Welcome to the Matt Damon Column,
a forum for sharing news among Matt fans.

• For info: Anthony Minghella was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Honors list on 16 June.
• I found an interview with Ben in Clarin (Argentina paper) promoting Pearl Harbor, published Thursday. This is the rough Alta Vista translation - maybe someone can do it better (but it's perhaps more fun like this). Original source at http://www.clarin.com.ar/diario/2001-06-27/c-01201.htm
  Q- What you would do if you found out, for example, that your better friend, Matt Damon, one lay down with your fiancee? A - It would have to do just like I did to him to Josh Hartnett in the film: to stick a fragmentation hand grenade to him (laughter). Pero Matt and I have not had that experience exactly, so this is single a hypothetical question, but I am not safe... He would hurt to me, he would return to me crazy and finally he would ask to him: What? Eras heterosexual? (Laughter)
  Q - What pens�s of the project that it has with your brother Casey, to film a film in Argentina (they are rolling by these days, in the Rioja, directed by Gus Van Sant)? A - I was reading that script and it excited much to me. I was with other things and I could not participate. But it gave desire me to put to me to write. It would enchant to me to return to work with my two boys.
  Q - the relation that ten�s with Hartnett in Pearl Harbor is similar to whom ten�s with Matt in the life? A - the inverted rolls are something. Matt is two years greater than I and the personage of Josh is more like a smaller brother. But somehow I talked about my own life to do it because, in fact, I am an older brother. I felt identified in that to want to take care of to somebody, that it does not run risks, perhaps truncating its growth and not letting make it the things that it wants to do.
• The news of Jack Lemmon's death was unexpected, and marked the passing of an era. In 98, Lemmon and Matthau presented the Oscar to Matt and Ben, now they're both gone. And Matt appeared in his last film. A strange connection.

• Kristin wrote:
  I don't know if anyone else caught it, but I was flipping through the channels before going out last night and happened to see the movie The Good Old Boys on TNN. Actually, I first saw Tommy Lee Jones' name on the opening credits and somehow I remembered that Matt was in a cowboy movie with him a while ago. Then I saw Matt's name and was happy to have stumbled upon the movie. He looked very cute and as always, gave a wonderful performance. Now that I think about it, he's spent a lot of time acting on horses.
• From Felicity:
  • Finally, we have some news, and it probably signifies that Matt's finished in Argentina. From the Boston Globe Tuesday:
    Something borrowed
    There he was on a beautiful Sunday afternoon: Matt Damon posing for pictures with blushing brides. Could one of the country's most eligible bachelors, according to the infallible People magazine, be leaving life as a singleton? Nah. Damon was at the Andover Country Club golfing with his father, Kent, a club member, and two others. With three wedding parties celebrating their nuptials at the club, the word spread quickly that the actor was on the grounds. After finishing the 18th, Damon, ever the agreeable chap, waved, shook hands, and posed for pictures - no doubt delighting a few brides. As to the grooms, we're sure they took it in stride.
  • According to the Boston Herald, Ben's also in Boston.
  • To follow up on the People article - Meredith Salenger's official site: http://www.celebrityblvd.com/meredithsalenger/indexsalenger.htm
    From a fan site at http://www.webspawner.com/users/MeredithSalenger/:
    Meredith also completed working on another romantic comedy called, "Good Advice" with Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards. And has a turn in the new Mirimax romantic comedy, "The Third Wheel" which stars Luke Wilson, Denise Richards, Jay Lacopo, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
    Denise and Meredith did a television Pilot for ABC together in 1995 and have been great friends since then. They were so excited when they were cast to play best friends in this film as well. This film also puts Meredith in the film with her best friend from college, Matt Damon! Meredith and Matt went to Harvard together and met the first day of freshman year and became great friends! (After college... Matt set his two best pals up together - and Meredith and Ben started dating!)
    She also appeared in Glory Daze, as did quite a few of their friends.
  • A new pic from an ebay item: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1441999910
    (My note: We've seen this pic before, but it's worth seeing again. )
  • From the Marilyn Beck/Stacy Jenel Smith column:
    DOWN TIME: It looks like Matt Damon will have a spell of leisure. Since the beginning of the month he's been in Argentina making Gus Van Sant's low-budget "Jerry," but has no other projects set. "Jerry," which co-stars Casey Affleck, is being described as "Two Guys in the Desert." With a scant $7 million budget on the project, Damon's working for far -- far -- less than his usual salary, in exchange for a piece of the gross.
  • More information on the Howard Zinn project - from Digress Magazine (old article):
    DB: Just one more question that I have to ask. I have to hear about your miniseries.
    HZ: The miniseries?! What do you know about that?
    DB: Well, I know about your relationship with certain Hollywood superstars [Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, etc.]
    HZ: Oh, I see. Well, it came about because a Hollywood agent was having dinner with a friend of his who is a vice president with Fox television Leon Orman[?] named Marcy Pool. This agent, Paul Allen Smith, was told by the vice president that her boss at Fox asked her to find a big project, something that would make Fox look more serious (laughs). They felt Fox is sometimes looked upon contemptuously (and rightly so). So, she was telling him all this at dinner and he had just sort of become a "political person's agent", started listening to Noam Chomsky, started reading my stuff, and he said, well, how about A People's History of the United States as a big project and she said "Oh, I read it in college. Ill reread it over the weekend." She rereads it and says "ok, I'm going to pitch it to my boss, but before I pitch it to my boss, however, I've got to have some stars attached to it. Who'll we get? Ah! Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Good Will Hunting, all of that. So she got in touch with them and they immediately said yes. She approached her bosses and they said yes. And so, for a year- all of this is leading up to a collapse- we had meetings in L.A. and New York and Boston. Matt and Ben and I and Chris Nord[?], a producer of Good Will Hunting who's a friend of theirs- we began referring to ourselves as the Gang of Four- were going to be the executives producers on this project so that we could have total control over what happened. We had all these meetings and started making all these plans and we all got contracts and money. But after all that, Fox changed their minds.
    DB: With explanation?
    HZ: Well, we had hired a writer, a very good writer, a fellow who had worked with Warren Beatty on Bulworth, very left in fact. He wrote an outline for a 12 hour series. [Fox] looked at the outline and said "this isn't entertaining." That's exactly what they said, and they essentially said forget it. But I don't think it was the outline that turned them off. It was just that they had second thoughts. Maybe they finally read the book! (laughs) At first they were dazzled by stars and then they read the book and thought "are we really going to do this?" I'm just guessing about their motivation, but they left us and now we're looking for other networks. In fact, just two days ago, I had a conference call with Matt, Ben, and Chris. Matt was in South Carolina shooting a Robert Redford film, Ben Affleck had just finished a movie called Bounce, and Chris was just finishing a movie called Squelch (laughs). It was really funny. Basically we were going over our strategy. My agent, Paul Allen Smith- he had suddenly become my Hollywood agent- has been approaching these networks. NBC and ABC are interested, and TNT and HBO are interested. So, the four of us are talking in this conference call about when we can approach them. [Matt and Ben] are terrific guys. They're very socially aware and right on the ball. They see through all of the glitz and glitter of Hollywood even though it surrounds them all the time.

• From Felicity:
  Here's another photo (see right) from the Advocate, taken to promote Ripley. Is it on the web??
  It's the faded look (via my scanner), but it picks up the features better. Again, the colours could be really off.

• C. wrote:
  Hi! You don't think that's a totally hot picture of him? It's always been one of my favorites! It would be better if his hair was poofed up a little more, and with more of his blond showing through, but other than that I find the picture to be way, way, sexy. Just the way his whole... (okay, nevermind, it's not that kind of column.) I think the People spread is over-doing his "nice guy image" though. I don't think he's quite that squeaky clean.
  Just some quick thoughts on it. Keep up the excellent work!
  (Assuming that C. is referring to the feature pic of Matt on the scooter (from the "Ripley" shoot), I totally agree. I was reminded of the pic by Felicity, who sent in a version that she scanned. As I told her: I was seriously disappointed that Matt was never shown like that in "Ripley" - it could have stopped some of that talk about Jude Law being the better of the two. ).

• Val wrote:
  Read Franke's comments at:
  http://mrshowbiz.go.com/celebrities/interviews/611_1.html
  (Note: Franke is Matt's co-star in the upcoming "Bourne Identity", and she has a movie that's opening in this country - read the relevant parts of her comments below.)

• More news from Felicity, with commentary:
  • Excerpts from the Mr.ShowBiz article on Polenta:
    Are you still working on The Bourne Identity?
    We just wrapped the last scene in Greece; the rest was shot in Paris and [the Czech city of] Prague.
    Why was the release date moved back from early September to next year?
    [Nods] When I heard they wanted to have it ready for September, I was thinking, "No way to do it in the fall." We needed to shoot a bit more and it's a big thing to get us [Matt Damon, director Doug Liman, and Potente] together. It makes more sense this way. The strike would have made a problem for press.
    Did you worry that you'd feel lost in a big Hollywood production like Bourne, since you're used to smaller films?
    Amazingly, not really. Although everybody around me was fearing that and trying to prepare me for that. I'd done Blow, which was less money but more American than Bourne, which was shot in Europe. I was German in the movie and didn't have to transform into an American as I did for Blow. There were two major differences from my point of view. First, the language, and second, the director of photography leaves the camera to an operator. You talk a lot to the director of photography, and if it's an operator, sometimes you don't know the name of the guy. It's weird but OK.
    But wasn't this big-money, big-deal filmmaking?
    The money, it's $70 million and I didn't feel it, which is good. Sometimes I realized whenever decisions are to be made, like changing the script, you just couldn't do it � a lot of people would be involved. Frank Marshall was the producer and very cool. He'd always take the time to talk to us and I'm interested in the pre- and post-production of a movie as well.
    How did you like working with Matt Damon?
    Matt is good, he's very clear. We'd have endless discussions, especially with a thriller, to reconfirm where you stand, which was sometimes hard [for me] in English. And it was all men; I was the only woman there. All the producers, the director, Matt, everybody's a guy, and sometimes you come from a different standpoint if you're a woman, and Matt did a good job of listening to me and helping me.
    Do you think a high-profile film like Bourne will worsen your struggle with fame?
    I'm the total civilian in that story � and that's Franka with Hollywood. The normal girl suddenly thrown into thriller environment: "What the fuck is going on?" I'm more mature as the film goes, but in a metaphorical way, it's becoming an actress who's known. It's like entering Hollywood.
    I thought Franka's comments were fairly muted - Matt is good and clear?? She was briefly mentioned on ET today, but there was lot more text online, and no footage shown. Franka also has a major article in the LA Times today.
  • A night out by Courtney Love and Winona Ryder was in the NY Daily News a few days ago, and it's got a few other sources today. The relevance is summarised in USA Today:
    Love was out Monday for the New Group theater company spring gala in Manhattan. She was mobbed at the new Hugo Boss store on Fifth Avenue before a dinner at the Russian Tea Room. There, Love let loose, dancing on tabletops, making unprintable quips about Russell Crowe and Matt Damon. She and pal Winona Ryder joined in a duet of the Johnny Cash song Long Black Veil.
    As to why Courtney was making comments on Matt, who knows, but presumably it was the presence of Winona.
  • The quotes in People are strange, as none have commented publicly on Matt before. Meredith Salenger did go to Harvard with Matt and is a wannabe actress (appeared in Third Wheel). She has a website in which she mentions her friendship with Matt, but I've never seen her referenced before.
  • The latest Premiere magazine has a review of ATPH (pretty negative and asks where the extras on the DVD are), and a small item in the story on Tom Clancy (mostly relating to the Sum of All Fears film with Ben). Remember that Clancy has a framed poster of GWH in his home, and bonded with Ben when they met. From the mag:
    "The studio will likely recast [spin-off character John Clark, a free-wheeling CIA operative] the role once again before Rainbow Six starts filming, with an eye toward establishing another long-running franchise. And if Clancy has a say in it, someone along the lines of Matt Damon will play the part."

• Kelly of http://www.MattDamonFanPage.com/ wrote:
  ... Matt is on the cover of this week's US Weekly (attached small photo). There are several celebrities on the cover under the heading: "The Rules of Celebrity Dating." ... For some reason US Weekly never has good cover photos, and I don't think they picked a very good picture of Matt. They need to spend some money and do some actual cover shoots like Entertainment Weekly. ... Anyways, I haven't read the article yet, but it does include two small AP photos. One shows Matt with Penelope Cruz, and if I remember correctly the other shows Matt with Minnie Driver.
  BTW, the release dates listed in the People article are outdated. The Bourne Identity probably won't come out until Spring 2002. And The Third Wheel continues to be pushed back. There's a review of The Third Wheel on Dark Horizons (http://www.darkhorizons.com/reviews/00test.htm#Rev16) which says the movie is pretty bad. Although the review does say that Matt Damon's cameo is very funny.
  (I agree with Kelly about the quality of the US cover photos, and I also agree that the photo they chose of Matt is not the most flattering.)

• From Felicity:
  This is the text from ET's website: http://www.etonline.com/celebrity/a3839.htm Identity Crisis!
  June 20, 2001 MATT DAMON is jumping into another challenging role as he plays a man who wakes up without any memory -- but with plenty of enemies in his new thriller 'The Bourne Identity.' FRANKA POTENTE ('Run Lola Run') is the civilian that gets entangled in Matt's complicated world, especially when she becomes his lifeline and love interest.
  ET caught up with the actress fresh off the set, where she gave us some insight into the new flick. "'The Bourne Identity,'" Franka told ET, "is based on a ROBERT LUDLUM novel, who actually just died a few days ago. Matt is the character that has amnesia, and throughout the whole movie he tries to find out who he is. He bumps into this girl who he pays a lot of money to drive him from Zurich to Paris, and my character ends up being all intertwined ... I'm just the civilian in an action movie! And then we have a little romance thing going on, and there's much more...."
  How far does the romance go? As far as it possibly could, due to the cinematic circumstances! According to Franka, "I think that it's a nice romance if you keep in mind that it's a story about two people under complete pressure.... They're falling in love, it's a little like Romeo and Juliet since they really can't have each other because they're on the run, and they're about to die any second."
  From Universal, 'The Bourne Identity' is set for release in 2002 and is directed by DOUG LIMAN ('Swingers' and 'Go'). Co-starring in the spy thriller is CHRIS COOPER, CLIVE OWEN and JULIA STILES. Watch ET tonight for more details!
  ***
  Confirming the bad rumours - set for release in 2002?? I hope there's some footage and not just a brief chat with Franka.
• More from Felicity:
  Apparently Dateline NBC last night had a story on the bachelors, and Matt's in the top five (with Ben, George Clooney, Josh Hartnett and Russell Crowe). Apparently they didn't differentiate between the five, and all are on the cover.
  And ET had nothing on Bourne, as promoted. Maybe tomorrow, maybe later.
  Useless magazine alert: Don Cheadle's on the cover of Maximum Golf. Any comments re Ocean's Eleven/golf on set?
  From the Boston Herald:
  Hub is a man's whirl
  Who says there are no good men in Boston??? People maggie found six ``sexy, single, sizzling'' local guys to add to the ``Top 50 Bachelors'' issue for 2001.
  Now we're not math geniuses, but that means that around 12 percent of the nation's hunkiest guys are from this very city! And the hotties are: Cambridge homeys Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Red Sox shortstud Nomar Garciaparra, former New Kid On The Block Joey McIntyre, attorney Guy Zerola and Harvard Law student Shawn McDonald.
  ``Boston's a fabulous sports town and Nomar's really fabulous looking so that was a no-brainer,'' said People's Vick Boughton, who worked on the article. ``Joey's adorable and apparently very sweet to his fans. Matt and Ben are big, big stars - and available.''

• Matt's made the most eligible bachelors list in People (out today I think).
  Here's the page online: There's also a few photos there (see above), including the Premiere cover from last year.
  And the text:
  Matt Damon
  ACTOR
  AGE: 30
  HEIGHT: 5'11"
  "Better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody," said the title character of The Talented Mr. Ripley. The talented Matt Damon played the part, but he doesn't have that problem. The Cambridge, Mass., native is a Hollywood leading man (next up in September's The Bourne Identity), executive producer (of this fall's romantic comedy The Third Wheel) and, of course, Oscar winner (with his boyhood buddy Ben Affleck, 28, for their screenplay for 1997's Good Will Hunting). "I feel like it's an embarrassment of riches," Damon told Talk last January about his success. All that, and he's modest too. "He's always been sweet and honest and smart," says actress Meredith Salenger, 30 (Lake Placid), a pal since their Harvard days (Damon left with two semesters unfinished). Michael Nozik, 46, who produced The Legend of Bagger Vance, considers the star an "unaffected gentleman." Damon, who calls a Manhattan apartment home and has dated actresses Claire Danes, 22, Minnie Driver, 31, and Winona Ryder, 29, is currently unattached. Although perhaps not for long. "Women like nice guys," says Virginia Madsen, 39, his costar in 1997's The Rainmaker. "We may play with the bad boys, but we like the nice ones. And he's one of them."
• From an article with Vin Diesel:
  His imposing physique got him cast as the dangerous criminal Riddick in Pitch Black and his friendship with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck earned him a role as an illegal trader in Boiler Room.
• I've read a note that Matt and Ben went to an event in LA for Shaq last night, but I haven't confirmed it yet.

• From Rutso:
  Looking for Matt in PH is very much a needle in a haystack business -- so many trim guys with short haircuts (excluding only Josh's very unperiod but supercute mop). Here's something to watch for: The 1940's Boston Red Sox cap! White with a capital B, and the crown has lines that radiate from the crown to the edge of the cap. When? On PH day, as Josh goes to help the cameraman and Ben tells him it's too late to help him. Just a flash. A few minutes later, when the gunners have climbed the 10 floors to the top of the tower. Again just a flash. Finally, a long shot from behind. It's a quiet moment and we're looking from the airfield up into the sky. A few GIs are in the foreground and we see them from the back. The cap is a very odd detail, in my opinion, in that no one else is so out of uniform except for the leads' Hawaiian shirts. If it's Matt, I hope he had fun, but you'll see a thousand times more of him in Mystic Pizza or Glory Daze.

• News from Felicity:
  • Presumably this is true - from the Daily Southtown (Chicago) today (6/17):
    Star charting
    Ben Affleck and Matt Damon came into town a few days ago. The Hollywood actors arrived in the city to put the finishing touches on the movie "Stolen Summer," which they are producing and filming here. The movie is scheduled to wrap up shooting Saturday in Chicago. While in town, Damon stayed at the Ritz Hotel. Damon last was in Chicago for the filming of "Oceans Eleven," which also will star George Clooney. Damon and Clooney stay at the Ritz whenever they are in Chicago
  • From today (6/15)'s LA Times:
    Then, there are the movie cameos. This fall, Newton plays himself in the remake of the Rat Pack casino heist film "Ocean's Eleven" directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Newton fan Matt Damon, as well as George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. Newton also will appear in the upcoming teen flick "Who's Your Daddy?" as a "Hugh Hefner type" who dies in a boating accident. Damon is such a big fan that he recently bought out the Wayne Newton souvenir stand at the Stardust Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where Newton has a 10-year, $250-million deal to perform. Other fans include Billy Bob Thornton, Hootie & the Blowfish and 'N Sync. "I have never been one to chase fads," said Newton, who called us from his Las Vegas home. "Tony Bennett let the younger generation come to him. That's kind of what I've done."
  • (T)his was in Variety:
    As it opened, so did it close -- in a New Jersey prison, reports Jerry Weintraub as Steven Soderbergh and the ``Ocean's 11'' star-heavy troupe returned to L.A. Thursday (on sked). Weintraub also reports that the billing of the impressive group will be alphabetical. The pic preems Dec. 5 at the Bellagio in Vegas.
  • More on Wayne Newton from Stacy Jenel Smith/Marilyn Beck: This is a copy of the GWH ad on my wall - looks great http://www.angelfire.com/biz6/athena2/images/gwhbxad.jpg
    The youthful "Waniacs," as Newton's fans are known, began to include celebrities. Matt Damon and Billy Bob Thornton "practically bought out everything" at the Wayne souvenir stand after his Vegas show one night. "A few weeks later, I saw them on a talk show, and they were both wearing Wayne Newton hats," Newton proudly reports. Even more breathtaking, "Angelina Jolie was wearing a Wayne Newton pin in a photo that accompanied a story about her in a weekend newspaper supplement." Ben Affleck and members of 'N Sync have also made clear their fondness for Wayne.
  • From another review of Jay and Silent Bob on AICN: It also has the most references (both self-referential and pop culture-related) of any film. Some were funny, like Affleck and Damon bitching about all the crappy movies they have made and how they are obligated to pay back a filmmaker who gave them their start (wink, wink). Other ones were pretty hammy and predictable, like the Scooby-Doo parody.
• Cheryl wrote:
  I'd like to point out that Felicity wrote that Matt Damon had a cameo in Pearl Harbor. He did have a cameo but not as a young soldier getting sent to Normandy. We didn't start sending people to Normandy until well after Pearl Harbor. If I'm not mistaken, he was in the back of the plane with Josh Hartnett who played Danny. That was when they were on the mission to bomb Japan.

Kristin wrote:
I didn't read anything about the Headliners and Legends broadcast about Ben. I really enjoyed it. There were a lot of pictures of Matt, of course! Also, it was a really thorough, in depth look at Ben. It reminded me of what a good person Ben really is, and how much the two of them struggled before they made it on the A List! I hope to see a Headliners and Legends about Matt soon!

• Val wrote:
  The Mr. Showbiz website has updated their celebrity bios. Updated info has been added altho there are no new photos posted as of today.
  Check it out at :
  here.
• Felicity wrote:
  • Another area of quiet activism for Matt (I presume on behalf of his mother). From the NY Times:
    New Outcry Raised
    Against Channel One An unusual coalition of advocacy organizations and individuals in fields from pediatrics to politics is again asking marketers to stop advertising on Channel One, the division of Primedia that broadcasts daily programs and commercials to about 12,000 schools nationwide. The coalition has added members since it last sought to discourage Madison Avenue from using Channel One as an ad medium, including the United Methodist Church and the actor Matt Damon. Continuing members of the coalition, which first aimed protests at Channel One in early 1999, include conservative organizations like the American Family Association and the Eagle Forum; an organization founded by Ralph Nader, Commercial Alert; and groups that fight commercialism like the New Mexico Media Literacy Project.
    In letters to be sent today, the coalition contends that Channel One wastes taxpayers' money because pupils are required to sit through the programs and commercials and that it exposes children to spots with violent and antisocial content. Among the 39 marketers to which the letters will be sent are AOL Time Warner, the federal government and Procter & Gamble.
  • This is a truly strange follow-up to the ananova.com note about the "Pretty Boy Floyd" project. As reported in the Guardian:
    Maverick British director Ken Russell, whose credits include Women in Love, The Devils and The Lair of the White Worm, is lining up Gabriel Byrne and Friends star Matt LeBlanc for a biopic about the American gangster Pretty Boy Floyd. The �15m production will chronicle the rags to riches saga of the Robin Hood-style criminal during the Depression. "Ken rates Floyd more highly than Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde in terms of being a great character," an insider told Ananova. "He has been wanting to shoot a gangster story with a twist for the best part of 30 years." Filming is expected to start early next year once Russell has finished work on The Fall of the House of Usher.
    I think we can safely say that Matt won't be involved in this one. But Russell's version of 'Women in Love' was wonderful...
  • And the moving 'Bourne Identity' release date continues to worry me (it was scheduled to be released in Australia in October, which would have been great). Now??
  • More filming in Paris for Bourne?? Presumably Matt went from Greece to Paris to Argentina. Poor guy...
    From the National Post today:
    - Some star sightings from Paris. Although I was there last week en vacances, trying to take a break from my dish duties, I inadvertently kept running into big movie stars. Maybe it's a strange disease I just can't shake. First, I spotted Matt Damon; then I came head to head with Mark Wahlberg. In one day! First, here's the Damon Low-Down: He's in France filming The Bourne Identity, a movie based on the Robert Ludlum novel and directed by Swingers director Doug Liman. I spotted Matt on Rue de Rivoli near the Louvre where he was filming a wintertime scene. Dressed in a bulky winter coat and chunky black boots (which helped sorta in giving the height-hindered actor a little boost). Went through several Marlboros during a break. Smiled warmly to passersby, flashing that Downey-white smile of his.
  • I don't know about your times over there, but newsaskew.com writes that a segment on Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back will air today on ET.
    (I happened to catch the segment. It has a mentioning of Matt in passing. Ben was shown talking to a computer screen, and said something to the effect that "if it's a Miramax movie, then it's got to have Ben Affleck or Matt Damon in it.")

• Felicity wrote:
  • From upcomingmovies.com
    Bourne Identity
    Release Date: TBA 2001/2002 (originally scheduled for September 7th, 2001; Universal has decided to release The Musketeer then instead, and is looking for a new release for this; I'm guessing 2002)
    Ocean's Eleven has been moved up three weeks til December 7 (previously December 25).
    The website for Bourne never mentioned a date, and still doesn't. Ocean's website still states Christmas 2001.
  • (Casting news that may or may not be true) from ananova.com (a UK site which does bring up some weird casting news):
    Oldman and Damon to star in Pretty Boy tale
    Gary Oldman is set to team up with Matt Damon in a new biopic about the American gangster Pretty Boy Floyd.
    Ken Russell wants the British star to play the criminal who robbed banks and burned poor farmers' mortgage deeds.
    His �15 million movie Pretty Boy focuses on the rise and fall of the flamboyant criminal during the pre-War Depression era.
    Russell wants to shoot it early next year in locations close to the Great Lakes and Chicago.
    He hopes to tempt Damon into playing the police chief who finally tracks Floyd down and offers him freedom.
    American starlets Claire Danes and Reese Witherspoon are in the frame to play Floyd's high-school sweetheart.
    A source told Ananova: "Ken rates Floyd more highly than Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde in terms of being a great character.
    "He has been wanting to shoot a gangster story with a twist for the best part of 30 years."
    (Added Felicity):
    Gary Oldman is a wacky character, and Ken Russell's films can be a little bizarre. I'm not too sure about the combination!

• From the Big Matt Fan:
  • Ananova.com sure has a lot of casting news that doesn't show up anywhere else. This last bit sounds like wishful thinking, but I suppose it's always possible. Seems strange to think of Matt as a police chief (you tend to imagine him as the youthful rookie cop), but perhaps that makes the story interesting. What is pleasing is this latest evidence that directors like Matt. Thanks, again, Felicity.
  • Re: Inside the Actor's Studio with Robin Williams. It was a fun two hours, though it came across more as a improv show than an in-depth interview (the man cannot sit still for five minutes). He answered every serious question with an extended comic riff. Not much mention of Matt. The interviewer mentioned a few of Ben's comments from his appearance on the show (that Matt and Ben were impressed by his work ethic, that he did the film for less money than usual). Robin said something to the effect that when the script is that good, you don't turn it down because of money. When asked about the Oscar experience, he went into to a slow motion re-enactment of the event: "Maaaaaaaatt!" (simulating a hug) "Beeeeeeen!" (simulating a handshake). It was a hilarious show, though less revealing than you'd expect.
  • RE: Matt as an in-demand party guest. Loved to hear that. We've heard about how his ability to mingle makes him a desirable guest in London. I suppose that applies over the pond as well, especially given the the rarity of his appearances. Matt doesn't seem to party just for the sake of partying, though he probably could if he wanted.

• Upcoming TV alert (from Felicity):
  On NBC's Headliners and Legends with Matt Lauer, the Ben interview will be broadcast Tuesday June 12 at 10pm EST. That's the one that filmed at the Southie bar in Boston trying to get quotes. Should have some Matt content.
  And is the Robin Williams special on the 10th?
  (Anyone who catches these shows/segments, please kindly drop me a line. Thanks.

• Kelly wrote:
  I haven't been able to access the Column for a while (fortunecity appears to be down) so I don't know if anyone else sent this in...
  There's a review of the the Dogma Special Edition DVD on the NewsAskew website at http://newsaskew.com/dvd/dogmase/. The DVD comes out in two weeks!
  Indeed fortunecity.com, the host of this site, was out of commission for a few days. I too was concerned, but fortunately (no pun intended) we are back online. Thanks to all who wrote to express concern.

• Very quiet as usual. And I wouldn't expect any news for another month with Matt in Argentina. But the photos from Greece were nice.
• An old, short Pretty Horses interview
• In the current edition of the British magazine Empire (Ben cover) there's an article on Franka Potente.
  Could Kerry or one of the UK readers check that one out?? Thanks.
• This is the source for the possible project with Paul Newman (umm, Matt playing an Austrian?) From ananova.com on 1 May this year:
  Newman and Damon pair up for new project
  Paul Newman and Matt Damon are expected to team up to make the new �50 million action thriller Josiah's Canon.
  Newman has been talked into making the movie by director Tony Scott.
  The 1960s story focuses on a Holocaust survivor and former safe cracker who returns to Europe from the US to plan a heist on a Swiss bank.
  He is inspired by reports that they hold the riches deposited by German Jews who perished in concentration camps.
  Damon will play his young Austrian sidekick.
  An insider told Ananova: " Newman makes very few movies these days and needs something very special to drive him back to work.
  "Working with Damon was one thing. He rates him very highly. But the story won him over."
  Scott's previous blockbusters include Crimson Tide and Enemy of the State.
• I found an old story from 'W' magazine on the 20 most-sought after party guests in America. Matt made number 15 on the list (those above him included Bill Gates, the Clintons, and Brad Pitt as the only other movie star). "...W noted, all those on its list "are hot for the oldest reason in the book: They're hard to get."

• Val sent in this Yahoo article:
  Monday June 4, 10:30 am Eastern Time
  OUTSIDE THE BOX: Good Will Hunting Going for the Kill, Shelley Souza, Optionetics.com
  Matt Damon and Ben Affleck may have found a way to get ahead of the curve. They�re treading where others have tried and lost their footing. In a daring plot of sorts, they�ve teamed up with Chris Moore, a producer of Good Will Hunting, the movie that shot Damon and Affleck into stardom, to create LivePlanet�a boundary-crossing production company that hopes to merge television reality drama with the Internet.
  Next season, ABC will pilot a show called The Runner, in which an ordinary person becomes, like The Fugitive, the object of a nationwide manhunt. All they will have is a car, a credit card and a cell phone. They will have to perform a series of tasks in public while escaping detection. At the same time as being filmed by a camera crew, the runner�s actions will be plotted online. Internet users will be able to discuss the action as well as try to catch the runner by following clues that provide the runner�s location. If the runner succeeds in remaining free for 28 days, they will win $1 million. Anyone who catches the runner stands to be awarded up to $1 million.
  The idea originated with Sean Bailey, who was fascinated by the television program The Fugitive. Bailey, 31, is the producer for LivePlanet; Chris Moore is the CEO. It�s not entirely obvious what positions Affleck and Damon hold in the film/television/Internet company except that they are co-founders and business partners. Affleck at least is on the Board, and it�s clear that both are active in bringing sponsors to the table, as well as creating (in addition to The Runner) the different projects being launched by the company.
  The logistics for pulling off the The Runner will be a recurring nightmare for some poor production assistant, no doubt. Making sure the runner isn�t stalked or attacked; getting clearance from all sorts of people who will inadvertently a ; making sure that the Internet site doesn�t go down for any technical reason whatsoever; and on and on. But if LivePlanet and ABC pull it off, they will change the face of reality television a whole lot more than Survivor did (which is now under investigation, according to reports last week, for rigging votes). And they may reconfigure players on the Internet.
  In the early days (around 1996), several soap opera type-sites went up�the most famous being The Spot, in which Internet users were able to follow the daily lives of the characters via the characters� journals/diaries. The site eventually folded because it could not generate sufficient revenue to cover running costs. LivePlanet is no different in having to take on the perennial problem of attracting advertising sponsorship and private investment. But with the growth of technology, and the company�s multimedia plans to combine traditional film and television with a live event that simultaneously tracks over the Internet, LivePlanet may provide the right building blocks to a new way to play old games. It�s not clear yet whether the company will eventually go public. But it has traditional venture capital money which indicates there�s a good chance that sometime in the future it could be a possibility.
• Felicity wrote:
  • This was in a Billy Bob article at the weekend, from the Irish Times:
    'What's hard sometime, with a part like this film for the Coens, or Sling Blade, where you tow the line, so to speak, is that you have to reserve yourself at all times and remain in the character and resist the temptation to be noticed. In this movie, I'm probably a guy who only wants to find out if there's somewhere he belongs, if there's some place he can go. I found out that for myself in a lot of ways in terms of the movie business, because I don't really feel very much a part of it. I've retired.'
    Is that due to frustration with the treatment of his work as a director? 'You mean, with All the Pretty Horses?,' he asks immediately. His ambition with that film was to turn Cormac McCarthy's acclaimed novel into an epic western in the spirit of John Ford. It stars Matt Damon and Henry Thomas as two young Texans who, in the late 1940s, travel to Mexico, lured by the romance of cowboy life south of the border, and Penelope Cruz as the landowner's daughter with whom Damon gets involved. Thornton's original cut on this dollars 45 million movie ran to four hours and he was willing to cut it down to three. However, after it had undergone the notorious screen testing process in the US, it was pared down to just over two hours.
    'I had no idea it would take me three years to pull off All the Pretty Horses, and that film was a nightmare,' he says ruefully. 'A real nightmare because they wouldn't let me do it the way I wanted to. We shot it the way I wanted to. In fact, making the movie was one of the most best experiences I've ever had, but the aftermath was a pure nightmare.
    'They cut it to shreds and took the score out. But I have nothing against anybody. I'll say, 'Hi, how are you? Nice to see you. No, thank you.' My experience on All the Pretty Horses made me tired and not feeling like fighting the system anymore. But I think all that fighting about the film was a good experience for me in the end, because it made me realise that you're never going to win if you're going to play in that world. So I just refuse to be in that world.
    'Then I showed Angie Mr Smith Goes to Washington recently, because she had never seen it, and there's a line in it that goes: lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for. So I'm going to keep doing it, but I'm not going to do it in their world. I'm going to do it in mine and hopefully you guys in the press will like it. The studios aren't the ones ultimately who tell people about a movie. They can put up all the billboards they want, but in the end it's the press who tell people what they need to hear.'
  • A report on LivePlanet with no new information from optionetics.com: http://biz.yahoo.com/opt/010604/un_azqjhi4mhgnbnmrwgng.html
  • And a LivePlanet press release on current projects: http://news.excite.com/news/bw/010604/ca-liveplanet
  • From the NY Post column on winners and losers of the week:
    June 3, 2001 -- Winners
    Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
    The celebrity buddies drew snickers when they launched their content company Live Planet - but now they have a show hitting ABC and are in talks with Yahoo! about "Yahoo! TV."
• QUOTES FROM MATT DAMON, sent in by Rachel:
  " As a little kid I used to think that I was a superhero. Once I climbed up this jungle gym. I had a little blue towel around my neck. I screamed "SHAZAAM" and jumped and I didn't fly! I went straight down. I was four years old."
  " When I was a kid, I was always recruiting my friends for plays. There are all theses picture of me and my neighbors dressed as firemen, and they're always standing next to me, not really knowing why we were doing it."
  " I don't care if I am nominated for 'Best Moron' "
  "People think Ben Affleck and I are gay. Well, it's not true. But if I were, then Brad Pitt would be one of the posters on my wall. I look at Brad and know that I could and I will not ever look like that.
  " Everyone's felt like an outsider. I was short-like 5 feet 2 inches-until my junior year in high school, so my sophomore year was terrifying."

• Cass wrote:
  I've translated an article from (a newspaper "Clarin" in Argentina):
  Matt Damon (and Casey Affleck) are going to film in Salta
  Matt Damon and Gus Van Sant, the star and the director od Good Will Hunting are goint to come to Salta (Argentina) to make a film starting 8 th. of june. The movie will be called Jerry, and has to be finished in 20 days, in order to be ready before the actor's strike in Hollywood. The film is going to cost 7 millions dollars. About the plot, we know it's about the adventures of two friends in a desert. The other star will be Casey Affleck, Ben's brother and Damon's old friend.
  
• Kelly wrote:
  Has anyone sent in any more information about a Matt Damon cameo in Pearl Harbor? I went and saw the movie but didn't see Matt anywhere.
  (No, No more word on it. If Matt does show up in it, it must have been hard to spot.)
• I received this note from the writer who interviewed Matt:
  I recently saw on your site that you had posted the interview I had wrote entitled "Behind the Scenes With Matt Damon." It's fine that Allison submitted my article to your site, but i was wondering if you could change me from being "one of four grandsons to Saul Zaentz" to just his great nephew (which I really am.) If you want to put, my father, Paul Zaentz, is also a producer who has worked on 'The English Patient," ""At Play In The Fields of The Lord," etc. and also "The Talented Mr. Ripley", where on the set I first met Matt.
  I also wanted to say that if you haven't met him, Matt is one of the nicest people I have encountered, not only as a celebrtiy, but as a human being. He is a very generous, down to earth person who is easy to get along with and I had a great time chatting with him on the set.
• Val as well as a couple others (thank you all!) sent in this news article :
  Hollywood turf wars break out. Excerpt:
  Patrick Whitesell's departure from CAA in February fanned the flames of rivalry, as did the accompanying defections of Whitesell clients Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore and Matt Damon. What enticed them is the same carrot Endeavor dangled in front of many top agents and clients perceived to be dissatisfied with CAA: an alternative to that agency's greatest strength and most prominent liability -- its sheer size.
• And a followup note from the Big Matt Fan:
  Anyone see that IFC commercial Matt did a few years ago with Edward Norton? In it, Norton tells Matt something along the lines of, "That's the problem with CAA. They steer you away from all the art projects." At the time, Matt was with CAA. Norton was with Endeavor.
  I think Matt followed Whitesell out of loyalty. He was, after all, the guy who got "Good Will Hunting" sold at a time when Matt and Ben were unknown both as writers and actors. I don't know if Endeavor will be better or worse for Matt. As the article notes, there are advantages to belonging to a major agency like CAA. However, Endeavor certainly seems to be making a name for itself.
• Reggie and a few others also sent in this article:
  Anderson Jones reports on Ben's potential solo writing career at eonline.com.
• And thank you to Brain (email name) for this note:
  Hi here are some school ties stills off ebay. Matt in a few of them.
  Also it was in a magazine,today saying : German tourists stopped at a gas station and asked a guy whether he knew where any famous peoples houses were. The guy said he doesn't know the area very well, and the tourists left. The guy turned out to be none other than Matt Damon!

• Sent in by the Big Matt Fan:
  AP Entertainment
  Damon Keeps Low Profile in Greece
  MYKONOS, Greece (AP) -- Matt Damon plays a man with amnesia in his next movie, but he's not forgotten about his star power.
  Damon and the rest of the cast of ''The Bourne Identity'' are trying to keep a low profile on the holiday island of Mykonos to avoid a crush of fans. Still, word leaked out and photos of the Oscar winner appeared in celebrity pages of Greek newspapers Wednesday.
  The movie is based on a Robert Ludlum novel about an international terrorist who is shot in the head and loses his memory. The movie also stars Julia Stiles and Clive Owen.
  (Several others also sent in this same item - thanks.)
  Damon won an Oscar with his best friend Ben Affleck for the screenplay of 1997's ''Good Will Hunting.''
  Here's a small blurb from Dark Horizon.
  The Bourne Identity: The Greek press reports that Matt Damon and Franka Portente have been on the Greek island of Mykonos for a 5-day stint on this film version of Ludlum's spy thrller.

• And from Felicity:
  Remember the eonline movie scoop story at the time of the Greenlight party (March?) which said that Matt had one week of re-shoots left for Bourne in Paris. Somehow it's been moved to Greece (and on a major tourist island close to the start of summer), but it was planned.
  Greek newspapers look to be a nightmare to translate, but watch www.athensnews.gr(weekly updates, nothing there at the moment).
  (H)ere's something to check out - national English newspapers: http://www.greece.gr/GENERAL/newsroom.htm.
  I still can't find anything from the Greek papers, but here's a snippet on Jerry from Ben, taken from an interview with a London paper:
  As for the promised follow-up writerly effort, Affleck has written nothing since. "The window you have as an actor is narrow," he says. "As a consequence of struggling to be an actor for so many years, you feel this compulsion to automatically keep working. Although I was reading over something that my brother Casey and Matt Damon are working on and it got me all interested in writing again."

• Daniel Holmes wrote:
  I'm having a contest to win an autographed color 8 X 10 photo of Matt Damon. Runners up will win a copy of "Talented Mr. Ripley" on VHS. Just visit http://members.aol.com/lholmes11/mdamon.htmlto enter.
  Thanks,

• And, in response to the question "Why Greece?", the Big Matt Fan wrote:
  Bourne is fished out of the Mediterranean near the beginning of the film, so it makes sense to shoot on a Greek island. Thoughts on this latest news:
  1) Are they doing re-shoots? Not a great sign at this late date.
  2) Could they be doing publicity shots? In the book, Bourne and the doctor are the only major characters at that point. However, the article says the "cast" was there.
  3) This is news? Though I'm always glad to read more about Matt, this bit of celebrity spotting seems a rather trivial matter for the news wire. Could this be some advance publicity? Or is this really just a slow day in entertainment news?
  4) Love to see the photos, though. Wouldn't you?
  What do you think?
  BTW: Here's the cover of the latest edition of the book (see right).

• As we suspected, Matt could be there in an obscure cameo. One review said: The bright note in the film, for me anyway, were the number of cameos. Including Matt Damon. Who plays a young private about to ship out to Normandy.
• Also, some posters on the View Askew web-board is upset that someone on KROQ radio called Ben the less talented friend of Matt Damon.
• If anyone wants it, the chat with Ben Affleck is now available as a transcript at here.
  One question of relevance, which confirms the Argentina report:
  nicholebowers: What's your brother Casey up to?
  ben_affleck_chat: Casey is doing Oceans 11 right now alongside such little-known actors as
  ben_affleck_chat: Julia Roberts
  ben_affleck_chat: Brad Pitt
  ben_affleck_chat: and Matt Damon.
  ben_affleck_chat: And George Clooney.
  ben_affleck_chat: And he and Matt are going to go do a movie with Gus Van Sant.
  ben_affleck_chat: They're shooting in Argentina in a couple of weeks.
  ben_affleck_chat: The movie is tentatively called "The Jerry" or "The Big Jerry".
  And:
  thejizosh: Ben, whats up with affleck.com??
  ben_affleck_chat: Ran into some server problems
  ben_affleck_chat: so we took it down while building liveplanet.
  ben_affleck_chat: There's some weird thing on there now.
  ben_affleck_chat: it's not me.
  ben_affleck_chat: I don't know how they squatted on there.
  ben_affleck_chat: It'll be back up in a month or two.
  ben_affleck_chat: It's some weird gay Matt Damon thing.
  ben_affleck_chat: I left it up there b/c I thought it was funny.
  

Click on a link

Still photos from Good Will Hunting.
USA Weekly November 2000 article, "Ace of Clubs" yy Craigh Barboza.
Local boys making 'Good' a Boston Herald article from the GWH days
The Advocate (12/99) interview by Brendan Lemon.
Some of my personal favorite pictures of Matt
The Talented Mr.Ripley page
The All the Pretty Horses page
The Bagger Vance page
Matt at Fenway Park for the 1999 Major League Baseball All Stars
The Details magazine article, as appeared in the London Telegraph.
Janel Maslin's NY Times Review of GWH , in which she called Matt "very much the supernova".
An article about pre-GWH videos of Matt Damon/
Archive of Past Matt Columns

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