Febrary articles archive

... I flipped to Access Hollywood and obviously, flipped right in time. I caught a bit of a Talented Mr. Ripley interview with Matt. Didn't get much of it, just a bit with him and Gwyneth. Did anyone catch the whole thing?

2/10/99 A huge Matt fan wrote:
Just in case you haven't seen it yet, the March issue of Premier (with Nicolas Cage on the cover)has a feature on last year's Oscars. Here's how it describes what happened on Sunday, March 22, at the rehearsal prior to the event:
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck arrive together. Affleck has brought his mom, who wants to take photos inside the hall. Secuirity chief Jerry Moon okays her request. Near the stage Damon and Affleck run into Frances McDormand, and the three have a long, enthusiastic chat. She shows them baby pictures.
On their way out, Damon and Affleck pass the sign-in table, which is suddenly congested with young people. Danny Shapiro, the eleven-year-old son of senior executive consultant Robert Z. Shapiro, whispers to Affleck, "Kick Titanic's ass!" Affleck grins and gives Danny a big hug. "You're gonna go far in this life, kid," he says. On the way to their car, they run into writer Bruce Vilanch. "It's gonna be all Titanic jokes, isn't it?" Affleck asks. "No," Vilanch insists. "We're egalitarian."
There's a cute black and white picture of Matt accompanying the article, with the caption, "Matt City: Good Will Hunting's Matt Damon, nominated with costar Ben Affleck for Best Original Screenplay, was an especially big hit with the kids of the show's staffers."
The article gives a minute-by-minute recap of the entire ceremony, on stage and backstage. There's also a sidebar story on how the winners (including Matt and Ben) have fared since the Oscars (with photo).
All in all, it's a nice way to relive last year's Oscar glory, especially since Matt is unlikely to be a part of this year's festivities.
(My note: If only I were a Matt Damon fan last year this time - what a ride it would have been. Also: Get the idea that Matt will make an excellent big-brother or (parish the thought) father?? Also, Francis McDermott was in "The Good Old Boys" with Matt. )

The following items appeared on the alt.gossip.celebrities newsgroup and should be taken with a large grain of salt:

• Oh those boys...Ben and Matt! 02/09 GLOBE...02/16

  Matt Damon, who's learning Italian, knows his Good Will Hunting buddy Ben Affleck loves onions. So when they went out for pizza in L.A., he told Ben to order extra "acciughe." But the pizza came loaded with anchovies - which Ben hates - and practical joker Matt burst out laughing. (My note: Matt supposely learned Italian for "Ripley"; note that the Globe is a trashy tabloid in the U.S.)

• The next hot movie project! 2/8 NY POST...LIZ SMITH...
  AFTER 25 YEARS of false starts, plans are under way to bring Patricia Nell Warren's landmark gay novel, "The Front Runner," to the big screen. Publisher-producer Tyler St. Mark confirms that the 1974 best-seller - the love story of a track coach and his Olympics-bound athlete - has been delivered to executive producer Gwen Lighter of the DreamWorks SGK-affiliated Vanguard Films. The screenplay is by novelist Warren herself and veteran film writer Barry Sandler ("Making Love," "The Mirror Crack'd"). This project almost made it to the screen several times - most famously when it was optioned by Paul Newman, who also considered playing the coach. But the subject was so controversial that all plans evaporated. As we rush toward the millennium, the time seems right. Adding impetus to the deal is the news that the script is being read by Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates, in the hope that she might direct.

  Casting? There are dozens of young actors who would be suitable - and adventurous enough - to play the runner: Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Will Smith, Stephen Dorff, Freddie Prinze Jr., James Van Der Beek, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jerry O'Connell, Scott Wolf, Ethan Hawke, Casey Affleck, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rider Strong, Jared Leto, etc. The real test is finding an established, older star to play the coach. Right off the top of my head there are Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Kurt Russell, Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte. The tough part is: Would any of these famously macho stars play gay? (My note: Thought-provoking, hah? After the appearance of this blurb, the Gay Financial Network site then picked up on it and, to hear them relay it, all the "hunks" in Hollywood are after this project. Not necessarily false. )

  And this blurb is from a story in the 2/10 Daily Variety on the AOL:

  Miramax escapes with 'War Journal' Memoir movie in the midst of a WWII revival By CHRIS PETRIKIN, BENEDICT CARVER, February 10, 1999

  Now basking in the critical adoration of its Italian WWII pic "Life Is Beautiful:, Miramax Films is revisiting the Big One, having struck a deal for the feature rights to Major Damon "Rocky" Gause's memoir "War Journal."
  Chris Moore and Craig Anderson will produce the true-life WWII escape epic; Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who co-wrote and starred in Miramax's "Good Will Hunting", which Moore co-produced, will take executive producing duties.
  In his memoir, Major Gause (then 1st Lt. Gause) wrote about his escape from Japanese confinement on the Philippines near the beginning of the Bataan Death March in 1941, after which he sailed with another soldier for 53 days across 3,200 miles of the Japanese-held Pacific en route to the northern coast of Australia in a leaky, 25-foot boat with a palm tree for a mast and rice bags for sails, amid enemy fire, storm-tossed seas and an often contentious relationship with his boatmate...

  2/9/99
• Rounders video is out today.
• Oscar nominations are out - Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan are the front-runners. I must say that the buzz on the former really have opened my eyes to the power of Miramax's Oscars machine. Miramax is also the parent of Good Will Hunting and The Talented Mr. Ripley, and part parent of Pretty Horses. Both Gywneth Paltrow and Kate Blanchett are nominated in the Best Actress category, and they are - get this - both in "Ripley". Lord have mercy on our Mr. Damon :-). Wonder who Matt will vote for. I have my thoughts. Not only that, Matt's co-star in Rounders, Ed Norton, is nominated for Best Actor. And Billy Bob Thornton, director of "Horses", also got a nod for Best Supporting Actor. Is Matt surrounded by talented people or what?
• Blurb in today's Variety:
  DERN GOOD TIME FOR A RESURGENCE: Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Peter Fonda and Kris Kristofferson are stars from the 70's who've re-emerged in the 90's, and Bruce Dern just might be joining them. He's got strong roles in the Jan De Bont-directed =93The Haunting of Hill House=94 at DreamWorks and the Billy Bob Thornton-helmed "All the Pretty Horses" at Columbia. It seems like one guy in my age group a year is getting a shot, and this could be mine,' said Dern, who just joined Matt Damon, Henry Thomas and Robert Patrick in Sony=92s adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel. Dern has known Thornton for years as they knocked about the acting circuit, and that relationship took a potentially familial turn when Thornton began living with his daughter, actress Laura Dern.
  Keeping a promise Thornton made when he signed on for the project, the director insisted on giving Dern something that has eluded him for most of his long career: the chance to play a good guy. "I'm looking forward to playing a role I never played before, the righteous guy who has a chance to do the fair and right thing. Billy was determined to get me to play the judge who decides the fate of the boys"...
  2/7/99 This is how the Inside Track column in the Boston Herald described that little segment on Access Hollywood which I regretably missed:
  If they knew then...
  Did you know that Julia Roberts and local wonderboy Matt Damon have been together on the big screen?
  Matt actually had a bit part in "Mystic Pizza," the movie that marked Julia's debut as a leading lady.
  "Yah, I remember him," Roberts told "Access Hollywood." "We worked together before all the girls screamed."
  Damon told "A.H." that "Mystic" was his first time on a movie set. "I was just annoying everybody," he said, "annoying the girl across the table named Julia ... asking her questions like, 'Do you like acting>'"
  File under: Mystic-al Memories.

  2/6/99 This quote sums it up beautifully: "I like the whole Hollywood thing," Jamies (16) said. Why exactly? Her friend Ashley Nagle jumped in. "Fame. Money. Matt Damon. Ben Affleck."

  - In an Associated Press column "Anyone Can Be a Celebrity" which appeared in both the L.A. Times and the Boston Herald yesterday.

  2/5/99

  • Casting News
    Hollywood is obsessed with casting news, and so is this Matt fan. Here are some current items which have relevance to Matt. All should be taken with a giant grain of salt.
    • Wrote Felicity: Just found this on the Boston Herald's Inside Track page. It's where most of the Boston-based Matt gossip comes from:
      Director makes a Connection on film about Bulgers
      by Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa
      Friday, February 5, 1999
      

      Don't breathe a word of this. Because nobody's supposed to know. But Hollywood director William Friedkin is "very much interested" in directing a movie based on the life and times of ex-Senate Prez Billy Bulger, his brother, gangster-on-the-lam Whitey Bulger, and ex-FBI agent John Connolly.
      "This is a story about these individuals, who, when they were growing up, developed what amounts to a creed and then following the three where that creed takes them," said New York producer Sonny Grosso, who worked with Friedkin on "The French Connection." "It's about loyalty and honesty and giving people your word." Grosso, one of the real-life French Connection cops and a technical adviser on that film, now runs a New York production company that's developing the Bulger/Connolly project. Grosso said he doesn't have a script yet but what he does have is a "couple of hundred pages" written by Connolly, the ex-fed who was Whitey's FBI "handler" for 15 years. Connolly, of course, is being investigated by a grand jury in Connecticut for allegedly letting Bulger run off the reservation during his years as a snitch. "It's the dumbest thing I ever heard in my life," said Grosso, who calls Connolly "one of the last American heros." "You mean to tell me this guy (Whitey) is in the FBI's informant files for 20 years and the bureau doesn't know what he's doing? It's a joke."
      Grosso said it's premature to discuss casting. In fact, Friedkin is tied up for the foreseeable future filming "Rules of Engagement" with Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones. But we hear Friedkin is very interested in chatting with Cambridge homey-turned-Hollywood-wonder-boy Matt Damon, who would play Whitey. Well, why not? We know from "Good Will Hunting" that Matt can do Southie!
      Anyway, Connolly (meaning Grosso, I think) declined to comment on the deal, saying it was "too premature." Grosso's currently hard at work on the saga of Mary Kay Letourneau, the Washington schoolteacher who's in jail for sleeping with her 13-year-old student and bearing him two children...

      (My note: I think this is just a rumor. Coincidentally, reports from yesterday said that DiCaprio may be doing a Irish gangster film with director Scorsece and Robert DiNiro. If so, these two are apparently films portraying the same type of people. Not an uncommon thing in Hollywood.)
    • Felicity again: My sleuthing on the San-Antonio Express-News website has just turned up this:
      Dern to join stampede on SA western
      This just in: Rangy Bruce Dern is said to be another actor coming to San = Antonio for the filming next month of the Western "All the Pretty Horses."
      I've already reported that Matt Damon and Henry Thomas are slated to star in the movie, which will be directed by Billy Bob Thornton.
      Meanwhile, the production office already has opened downtown for preparation work on the motion picture, which is expected to utilize locations in the Alamo City as well as in more brushy surrounding areas.
      The film is based on Cormac McCarthy's award-winning novel, which tells of a young Texas rancher who sets off with two companions on an adventure to untamed Mexico.
      Those interested in work as extras or who wish to be part of the crew can write to "All the Pretty Horses" production, 100 N. Main Ave., No. 803, San Antonio, 78205, or visit the local Web site at sanantoniocvb.com. From there, they should click on the film commission and then on film news. (Felicity noted: We could have guessed this one. Bruce Dern is, obviously, the father of Laura Dern, who is Billy Bob's current partner. Columnist Jeanne Jakle on the paper has taken an interest in the movie, and has included quite a few items about it in her columns.)
  • A huge Matt fan wrote to say:
    Have you ever seen the movie magazine, "White's Guide to the Movies"? It's a relatively new publication (only three issues out). In the January issue, Matt was named one of the 25 most handsome men in Hollywood. The February issue (with Cameron Diaz on the cover) has an article entitled, "What Happened & What Does It Mean?" about actors who followed blockbusters with lackluster films. Here's what it says about Matt:
    What Happened--Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, Rounders. Not a bad trio, even if audiences never bought the last of the three. Chances are, this was bad timing. It came too late for the summer season, too early for the holidays. Moviegoers were still spending their money on summer leftovers, and this just seemed to get lost in the shuffle. Which is, of course, a shame. In the long run, it should hold up well on video.
    What It Means--A cult classic in the making? Damon is too good to fall prey to a single box office disaster. He's going to be around for a long time. At press time, Rounders had a White's Guide rating of 8.2, with heavy voting.
    The issue also has an article on the results of their website poll of the most popular stars. Among actors ages 20-29, Matt finished second behind Edward Norton. Matthew McConaughey was third, Ben Affleck as fourth, while Leonardo DiCaprio tied for fifth with Casey Affleck.
    Here's what the article says about him:
    2. Matt Damon. The Rounders star works off the bad box ofice, roving cool guys can stay popular between hits.
    The voting is ongoing, and they reset the ratings every week. When I checked yesterday, Matt was still second to Edward, 9.3 to his 10. Interestingly, I think a lot of people are voting. When I rated Matt a 10 three times, I only suceeded in driving it up from a 9.2 to a 9.3. Here is the website.
    Oh, and if you haven't watched the DVD Collector's Edition of Good Will Hunting--FIND A WAY. The Matt, Ben, and Van Sant audio commentary is funny, charming, and extraordinarily insightful. The deleted scenes are fascinating and the production featurette and behind the scenes video are a joy.

  • A fellow planetdamonite wrote:
    Luckily, I caught this great lil interview (on Access Hollywood today about the film "Mystic Pizza", in which Matt has a small role) . It was sorta a flashback with Julia about what Matt was like. First, I thought that it was just Julia Roberts, but they showed a great interview with Matt! He looked amazing ... ;) Cute interview about what the movie was like and how Matt was "annoying and obnxious to the chick across the table named Julia". They showed the clip and Matt was all smiles :)
    (Sigh - this one I missed.)

  • For what it's worth:
    According to a press release by the Pillsbury Comapny, shown on Yahoo:
    In a telephone poll completed in January, 20% of the women interviewed select Harrison Ford as their top "ice cream mate", followed by Michael Jordon (11%), John Travolta(11), Robert Redford (11), George Clooney (10), Will Smith (7), Brad Pitt (5), John F. Kennedy, Jr. (5), Matt Lauer(3), and, our Matty at 3 percent. Just where do these people poll, I wonder.

  2/4/99 Valerie on planetdamon reported thus:
  Country radio news reports out of NM/Texas are reporting that Billy Bob Thornton has asked Dwight Yokum to arrange a new rendition of the song, "Ghost Riders in the Sky," for the soundtrack for All the Pretty Hor:wq :wq ses." As a fan of Dwights, it should be awesome!

• Lisa wrote (thanks!):
  for those who want to see SPR again it will be on the big screen again for a brief time beginning this weekend.
• Maria wrote (thanks!):
  I just listened to 3 interviews with Matt on the web, they are posted on the site of Holywood online. You might know about them, but in any case I thought it is interesting. The link is this. Check it out.