just work all the time, so it's all just fine."
"Cheri," directed by Britain's Stephen Frears, is based on a 1920 novel by French writer Colette. It offers a glimpse into the pre-war era and entertaining insights into the fabulous wealth of some of the courtesans.
"They were incredibly wealthy, these women," said Frears, who light-heartedly denied that "Cheri" has similarities to his 1988 film "Dangerous Liasons" -- also starring Pfeiffer -- that got seven Academy Award nominations and won three.
"I don't think this is similar at all -- John Malkovich isn't in this one," he deadpanned, a reference to the American actor's prolific career with more than 70 films in 25 years.
Frears added: "There are themes emerging that are similar and they're both based on French literature. But they're very, very different films."
Frears, who also is the narrator's voice in parts of the film, chided one journalist who did not realize it was the director's voice: "He was wonderful, I agree." |
| Source:
Reuters, fEBRUARY 10, 2009 |
| |
| 17 March 2008 |
| PFEIFFER FINDS YOUNG LOVERIN PERIOD ROMANCE |
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Rupert Friend, who captured the heart of Keira Knightley in "Pride & Prejudice," will romance Michelle Pfeiffer in another period drama.
He will play the title character in "Cheri," which is based on French writer Colette's provocative 1920 novel. Stephen Frears ("The Queen") is directing.
Kathy Bates is in final negotiations to play his mother, Madame Peloux, a famed courtesan in 1920s France. Peloux sends the spoiled Cheri to her courtesan pal Lea de Lonval (Pfeiffer) for an adult education, but their six-year affair comes to a painful end when he's forced to marry a wealthy young woman.
Friend will soon be seen courting Emily Blunt as Prince Albert in "The Young Victoria." Bates currently can be seen torturing James Caan in a DirecTV commercial parody of her Oscar-winning "Misery" role.
"Cheri" will reunite "Dangerous Liaisons" partners Pfeiffer, Frears and screenwriter Christopher Hampton. Miramax and Pathe will distribute. |
| Source:
Gregg Goldstein, Reuters, March 17, 2008 |
| |
| AGE
BECOMES HER |
When you’re pushing 50, Hollywood doesn’t want
to know – unless, of course, you’re Michelle Pfeiffer.
The actress talks beauty, surgery and ageism |
When casting his latest film, the director Matthew
Vaughn wanted
his female baddie to be “absolutely an iconic beauty”.
He knew exactly who it should be – a woman he had idolised
since he was a teenager. So Vaughn got on a plane, flew to San
Francisco, drove out to the chic, rural suburb of Palo Alto – all
bookshops, alfresco Italian restaurants and expensive modernism – to
the home of the woman whom scientists have described as the apotheosis
of feminine facial beauty. She was knocking on the door of 50,
taking a long break from work to concentrate on family life – a
husband of 14 years and a teenage son and daughter – and
keeping horses, miniature donkeys and lots of dogs in the countryside.
The role he wanted her to take was that of the evil Lamia, a chillingly
powerful witch desperate to find the fallen star (Claire Danes)
whose heart holds the key to eternal youth and beauty.
“She’s a universal beauty,” says Vaughn of Pfeiffer. “Now, Angelina Jolie is beautiful, but some people think she isn’t
all that. But I have never met anyone who doesn’t think Michelle
Pfeiffer is gorgeous.” And I have to agree. Inside a lot
of women, there’s a part that is jealous and small, a part
that wants Sienna Miller to get fat, Jerry Hall to go bald, supermodels
to be stupid and Jolie to take just one bad photograph and keep
on with the charity-worker drab. Pfeiffer doesn’t seem to
tap this vein, perhaps because she has an elegant indifference
to her looks, which has seen her take as many ugly roles as beautiful
ones.
We meet in a Palo Alto restaurant, and she is effortlessly pleasant.
Slender and chic, she is dressed in a simple dark shirt, slim-fitting
jeans (but not skinny – you couldn’t imagine her doing
anything so vulgar and try-hard as fashion) and a pair of functional,
not statement, sunglasses that she takes off as soon as she meets
me. She’s hardly wearing any jewellery; her ears are peppered
with homemade holes from a period of rebellious teenage piercing.
So what made her take this role as an ugly, old witch – a
part that required her to look like a hag, not to mention pull
the horrific visual gag of what time does to a woman’s breasts.
For her, the indignity was overridden by “Matthew talking
to me about a lot of nuances to the character that weren’t
necessarily on the page”.
Because despite being a slapstick, OTT witch, the role of Lamia
is actually a wrinkly metaphor for women’s battle against
the ageing process. Vaughn says: “This character was inspired
by all those women in LA who were once beautiful, and now look
like freaks; the fact that the ageing process is scarier than claws
and fangs.”
 “For women it is!” says Pfeiffer, when I repeat Vaughn’s
line to her. “The first time [I saw myself in prosthetic ‘old’ make-up],
I literally gasped. I was so distressed, I ran into the bathroom
to hide.” She says she looks like a monster, but to be honest,
I have seen not dissimilar complexions on those once-beautiful,
topless septuagenarians you spot on the beach in St Tropez. The
key thing is that while this film deals brilliantly with the magical
fantasy realm of Harry Potter, Narnia and its closest relative,
the 1980s movie The Princess Bride, the card it deals on ageing
is all too real.
“Matthew wanted to shine a light on that and poke fun at
it,” Pfeiffer says. “To play with our obsession with
youth and the ludicrous degrees to which women will go to reclaim
it. Lamia’s desperate quest for youth [in the form of eating
Danes’s heart] is a metaphor for the grotesque mutilation
taking place in society.
“I don’t think anyone is going to be condemned for
a little something done here or there, but people have lost sight
of what’s beautiful. There’s a lot that you can do
surgically and otherwise to make yourself look younger, yes – but
not necessarily better. One of the most beautiful women I have
seen in my life – still young and truly a beauty – I
hate what I have seen happen to her,” she says of a well-known
woman she will not name. “It’s like some weird anorexic
disease where people don’t see what’s in the mirror.”
A sort of body dysmorphia, something that used to be a mental
illness? “Right,” she says, “and now it is
a disease of our culture. It just keeps growing. We have less and
less to compare it to for our idea of normal. In fact, it’s
really hard to even remember what normal is.”
Vaughn’s prosthetics people based Lamia’s ancient
body on pictures of 90-year-olds doing yoga naked. “I looked
at them and, well, we don’t look good when we get old,” says Vaughn. According to him, women who have seen the movie have “gone
bananas” for the ageing horror-comedy played out by Pfeiffer’s
character. “They say, ‘At least someone is addressing
how we all feel.’ ” Ageing is the new bogeyman. “Look
at all the stuff my wife promotes [Claudia Schiffer, who is the
face of L’Oréal], I can’t believe it works.”
Pfeiffer says: “I found all this very interesting coming
from a man who is married to a young, beautiful model. Someone
who I would not imagine is feeling all those age issues yet, but
who knows what plays out in the model world.”
Pfeiffer seems remarkably serene about the human body’s
inevitable decline, but then she looks astonishing for a 49-year-old.
Her eyes have natural creases around them, her nose is her own
and there is none of waxy appearance of an overly lasered epidermis. “I
don’t do that much to preserve. I used to worship the sun
when I was younger – I’m a southern Californian girl,
it was all baby oil and beach life – but now I get white
spots, so I stay out of the sun. I really have to. And, you know,
I read about some miracle product and think, ‘I should try
that, it’s going to be great. I’m going to get that
cream,’ and sometimes I go out and buy it, but I forget to
use it after two weeks, or I get a rash.”
She shows me her nails, and they are all random lengths, a couple
of them a bit grubby, no polish. “I can go months, years
without a mani. I never pluck my eyebrows. The make-up artists
shape them only when I am doing publicity. I don’t get my
hair cut between films, just when I work and I have to. As far
as body maintenance goes, I do eat well and I exercise. I go at
it hardcore in my gym, but that’s it.”
As Vaughn says: “She’s ageing gracefully. People who
age gracefully look so much better.” He says that he loved
working with Pfeiffer, having admired her since her two breakthrough
films of the early 1980s. “I loved Grease 2 when I was a
pent-up teenager; I loved Scarface,” he says. “I was
obsessed with her as a kid. She’s one of my top two all-time
great beauties. No 1 being my wife, obviously – I have to
say that.”
In the past, Pfeiffer has been quoted, like every other actress
of her generation, complaining about the lack of decent parts for
older actresses. Demi Moore, five years her junior, is rumoured
to have spent £250,000 on youth-preserving surgical procedures
and still says she struggles to get good roles in a youth-obsessed
Hollywood. Post The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep, 58, threatened
to retire if the industry didn’t start producing better,
more complex roles for women than the “dragons or gorgons” she
describes as the norm.
“The whole idea of [Lamia] ageing as she loses her magic
powers is an obvious allegory for not just the Hollywood system,
but how women’s power is tied in with their appearance,” says Pfeiffer. In the days of Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice,
things may change – Pfeiffer acknowledges that as more women
rise to power in the movie business, more interesting female roles
are emerging.
“I’ve defied the obsession with looks in this industry
and not allowed it to shape me,” she says. “I’ve
always known beauty is fleeting; I have a fear of living in the
past. I don’t have any awards I’ve won anywhere in
the house, I don’t pine for some moment when I was at the
top of my career, or a way I used to look. I try to live in the
present. It’s a real trap in our industry – women who
have the same hairstyle as when they were at their so-called peak.
People get stuck in their time. I’ve spent most of my life
not thinking about my looks and it has served me really well.”
Stardust is in cinemas nationwide from October 19
|
| Source:
Kate Spicer , The Sunday Times, October 7, 2007 |
| |
| 23
September 2007 |
| MICHELLE
PFEIFFER: MY MARRIAGE SECRETS |
| Pfeiffer tops list of beautiful women |
As
she approaches 50, Michelle Pfeiffer pays far more attention to
the lines of a script than the few that exist on her timelessly
beautiful face. It's no wonder, then, that playing her latest role,
Velma Von Tussle, a vain stage mother in the movie adaptation of
Hairspray, was a big stretch. Not that she wasn't up to the challenge.
Off set, the three-time Oscar-nominated star is one of the most
hands-on mothers in Hollywood, not to mention a devoted wife to
husband of 14 years David E. Kelley, a TV writer/producer who's
hit shows include Ally McBeal and Boston Public.
Michelle adopted her now 14-year-old daughter, Claudia Rose, just
before she met David. She gave birth to their son John Henry, 13,
less than a year after they married. While she and her brood live
far from the bright lights of Tinseltown, she's more than comfortable
being back on the big screen after three years away.
What were your first impressions of your husband David?
We got off to a rocky start. I thought he was attractive, but that
was almost a detriment at that point. I wasn't into cute. Fortunately,
he had a couple of good scars on his face, and he'd broken his
nose once playing football. That got me through. We had a bigger
problem with conversation; he was quiet and so was I. We really
had to work at it because we're so much alike that way. In fact,
when his agent heard we were dating, he asked David, "What's she
like?" When David answered, "She's real quiet",' his agent said, "Then
who talks?" But now we've discovered we can both talk a good argument.
I thank God I met David when I did because I wouldn't have been
right for him any earlier. I just wasn't evolved enough as a human
being. David was the healthiest person I'd ever dated. He's really
grounded.
What's the secret of your 14-year marriage?
I think compatibility is important, and respect. Because that's
sexy to me. We're both homebodies. I'm not sure about the opposites
thing. It may attract initially, but it's what eventually breaks
people apart. We love being parents. He has a wonderful family
and a real feel for family, as do I. We're similar in our approach
to everything, and he's romantic and cute to boot.
Where people surprised you can sing and dance, as you do
in Hairspray?
I sang in The Fabulous Baker Boys and I sang and danced
in Grease 2 — so it shouldn't come as a huge surprise.
But I'm better known for my dramatic roles. I like playing trashy
girls, though, like I did in Grease 2.
That's despite the fact you're really shy?
I've always been shy. I used to be paralysed when I had to make
small talk. I was the kind of person who entered a room, found
the nearest corner and hoped no-one noticed me before it was time
to go home. Now I'm better at socialising.
Are you into the 60s fashion from the movie that's becoming
popular again?
Fashion is so confused today. I don't even know what to say about
it. You can see it's just like leftovers or something. I'm not
loving it right now.
Does fashion interest you still?
You know, honestly, that era (the '60s) is not my favourite for
women. I think the clothes are beautiful, but when I look at women
back then, all I can think of is how uncomfortable they look. Everything
is so fitted, so pressed. The make-up is so heavy and the hair
is all sprayed and the clip-on earrings, the shoes. It just looks
like it hurts — and it did.
Your character in Hairspray is racist. Was that a challenge?
It was hard. That was the hardest thing. I've played some evil
characters before. I've played some killers and I signed on to
do this … then one day it registered, oh my God I'm playing
a racist. I understood that the message of the piece was really
important and certainly it's about anti-racism and anti-bigotry.
I had to talk to the kids. I wanted to make sure they understood
that, look, this is what the movie's about. It's a really important
movie and in order to do a movie about racism, somebody has got
to be the racist and it's me. They were OK, they got it and I'm
so glad I did it because I had a lot of fun playing the part, even
though there were some lines I honestly couldn't remember because
they were so hateful.
How do you feel about how you are perceived in Hollywood?
I was always the biggest girl in my class. I was always taller
than the boys and considered large-boned. That's why it's always
surprising for me when I hear myself described by adjectives like "delicate" and "fine-featured",
because I'll always think of myself as that big-boned girl.
Does motherhood affect your career choices?
Yes, as a mother I relate to different projects than before.
Do your children see your films?
I showed them Grease 2 and they got bored with it. Most
of my movies aren't suited for kids. And I'm pretty strict about
television, so they don't really come across my movies.
You sold your estate in LA for $19million and moved to
a sprawling ranch outside the city with a menagerie that includes
numerous dogs, a cat, a pair of miniature donkeys and horses. Has
the change helped your family life?
I think it helps a little bit, but then again, it's not just living
outside Hollywood. You can pick a worse place than Hollywood (laughs).
I think it's helped us as a family to be less distracted, and David
and I to be less distractive as parents, even though I think we
were pretty good when we lived there. I think we wanted to have
more land and we wanted to have animals on our property and you
couldn't do that there. So I think it's just a different kind of
lifestyle we were looking for.
When did you stop smoking?
Fifteen years ago. I used to smoke three packs a day. Not good.
What's your attitude to plastic surgery?
I guess as long as people keep saying I've had it, I can continue
to put it off for a few more years. I'm hoping I'm courageous enough
to age gracefully. So much of the way I look depends on the photographer.
I think the years have been kind to me, but I know they're taking
their toll. For a while, it seemed like the only actress who was
ageing gracefully was Susan Sarandon. But now, thank God, look
at Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep and Catherine Deneuve.
Would you ever go under the knife?
If I did, I wouldn't tell. I'm very near-sighted and that makes
ageing easier. I can't see what I really look like. I can't see
anything!
|
| Source:
Woman's Day magazine, September 17, 2007 |
| |
| 2
September 2007 |
| MICHELLE
IS GETTING BETTER WITH AGE |
Pfeiffer tops list of beautiful women |
London: Actress Michelle Pfeiffer has topped a
list of women who get more beautiful with age.
Pfeiffer, 49, beat the likes of supermodel Cindy Crawford and actress
Ellen Barkin, contactmusic.com reported.
Crawford, 41, and Barkin, 53, came in second and third respectively
in the poll by OK! magazine.
Sixty-year-old actress Glen Close, who starred in Fatal Attraction,
and Desperate Housewives star Marcia Cross, 45, finished fourth and
fifth.
DOUGHNUT DIET FOR PFEIFFER
However, Pfeiffer insists there is no big secret to keeping in shape
and admits she indulges her craving for calorific treats whenever
she feels like it.
She said: “It’s simple. Eat well, exercise and get lots
of sleep but make sure you indulge occasionally. At my age I think,
what the hell, and eat a Krispy Kreme doughnut!”
Sugary snacks are not the only junk food Pfeiffer — who famously
donned a skin-tight PVC catsuit to play super-villain Catwoman in
Batman Returns — likes to gorge on.
She added: “My other thing is crunchy, salty food. I love chips,
salsa and guacamole.”
Pfeiffer also has some words of advice for any women who are stressing
about their weight or considering going under the surgeon’s
knife to change their appearance.
She said: “I don’t believe men want women to have grotesque
plastic surgery or be undernourished and bony. All the plastic surgery
in the world can’t stop you getting older.” |
| Source:
Mumbai News |
| |
| 9
August 2007 |
| MICHELLE
PFEIFFER: REMEMBER HER? |
After nearly five years away, Michelle Pfeiffer is relishing
her villainous roles. |
 Michelle Pfeiffer had no intention of spending nearly five years
away from the silver screen.
" You know," the 49-year-old actress says matter-of-factly, " it
just happened."
A few years ago, Pfeiffer, her über-TV-producer husband David
E. Kelley and their children, Claudia Rose, 14, and Jack Henry, 13,
relocated from Los Angeles to Northern California.
" I think it was a big venture relocating," she offers. "I had been
reading things. It wasn't like I made a conscious decision to not
work. Honestly, just four years went by."
Actually, Pfeiffer did return to work two years ago in Amy Heckerling's
May-December romantic comedy, " I Could
Never Be Your Woman," but
its release has been held up because of distribution problems. It's
now scheduled to arrive in theaters in November.
In the meantime, Pfeiffer seems to be everywhere this summer. She
does a delicious comedic turn as the villainous former beauty queen
Velma Von Tussle in the musical comedy " Hairspray" and plays a ruthless,
decrepit witch named Lamia who seeks to regain her youth in the fantasy " Stardust," opening
Friday.
Though there is a maturity to her beauty these days, Pfeiffer is
still stunning. So much so that one can't escape feeling like the
country cousin who just arrived in the big city to meet their glamorous
relative. She's tall and whippet-slender. Dressed in blue jeans and
a crisp white shirt, Pfeiffer seems at ease with her beauty and comes
across as down-to-earth. After all, the former Orange County resident
used to work as a checker at Vons before she turned to acting.
During her hiatus, says the three-time Oscar nominee, " I
may very well have been reading good scripts and I wasn't inclined
to say 'yes.' Maybe I needed a break. I think how long I have been
working. . . . I have been working since I was 14. I have really
never taken a break. I think maybe my psyche was just telling me
not to work for a while."
Not that she was idle. Pfeiffer labored full-time as a wife and mother. " People
have been asking me what I have been doing the past few years. I
have hardly come up for a breath," she reports. "It's all the mundane
stuff. I try to be everywhere all the time. Of course, we know that's
impossible, but I am going to make it work . . . damn it!"
Though she does have help, both she and Kelley agreed that they never
wanted their children raised by nannies. While making "Stardust" in
London last summer, the children came with her. "They had never been
to Europe," she says. " When I did 'Hairspray,'
I was able to come back and forth because it was during the school
year."
And last month, her children finally accompanied her to a premiere
for " Hairspray."
" I'm so glad I waited for that to be kind of their introduction
[to the limelight]. It was such a perfect movie to share with them. I
am excited about them seeing 'Stardust.' It's fun for me that they
are at that age now that I can share my work with them and I don't
have to decompartmentalize it and protect them from it."
Pfeiffer admits she felt rusty when she started to film the Heckerling
comedy. But by the time she finished " Stardust," " I
felt all cylinders were going again and I realized I still love doing
this. I feel like I have come to a peace with the balance of work
and being a mom."
Besides, Pfeiffer adds, she loves to work. " I
can't ever imagine retiring. I don't get why somebody would want
to look forward to retirement. What are you going to do?"
  In " Stardust," Lamia
attempts to capture the incarnation of a celestial star (Claire Danes)
in order to cut out her heart, thus restoring the witch's youth and
beauty. Pfeiffer was drawn to the project because of director Matthew
Vaughn. She'd seen his gangster film " Layer
Cake" and
was impressed that " he took a relatively simple
movie and brought a specific style to it and put his stamp on it."
She was equally impressed meeting him. " He literally
had the entire movie in a big binder," Pfeiffer says. " He had
already begun to storyboard, so I could really get a strong idea
of his vision of the film and also the direction he wanted to take
his character."
As Lamia, Pfeiffer had to endure 4 1/2 hours of makeup to become
a sagging, liver-spotted, hairless harpy. It was so grueling, she
welcomed the scenes depicting the younger Lamia.
"Normally, if I am doing a kind of glamour thing, it is like, ' Here
we go, having to look perfect. They are going to fuss with me.' I
hate being fussed with," the actress says. " But
the interesting thing was after having been the hag, which is so
high-maintenance, the glamour stuff was like being natural. It was
like a relief to be glamorous." |
| Source:
by Susan King, LAtimes.com |
| |
| 5
August 2007 |
| COMBACK
KID |
| After five years, Michelle Pfeiffer is back on screen in
two new films. |
NEW YORK -- "I missed being on the screen," says Michelle Pfeiffer,
nibbling on a pistachio. "I just didn't realize how much."
For five years, though -- ever since "White
Oleander" in 2002
-- Pfeiffer didn't appear in a movie. She didn't officially retire;
she still looked at scripts and, in 2003, contributed a voice to
a cartoon, "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas." But she never went
before a camera or stepped on a stage.
"It just sort of happened," she explains. "We moved" -- Pfeiffer
is married to TV mogul David E. Kelley, with whom she has two teenagers
-- "and that was a job. And I have a lot of other interests, and
the time just flew by."
Until suddenly it was five years.
"Actually, I was beginning to worry that I didn't miss it," she
confesses during an interview in a Manhattan hotel. "I began to think,
'This isn't like me, not to need to go back to work, I'm a worker,
I've always been a worker, I love what I do. Maybe I don't love this
anymore. I should be missing this -- what's wrong with me?'" And
then she got the script for "Stardust," a romantic fantasy opening
this Friday. And then she got the script for "Hairspray," currently
a sunny summer hit. And suddenly just staying home, and working out,
and snuggling up with Kelley on the couch to watch television didn't
seem like quite enough.
"And once I stepped back on the soundstage," she says, "it felt
right."
Right, but also different. For years, Pfeiffer, 49, had put her
talent and looks in the service of serious dramas -- "Dangerous
Liaisons," "Love
Field," "The Age of Innocence," "A
Thousand Acres," "The Deep End
of the Ocean." Her characters were often frustrated, her enormous
eyes frequently red-rimmed with tears. And when I first interviewed
her, 10 years ago, she seemed less than happy, too -- a little tense,
a little impatient, a little distant.
"Michelle Pfeiffer has been a dozen different women on the screen," I
wrote then. "She looks as though she wishes she were one of them
now."
Today, though, Pfeiffer seems perfectly happy with who she is in
every way -- calmer, cooler, more content. And the new features she's
promoting tap into a sexy, silly side of her little seen since she
last slithered through "Batman Returns" in a vacuum-packed catsuit,
or wailed her way through "Grease 2." In "Hairspray," she's a monster
mother; in "Stardust," she's a scheming, looks-obsessed witch.
"I had so much fun," Pfeiffer says. "'Stardust' really got me charged
up, just from an acting point of view -- I got all cylinders going
again."
"I think she was really reveling in her role as an evil witch," says
Claire Danes, who plays the movie's spunky heroine. "It was a great
display of imagination. I think she's just an electric performer
anyway, but she really pushed herself."
No one would have said that about her growing up. Pfeiffer was raised
in Southern California, and lived an unremarkable Southern California
life -- going to the beach, rolling her eyes through high school,
ringing up avocadoes at the local Von's supermarket ("I've been in
the workforce since I was 14"). Nothing made much of an impression.
And then she discovered acting.
"I first enrolled in a drama class because I hated English, and
I could get the English credit by doing plays," she said. "I thought
that was very clever of me, but that was really it -- I'd always
felt that the drama people were kind of geeky. And not only did I
fall in love with acting, but I fell in love with an actor who I
dated for two years -- and that was when the bug first bit me. And
when I got out of school I decided to just do it."
And suddenly a curtain went up.
"Growing up, I never felt like I belonged anywhere," she says. "And
suddenly there were people around me who were of like mind, it felt
like home."
With straight blonde hair, bright blue eyes and cheekbones you could
whet a knife on, Pfeiffer didn't spend much time struggling. Barely
20, she landed a recurring part on TV's "Animal House" knockoff, "Delta
House," playing "The Bombshell." Decorative parts in shows like "Fantasy
Island" and movies like "Charlie
Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen" soon followed.
Within two years, she'd notched a dozen credits. But if her agent
was thrilled, the actress was terrified she was in over her head.
"I was so nervous and scared, because I knew that I was getting
work before my skills were where I wanted them to be," she says. "The
confidence was incremental ... There was never really any one film
where I thought, OK, I've finally gotten this down. I still don't."
"Scarface," in 1983, established her as a screen presence, but it
also froze her into a pose -- the icy, almost-too-perfect love object.
It took Jonathan Demme's "Married to the Mob" five years later --
with Pfeiffer hidden under a mop of dark curls as Angie de Marco,
struggling widow of mobster "Cucumber" de Marco -- to prove that
she wasn't a beauty who happened to act, but an actress who happened
to be a beauty.
"I'm still so indebted to Jonathan for believing I could do that
movie," she says. "That role was a huge departure for me, and it
shook people up and made it difficult for them to typecast me. I
never wanted to just do the parts that were expected of me. I never
wanted to just be the pretty girl in the room."
She knew she had been, though, and she knew to some people she always
would. She's been in this business too long to think the public finds
self-pity attractive -- there'll be no don't-hate-me-because-I'm-beautiful
pleas. Still, she acknowledges that good looks make it easier to
find jobs than to get respect.
"I've always felt I had to be better than others in order to prove
myself," she says. "I'm less likely to be acknowledged for accomplishment,
more likely to be criticized if I make a false move ... Now, though,
things seem to be more youth-obsessed, as opposed to beauty. Which
is one of the things I liked about 'Stardust,' that it poked fun
at that."
"When we talked about the script, we were really laughing about
some of these people in Hollywood, and their quest for eternal youth," director
Matthew Vaughn says. "Michelle really got the comedy of it."
In "Stardust",
Pfeiffer is a crone who can only recover her youth by consuming the
heart of a star that fell to earth -- personified by Danes. In real
life, though, Pfeiffer -- while strikingly thin -- doesn't look like
some shellacked Rodeo Drive matron. Her body remains unplumped by
silicone. A few fine lines accentuate her eyes.
They've seen a lot. When "Married
to the Mob" finally broke her
out of the beauty trap, Pfeiffer pushed herself hard. She was an
untrustworthy French noblewoman in "Dangerous
Liaisons," a smoky
jazz chanteuse in "The Fabulous Baker
Boys," a Kennedy-era matron
in "Love Field," a bottled-up lady in "The
Age of Innocence," a tough
ghetto teacher in "Dangerous Minds."
None of them was a simple "beautiful-girl-in-the-room" part. None
of them was an easy movie to get made, either.
"'Love Field' was made right before Orion closed its doors and it
sat on the shelf for the longest time," she says. "We were lucky
it even got released . 'Dangerous Minds,' we had one screening and
it didn't go so well. The studio was really ready to just write it
off. And then it came out, and it was killed by the critics -- just
killed. The day it was released I was home in bed, really depressed.
But in the end it turned out to be this huge hit."
It was one of the last ones Pfeiffer would have. "Up
Close & Personal" --
yet another re-do of "A Star Is Born" -- didn't excite audiences. "A
Thousand Acres" -- a personal project Pfeiffer shepherded to the
screen -- was wracked by disputes and re-edits, leading to those
glum interviews ten years ago.
"I learned way too much about the inside working of things," Pfeiffer
says now. "'What do you mean it's two days before the opening and
you already know how much the movie's going to gross? That's crazy!'
I found out I really didn't like the business side of it ... I don't
have my production company anymore, and I really don't miss it."
The business side of it, though, can still flummox her. A can't-fail
romantic comedy she made with George Clooney, "One
Fine Day," abruptly
tanked -- "I think they teach that one now in classrooms on how not
to market a movie," she says. Another romance, "I
Could Never Be Your Woman" -- "I've actually lost track of what's happening with
that one" -- has had its release repeatedly delayed. (It's now scheduled
for September.)
"I've learned you need to just do the work and then let it go," she
says. "I didn't at the beginning of my career and it just got too
frustrating ... Ultimately, I think, you just have to focus on the
part. Whatever havoc is happening around you -- and I've been on
films where there's a constant storm -- you just have to concentrate
on that. And if you've taken the part for all the right reasons that
will get you through."
After five years off the screen, though -- and a decade of mostly
not-quite-there films -- Pfeiffer is back, and less likely to be
disappointed again.
Much of that, she says, comes from a new outlook.
"I think I used to be too much about work," she says. "Not that
I didn't care about my friends -- actually I don't have that many
friends, I'm not known for my huge social life -- but I really was
putting all my eggs in that one basket. Having a family helped me
change that ... I think doing both really makes me a better mother.
And I have more fun working because the stakes are no longer so high."
So she's spending time with her teenagers. She's cocooning at home
with her husband, most often catching reruns of all the shows -- "Boston
Legal," "The Practice" and "Ally McBeal" among them -- he's brought
to TV.
"He writes women really so beautifully," his wife gushes. "I watch
them do these wonderful speeches and I turn to him and say, ' I hope
they appreciate you!'"
She's reading scripts again, too -- "It won't be another five years
before I do a movie, I promise." But now that she has taken the time
off, she's realized that the world doesn't end when she's not on
the set. And she knows that however well or poorly the movie turns
out, she always has another role waiting for her at home -- and another
opportunity, somewhere down the road, in a another film.
"I always had the feeling that I really don't know what I'm doing
and that one day they're going to discover what a fraud I am," she
says. "And that's never really left me. I still think I'm going to
be found out. But it's just that, lately, I've learned how to have
fun with it. I've found a balance. And if they find me out now --
well, so what?" |
| Source:
by Stephen Whitty, Star-Ledger Staff (NJ.com) |
| |
| 16
June 2007 |
| BEAUTIFUL..?
SOME DAYS I JUST WANT TO CRAWL UNDER A ROCK |
Michelle Pfeiffer admits it's hard to see her stunning looks
fade but she is relishing her screen return
|
AT the age of 48, she admits she has achieved everything
she ever hoped for.
Yet, this year Michelle Pfeiffer has put her family
life on hold for two films. In Stardust she plays an evil sorceress
in a fantasy epic with Robert De Niro, Claire Danes and Sienna
Miller.
But before that she stars opposite John Travolta
in the all-singing, all-dancing movie Hairspray, where she plays
former beauty queen Velma von Tussel.
John Travolta will play the downtrodden housewife
Edna Turnblad and Queen Latifah is Motormouth Maybelle, a civil
rights activist and TV host.
The film is a musical version of a 1988 picture about
teenagers on a Baltimore dance show - and a blast from the past
for real-life former beauty queen Michelle, who held the title
of Miss Orange County almost 30 years ago.
"Honestly, I don't feel older," said Michelle.
But age catches up even with superstars - in the
form of fine lines, and a serious glasses habit.
Without her lemon-tinted specs, Michelle says she's
blind as a bat but growing old gracefully remains one of her goals.
"I certainly see that I've changed. I just try not
to dwell on it. Now it's easier than it was in my early 40s," she
said. "I'm over that hump. Ageing happens to every single one of
us. Once you accept that, it unburdens you."
Yet she admits she's thought about plastic surgery.
"I toy with it. When I'm rested, taking good care
of myself, exercising, happy, I think I look pretty OK. I can hold
off on that facelift for another few years. But when I'm feeling
weary, then I think, maybe I better make that appointment.
"On the one hand, I've seen some amazing-looking
plastic surgery. But who knows if that's what you'll get? There
are some freakish things going on right now."
In an industry where being beautiful is almost a
pre-requisite, Michelle insists she had to work harder in the beginning
because people always assumed all she had going for her was herlooks.
Even after almost 20 years and some 30 films, Michelle
still admits to feeling insecure about how good an actress she
really is - despite three Oscar nominations.
"I always think that I'm going to be found out on
the next one," she admitted. "I always think they'll go, 'She's
really bad at this'."
And the sultry star is uncomfortable with the glamorous
image that had men swooning over her singing Making Whoopee on
top of a grand piano in The Fabulous Baker Boys, moodily snarling
at a hostile class of ghetto kids in Dangerous Minds and clad in
skin-tight black leather as Catwoman in Batman Returns.
"I look good with the right lighting. But you should
see me when I'm at home, painting and there's sweat dripping down,
and paint on my upper lip," said Michelle. Her Hair-spray character
never stops reminding everyone of her beauty queen past - but Michelle
says she has done everything in her power to bury her beauty myth.
Not until Jonathan Demme cast her in Married To The
Mob in 1988 did Hollywood begin to see her as more than just another
pretty face.
Michelle insists her early days in acting were a
battle against typecasting. "I got a lot of, 'You know, sorry,
you're too pretty'," she said.
Michelle famously rejected leading roles in the movies
Basic Instinct, Silence of the Lambs, Sleepless in Seattle and
Thelma & Louise.
"I learned quickly that part of how you look is how
you are cast," she explained. "It's damaging if you grow up being
told you're beautiful, because that becomes a part of how you see
yourself.
"There are definitely times when I feel beautiful
but, at times, I want to crawl under a rock. And some days, I get
mad. The older I get, the more gracefully I handle it but, some
days, it just bugs me.
" I actually said to a woman the other day, 'Are
you going to stare at me all evening?' I was upset about what was
going on in the world and my defences were down, and it just came
out. Anyway, it passed and I felt kind of shameful."
Over the years there have been other, younger leading
ladies - but Nicole Kidman does not have Michelle's cool sexiness
or Julia Roberts her sculpted beauty.
These days, however, Hollywood takes second place
to her family.
Indeed, Michelle no longer lives in Hollywood but
quietly at the other end of California with her husband, David
E. Kelley, their son John Henry, 12, and adopted daughter, Claudia
Rose, 14.
In fact, when her children started school, she said
she had to confess she was quite a famous actress, so they would
be prepared for classmates talking about her movies.
Her homelife is a cross between domestic goddess
and zookeeper. The family have three dogs, a cat, tree frog, horses
and a pair of miniature donkeys.
"They suffer from depression if they're alone, so
we had to get two," said Michelle. "They're pretty darn cute, these
tiny things with enormous eyes and huge ears. They're smaller than
the dog."
Growing up in a small town in California, Michelle
always felt like a fish out of water. The eldest daughter of an
air-conditioning businessman and his wife, she studied to be a
court reporter and even thought about becoming a psychiatrist.
Instead, she started a series of part-time jobs when
she was only 14 and said she remembers thinking, "This is my life
and I hate it - what am I going to do?"
In 1977, she summoned the courage to have professional
photos taken. Next thing she knew, she had won the 1978 Miss Orange
County contest, got an agent and made her television debut in late
1978 with an episode on the popular series Fantasy Island.
She married actor Peter Horton in 1981, but the couple
broke up seven years later.
After a three-year romance with toyboy Fisher Stevens,
she didn't want to wait for a husband to start a family, so she
adopted Claudia Rose.
"I think she was an angel," Michelle says of her
daughter, whom she brought home in March 1993. "From the day I
started waiting for her to come, I've had a completely different
life."
Michelle met writer David E. Kelley, the creator
of Ally McBeal and The Practice, shortly after the adoption went
through. The pair went bowling with a gang of mutual pals and the
attraction was instant.
They married in November 1993 and had Jack the following
August.
Despite Hollywood's endless fascination with youth,
she says that right now things couldn't be better personally and
professionally.
"I think that even though the roles might be fewer,
I think they're better and I think I enjoy the work more than I
ever have," she said.
"And this whole kind of youth thing comes in cycles,
you kind of wait it through and then people are ready for something
new."
Adding: "Or something old." |
| Source:
bySiobhan Synnot (The Daily Record) |
| |
| 18
February 2007 |
| PFEIFFER:
DON'T HATE ME BECAUSE I'M BEAUTIFUL |
 Michelle Pfeiffer might be closing in on 50, but you wouldn't know
it from the new issue of Allure magazine.
The actress is as gorgeous as ever - and she talks about how her
beauty has been as much a curse as a blessing.
In an interview with Judy Bacharach, Pfeiffer recalls the heat
she took for playing a frowsy waitress opposite Al Pacino in the
1991 film "Frankie and Johnny."
"That was one of our biggest criticisms: that you couldn't believe
me in the part," she said. "And my argument is always, 'You know
everyone can be damaged. And pretty people can be just as damaged
as ugly people or fat people.'"
"It was harder for me to get a good part. When I went into an audition,
I had to be better because I was beautiful."
Pfeiffer turns 49 in April and though she appears untouched by the
ravages of time, she does note that roles for women in the over-40
category are scarce. |
| Source:
by Don Singleton (New York Daily) |
| |
| 15
February 2007 |
| FILMS
VIE FOR KEY SLOTS AT CANNES |
PARIS (Hollywood Reporter) - As the Berlin International Film
Festival winds down, attention is beginning to focus on the Cannes
Film Festival, which kicks off May 16.
After the poor reception given to last year's opener "The Da Vinci
Code," pressure is on to find a more crowd-pleasing title for
the 60th edition. One option is the hugely ambitious documentary "Earth," which
offers a dazzling look at natural life on the planet.
"We're already speaking to Cannes about being the opening film," said
Sophokles Tasioulis of Greenlight Media, which co-produced the
movie with the BBC.
A more conventional contender is "Ocean's Thirteen" from Palme
d'Or winner Steven Soderbergh. That would allow for a top-flight
red-carpet gala given that the all-star cast is headed by George
Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Al Pacino.
The Iraq-themed movie "The Valley of Elah," written and directed
by Paul Haggis and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and
James Franco, also is in the running. "It's not out of the question," a
source said.
Although it is too early for titles to have received any locked-down
slots, artistic director Thierry Fremaux looks to have a good choice
of titles from the U.S. and France.
Among the former is Cannes golden boy Quentin Tarantino's exploitation
double-feature "Grind House," co-directed with Robert Rodriguez.
A more conventional contender is "Ocean's Thirteen" from Palme
d'Or winner Steven Soderbergh. That would allow for a top-flight
red-carpet gala given that the all-star cast is headed by George
Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Al Pacino.
The Iraq-themed movie "The Valley of Elah," written and directed
by Paul Haggis and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and
James Franco, also is in the running. "It's not out of the question," a
source said.
Although it is too early for titles to have received any locked-down
slots, artistic director Thierry Fremaux looks to have a good choice
of titles from the U.S. and France.
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" is one possibility
for an out of competition slot. The fantasy
adventure "Stardust," starring
Claire Danes, Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer, also might
show up. "Spider-Man 3" is thought unlikely because it bows in
the U.S. on May 4 ahead of the festival. Despite early speculation
that DreamWorks' "Shrek the Third" would make the trip -- following
in the footsteps of its predecessors -- the odds seem to be lengthening.
The Coen brothers' adventure drama "No Country for Old Men," starring
Jones, should be ready, as should Palme d'Or winner Gus van Sant's
French-backed "Paranoid Park."
But selectors might be wary of criticisms about packing the lineup
with familiar faces.
Among the former is Cannes golden boy Quentin Tarantino's exploitation
double-feature "Grind House," co-directed with Robert Rodriguez.
Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dreams," shot in London and Brighton
and starring Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell and Michelle Williams,
and Francis Ford Coppola's "Youth Without Youth" also are possibilities.
The documentary possibilities include the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced "11th
Hour," a sort of survival guide for the global environment, and
Michael Moore's "Sicko," an expose of the U.S. health-care system. |
| Source:
by Charles Masters (Reuters/Hollywood Reporter) |
| |
| 30
October 2006 |
| PSSST!
PSSST! JOHN TRAVOLTA IS EDNA TURNBLAD |
TORONTO — In
the wee hours of Saturday morning on the soundstages of the new
movie version of Hairspray, the
fat lady sang. Or at least lip-synched to a pre-recorded track.
And then it was over for John Travolta. The Grease star
wrapped his return to the musical genre.
Travolta
said goodbye to the generously proportioned Edna Turnblad — the
same role created by the late Divine in the 1988 John Waters film
and by Tony winner Harvey Fierstein in the smash Broadway show.
Travolta's version is expected in theaters next summer.
"It's good," said the exhausted actor of finally being freed of
Edna's cumbersome body. "The effect that I caused is fun and all,
but it's a lot of work, man."
Travolta, 52, spent the past week filming the grand finale, YouCan't
Stop the Beat, with Michelle Pfeiffer as Velma Von Tussle,
Christopher Walken as hubby Wilbur and bubbly newcomer Nikki
Blonsky, 17, as Edna's daughter. While that scene caps Travolta's
involvement, the film's shoot continues through early December.
Travolta wanted to make Edna sexier and real, not a campy drag
act. That required four hours of prep time before putting in eight
hours of performing in padding and silicone prosthetics.
"You feel like you are coming out of a prison. It's such a relief
to get air again to the skin and breathe again," he says. It's
the first time in his long career that he has played a woman, save
for doing Barbra Streisand on Saturday Night Live.
Becoming
Edna was an eye-opener. "I thought,
'My God, how do women do that?' I know my mother had a girdle,
bra and sometimes a cinch, but wow. How do they ever endure stockings
and high heels? The discomfort level was astonishing.
"When
you have all that dancing to do and a level to live up to, you
just go for it and forget the suit. But when that number is over,
you're gasping. It may be called You Can't Stop the Beat,
but I call it You Can't Find Your Breath."
Travolta isn't exactly breathing easy over his next project, a
big-screen adaptation of TV soap Dallas, which was to
start filming next month but is delayed until January. He'll still
play wily J.R. Ewing. But other actors previously attached, including
Jennifer Lopez as Sue Ellen, Luke Wilson as brother Bobby and Shirley
MacLaine as Miss Ellie, are gone.
"They did this survey thing, I guess," Travolta explains. "They
liked me as J.R. and loved the title of Dallas. But they
want to see me with comedians around me, to make sure it is a comedy."
The good news is, viewers are hog wild over the trailer for Wild
Hogs, his March comedy co-starring William H. Macy, Martin
Lawrence and Tim Allen as cross-country motorcyclists. Says Travolta, "The
coming attraction scored the highest in Disney's history." |
| Source:
Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY |
| |
| 29
October 2006 |
| DE
NIRO LATEST FILM IN BRECON BEACONS |
THERE may not have been any Raging Bulls, but there were plenty
of sheep to watch Oscar- winning legend Robert De Niro filming
his brand new movie in the Brecon Beacons.
The Taxi Driver star is said to have swapped the Hollywood hills
for the high peaks of mid-Wales for his role as swashbuckling 'sky
pirate' Captain Shakespeare in a major new fantasy blockbuster
called Stardust.
Adapted from Neil Gaiman's best-selling fantasy novel, the flick
also features a glittering cast of Tinseltown royalty like Peter
O'Toole and Michelle Pfeiffer, not to mention the first foray into
moviedom by The Office funnyman Ricky Gervais.
Despite production details being kept tightly under wraps, we
can reveal Stardust tells the tale of a young man who promises
his beloved that he'll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into
a magical realm where he encounters Pfeiffer's evil witch and De
Niro's pirate.
Meanwhile,
Gervais - who admits spending the duration of his main scene
in the movie trying to make his hero De Niro laugh - has described
his character of Ferdy The Fence as a "kind of Never
Never Land Arthur Daley".
The cast and crew spent a week during this summer on location
shooting around Llyn Y Fan Fach, a 20,000-year-old glacial lake
near Ystradfellte in the breathtaking National Park.
The stretch of water - whose name translates to 'small lake of
the peaks' - was chosen due to it's mythical connections, shrouded
as it is in Celtic legend and purported to be the location where
the lady of the lake handed the sword Excalibur to King Arthur.
The movie's director and producer Matthew Vaughan, who worked
with Guy Ritchie on Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and is married
to supermodel Claudia Schiffer, was full of praise for the National
Park's stunning scenery.
He said: "The
Brecon Beacons is a hidden gem and just a fantastic location
for us to film Stardust. Its dramatic landscape and sweeping
views were just perfect for us and made it a pleasure to shoot
there."
Stardust, produced by Paramount Pictures, will hit British cinemas
next summer.
A spokeswoman
for the film giant said: "The
stars of Stardust did descend on Wales for filming during the
summer.
"As
well as shooting in Wales, we also shot all over the UK. The
stars loved Wales." |
| Source:
Nathan Bevan, Wales.co.uk |
| |
| 29
July 2006 |
| MICHELLE
PFEIFFER TURNS WITCHY, CLAIRE DANES IS A TRUE HEAVENLY BODY IN "STARDUST" |
Film adaptation of Neil Gaiman novel
gets thumbs-up from Gaiman, fans at Comic-Con. |
 Michelle
Pfeiffer has become an evil witch.
For the past few months, she's
been trying her hand at some black magic, like eating the heart
of a young star, spilling unicorn's blood and turning people into
billy goats just so they can pull her carriage along.
Don't
worry, though — no
goats or unicorns were harmed during the making of Pfeiffer's upcoming
"Stardust," which has been filming quietly over the past
few months in England, Scotland and Iceland, with hardly a word
coming from the set of Pfeiffer's dark doings. That was, until
last Friday, when about 8,000 fantasy fans got a sneak peek at
the film, which is based on a book by legendary fantasy author/graphic
novelist Neil Gaiman, during a presentation from the filmmakers
at Comic-Con.
"This was great," "Stardust"
producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said. "We're really showing
our underwear, in a way. Some of these scenes, we just saw them
for the first time three days ago, and it's really a sense of,
'Am I showing all the warts and blemishes before we've had a chance
to work on it?' "
The
filming of "Stardust"
— which also stars Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller,
Robert De Niro, Rupert Everett and Ricky Gervais — is about
three-fourths finished, but director Matthew Vaughn has been working
overtime, shooting scenes with two units simultaneously, cutting
as he goes.
So in
many ways, the fans' first look was also a test case for its
makers — is the film working?
Is Vaughn, who has mostly worked on gangster films like "Lock,
Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "Snatch" and "Layer
Cake," also adept at fantasy, particularly one that's equal
parts adventure, romance and whimsy? How close is the film to the
world originally imagined by Gaiman? Will it win over the faithful
as well as new converts?
Looking for the newest, hottest trailers?Check out trailers for
"Snakes on a Plane," "Crank," "Renaissance"
and more, on Overdrive.
"They've taken what we did
and developed it into a slightly different world, but it's just
as full and rich and wonderful," said Charles Vess, who illustrated
the original work. "Everyone [at the Comic-Con panel] was
very enthusiastic. There was a lot of clapping and hooting, so
I think they liked what they saw."
Gaiman
and Vess' story is about a young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox)
who is on a quest to retrieve a fallen star for a girl he's in
love with. Unbeknownst to him, the star isn't really a "steaming leap of meteorite metal"
as he supposed, but has human form as a glowing young lady (Claire
Danes), who broke her leg when she fell from the sky, and is in
no mood to be "dragged halfway across the world to be presented
to anybody's girlfriend," as Gaiman said.
Tristran
is also unaware that he's not the only one trying to steal the
star: Michelle Pfeiffer's witch, Rupert Everett and his power-hungry
prince brothers are also on the hunt for the star (its heart
is a source of power) and are more than willing to use deadly
force to get their way. "One
thing I'm proud of is that our princes are more prominent characters,"
said screenwriter Jane Goldman. "They're not just lurking
in the background, and we've got some amazing British comedians
playing them."
Goldman
said she was worried at first about adding a few characters that
don't appear in the book, such as Gervais' Ferdy the Fence, but
she was reassured by Gaiman's thumbs-up (he's been involved as
a producer and had a hand in the casting the film, due March
9, 2007). "You have to choose your
collaborators with great care," Gaiman said, "There were
'Sandman' scripts that arrived in the post from Warner Bros. that
would leave me physically sick. I never finished reading some of
them. But getting Jane Goldman as a screenwriter, getting Matthew
Vaughn as a director means that I have a 'Stardust' being made
I'm incredibly happy with."
"You can make an incredibly
faithful adaptation, but that doesn't mean it's going to be a perfect
movie, so yeah, there are things that are different, but the spirit
of the book is very much there," Goldman said. "The fact
is, knowing Neil is behind the movie has protected us an awful
lot from the fury of Neil fans, if there was to be any. Neil's
happy with it, so I think Neil's fans will be happy with it too." |
| Source:
Jennifer Vineyard, with additional reporting by Larry Carroll, MTV.com |
| |
| 21
July 2006 |
| PFEIFFER
TIPPED FOR MAMMA MIA ROLE |
 Michelle
Pfeiffer is being seriously considered to play the dancing queen
of Mamma Mia! the movie when it goes before the cameras next year.
It's
very early days but I learn that the Oscar-nominated actress
is one of several leading ladies being looked at from afar by
the film’s producer Judy Craymer,
the theatre executive who risked everything she owned on a powerful
hunch that a show featuring Abba songs would be a hit, and Gary
Goetzman of Playtone, the production company owned by Tom Hanks.
Ms Craymer
was right. The show wasn’t merely a hit. It's a phenomenon. But part of the secret
of Mamma Mia’s! success was Catherine Johnson's seemingly
simple script that underpins the show.
The
two women are now at work getting a screenplay ready and there
are rumours that Phyllida Lloyd
— another architect of the show’s triumph, who directed
the musical around the world (it's still selling out in London after
seven years) — will also direct the film, which will shoot
late next summer.
The choreographer Anthony Van
Laast, who did the dance numbers on stage, will likely do the same
for the film.
The
main part in Mamma Mia! is that of Donna, a single mother who
has raised her daughter on a Greek paradise isle. As the daughter
prepares to get married, three men turn up — and each one
could be her father.
Pfeiffer
has recently re-charged her career with back-to-back roles shot
in London. She did romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman
and last week completed work on Matthew Vaughn’s spectacular action-adventure fantasy film
Stardust. Michelle plays an evil witch in the film. Or ‘the
sexiest witch you’ll ever see,’ as Mr Vaughn put it.
Next, she will appear in the film
adaptation of the Broadway musical Hairspray.
The part of Donna is a meaty role
for a star a tad past her ingenue years (but she has to be able
to sing).
Others
likely to be sounded out along with Ms Pfeiffer include Kim Basinger,
Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep, who with her delicious turn in
The Devil Wears Prada, proved she shouldn’t be ruled out
of anything.
Meanwhile, as Mamma Mia! mints
millions weekly around the globe for its various partners (Ms Craymer,
Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and the creative team) a book about
the show called How Can I Resist You hits bookshops in the autumn. |
| Source:
Daily Mail |
| |
| 18
July 2006 |
| MICHELLE
PFEIFFER SAYS SHE'S CONSIDERED A FACELIFT |
 Michelle
Pfeiffer, known as one of Hollywood's most beautiful women, says
she has considered getting plastic surgery – just not yet.
"I toy with it," the
48-year-old actress tells InStyle in their August issue. "When
I'm rested, I look pretty darn OK. I can hold off on that facelift
for another few years. (But) when I'm feeling weary, then I think,
maybe I better make that appointment."
Still,
she says Hollywood's obsession with looks is getting out of control. "If that nose or those
jowls bother you, do it," she says of getting surgery. "(But)
this epidemic of people losing sight of what looks good, the distortion
that has been going on is kind of creepy."
Pfeiffer says she doesn't feel
older, though in her next film, I Could Never Be Your Woman, she
plays up her age in her role as a TV executive who falls for a man
11 years her junior, played by Paul Rudd.
"I certainly see that I've
changed. I just try not to dwell on it," she says of getting
older. "Aging happens to every single one of us. Once you
accept that it unburdens you."
Mostly,
Pfeiffer says she is focused on having a "slightly slower" lifestyle,
which she has accomplished by moving from Los Angeles to Northern
California with her TV writer husband, David E. Kelley, and their
two kids, Claudia Rose, 13, and John Henry, 12.
As for
that facelift possibility,
"I've seen some amazing-looking plastic surgery. But who knows
what you'll get?" she tells the magazine, which hits newsstands
July 24. "I'm hoping I'm courageous enough to grow old gracefully." |
| Source:
People.com |
| |
| 17
July 2006 |
| PFEIFFER
JOINS CAST OF HAIRSPRAY |
Michelle Pfeiffer has decided to join the cast
of the motion picture Hairspray, reports Variety. Pfeiffer will
play the former beauty queen Velma von Tussel in the adaptation
of the hit Broadway play. Out producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron
will produce, with out director Adam Shankman set to helm the project.
Shankman told Variety, "I'm going to dress and wig Michelle
to death on this one." New Line is aiming for a December 2007
release. |
| |
TORONTO,
July 17 (UPI) -- Michelle Pfeiffer is rounding out the cast of
the film version of the Tony-award-winning musical "Hairspray," with
shooting set to begin in Toronto Sept. 5.
John Travolta, Queen Latifah,
Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron and newcomer Nikki Blonsky have already
signed on to the New Line production, Daily Variety reported.
Marc
Shaiman and Scott Wittman are writing new songs, including one
for Pfeiffer, who crooned in
"The Fabulous Baker Boys," and is set to play the evil
Velma von Tussel in "Hairspray."
Pfeiffer
has played a "delicious
villain in roles like Catwoman," Director Adam Shankman said.
Von
Tussel, a former Miss Baltimore Crabs beauty queen, is now the
tough owner of a Baltimore television station. "Velma is this amazing mess of contradictions,"
Shankman said. "I'm going to dress and wig Michelle to death."
The plan is to release the film
Dec. 21, 2007. |
| Source: The Advocate, UPI |
| |
| 24
June 2006 |
| HOLLYWOOD
WALK OF FAME NAMES 2007 HONOREES |
LOS
ANGELES (AP) — Rapper
and producer Sean "Diddy" Combs, rock disc jockey Rodney
Bingenheimer and TV host Barbara Walters have something in common.
They will join 20 other celebrities from radio, recording, theater,
television and film to be honored in 2007 with a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame.
Recipients were announced Friday
by Walk of Fame committee chairman Johnny Grant.
"It's a privilege to honor
these performers," he said.
In a marathon meeting held June
16, the committee reviewed more than 200 nominations to select the
23 honorees.
The complete list of 2007 Walk
of Fame recipients, as ratified by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
board of directors:
— Motion
pictures: Michael Caine, Matt Damon, Lauren Shuler Donner, Jamie
Foxx, John Goodman, Michelle Pfeiffer,
Robert Altman.
— Television:
Walters, Erik Estrada, Kiefer Sutherland, Jerry Stiller, Dick
Wolff.
— Recording:
Combs, Mariah Carey, The Doors, Crystal Gayle, Tim McGraw, LeAnn
Rimes, Shania Twain.
— Live
theater/performance: Sir Tim Rice, Lily Tomlin.
— Radio:
Bingenheimer, Stu Nahan. |
| Source:
USA TODAY |
| |
| 17
May 2006 |
| "BOSTON
LEGAL" STOPS IN NEW YORK |
NEW
YORK — The cast
of Boston Legal held court at the Season 1 DVD launch party Monday
night at the Museum of Television & Radio. The event coincides
with the week-long meetings when the networks present their fall
lineups to advertisers.
Emmy and Golden Globe winner William Shatner, who plays eccentric
lawyer Denny Crane on the ABC series (Tuesdays, 10 p.m. ET/PT),
had no idea what lies ahead for his character, who's slowly losing
his mind on the show.
"I'm not sure the writers
know what's going to happen," Shatner says. "I just heard
one idea that will knock you away, but I can't tell you about it."
Shatner
had plans to spice up the evening's often dull presentations. "I'm going to do a
song-and-dance number," he promised.
Show
creator David E. Kelley arrived without his wife, Michelle Pfeiffer.
He said they have no plans to work together because "we
agreed not to."
Shatner's co-star Candice Bergen
declined to be interviewed at the party.
And
Emmy winner James Spader said that despite being on vacation
for the past two weeks since the show wrapped its second season,
his heart is at the office. Spader said he enjoys "all of
these people so much. I just miss them." |
| Source:
Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY |
| |
| 25
April 2006 |
| NOW
WITCH SHOES GO WITH THIS? |
MOVIE star Michelle Pfeiffer
braved the Scottish climate yesterday to unveil her costume for
fantasy film Stardust.
Michelle, 47 - who plays witch
Lamia in the new Hollywood blockbuster - was beaten back to her
trailer by the rain on her first day on set at Kinlochewe in Wester
Ross.
But yesterday, a gap in the clouds
meant she could give onlookers a first glimpse of her stunning low-cut
frock.
Set in England, Stardust tells
the story of a young man's quest for true love. Michelle co-stars
with Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller and Robert De Niro. |
| Source:
TheDailyRecord.co.uk |
| |
| 23
April 2006 |
| MICHELLE'S
SO IN LOVE |
| MICHELLE Pfeiffer has fallen for Scotland
just a day into filming her latest blockbuster.
The
blonde, 47, started shooting fantasy flick Stardust in Kinlochewe,
Wester Ross, yesterday.
But wet weather forced her back into her trailer.
Michelle said: "I
just love the Highlands even though you get all the seasons in
one day."
The movie, which will also shoot in Skye
this week, co-stars Robert De Niro and Sienna Miller.
|
| Source:
Sandymail.co.uk |
| |
| 1
April 2006 |
TRANS-GLOBAL
HOLDINGS BEGINS CASTING FOR ''LIFE, LOVE AND ROCK AND ROLL'' |
HOLLYWOOD,
Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 31, 2006--Michael Delaney, CEO
of Trans-Global Holdings, Inc. announced that the company will
begin scouting for new talent in the Philadelphia area for its
new film "Life, Love and Rock
and Roll."
The film is scheduled to begin
pre-production in late spring, and is expected to be released in
December of 2006. Currently the company is looking at possible movie
stars to sign, and has expressed interest in having Sting play the
roll of an aging rock star who falls in love with a teenage fan's
mother, to be played by Michelle Pfeiffer.
About "Life,
Love and Rock and Roll"
This film is about an aging rock
star who is making a comeback, during which time he finds an unexpected
lover on the road. This middle-aged woman is trying to find herself
after her recent divorce. Little does she know that she could ever
find herself falling for a rock star whom she despised last week.
About Trans-Global Holdings
Trans-Global
Holdings, Inc. is an innovative entertainment company that develops
and produces exciting motion pictures and television productions
by some of the most prominent leaders in the entertainment industry.
Our motto is "INNOVATION
IN EVERY FRAME" ... representative of the creativity and innovation
that this company puts into each of our productions. More information
about Trans-Global Holdings, Inc. can be found at: http://www.tghgotc.com/
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information
contained herein, the statements in this news release are forward-looking
statements that involve risks and uncertainties and are made pursuant
to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and
unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the company's actual
results in the future periods to differ materially from forecasted
results. |
Source:
Trans-Global Holdings, Inc. |
| |
30
March 2006 |
JOHN
TRAVOLTA TO STAR IN 'DALLAS' THE MOVIE |
It's Captain Travolta urging
Americans to take to the friendly skies on his favorite carrier,
Qantas Airlines.
"Extra" caught up with
John in San Francisco as he inaugurated Quantas' new direct rout
from the Bay Area to the outback. "I could hop in there right
now and fly you anywhere you'd like," Travolta said. "Australia
is the number one desired destination of the United States."
The
52-year-old superstar sent his love to good friend and fellow
flight enthusiast, Tom Cruise. John even shed some light on rumors
of a Scientology-inspired "silent"
birth for Tom and Katie's baby.
"It's just unwanted input
at a painful moment in someones life," Travolta explained.
"You don't want to contribute more to it."
Travolta
was eager to break news of his own, confirming to "Extra" that he will indeed
play J.R. Ewing in the big-screen version of "Dallas."
"I have to do two movies
before," he said. "That one is called ?'Wild Hogs,' a
motorcycle movie, a comedy with Tim Allen. The other one is ?'Hairspray,'
and then I'll do ?'Dallas.'"
Jennifer
Lopez is reportedly up for the role of J.R.'s wife Sue Ellen,
and that would explain the pair's chatty encounter at Vanity
Fair's post-Oscar bash. "Yes,
I did speak to J Lo," Travolta revealed. "She's interested,
and I'm hoping they're closing her deal as well."
And
yes, Travolta will be in full drag when he tackles the role of
Edna in "Hairspray."
And he hopes a few famous friends will join him. "I think Billy
Crystal is doing it as well as maybe Michelle Pfeiffer," he
revealed. "I'm all set for this year. It's going to be busy." |
Source:
ExtraTV.com |
|
| |
22
March 2006 |
HORSES
DRAGGING HOLLYWOOD STARS AWAY FROM ICELAND |
Filming
for the Hollywood movie "Stardust" starring Michelle
Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro will start in Iceland next weekend.
Substantial parts of the movie
were to be filmed in Iceland but it seems that horses might keep
the movie stars away..
Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer,
Claire Danes, Sienna Miller and Charlie Cox are among the stars
in this Matthew Vaughn-directed adaptation of Neil Gaiman's fantasy
novel.
Morgunbladid reports that horses
also have a major role in this Paramount project but unfortunately
it is illegal to import horses to Iceland.
"This really puts a spanner
in the works," said Helga Margret Reykdal, managing director
of movie production company TrueNorth, local partner for the "Stardust"
team.
Helga
said that they had spoken to "relevant parties" but
it appeared that the Icelandic horse was especially vulnerable
to disease because it had been isolated for so many centuries
and therefor people were afraid to import horses.
"This
will be the first day of filming. They are coming to film winter
scenes and will then continue filming in the U.K. Regarding future
filming, they are interested in shooting most of the film in
Iceland but horses play a big part in the movie and transporting
them to the country is not allowed. That is why people are weighing
the alternatives. At the moment we do not know if the project
has a future here in Iceland."
"Maybe they will be forced
to find another solution, other then coming to Iceland, even though
this is their dream place," said Helga.
The filming will take place near
Hofn in Hornafjordur. For this round of filming none of the star-studded
crew will come to Iceland. |
Source:
IcelandReview_Online |
|
| |
14
March 2006 |
|
10
SEXIEST FILM SCENES EVER... |
| What's your favourite sexy scene
from the movies? No, we're not being cheeky - the results of a poll
have just been announced.According to a survey by DVD company Lovefilm,
the spanking scene in the movie Secretary has been voted the sexiest
moment in film.
The scene
shows Lee (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) being spanked by her boss
(James Spader).
Maggie's brother did well too
- Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger's kiss in the gay cowboy movie
Brokeback Mountain made it to No.2.
Other entries in the top ten included
a scene in George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez's movie Out Of Sight
and Beatrice Dalle's first scene in the 1986 classic Betty Blue.
We have the full list below.
Who knows, it might just get you
in the mood... for a film.
Top Ten Sexiest Movie Scenes:
1. Secretary (2002)
Lee (Maggie Gyllenhaal) being spanked by boss (James Spader).
2. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
The kiss between Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis (Heath Ledger).
3. Out of Sight (1998)
The sexual tension when Jack (George Clooney) locks Karen (Jennifer
Lopez) in the boot of his car.
4. Betty Blue (1986)
Opening sex scene with Betty (Beatrice Dalle) and Zorg (Gean-Hughes
Anglade).
5. Cruel Intentions (1999)
A lesbian kiss between Selma Blair and Sarah Michelle Gellar's characters.
6. Wild Things (1998)
The infamous car washing scene featuring Neve Campbell and Denise
Richards.
7. Rear Window (1954)
J.B Jeffries (James Stewart) is woken by a kiss from his girlfriend
(Grace Kelly).
8. The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
Susie (Michelle Pfeiffer) sings 'Makin' Whoopee' on the piano.
9. Mulholland Drive (2001)
Betty (Naomi Watts) and a mysterious brunette (Laura Harring) share
a bed together.
10. The Hunger (1983)
A vampire seduction scene featuring Catherine Deneuve and Susan
Sarandon. |
Source:
Yahoo.com |
|
| |
7
March 2006 |
FIVE
JOIN CAST OF ''STARDUST'' FOR PARAMOUNT |
By Tatiana Siegel and Borys
Kit
Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sienna Miller
and Charlie Cox have signed on to star in Paramount Pictures' "Stardust,"
the Matthew Vaughn-directed adaptation of Neil Gaiman's fantasy
novel.
With
a screenplay penned by Vaughn and writing partner Jane Goldman, "Stardust" centers
on Tristian (Cox), who, in order to win the heart of his beloved
(Miller), promises to fetch a falling star named Yvaine (Danes).
This sets in motion an adventure in which Tristian and Yvaine
must face off against a pirate named Captain Shakespeare (De
Niro) and an evil witch (Pfeiffer).
Vaughn
and Gaiman are longtime friends, and Vaughn had been slowly developing "Stardust"
as something he would do in the far-off future. When he exited "X-Men
3" in June, he decided to tackle "Stardust." Vaughn
quietly put together the cast, with particular focus on the role
of Yvaine, for which many actresses screen-tested.
Vaughn is producing alongside
Lorenzo di Bonaventura via his Paramount-based di Bonaventura Pictures.
Michael Dreyer and Gaiman also are attached as producers. Stephen
Marks and Peter Morton are executive producing.
Paramount is co-financing along with Vaughn's U.K.-based MARV Films
and Ingenious Film Partners. Paramount is handling worldwide distribution.
Filming begins next month in the
U.K. and Iceland.
Paramount's Brad Weston and Dan
Levine will oversee for the studio.
Danes
is repped by ICM and manager Michael Aglion. De Niro, Pfeiffer
and Cox are repped by CAA. Miller is repped by Endeavor. Cox
and Miller are additionally repped by Peters, Fraser & Dunlop
in the U.K. |
Source:
Ruth Ryon, The Hollywood Reporter.com |
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15
January 2006 |
THEIR
LONG GOODBYE TO BRENTWOOD |
For a year and a half it's
been on again, off again and back on, but actress Michelle Pfeiffer
and her husband, writer-producer David E. Kelley, finally have sold
their Brentwood estate for about $19 million.
The buyer is Robert Iger, 54,
chief executive of the Walt Disney Co., who is married to broadcast
journalist Willow Bay.
Pfeiffer and Kelley's estate,
which has ocean and canyon views and is on slightly more than 2
acres, was first listed in June 2004, when the power couple bought
a ranch north of Los Angeles, where they moved.
The 7,500-square-foot, traditional-style
main house in Brentwood was built in 1946. It was restored and remodeled
in 2001, a year after Pfeiffer and Kelley bought the property for
$15.5 million. The couple originally listed their estate at $29
million.
It has five bedrooms, five fireplaces
and nine bathrooms. The master-bedroom suite has two of the bathrooms.
The property also has a detached guesthouse, a separate office/gym
and rolling lawns. The equestrian-zoned grounds have stables, a
tennis court and a pool.
Pfeiffer and Kelley also sold
a 1-acre property next door to the estate to another buyer in August.
Pfeiffer,
47, will star in the upcoming movies "Chasing Montana" and "I Could Never
Be Your Woman." Kelley, 49, creator of several TV series, including
"Boston Legal," "Ally McBeal" and "Chicago
Hope," has won multiple Emmy Awards. |
Source:
Ruth Ryon, Times Staff Writer |
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WHY
MICHELLE WOULD LOVE TO LAUGH AT ED IN BELFAST |
Film
star Michelle Pfeiffer would just love to be at comic Ed Byrne's
Festival gig in Belfast tomorrow night.
She's
become a fan of Ed since he appeared in her latest Hollywood movie
I Could Never Be Your Woman which is due in Belfast before Christmas.
"I
play a delivery man and you will miss me if you blink when it arrives
at a cinema near you," said Ed.
"But
at least I'm in there with Michelle even if it is only a two-liner
role."
Pfeiffer,
star of the nailbiting thriller What Lies Beneath with Harrison
Ford, is in a romantic comedy this time. "Graham Norton and
I both play Americans," said Ed.
"It's
in total contrast to What Lies Beneath and Michelle is in sparkling
form."
Byrne
is in demand moviewise. He has just been filming a British film
called Are You Ready for Love? alongside former television detective
Michael Brandon.
"It's
all about how to find true love in just three days and I play a
pop singer with just one hit who is now slightly past his best,"
he said.
Byrne's
concert tomorrow night, along with Colin Murphy and Andrew Maxwell,
is a Stand Up for Justice Amnesty International benefit occasion. |
Source:
Eddie McIlwaine, Belfast Telegraph |
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22
September 2005 |
MICHELLE
PFEIFFER'S ODD LEADING MAN |
Speaking of David Kelley,
you may wonder what the heck happened to the career of his wife,
Michelle Pfeiffer.
For
a while, Pfeiffer was one of the biz's top actresses, with movies
like "Dangerous Liaisons,"
"The Age of Innocence," "The Fabulous Baker Boys,"
"Married to the Mob" and "Dangerous Minds,"
among others.
She
took a wrong turn around 1999 with "The Story of Us" and
never quite recovered.
Now
Pfeiffer is making "I
Could Never Be Your Woman," and guess whom she has a lot of
scenes with? Our old pal Fred Willard, maybe the funniest actor
on screen.
Willard
is part of Christopher Guest's repertory company and most famous
for being Martin Mull's sidekick, the unforgettable Jerry Hubbard,
on "Fernwood Tonight"
and his lover on "Roseanne." (Don't ask.)
Anyway, there was Fred at the
HBO after-party on Sunday night. Apparently he's been such a hit
on the Pfeiffer movie that another scene for him and the beauteous
actress has been written.
"I'm going to shoot it this
week," he said. "All my scenes are with Michelle."
And think of it, Paul Rudd is
supposed to be her romantic lead.
Willard
is also shooting Guest's new movie, "For Your Consideration," which follows "A
Mighty Wind," "Best in Show," "Waiting for Guffman"
and "This Is Spinal Tap."
The only problem with Fred is
that he's modest and has no decent stories about the people he's
worked with. But we love him anyway. He's a Midwestern mensch, and
that's an achievement.
As for Pfeiffer: It can't be that
hard to find decent scripts, can it? |
Source:
Roger Friedman, FOXNEWS.COM |
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2 September
2005 |
STAR
ESCAPES |
MICHELLE Pfeiffer had a close call the other
day in London, where she's filming the comedy "I Could Never
Be Your Woman." According to The London Daily Mirror, Pfeiffer
and her driver were at Camden Market, in North London, loading her
Range Rover up with purchases, when a gang of carjackers descended.
They caused a distraction, and one man jumped in the car and sped
off. But Pfeiffer's rep tells us the star herself wasn't there,
just her hireling. "She was just glad no one got hurt,"
the rep notes. In the flick, Pfeiffer plays a TV producer who falls
for a younger man, played by Paul Rudd. |
Source:
NEW YORK POST ONLINE EDITION |
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25
August 2005 |
BECKHAM
TURNS DOWN HOLLYWOOD ROLE |
Retired pop singer VICTORIA BECKHAM has turned
down a movie role opposite MICHELLE PFEIFFER, because she doubts
her acting abilities. British newspaper Daily Mirror reports producers
of I COULD NEVER BE YOUR WOMAN had created a role especially for
the former SPICE GIRL, but she told them on Monday (22AUG05) she
wasn't interested. A friend says, "Victoria was extremely flattered
when the producers said they were desperate to sign her up. "TOM
CRUISE always said he planned to make her a movie star and he's
obviously been having words in influential circles. "She came
to the conclusion that putting herself up against Hollywood heavyweights
wasn't something she was interested in." Beckham has only acted
once before - playing herself in the critically-panned 1997 movie
SPICE WORLD. |
Source: CONTACTMUSIC.COM |
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12
August 2005 |
RUBB
MAKES DATE WITH PFEIFFER IN ''WOMAN'' |
LOS
ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Paul Rudd has been cast opposite
Michelle Pfeiffer in the romantic comedy "I Could Never Be Your Woman," an
indie project shooting in London and aiming for a U.S. release
next year.
Pfeiffer plays a mother who falls for a younger man (Rudd) while
her daughter (newcomer Saoirse Ronan) falls in love for the first
time. Tracey Ullman plays Mother Nature, who meddles in their fates.
Also joining the cast are Fred Willard, and Stacey Dash.
The
movie sees Rudd and Dash reunited with the film's writer/director
Amy Heckerling, who directed them in her 1995 hit, "Clueless."
Rudd
appears in the comedy "The
40-Year-Old Virgin," which opens August 19. His other recent
credits include "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy"
and "The Shape of Things." |
| Source: Reuters/Hollywood Reporter |
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