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For Immediate Release on Entertainment Drive
Released by Beck/Smith
Robin Williams: Cage No Drag
Hollywood -- Feb. 12, 1996 -- As a fan of the original "La Cage
Aux Folles," Robin Williams says his first response to the idea
of an American version of the French farce was: "Why would you
want to redo it? It's wonderful as it is." What changed his
mind was the script for "The Birdcage" turned in by Elaine May.
"It really worked. Setting the story in South Beach [FL]
worked; it works in America. And I do think it's a good time to
do it again. These are strange and interesting times we're in,
politically and otherwise, and Elaine's script touched a lot of
it." The March-debuting MGM/UA "Birdcage" -- in which Robin
stars with Nathan Lane -- has a whole new political overlay, in
fact. The tale, in which a long-time gay couple try to play it
straight when meeting the prospective in-laws of the son of one
of them, ups the original ante. Instead of merely being straight-laced,
the fiancee's father (Gene Hackman) is an ultra-conservative
Republican senator. His wife (Dianne Wiest) quotes
Rush Limbaugh and gushes about socializing with Jeb Bush. The
media's another target of May's pointed screenplay. As Williams
puts it, "Nobody's safe. Everybody gets hit." Williams is quite
aware that many in the gay community would much rather have seen
a gay actor play his role than Robin. His response: "Yeah, you
want to see gay people play gay parts. You want to see the
system change. But meanwhile, you want to try to expand the
boundaries. You want to get people to a level of acceptance. If
someone like me plays this part and the movie gets done, that
helps." Robin also reveals that he was first asked about playing
the "Birdcage" role of the flamboyant drag show headliner, Albert
(a.k.a. Starina) -- the role that wound up being played by Nathan
Lane. He wasn't interested. Says the actor of "Mrs. Doubtfire"
fame, "Been there. Done that." So Robin instead essays the low-key
half of the gay pair. He loved working with Broadway star
Lane. "We're kind of like Abbott and Costello in drag!"
Curry Favors Treasure Island
Hollywood -- Feb. 13, 1996 -- Tim Curry laughs over the fact his
image is showing up on everything from trading cards to
McDonald's giveaways -- with "Muppet Treasure Island," in which
he plays Long John Silver, opening Friday, Feb. 16. "It's not a
bad thing to appear next to a burger," he says. The British
thesp, who will always be thought of as Dr. Frank N. Furter to
the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" cult of fans, notes that he's
used to being merchandised. "They had stuff for 'Congo.' I still
have a painted plate of my part in 'Annie'...You look at the
plastic figure and say, 'It looks nothing like me.' But it does
what it's supposed to do, I suppose." Curry, a longtime fan of
the Muppets, was thrilled to join the latest film endeavor of
Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the gang for other reasons. "Having grown
up by the sea, I always wanted to play a pirate. I was in
Cornwall in Devon as a child; every little cove and inlet there
had some smuggling tale attached." Curry was also a great fan of
the original book "Treasure Island." And, he notes, he's from a
family of seafarers. His father was a naval chaplain, and his
grandfather was a rigger. There was yet another consideration in
playing the ruling pirate of "Muppet Treasure Island." "I got to
sing, which was great," Curry says. "The score is really
wonderful, and rare in this time when they're really not doing
movie musicals. It's by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill. It's sort
of half Brill Building, half Gilbert & Sullivan." We can tell
you the movie is a lot of fun for anyone, and parents can take
kids to see it with no worries.
Oscar Nomination Surprises
Hollywood -- Feb. 14, 1996 -- And the nominees weren't...Among
the big surprises at the announcement of the nominations for the
68th annual Academy Awards was the omission of "Get Shorty" --
and its stars, John Travolta and Gene Hackman. The critically
acclaimed "Seven" and its stars Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt were
overlooked (though Pitt received a Supporting Actor nom for "12
Monkeys"). And how about the fact that Nicole Kidman failed to be
recognized for "To Die For" -- after so many months of talk that
she was a frontrunner in the Oscar race? Also surprising were
the lack of directorial nominations for Ron Howard for "Apollo
13," and Ang Lee for "Sense and Sensibility," both Best Picture
nominees. And then there was the failure of "Leaving Las
Vegas" to get a Best Picture nod, though its lead actors and
director -- Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, and Mike Figgis -- are
all Oscar nominees for the film. "The Postman" director Michael
Radford, for one, feels "Leaving Las Vegas" was the best picture
of the year. He's not surprised, however, that it didn't receive
more nominations. "Academy members might have considered it too
dark," he says. The man who helmed "Leaving Las Vegas" insists
he wasn't disappointed. "To be honest, I wasn't really expecting
anything," says Figgis. "I know it sounds like false modesty,
but when you get as far as the Academy Awards, well, they're a
different thing from the critics' awards. I've seen people make
predictions in the past that are completely wrong. There's such
a danger of overinvesting in the Oscar race, I refused to allow
myself to get sucked into it." Still, Figgis admits, "You do
start to anticipate....And you really feel responsible for a film
and everyone who worked in it" -- wanting everyone to be
acknowledged. Ultimately, he says, the nominations came as "a
relief, a tremendous relief....To me, we got the best picture
nomination in a way, because the block of nominations we did get
are the four cornerstones of the film." That block, of course,
includes Best Actor (Nicolas Cage), Actress (Elisabeth Shue),
Director (Figgis), and Screenplay (Figgis).
Dixie Carter's Loving New Career as Writer
Hollywood -- Feb. 15, 1996 -- No one, says Dixie Carter, was
more shocked than she to find out she had a talent for writing.
The former "Designing Women" star's first book, "Trying to Get to
Heaven: Opinions of a Tennessee Talker," is doing well, and she
says, "I'll never quite understand how I could have been so old
before I realized I'm thrilled to be able to get to write. I wish
I could do it as a career -- turning to performing when I want
to, not under any pressure." Carter, who starts a cabaret gig at
New York's Cafe Carlyle Feb. 22-Mar. 16, adds, "I would never
want to give up singing, but if I could write another book I'd be
so thrilled. That's one reason I worked as hard as I could to
promote it." In "Trying to Get to Heaven," she talks about "how
it feels to be over 50 years of age and living in Los Angeles,
having come from a little town of 200 people and still loving who
I came from. It's for men and women of any age about the idea
that we can, with a certain amount of effort, make our lives
beautiful." The book is filled with anecdotes and memories, but
Carter says she finds it "a little bit dismaying" that some
people insist on calling the tome an autobiography. "I'm not
Winston Churchill...I haven't won the Second World War...I
haven't invented penicillin. I don't think the world is screaming
for my autobiography and I wouldn't set myself up to write one.
It was a really good job that Simon and Schuster offered me and
'Designing Women' had been cancelled, so I grabbed the money."
Stanley Kamel on "Murder One's" Rating Woes
Hollywood -- Feb. 16, 1996 -- While Steven Bochco's "Murder One"
has received critical acclaim, the ABC drama simply can't seem to
find its lion's share of an audience. "I think two things
happened that didn't help," says Stanley Kamel, who plays sleazy
psychiatrist Dr. Graham Lester on the show. "One was going up
against a phenomenon in its second year like 'ER,' with an
unproven show. When 'Frasier' went up against 'Home Improvement,'
'Frasier' had already formed its audience. We go up against not
just a formidable opponent, but a phenomenon -- and you lose your
momentum. When you come back, that stumbling process makes it
very hard to build it back up." The second thing Kamel feels may
be slowing down the show's ability to establish its audience is
that the storyline arc -- which covers the murder, the arrest,
then the trial -- takes the entire season to play out. "Audiences
used to instant gratification, or at least gratification at the
end of the hour, may not really want to commit to 22 weeks of
following a story. It's like the difference between a Danielle
Steel novel and a Pat Conroy ["Prince of Tides"] novel...one
involves a commitment, the other is quicker gratification. So
what it may come down to is that -- regardless of the time slot,
regardless of the fact critics have really championed 'Murder One'
-- the show may just be something audiences don't want to
embrace."
Copyright (c) 1996 Beck/Smith Ent.
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