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

Updated 9/10/2000

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"That Matt Damon is going places", Gregory Peck, 1998. . .

• Kathryn of Edinburgh wrote:
  Found this in today's Daily Mail (UK) Hollywood gossip column:
  A STAR IS BOURNE
  Cameras flash, hot television camera lights illuminate Franka Potente - but she's oblivious to them. That's the mark of the star Ms. Potente is about to become. She's already achieved international recognition thanks to the cult success Run, Lola, Run made with her lover, director Tom Tykwer. Now Franka's about to run a few rungs further up the star ladder when she begins filming with Matt Damon in a big budget Hollywood film, The Bourne Identity, shooting next month in Paris and Prague. She was in Venice for the world premiere of her latest collaboration with Tykwer, The Princess and the Warrior, a compelling contemporary comedy about a petty crook who saves a psychiatric nurse from certain death. Of course, they fall in love. Handsome Benno Furmann plays her on-screen partner. In The Bourne Identity, Franka plays a woman who becomes embroiled with a man on the run. "Matt Damom turns up riddled with bullet holes and a microchip embedded under his skin with numbers for a Swiss bank account. He may be a hired assassin. He kidnaps a local girl - me - and because he has amnesia he can't remember how to drive. So I drive him, trying to escape men who want the microchip," a breathless Franka told me.
  ---
  I don't think they'd consider Edinburgh for a location for this type of film, damn it, lol. I also think that, though it's based on a book, the roles would be more interesting had they been reversed - she kidnaps him, riddled with bullet holes and a microchip embedded in her skin. To my mind that would be more interesting as the more I think about it, the more this sounds (of course with the words "big budget" and "Hollywood") like a Patriot Games-type scenario with the obligatory female. Maybe it's just me.
  I agree with Kathryn - her story would be more interesting and more modern-day.
• More finds from Felicity:
  • From the Daily Yomiuiri(?),
    THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES--THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
    By Howard Zinn
    Read by Matt Damon
    Harper Collins, six cassettes, 24 dollars
    The story of America told from the bottom up by the pioneering social historian who is determined to disprove Henry Kissinger's lofty dictum that "history is the memory of states." Zinn trawls through sources that traditional historians used to relegate to the edges to tell this compelling and radical narrative. As Zinn says in a preface in his own voice, before the sonorous tones of Matt Damon take over, he favors "creative history" which fights against the historians' collusion in the oppression and injustice that has accompanied the so-called "march of progress" down the ages. At six hours in length, the endless litany of woe does need to be interspersed with lighter fare, but Zinn's unearthing of sources is fantastically interesting, and this amounts to a devastating indictment of American power structures.
  • A Ben article with lots of Matt references, from the NY Times: Ben Affleck Shocker: I Bargained With Devil for Fame By FRANZ LIDZ Steve Goldstein for The New York Times Ben Affleck: He plays a very lucky man in "Bounce," opening next month.
    HOLLYWOOD -- The door of the Hollywood Hills Cafe opens and Ben Affleck appears like an usher remembered from a 3 a.m. awakening in some all-night moviehouse. You sort of expect him to have a flashlight in his hand as he points you toward the back room, a dim alcove with the faintly menacing air of a Capone-era speakeasy. "If you say the code word," he jokes, "you can go in and they'll serve you gin."
    Mr. Affleck fires up a Camel Light with an elbow-cocked rakishness that William Powell might envy. "There are very draconian smoking laws in Los Angeles," he says, sheepishly. "I hate smoking. It's a terrible thing."
    Dressed in dharma-bum blue denim, eyes daring and mischievous, the 28-year-old actor puffs and puffs and ponders his place in the tabloid pantheon. Since wafting into the public consciousness three years ago in "Good Will Hunting" � a film for which he shared a screenwriting Oscar with his co- star and Little League teammate, Matt Damon � Mr. Affleck has emerged as one of Hollywood's major heart flutters. When his new romantic drama, "Bounce," is released on Oct. 13, cardiologists across the country will be on call.
    The supermarket press has spied Mr. Affleck buying out the condoms in a 7- Eleven in Wisconsin, and affianced him to innumerable actresses, some of whom he has even met. His on-again, off-again entanglement with his "Bounce" co-star, Gwyneth Paltrow � this week off � was the subject of more speculation than the last Mideast peace summit meeting.
    "Tabloid stories are what I imagine patients' diaries are like in lunatic asylums," says Mr. Affleck. "They're always about storming out of rooms and falling in love with 17 different people." He inhales deeply, crushes out his cigarette, shreds a paper napkin. Well aware that being too famous is not the sort of personal problem that elicits much sympathy, Mr. Affleck shrugs: "Those of us who have agreed to this Faustian bargain deserve our drubbings at the hands of the Fourth Estate. We entered into the agreement willingly."
    Mr. Affleck gets drubbed all the time � most recently for cracking that Ms. Paltrow is "actually the funny, down-to-earth fat girl in the beautiful girl's body."
    He sweeps the napkin bits into a pile, lights another Camel, exhales deeply: "I hesitate to elaborate for fear of another pounding at the hands of fat girls offended by the assumption that they are either funny or down-to-earth." Laughing gleefully, he rends another napkin. "I apologize. Fat people can be just as aloof and dull as center-of- the-bell-curve-shaped people."
    A 6-foot-3-inch buffed block of granite with a top-heavy build that leaves his arms hanging wide, Mr. Affleck is hardly aloof and anything but dull. Though he seems like the smart-aleck towel-snapper you avoided in gym class, he is, by Mr. Damon's account, "charismatic, loyal, a fantastic storyteller and a great friend who can laugh even when things go terribly, terribly wrong."
    Mr. Affleck, he says, shares those endearing attributes with Dickie Greenleaf, the doomed playboy in "The Talented Mr. Ripley." "Unlike Dickie, Ben has survived," says Mr. Damon, who played that film's murderous Mr. Ripley.
    "So far."
    Ms. Paltrow demurs. "I know what Matt means," she says. "Ben is affable and charming and people are sort of drawn to him. But to me, the movie character he's closer to is Will Hunting: they're both disarmingly quick, fiercely intelligent and, in some ways, underachievers. Though Ben had almost perfect SAT scores in high school, his grades varied wildly depending on his attendance and level of interest." By his own account, Mr. Affleck was often absent and mostly uninterested.
    "There's a huge chasm between the public and the private Bens," Ms. Paltrow says. "In quiet moments, Jocular Ben transforms into Contemplative Ben. He's not vulnerable right away; it takes ages to get to that part of him. I like him in all his incarnations."
    Born in Berkeley, Calif., Mr. Affleck grew up a block and a half from Mr. Damon in Cambridge, Mass. Perhaps inspired by a television doctor-drama, Chris and Tim Affleck named their sons Ben and Casey. (Casey, also an actor, can be forever grateful his parents weren't Marcus Welby fans.)
    Chris taught school, and Tim performed in the Theater Company of Boston with Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall and Blythe Danner, Ms. Paltrow's mother.
    "James Woods told me that my father got him into acting," Ben says. "He said, `I was at M.I.T. and your dad advised me to go for it.' I called Dad, who said, `The way I remember it, I told him he should finish college.' "
    An aspiring playwright, Tim had briefly dropped out of his Rhode Island high school to make a pilgrimage to Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner.
    "It's a famous family story," Ben says. "My dad drove down to Oxford, Miss., got directions at a general store and knocked on Faulkner's door. When a guy appeared, my dad said, `Hey, are you William Faulkner?' The guy, badly hung over, asked, `Are you a writer?' Dad shook his head no, and Faulkner said, `All right then, come on in.' "
    Tim Affleck's life has also been clouded by alcoholism. He bounced from job to odd job � working construction, mopping floors at Harvard � the same career moves Will Hunting later made. Ben's parents divorced when he was 11, and his mother raised the boys on her own. "Ben had a difficult childhood, but not a nightmarish one," Ms. Paltrow says. "He loves both his parents dearly."
    Ben's father stopped drinking in 1990, and he now works as a counselor at an alcohol- rehabilitation center in California. "The most enduring lesson my father taught me is the degree to which it's possible to change your life and patterns," he says with a humility befitting a lifelong Red Sox fan. "It gives me hope that with the right amount of work and discipline, I can address and remedy some of the things I don't like very much about myself."
    Biz, as his friends called him, sprang half- formed into acting. By 14, he had landed roles in everything from a PBS science series to Burger King commercials. "I pushed to do as much as my mother would let me," he says. "She was worried that I wouldn't become a normal person. She wanted me to be a history teacher."
    Ms. Affleck stashed her son's earnings in a college trust fund. Ben had other ideas for the swag, and, at 15, conned bank tellers into allowing him to sign withdrawal chits. "I spent $200 a week on pizza, beer and video games," he recalls. "I'd intercept the monthly bank statements and hide them under my mattress."
    The scheme unraveled one day when Ms. Affleck changed her son's sheets. "I don't know which was more embarrassing," Mr. Affleck says. "Was it the fact that Mom had discovered the bank statements or that she had changed my sheets?"
    Convinced Ben was a crack addict, she demanded he enter a recovery center. He bargained her down to three weeks in Outward Bound. Mr. Affleck remembers floating down the Colorado River as a raft full of troubled teenagers recited their transgressions. "One said, `I assaulted a cop,' " he says. "Another said, `I dealt weed.' Then it was my turn. I said, `I stole money from myself.' "
    To appease his mother, Mr. Affleck enrolled at the University of Vermont. He quit after one semester and headed west to become an actor. His ascent was not unfettered. Typecast as a lamebrained lummox, he couldn't seem to catch a break. He had lots of small parts in lots of small films, including "School Ties" (Mr. Affleck as a bullying preppy), "Dazed and Confused" (Mr. Affleck as a bullying druggie) and "Mallrats" (Mr. Affleck as a bullying bully).
    He made a modest dash to daylight as the sweet-natured, lesbian-loving cartoonist in the 1997 indie hit "Chasing Amy." "I had to find a way to make people think I could be a leading man," he says. "Otherwise, I'd never get the girl."
    Though he never got Amy, he did get an Academy Award for "Good Will Hunting." The back story has become as much a part of Hollywood lore as Lana Turner and the drugstore: in 1992, Mr. Damon wrote a short story for a class at Harvard, abandoned his studies and moved to a two-bedroom house in Los Angeles. One night Mr. Affleck, having been dumped by his girlfriend, showed up with all his belongings and became part of the couch. Together, they turned the short story into a screenplay, then jeopardized the sale by insisting that only they could play the leads. Castle Rock bought the script and dumped it; Miramax swooped in and made it.
    Mr. Damon played Will Hunting, a mathematics prodigy; Mr. Affleck, his wisecracking sidekick, Chuckie. "We always thought of Chuckie as kind of the Mercutio character," Mr. Affleck says. "He got to do all the fun stuff." The actors' friendship infused the film: their best scenes are boyish badinage.
    "The success of the film changed the way Hollywood looked at Ben," Mr. Damon says. "Suddenly, he was the bronzed god in `Armageddon' who flew into outer space to blow up an asteroid. It was hilarious."
    The joke wasn't lost on Mr. Affleck. "I've made mistakes because I was trying to do something different and interesting," he says. "I don't suffer so much from lazy choices as probably overthinking."
    Ms. Paltrow, who first worked with Mr. Affleck in "Shakespeare in Love," suggests he may not be overthinking as much as underestimating. "Ben doesn't take the roles that would challenge him most," she laments, "nor does he appear in the films that would take him closest to his emotional fabric."
    She isn't afraid to name names. Besides "Armageddon," she fingers "Forces of Nature" and Disney's "Pearl Harbor," a $135 million machine-gun wedding of "From Here to Eternity" and "Saving Private Ryan" that will open in May. "Those films don't push Ben, make him expand as an actor," Ms. Paltrow says. "He's capable of so much more."
    It was Ms. Paltrow who persuaded Mr. Affleck to do "Bounce," a film about a swinging ad executive who gives a man his seat on a flight that later crashes, and then falls in love with the victim's widow. "Gwyneth wrassled him into it," says the director, Don Roos. "She brought Ben the script and read it through with him. I think he only signed on because she wanted him to."
    Mr. Roos may be onto something. "At first, I thought my character was too old for me," Mr. Affleck says. "But Gwyneth made a convincing pitch. She said, `I know you can do this, and I want other people to know you can do this.' "
    Mr. Affleck brings more than a melting smile to the adman, Buddy Amaral. And he achieves a close give-and-take with Ms. Paltrow; he actually listens to his co-star, and he listens with the whole tilt of his body. "In their scenes together, Ben really looks like he's in love with Gwyneth," Mr. Roos coos. "I don't know, maybe it's not love. It's definitely not the way he looks at me."
    Or Mr. Damon, for that matter. "We're just friends," Mr. Affleck says, deadpan. "We root for each other and enjoy each other's successes. It's what makes us great business partners." Among their many joint projects are an Internet screenplay contest and an HBO adaptation of Howard Zinn's contrarian book "A People's History of the United States." "We don't plan to act in it," Mr. Affleck says. "Our role is producorial."
    Producorial?
    "It's like professorial except it requires no accreditation, no intelligence and no actual expertise, which is why we qualify."
    Arching his back and waving languidly toward a waitress, Mr. Affleck exposes a smeary splotch on his right shoulder. "I was 16," he says, blushing. "I got a fake ID, went out and got a tattoo of barbed wire. Then I decided I didn't like the tattoo." He had roses etched over the barbed wire. "I decided I didn't like the roses, either." Hence, the splotch.
    "You get to be my age, there's real pressure � family pressure, peer pressure � to start thinking about marriage, kids and all that stuff," he says. "I want to make sure I take that decision very seriously, and not before I'm ready. Whenever I think something's not to be taken lightly, I just look down at my arm and remember how different my frame of mind was when I got the tattoo."
    He sighs and uncorks a self-deprecating laugh. "I'm truly pleased," he says. "At least I didn't go the Charles Manson tattoo- the-forehead route."

Some days all the news comes at once:
• Fall previews in USA Today:
  (in the Oscar preview section) * The Legend of Bagger Vance (Nov. 3). Based on the 1995 novel, Bagger Vance is about a championship golfer and World War I hero (Matt Damon) who returns home to rekindle a romance with a childhood sweetheart (Charlize Theron) and take on two professional golfers in a tournament. His caddy (Will Smith) -- a mysterious and mystical figure -- teaches him a master golf stroke and the secret to mastering life's challenges. Robert Redford (The Horse Whisperer, Quiz Show) directs. Early polling results: As a director, Redford has proved himself capable of capturing the beauty and spirit of a sport, going back to A River Runs Through It. With the combustible combination of Damon, Smith and Theron, there's powerful Oscar potential on the performance front. And with the country's current fascination with Tiger Woods, a movie about golf could be just the ticket for box office success and Oscar glory.
  ***
  New pic also of Matt and Will on the usatoday page
  (The pic is shown above)
• Matt's declared his political views for the first time, from the NY Daily News:
  Gore's Celebrity Program
  Add Matt Damon and Jessica Lange to the list of celebs who will be at next Thursday's fund-raiser for Al Gore at Radio City Music Hall. Damon and Lange join Julia Roberts, Michael Douglas, John Cusack and Ben Affleck � with others sure to follow.
  And that's in addition to the entertainment, which includes Glenn Frey and Don Henley, Bette Midler, Paul Simon, Jon Bon Jovi, Jimmy Buffet, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Sheryl Crow, Macy Gray, Lenny Kravitz and k.d. lang. And I thought the R&B Foundation gala lasted into the wee hours. I would urge Gore not to plan anything too important for the early-morning hours of Sept. 15.
• And from Mr Showbiz, in an article with Tom Twyker and Franka Potente (shades of Penelope here): Potente too is making her English-language debut � opposite Matt Damon, no less � in the Robert Ludlum thriller The Bourne Identity.
  "Matt is wonderful," she says. Was Franke first on the list as Damon's love interest? "No!" she laughs. "I of course thought they should have immediately wanted me, like I do for everything. But actually, it was a very long process; I auditioned again and again."
  While the movie may mark a major Hollywood move, Potente really won't have to leave Europe. "We begin filming in October in Paris and Prague," she says.
• Here's the text from the reel.com story:
  DreamWorks is opening Robert Redford's Legend of Bagger Vance on November 3, having previously slated it for early August. Word is that the golfing fable, about an otherworldly caddie (Will Smith) improving the game of a would-be pro (Matt Damon), is somewhere between likable and touching. I also heard last summer that it was testing a bit soft and needed some touching up. The delay has given Redford, who's known as an obsessive tinkerer anyway, time to do this.
  When it was a Sony release, Billy Bob Thornton's reputedly three-hour All The Pretty Horses seemed stuck in post-production limbo. Now that Miramax has adopted the 1940s Western for U.S. distribution, I'm hearing that Thornton has agreed to cut it down to 135 minutes or so, and that Horses will now open in December.
• From Variety:
  SHERIDAN OUT: Scratch director Jim Sheridan from "The Notebook," New Line's adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks bestseller. Sheridan has formally moved away from that project, to which he had been aligned for nearly two years, writing a couple of drafts and supervising Jeremy Leven on others. Sheridan is now concentrating on Fox 2000's adaptation of the Wally Lamb novel "I Know This Much is True," which he and Matt Damon became interested in recently as a possible collaboration, with Damon playing dual roles of twin brothers. Sheridan also continues to develop a semiautobiographical tale of his migration from Ireland to New York, which recently came back to him after being put in turnaround by Universal.
• From London's Daily Mail today, two stories of interest:
  A short story on Franka Potente, who's appearing at the Venice Film Festival at the moment (good timing!) Yes, she does look feminine and attractive (if like a darker-haired Elisabeth Shue) outside of her running gear. Doesn't say much, but includes "he kidnaps a local girl", so the girl has obviously changed from being a visiting American to a local (filming in Germany?)
  And, in an article about legendary actress Faye Dunaway, and the young actors she admires (mentions Russell Crowe for his sexiness, Chloe Sevigny, Hilary Swank, Meg Ryan: "That Matt Damon is smart, and I think he's going for the parts Dustin Hoffman went for at his age."
  (Noted Felicity: Isn't that funny in a few ways: Matt's met her before, and said how much he admires her, and hasn't he said before that once he became famous, he got offered all the parts Dustin Hoffman rejected years ago!)
  From all of those stories, we can see that the studio waited for Captain Corelli to finish filming to give the film the full star press push; Matt's making his first public appearance in weeks (months?), Franka Potente is another to have fallen for Matt already; and that Jim Sheridan is now focusing on 'I know this much is true' - great news. It will be interesting to see if the Crowe film 'Beautiful mind' is similar in any ways (apart from the obvious - character with schizophrenia).
• Wonderfully useless trivia from msnbc.com about Bagger Vance:
  For what it�s worth in a fast game of trivia, this film � completed during the closing days of December �was the last Hollywood movie to be made in the 20th century.
• From eonline.com on BV:
  The Experts Say...
  Toby: I want to see a movie about golf even less than I want to see a movie about fly-fishing.
  Adam Rifkin: I'm not a huge golf fan, but it looks like the kind of movie where that doesn't matter. It could be good just because Redford is who he is. And a good period piece with an uplifting story could work.
  Anne Thompson: Redford, who is a superb but not always commercial director, swears the movie has plenty of comedy, which should help at the box office. DreamWorks has its sights on Oscars.
  Chris Gore: It's Redford, so it's bound to be good, but the ads make it look like Driving Mr. Caddyshack
  Our Bottom Line...
  We expect Redford and his strong cast to catch Oscar's eye, even if audiences don't show up.

• My thanks to the reader who wrote thus:
  if u go to eonline.com theres a section about fall movies like the top 11 and one is the legend of bagger vance and when u go there u can look at a preview of his movie its about 1min long..its good though... he looks hot
• And Levi wrote:
  I just launched a "Legend of Bagger Vance" website, please check it out @ http://members.aol.com/lholmes11/bagger.html.
• Felicity wrote:
  A new poster for BV, looking remarkably like a close-up of the old poster, is at www.spielberg-dreamworks.com
  And Jeffrey Wells at reel.com has some small bits on BV and ATPH. He calls BV "likable, touching", but that Redford is continuing to "further tweak" it.

• Serveral readers wrote to kindly let me know that the small pic I showed on my site - one with Matt under a pink hat - is really not Matt after all. Okay, I plead guilty. I still think it looks like Matt. But I have been wrong before :-)
• From our ever-reliable Felicity:
  Not much news again.
  • A strange story in the UK Harper's Bazaar. On the cover it promotes: Sexiest party of the year - Matt Damon, Heath Ledger and Gisele RSVP. Inside it's a rather strange story about a party thrown by models (supposedly) in LA, which attracted a whole crowd of actors, including Matt and Ben. It's really funny because there's one shot of Matt in his Panavision outfit (Panavision cap, slouch gear) in between two gorgeously dressed blonde models, holding a beer. Matt looks like he's walked straight off the street, but having fun.
    From the Las Vegas Sun Friday:
    The MAGIC convention brought some celebrities to Las Vegas this week. On Wednesday night Mike Tyson, rapper Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, NBA hoopster Ron Harper and various members of the Wu-Tang Clan all showed up at the Harley-Davidson Cafe to celebrate the launch of the new Ruff Ryders urban streetwear line called the Dirty Denim collection. More than 1,100 invited guests packed the house to party.
    Over at the Hard Rock on Tuesday night, Matt Damon, Eddie Furlong, Vince Vaughn and John Favreau flocked to the pool to celebrate fashion-meister Hugo Boss' stylings.
  • An earlier item from www.movies.ign.com re Bourne:
    Bourne to Spy
    Matt Damon to star in big-budget spy flick?
    June 20, 2000
    In disguise and off-key.
    Normally a flick with Matt Damon doesn�t excite us (okay, the Planet of the Apes rumor got us a little excited, but that was the apes). But after reading Damon's new spy flick, that may just have to change. According to the The Hollywood Reporter, Damon is in negotiations with Universal to star in Bourne Identity, based on Robert Ludlum�s spy thriller novel and directed by Doug Liman (Swingers, Go). This movie sounds like a keeper, with the story involving an amnesiac named Bourne whose bullet-ridden body is found flushed out on the Mediterranean Sea. We can barely remember who we are on the best of days without the aid of a caffeine injection, so you can imagine what Bourne will be going through.
    Bourne can�t remember whether he was good or evil, but he does know that he is the target of the CIA, an assassin and a few other folks with guns a-blazing. Whoa. Looks like Matt should have kept right on floating! Damon, as Bourne, will take on several identities to escape danger, and finds help in a yet-to-be-cast female lead (bring on the babes!) Spies, guns, murders, CIA, assassins, at least one hottie and the director of Swingers? Sounds like a good formula to us, and we're looking forward to filming beginning this fall.
  • And if you want another look at the Bourne Identity script review, it's also at the ign site.

Old news: "reviews" of sneak previews of ATPH and Bagger Vance are now on the rottenTomato site:
• Bagger Vance
• All The Pretty Horses
• And an ATPH message posted on the yahoo boards:
  I worked with Matt on this movie. I was the stable-boy in one scene with just Me, Matt, and of course the horse!!! It's gonna be a great movie!!!!

• A big Matt fan reported a nice pic of Matt and Henry Thomas, both on horsebacks, from ATPH, is currently in Entertainment Weekly.
• Felicity again -
  • There's another pic of Matt on a horse (they all start to look the same) in this week's Heat mag, in a small item about Oscar buzz/anticipated movies.
    An item darkhorizons pointed to an ifuse.com interview with Doug Liman, basically confirming Franka Potente's involvement in Bourne Identity and talking about the film. I can't copy it, but here's a summary:
    * starts shooting in a month and a half
    * Liman interviewed a number of actresses before choosing her - says she "brought a multitude of emotions and energies to the table"
    * Liman says it will be " a very big studio film. But the script is smart as s***. We're shooting all over the world but the action is very character-based. It's about two people on the lam, and it's their personalities and emotions that are what's most interesting."
    * Writes the author of the piece "after a read-through, we can confirm the quality of the script... Damon's character is an intriguing creation - a man whose whole life is washed out, yet every person he comes across wants to kill him. He's paranoid and confused and in grave danger - and we're compelled by him. The script is interesting in that it's full of action, yet the lead characters are fully developed, rare in action movies these days. The paranoia and chaos of the story line suits Liman's style well, with its use of neon colours and handheld cameras."
    * He says he'll incorporate his own style, despite it being a Paramount movie (Billy Bob flashback).
  • And who won at blackjack? From the NY Post:
    Mr. chips
    NOT since Frank Sinatra prowled Las Vegas have we heard a tale of titanic tipping to compare with what Ben Affleck did last weekend. A source tells PAGE SIX that after Affleck won a whopping $140,000 playing blackjack at the Hard Rock with buddy Matt Damon, he promptly gave away all his earnings to casino's staffers. "He tipped out all of his chips to waitresses, dealers, concierges, bell guys - it was amazing," says our spy. "Some people were getting $5,000, some people were getting more." The affable actor is currently in Europe finishing "Pearl Harbor," which also stars supermodel James King.

As usual, Felicity brought in the big news:
Potente clocks 'Bourne Identity'
German actress Franka Potente ("Run Lola Run") has been cast as the female lead opposite Matt Damon in Universal Pictures' "The Bourne Identity" for director Doug Liman. The project is slated to start shooting in October in Paris and Prague, Czech Republic. Based on the first of Robert Ludlum's spy thriller trilogy, "Bourne" follows the mysterious Bourne, who awakens in a doctor's office with amnesia after his bullet-ridden body is flushed out of the Mediterranean Sea. The spy's buried past leads him to CIA connections, a world of murderous conspirators and a would-be assassin who wants him dead. Bourne must assume an identity to match wits with his enemy, and no one can help him except the woman (Potente) who once wanted to escape from him.
*** What's funny is that Potente's last role was with Penelope Cruz in Blow. We probably all saw 'Run Lola Run', but we've got no idea if she can act, or what she's going to be like as a female lead. As described by Variety: Potente runs with Damon in "Bourne"
Updated 12:52 AM ET August 28, 2000
By Michael Fleming
NEW YORK (Variety) - Hot off her potent performance in "Run Lola Run," Franka Potente will be on the run again, this time with Matt Damon in "The Bourne Identity," director Doug Liman's adaptation of the Robert Ludlum bestseller.
The Universal project concerns a man who washes ashore bullet-riddled and without his memory, racing to elude assassins and recover from his amnesia. Potente's character is kidnapped by Bourne but warms to him, even though he fears he may have been an assassin before. While on the run, they develop a love relationship reminiscent of the one in "Three Days of the Condor."
Shooting begins in Paris and Prague at the end of October.
Since breaking out in the German thriller "Run Lola Run" as the redhead who races through the city streets to find $20,000 in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend, Potente has starred in the Ted Demme-directed New Line drama "Blow" as the gold-digging girlfriend of drug dealer George Jung (Johnny Depp) and reteamed with "Run Lola Run" director Tom Tykwer in "The Princess and the Warrior."

A reader sent in this query:
The reason I wrote is to try getting any humorously and creatively witty 'tips' and / or angles from knowledgable M D fans like yourself on a couple tough questions my teacher has stumped me on,listed below.
1) If you could be 'anybody' for a day,who would it be and why ? 2) How you would stop two fallen angels 're-entering' Heaven ?
If you have a good responsse to these questions, please write to Paula at [email protected].

• From the NY Daily News:
  Walk on the Mild Side
  It's not the way the Rat Pack hit the Strip.
  Ben Affleck and Matt Damon proved that they aren't Frank and Dean when they did Vegas recently. It was just past midnight on a steamy Saturday in August, when the two buddies sat down at a high-roller blackjack table that had been roped off.
  "It was just the two of them," reports a gambler at a nearby table. "No babes, no entourage, no drinks. Just the two of them playing some rough blackjack."
  They played till dawn.
  *** That's a lot different from the Vegas trip described in Premiere magazine (Ben's booze trip).
• Also an item in the NY Post about the competition/possible legal battle between Fox and Matt/Ben over their new show The Runner:
  REALITY SHOWS: WHICH CAME FIRST?
  BEN Affleck and Matt Damon are set to cash in on the phenomenal success of "Survivor" with a reality-based show for ABC - but execs at the Fox network are calling "The Runner" a copycat version of one of their own shows now in development.
  A Fox source tells PAGE SIX that the network bought rights to broadcast "Wanted" from a European TV company, and consider ABC's "The Runner" a weak imitation of it.
  "Wanted" sics a pack of former pro-bounty hunters after a bunch of contestants, much like Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "The Running Man."
  "We know we have the rights to the show and I'm sure our lawyers are aware of what our rights are and what their rights are in regards to this," said the Fox source. "At this point, I don't know if we are looking into taking any legal action.
  "It's not like people are running around here worried that Matt and Ben's show is going to steal our fire. We're confident that we'll have the better show."
  A Fox spokesman would say only: "Nash Entertainment has secured rights for the European format of �Wanted,' and they are developing the project for Fox. We'll leave it at that." An ABC spokesperson claimed not even to know about the competing Fox project.
  Sean Bailey, who shares a Los Angeles office with Affleck and Damon and is a partner in their production company, Live Planet, insists that Affleck and Damon came up with the idea on their own.
  "We kind of all came up with it at the end of 1999," Bailey said. "The Runner," will feature a contestant trekking across the country engaging in scavenger hunts while viewers try to hunt him down to win up to $1 million.
  "Basically the idea is a guy goes on the run for 30 days, but he's got to hit particular destinations," Bailey told PAGE SIX.
  "The viewers have to find him. The longer he stays out, the more money you can win. It might start out at $25,000 and it could go upwards to a million toward the end."
  Bailey acknowledges that the time is ripe for reality shows in the wake of the stunning success of the "Survivor" finale, to which an estimated 72 million viewers tuned in.
  But he says he considers "The Runner" different because of the involvement of the audience. They'll be participating in the show and will be part of the content, part of the experience."
• From the Sunday Times story on Penelope:
  She has been linked with virtually every leading man she's worked with, including the 29-year-old American star Damon, who supposedly dumped his long-term girlfriend Winona Ryder in the wake of meeting Cruz. "It keeps on being written that we are in love and I have even seen photographers in America hanging out of trees to get a picture of us together," she says. "Matt is one of my best friends - but that is all."
• And more Bourne Identity news from the Marilyn Beck/Stacy Jenel Smith column: Damon in demand
  Matt Damon jets to Paris in October to begin ``The Bourne Identity.'' But he'll be racking up frequent-flier points. He'll wing back to the States for promos and the premiere of ``The Legend of Bagger Vance,'' which opens Nov. 3 with Matt co-starring with Will Smith and Charlize Theron. He'll hop across the waters again to attend the premiere of his ``All The Pretty Horses'' flick. The Miramax film, directed by Billy Bob Thornton, is set to be released Dec. 25, which means Damon will have two films in position for Oscar consideration at the end of the year.
• Bad news ... on the Cormac McCarthy forum, with one person claiming that Billy Bob will take his name off ATPH if it's released below 2 hours 45 minutes (the Miramax agreement calls for 2.15), as it will not make sense otherwise. Generally BB is still very upset with all studios, and says he will never work again for a major studio. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
• Reebok Salutes Trendy Boutiques Fred Segal and Madison in Soiree to Celebrate the Newest Footwear Addition to Their Shoe Salons and Raise Awareness o Aug 24, 2000 12:15 PM ET
  CANTON, Mass., Aug 24, 2000 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- On Thursday, Aug. 24, Reebok, Fred Segal and Madison will co-host a star-studded event to celebrate the debut of the Reebok Classic Marathon Racer footwear collection at trendy boutiques Fred Segal and Madison, and to raise awareness and donations for the nonprofit organization Best Buddies.
  The party will take place on the rooftop of Madison, located at 9630 Brighton Way in Beverly Hills, from 8 p.m. - 11 p.m.
  During a silent auction fundraiser for Best Buddies, guests will bid for celebrity-autographed pairs of the Classic Marathon Racer in a wide array of colors. In addition, guests will enjoy foot massages by top L.A. reflexologists and "classic" disco music.
  The Classic Marathon Racers to be auctioned have been specially autographed by various Hollywood stars including Matt Damon, Mel Gibson, Samuel L. Jackson, Nancy O'Dell and Will Smith, as well as the casts from "Will and Grace" (Sean Hayes, Eric McCormick, Debra Messing and Megan Mullally) and "The West Wing" (Dule Hill, Rob Lowe and Bradley Whitford).
  (Matt is not attending the auction)
• Matt's also been nominated for two Teen Choice awards: Best Liar and Best Actor. The competition's a joke, but it's always nice to be nominated...
• David Poland on roughcut.com also had an item on ATPH on Friday:
  THE BAD: A fairly meaningless story came across the wires last week. Miramax and Columbia had flopped domestic and international release responsibilities on Billy Bob Thornton's All the Pretty Horses. So, why am I bringing it up here? Well, you shouldn't believe the line that Sony is trying to lighten its holiday schedule. This move has two significant prongs. First, Columbia doesn't really believe in the movie anymore and hopes that Miramax will turn it into something domestically before they have to sell it across the globe. And secondly, Miramax needs some Oscar bait. Right now, the cupboard would appear empty of such bait. And if anyone can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse, it's Miramax and its Oscar marketing team. Of course, if Miramax had Quills, you could bet that they would be putting $15 million or so behind its Oscar run. Let's hope Fox Searchlight has the money to do the same.

• On that People photo - can someone do some checking for me? Remember Ben's old girlfriend, mentioned quite a few times in the early interviews, especially GQ. I think her name was Cheyenne Rothman, or something similar. There were also photos of her in some of the early profiles. Putting two and one together and making an altogether wrong conclusion...
• And so it's 'Bourne Identity' next, as expected, to start filming in November in Prague. There doesn't seem to be an official announcement yet, just a small item in Variety.
  PRAGUE (Variety) - The film scene in Prague continues to flourish, with another high-profile feature set to film here and more on the way. Universal will bring ``The Bourne Identity'' to the Czech Republic for at least half of its 12-week shoot, which begins in November. Matt Damon stars in the pic based on Robert Ludlum's book. Doug Liman directs.
  ***
  Gorgeous city, and as Variety reports, a growing film centre for 'European-look' films. Jude Law recently filmed 'Enemy of the Gates' there.
  Isn't it funny how he doesn't have a film to shoot for eleven months, but when his own movie is released, he's in another country shooting? It's hardly good timing... And any guesses for the co-stars??
• There's a story on Greenlight at www.ew.com but I can't access it at the moment.
• Crazy rumour from Jam Showbiz:
  Filling James Dean's shoes
  Stars fight for chance to play screen legend
  By LOUIS B. HOBSON
  Calgary Sun
  LOS ANGELES -- Hollywood is determined to film the life of James Dean.
  Leonardo DiCaprio was attached to the project for almost two years.
  Now both Brad Pitt and Matt Damon are rumoured to be fighting to play Hollywood's beloved rebel who lived fast, made three movies and died young.
  Both Pitt and Damon have said they're willing to negotiate an acting fee instead of asking for their usual $10 million US.
• From the NY Daily News, a surprising bit of news:
  A deal with Paramount on "The Sum of All Fears," a 1991 best seller, is pending. Clancy says Ben Affleck, the actor and Oscar-winning screenwriter, has agreed to play Ryan and might also write the script.
  "He came to see me, and we got along fine," Clancy says. "He's a good kid, and he writes. We talked about him and Matt Damon [actor, longtime Affleck pal and fellow Oscar-winner for "Good Will Hunting"] doing the script."
  ***
  Interesting to note that the current script for SOAF was reviewed negatively in today's Dark Horizons. I thought Ben was already signed to the film, and there would hardly be any time for re-writes.
• There's a story in Heat (UK) about the top 'bachelors' after the departure of Brad Pitt from the scene. Matt ranks 3rd, after George Clooney and Wes Bentley. Cute stuff including "he's said to be a thoroughly nice young man by everyone who meets him and is very modest into the bargain... You're mother's gonna love him".
• Quick note on Bourne Identity: budget was apparently in Variety at being $50 million.

• Thus wrote a big Matt fan:
  Hey there!
  Some of you may have seen it already, but if you're ever in the mood to just look at photos of Matt, the following site features 277 of them which can be viewed separately or as part of a slide show. It includes images from nearly every film Matt's been in, from RISING SON to ATPH. No BV ones yet, but someone actually seems to be making an effort to keep it updated. Anyway, it's worth a glance.
  The site is here.
  Also, you've probably read that Winona's now dating Beck. (Mr. Showbiz, among others, has a piece on this.) Yes, yet another one of Matt's exes ran into the arms of a musician. (Like Skylar with Lars Ulrich of Metallica, Claire with rocker Ben Lee, and Minnie with the guy from the Foo Fighters.)
• Heard on ABC: Good Will Hunting will be among the films shown on the network on Saturdays this season.

• Many thanks to the readers who sent in alert and actual scan of the picture shown above, which came from people.com, with this caption:
  NEW YORK WALK: Matt Damon takes a stroll in New York with Cheyenne, said to be a friend from high school. (Lawrence Schwartzwald/Liaison)
  New pal? Old shirt!
• And from Felicity:
  US Weekly is also doing a fall movies special (only picking a few films), but I don't know if ATPH or BV is in there.
  Nice stories in Premiere:
  BV excerpt (new smily pic of Matt and Will Smith on the course):
  Smith says it's "definitely a comedy or a dramedy. It's really, really funny." Damon and Smith cut up between takes "doing Wanda from In Living Color. (Matt) is so damn silly. He's never played a character with this level of humor." Damon, who's never played golf before, says "I had one month to learn, and it took every ounce of devotion I had to make my swing passable." Today he's doing charity tournaments, where "you don't get penalised for sucking."
  and ATPH (new pic of Matt and Penelope on the dance floor):
  "We were at a Pittsburgh Pirates games" Damon says "and my agent called and said 'Leonardo's passed on ATPH', and I just said 'Yes, I want to do it.' My negotiation took under 15 seconds."
  And a positive's story is always nice, from the New Zealand Herald: Video: The Talented Mr Ripley / Dogma
  17.08.2000 -
  The Talented Mr Ripley
  Herald rating: * * * *
  Running time: 140 mins
  Rental: Now
  Dogma
  Herald rating: * * *
  Running time: 125 mins
  Rental: Now
  Reviews: Ewan McDonald
  The suits were going, Boys, we were thinking half a mil.?And Ben and I, who weren't sure if we can afford McDonald's tonight, are sitting there like, Half a mil? Hmmm ...??
  That's how Matt Damon remembers the studio execs agreeing to buy the idea that he and his boyhood pal, Ben Affleck, had for a movie: the story of an undiscovered genius who mops floors in a university and what happens when his talents are uncovered. The story would become Good Will Hunting and the rest, as they say, is Oscars and box-office receipts.
  Damon and Affleck have been friends since they met in their hometown of Boston when they were 8. Twenty-two years later they have made five films together; the latest is one of two Damon videos released this week.
  First up is the stylish, lavish and intelligent thriller Ripley, in which Damon dares to play a character that few Hollywood stars would take on for fear of their image: a charming, disarming, thoroughly corrupt monster.
  This is Anthony Minghella's take on Patricia Highsmith's first novel about Ripley, published in 1955, a poor man who wants to be rich, an unknown man who wants not to be famous but simply to be someone else. He steals people's identities. (Highsmith is better known as the author of another adaptation, Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train.)
  Minghella, The English Patient creator, has Ripley borrowing a Princeton blazer to play the piano at a Manhattan party. A rich couple, the Greenleafs, assume he must have known their son Dickie at Princeton. He agrees.
  Dickie (Jude Law) has split for Europe to spend their money. His folks send Ripley to Europe and offer him $1000 to bring their son home. Ripley contrives to bump into Dickie, sunning himself on an Italian beach with Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow). Ripley tells Dickie why he's there and becomes part of a scene which includes Freddie Miles (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and rich girl Meredith Logue (Cate Blanchett).
  I won't give away the story, except to say that Ripley visits some of Italy�s most beautiful scenery which is soon littered with bodies.
  Damon is extraordinary: the chameleon changes from grey Ripley to brightly coloured jazz-era socialite and back again throughout. Like the people Ripley meets, the viewer has to keep their wits about them: careful, you may find yourself admiring and rooting for the devil.
  Speaking of the devil, Dogma has our boys as fallen angels trying to get back into heaven. The comedy is written, directed and features Kevin Smith, who made Clerks and other indie hits.
  Loki (Damon) and Bartleby (Affleck) are cast out of heaven and exiled for all eternity to Wisconsin. They hear about a trendy bishop (George Carlin) who wants to give the Catholic church a new image. He's dedicating a cathedral to Buddy Jesus: anyone entering earns a get out of jail free?card for their sins and goes to heaven.
  Sadly, Metatron (Alan Rickman), an angel who appears in the bedroom of Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), explains that if the angels re-enter heaven, God will be proven fallible and all existence will end.
  Bethany is the last relative of Jesus on Earth and two prophets will appear to her. She must follow them to stop the angels and save the universe.
  Mildly funny, but not Damon or Affleck's best work. Especially alongside Ripley.
  *** And in a way, Anthony Minghella's still promoting Ripley. Apparently to celebrate the video and DVD release of Ripley, a charity screening of Ripley was held in London this week. Prizes included a trip to Italy, videos etc and a Q&A session with Minghella was held on the night. It was too costly for me at £20 a head, and just seemed strange timing. Minghella must be still very proud of the film (as he ought!). Ripley's second on the video rental sales in the UK after the first week of release (behind House on Haunted Hill!)

• Felicity wrote:
  Firstly, there's meant to be a behind-the-scenes look at Bagger Vance, but I can't access it. Try www.spielberg-dreamworks.com, and go the Bagger Vance fansite.
  Weird goings-on at the Sony site. The ATPH page, which hasn't been updated since 1 June, has now been moved off the site (ie it's not on upcoming releases). That's only happened since Saturday, when I last checked on it.
  So, to investigate I checked the Cormac McCarthy forum, which includes:
  The latest issue of Premiere still has ATPH listed for October release, although it does acknowledge the delays. Says it may be "the classic American western" and has a picture of Matt with scar--I dont know about the look; it isnt' my picture of JGC. Nice quote, though, from Damon: "Henry and I had read the book so many times that it turned into `The Chris Farley Show' from `Saturday Night Live' . . . "Remember that passage? That was awesome.'" Also quotes Thornton on his argument with the studios: "What does a major studion buy this book if all they're going to want in the end is a damn hour-and-a-half chase movie? I can't turn this into `Patriot Games.' I pray to God audiences will sit with this movie and get inside it, because that's what you have to do with it."
  Let's hope.
  **And the next person on the forum:
  Upcomingmovies.com reports that the film has been set for release on December 25.
  Interestingly enough, they also report that Miramax Films will be handling domestic distribution of the film, which seems to be a switch from Sony/Columbia, who are now handling international distribution.
  This says two or three things, politically speaking, about this film: the fact that Miramax will distribute and that the film will be released on Christmas means they're banking on serious SERIOUS Oscar contention.
  And they'll get it. Miramax has an Oscar MACHINE, and they're cranking it up again, if you want my prediction. Their little Shakespeare in Love did well for them, as one example.
  It probably also bodes well for Thornton's cut of the film. He can have a long movie at Christmas.
  ***
  OK, it's not on the Miramax site, but if it is released at Christmas (on the day as in Ripley), I could really scream. I'm visiting the States partly to get the year-end movies, but will go home on the 22nd of December.
  From upcomingmovies.com
  (8/14/00) Miramax and Sony have switched places, with Miramax now handling the domestic distribution while Sony handles overseas. Miramax has also settled upon December 25th, 2000 as their release date.
  ***
  So that explains the move from Sony's website (probably due to Billy-Bob's continuing arguments with them), and confirms a move to Christmas. (screams of anguish)
  Its competition on Christmas Day will be at this stage not too tough: Finding Forrester (by Gus Van Sant) and Nicole Kidman's Moulin Rouge. The main danger would be Tom Hanks' Cast Away, released about the same time (shades of Green Mile).
  From fall movie predictions on AICN, written by Moriarty:
  THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE
  I know it's a golf movie. I know it's Will Smith and Matt Damon. I know it's a golf movie. I know it's a light romantic fable set just after WWI that still manages to play dark at times. I know it's a golf movie. None of this matters. These things that look at first like commercial question marks don't really matter when you take two things into consideration. First, there's the remarkable work done by Jeremy Leven in adapting Steven Pressfield's novel. Second, there's Robert Redford. He's made some pictures I'm not nuts about... THE HORSE WHISPERER being the most recent example, but he also made QUIZ SHOW and A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, both of which are smart, engaging, marvellously crafted commercial pictures. That's exactly what BAGGER VANCE wants to be, and they've got the script to pull it off. I hope Redford strikes just the right mythic note for the film. If so, he's made a classic to stand alongside a film he starred in, Barry Levinson's THE NATURAL.
• Added a Big Matt fan:
  Here's more on the Miramax/Sony switch from today's VARIETY.
  Note the following developments: Christmas Day, PG-13, 2 hours 15 minutes.
  'Horses' changes distribs in midstream
  Columbia Pictures is handing over the reins for domestic distribution and marketing on "All the Pretty Horses" to Miramax Films. The two studios continue to share production costs and will still split the worldwide B.O. proceeds equally.
  "Our financial agreement remains the same," said Mark Gill, West Coast prexy for Miramax, adding, "We believe, as does Sony, that this is a really strong movie, both artistically and commercially.
  The agreement seems targeted at relieving a holiday crush at Sony Pictures Entertainment while at the same time getting the Billy Bob Thornton-helmed "Horses trimmed down from what was initially more than three hours long to a more manageable size.
  Sony is facing a sizable raft of pictures for release this November and December. Trying to juggle "Horses" along with "Charlie's Angels" (Nov. 3), Phoenix Pictures' "The Sixth Day" (Nov. 17), "The Vertical Limit" (Dec. 8) and "Finding Forester" (Christmas) seemed unwise, insiders said. Columbia may also release "The Tailor Panama" in late December.
  Miramax, by contrast, is releasing only "Dracula 2000" via its Dimension banner and has plans for a limited release of "Chocolat."
  The terms of the deal also call for Miramax to first whittle down the "Horses" print to 2 hours and 15 minutes. (Insiders say it's currently at 2 hours and 30 minutes, and will hit the contractually agreed-upon run time.)
  The transfer to Miramax should go a long way to assuaging Thornton, who publicly blasted Columbia toppers for their less-than-enthusiastic reception of his initial four-hour cut.
  Why does a major studio buy this book if all they're going to want in the end is a damn hour-and-a half chase movie?" asked Thornton rhetorically in a recent Premier magazine interview.
  Miramax, which will release "Horses" from the corral on Christmas Day with a healthy 1,800 prints, also agreed to reconfigure some of the film's racier material to qualify for a PG-13 rating in the hopes of a bigger, all-ages B.O.
  According to one insider, the agreement calls for roughly $25 million in promotion and marketing, a figure largely unchanged from when Sony was marketing the picture.
  What has changed, however, is that Miramax will handle any potential Oscar push. With a well-oiled publicity and marketing machine specializing in taking positive notices and turning them into cases of Oscars, (viz. "The Cider House Rules," "Shakespeare in Love" and "The English Patient"), Weinstein & Co. seem somewhat better qualified to handle the highbrow 'Horses." --- Claude Brodesser
• And Val reported:
  Someone may have mentioned this already but here goes anyway--September issue of PREMIERE with Charlie's Angels on the cover has an article and a 'NEVER BEFORE SEEN' (at least by my eyes) picture of Matt in his ATPH garb. The article focuses on costuming for the pic.
  Matt's pal Ben is scheduled to make an appearance at the Democratic National Convention tonight--any chance Matt might be in tow? I've been watching on CNN and late night Leno; both have covered the celebrity side of the convention.

• Goodies from Felicity:
  I haven't seen the previous issue of Movieline yet, but I've amazingly got the one that was issued last week (Dylan McDermott cover).
  There's a small item and photo on 'I know this much is true', but there's also about five photos and a special story (with a Winona sub-set) on Charlize Theron's fashions in Bagger Vance. The clothes and the care put into the design of the film looks superb.
  And a new project, perhaps, as spotted in AICN:
  Hey, the Original Nasal Kid here...
  I was in the lobby of the Creative Artists Agency visiting my aunt, when I met Spike Jonze. He was sitting around waiting for some people to come. I spoke with him breifly -- and mostly I just shook his hand and told how great I felt that he was. As a teenager, I think Spike really enjoyed being noticed by some young people -- as he actually approached me and spoke with me a bit, asking my name and asking if I lived in the area. He's a nice guy. A few minutes later, Matt Damon came in -- as well as many producers and suited industry types. I was able to shake hands and introduce myself to Matt Damon, but quickly everyone was off to wherever to have a meeting or whatever it is that they do, all of them leaving together. So this possibly could be that Matt Damon is involved in the next Spike Jonze project--most likely it will be Benjamin Button. This would actually make quite a lot of sense because they'd be able to make him appear older--as well as make him look younger. So.....just throwin' that out there for you.
  (and from Moriarty) For those of you not familiar with the project, it's a long-in-development adaptation of an F. Scott Fitzgerald story about Benjamin Button, born as an old man, who aged backwards to infancy. It's a peculiar fable, and sounds like perfect fodder for the brilliant wit of Jonze as a next film. Damon is an interesting choice, and if anyone can crack that All-American Boy image wide open, it's Jonze. We'll see...
  *** I love F. Scott Fitzgerald, but have not read that story. I found it today in a Penguin short story collection titled "Jazz Age Stories". It runs for 25 pages only, and seems rather strange. But as a project, very interesting.
  From a story on Jack Lemmon in ctnow.com: He has a small role in Robert Redford's "The Legend of Bagger Vance," starring Will Smith-Matt Damon, in which "my character has a heart attack almost immediately."
  And there was a story on MSNBC (Jeanette Walls) about how Fox claims Matt and Ben stole the story of The Runner. Usual stuff, but the first time someone's made an issue out of how close the two projects are. Fox claim they are steaming ahead to get theirs on first.
  And did you know that Bagger Vance is scheduled to open against "Charlie's Angels". Bad choice I would think (not for those looking for a quality movie, but...)
• Kathryn also wrote to tell about the story on AICN, and provided the link to it. Thanks!
• And thanks to Becky for sharing the following:
  Just thought I'd send you the latest scoop from ew mag.. (It's the fall movie preview issue)
  BV:
  Starring- Matt Damon, Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Bruce McGill
  Screenplay by- Jeremy Leven
  Directed by- Robert Redford
  What's the Bid Deal? Dreamworks tees up its Oscar hopes by pushing this golf drama to fall.
  BV is based on Steven Pressfield's mystical 1995 novel about a WWI hero (Damon) who challenges two pr golfers in a tournament with the help of his godlike caddie (Smith in the Title role). And it seems the reported $70 million production, which filmed in Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA, was blessed with divine intervention: the set, including a specially constructed golf hole on SC's Kiawah Island, was largely spared from Hurricane Floyd in summer '99. "The day we all arrived in Savannah, we had to evacuate to Atlanta," says Theron, who plays Damon's estranged girlfriend. "We had some sets destroyed, but we were lucky." Theron was also thankful for her character's stately retro wardrobe, chosen by the same costume designer (Judianna Makovsky) who worked with the actress on the 1997 thriller The Devil's Advocate. "To have her dress me up was great," says Theron, who also appears in Men of Horror and The Yards this fall, "since all the clothes I wore in Devil's Advocate were from Kmart." GOOD SIGN: Could be as uplifting as The Natural. THEN AGAIN: Or as sleep-inducing as The Horse Whisperer. (Nov.3)
  ATPH:
  Starring- Matt Damon, Henry Thomas, Pen�lope Cruz, Bruce Dern
  Screenplay by- Ted Tally
  Directed by- Billy Bob Thornton
  What's the Big Deal? Yee-haw, Cormac McCarthy fans! Matt Damon rides tall in the saddle.
  How did Thornton--a low-key guy who's directed only movies from his own scripts--approach one of the most popular novels of the last decade? "I apologized to [Cormac McCarthy] in advance," he admits. "I just said, 'Look, we're going to screw your book up.'... He's totally fine with that and understands that he's given it up to Hollywood." What McCarthy's given up is a textured coming-of-age Western, set in the 1940s, in which John Grady (Damon, in a role originally offered to Leonardo DiCaprio) and his sidekick (Thomas) head south of the Texas border seeking adventure. The two end up taming horses on a ranch where John falls for the boss' spirited daughter (Cruz). At one point during production, "the heads of Sony came to visit and Matt Damon and I staged a phony argument," Thornton recalls. "I was literally chasing Matt down the road and telling him to get out of there, I would put a stand-in on the horse! They bought it all the way until finally the whole crew turned toward them and said, 'Welcome to New Mexico!' " GOOD SIGN: Thornton has reteamed with much of his key Sling Blade crew. THEN AGAIN: It's taken years to get Horses out of the gate.

• From Felicity:
  Not exactly front-page news, but we do have a confirmed sighting of Matt. It was at a baseball game, but hey...
  From the Boston Globe:
  They go to Mo
  Mo Vaughn had a hearty handshake and a big clap on the shoulder for Williams. Those paying their respects to Mo included Nomar Garciaparra, Troy O'Leary , Tim Wakefield , and Sox clubhouse attendant Pookie Jackson, long a Vaughn favorite ... Homeboy Matt Damon was a dugout visitor and also dined in the press room before the game. He said he had to fly back to New York today and thus would miss Pedro. ''I [messed] up,'' he said ...
  And the Boston Herald:
  As is traditionally the case when the Red Sox are in California, they had the backing of a significant portion of last night's crowd. Among the notable New Englanders rooting for the Sox were Cambridge-born actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Letters To Cleo guitarist Mike Eisenstein and American Hi-Fi guitarist-singer Stacy Jones. Eisenstein and Jones will be appearing on the ``Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' tonight in the backing band of former Veruca Salt vocalist Nina Gordon.
  And, from a writer on the affleck.com board: I was just watching the sox game on fox25 in boston and matt damon was in the announcers booth with the other 2 announcers and talking baseball and movies.
• Kathryn wrote from Edinburgh:
  I just saw an advert for the upcoming rental release of TTMR over here; thought you might want to know. It was strangely placed in an advert break for Irvine Welsh's "The Acid House" (on Channel 4 as a FilmFour presentation - I wouldn't recommend it anyway, Trainspotting the film - and the book, I'd guess - is far superior). Anyway. I would immediately infer, or take from its scheduling (in the middle of a British film by a British writer), that it was being shown to try and counter some of the feeling that the British film industry is floundering; it is very much so, but with TTMR's director being British and one of its stars, the only Oscar-nominated one, being British, this should help its rental-generated revenue somewhat. The funniest thing about the ad was, however, that it did not even last the usual for TV-spots - under 20 seconds. There were only about four main shots used in it, and that, for my money, certainly didn't give the audience time to digest them and the premise of the film. Voiceovered tagline - not the one on the poster I don't think, but something like, "Discover what it's like to be someone else". Something along those lines. And a gorgeous panning shot of Matt at the end - looking like it had been filmed outwith the movie, because it wasn't included, as far as I can remember. I laughed at the end line -"Rent it. *Now*". LOL, that was maybe a little bit overdone. Come to think of it, the whole thing seemed a little rushed. Other news - I got this last week from some movie site but forgot to email you. Titan made �245,003 in its first week. Could be better - a lot better, since I caught two ads for it at the beginning and end of an ad break on a UK breakfast programme, which is an obvious sign of them trying to recoup as much as they can back off of their investment.

Felicity's finds:
• An excerpt from a story in salon.com about a dustjucket photo session for author George Packer:
  We went back to the set newly energized and Sigrid took more pictures. Roll after roll, black and white and color, red and green light, head shots, left angle, right angle, straight on, different shirt, different stance, different mood. For almost three hours Sigrid Estrada got on and off her stepladder and took pictures, and the whole time she was keeping me engaged. "No, too serious. Look away and back. Not straight on, your nose isn't right. Ah, you blinked. Yes, that's good! Sort of Yves Montand. Sort of a French rock star nose. The smile doesn't look like you mean it. Think of something nice. Yes, like that! That haunted look!"
  "Let's try for Matt Damon," Sigrid finally suggested. Damon was on the cover of that week's New York Times Magazine. In an earlier life I had built kitchen shelves for his mother. A boyish blond teenager sat on the counter while I worked, idly picking up my tools to play air drums while making percussive hip-hop noises with his mouth. Now, age 39, I obediently put on a black sweater under my jacket and tried for Matt Damon. Sigrid liked it.
  At some point during the session I realized that no one had ever paid such sustained and intense attention to me in my life. It was exhilarating and exhausting.
  Sigrid had discovered early in her career that having feelings for the subject could compromise the work. A good picture required emotional detachment. Yet it also seemed that in order for the project -- my transformation by her camera -- to succeed, we both had to heighten the atmosphere, to create an artificial excitement. She had to iron my shirts. I had to try for Matt Damon. The session in her studio apartment, a few hours together in the middle of the day, the city 16 floors below forgotten, the ending inevitable and coming soon, had to acquire the self-deceiving mood of a tryst.
• A very strange article in Newsday about 'being hot':
  The Cool, the Hot and the 'Hotties'
  H-word spreads, leaving the un-hot outside
  in the cold
  By Stacy Albin. Stacy Albin is a freelance writer.
  THE WORD was out. Right on the pages of "Entertainment Weekly," they called Jennifer Lopez a "hottie." Then they used the h-word on George Clooney. Anybody hot for Matt Damon and Roberto Benigni? Some writers say they, too, are "hotties." Hollywood gossip columns are peppered with the h-word these days. But journalists aren't the only ones who are hip to sexy jargon. Pop group Blessed Union of Souls sings about hotties in the song "Hey Leonardo." Halle Berry appeared last month on the cover of Maxim magazine wearing a T-shirt with the word "hottie" on it. And some Long Islanders have it rolling off the tips of their tongues.
  Will we get tired of tossing around this word? Will the list of hotties ever end? Perhaps, if someone knew its definition.
  The Merriam-Webster dictionary has no listing for it. But Jennifer Kornreich, a columnist for Cosmopolitan magazine, says she has used it occasionally. "It's definitely a word to convey that someone is very good looking or sexy," says Kornreich. "I'd say it's got something in common with 'cutie' even, in terms that there's an element of affection in it." Still, not everyone qualifies. Strike Jack Nicholson, Benigni and Damon off Kornreich's list. They qualify, respectively, as "power geezer," "clownie" and "too vanilla." "If someone's just all-American, apple- pie good-looking, I don't know that they're a hottie," says Kornreich about Damon. "Because there's really no heat to that." But there's plenty of heat elsewhere. Newsday gossip columnist Liz Smith has pinned the label on "X-Men" star Hugh Jackman and "The Perfect Storm" star Mark Wahlberg. She's even called Australian superstar Mel Gibson a "Down Under hottie." The word is "a convenient way of getting one's point across without having to say 'hot and sultry young thing' or something more descriptive," Smith says.
• There's an interview with Brendan Fraser in the latest US Cosmopolitan, with a bit where Brendan starts talking about the School Ties audition, and how he adapted his style to Matt's, because he was saying the words as if he meant them/wrote them himself. The interviewer asks if he ever thanked Matt, and Brendan says no, probably not. "So Matt, if you read Cosmopolitan, thanks for getting me the role." The interviewer then asks if they keep in touch, and Brendan says that they have mutual friends in common and that they see each other occasionally etc.
  It's just a nice article because it's promoted as being "Why Brendan Fraser wants to say thanks to Matt Damon".
  From one of many deja threads on the Millionaire $125,000 question:
  The thing that gets me the most is the fact that schools don't teach students how to reason, how to think. A prerequisite for this -- by no means sufficient in and of itself, but necessary -- is a knowledge of elementary logic. Consequently, mistakes in this area abound. For example, just the other day on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" they phrased a $125K question this way:
  In which of the following films do both Ben Affleck and Matt Damon not appear?
  A. Dogma
  B. Good Will Hunting
  C. The Talented Mr. Ripley
  D. Chasing Amy
  It is a fact that Matt Damon appeared in all four of these films, so there is no correct answer. Ben Affleck appeared in all except C. There are plenty of correct ways to ask the question they doubtless wanted to ask, cf:
  In which of the following films do one of Ben Affleck or Matt Damon not appear?
  In which of the following films do one or both of Ben Affleck or Matt Damon not appear?
  Which of the following films does not include both Ben Affleck and Matt Damon?
  They got away with it, incidentally, because the contestant (incorrectly) answered C, but apparently no one on the entire team that dreams up these questions knows elementary logic.
• Expect to see lots of Winona stories this week, but she's still refusing to mention Matt in the early ones. Interesting to note that Autumn in New York is not being screened to most critics (read: bomb), and that at the only early critic session, they laughed at the 'tender romantic scene'.
• Ripley is released in Britain on video and DVD (seemingly with the full American extras) tomorrow.
• Titan AE number 7 on the box office charts in the first week (UK), and will fall rapidly.
• The Bagger Vance trailer doesn't seem to be generating a very good response on deja.com Any comments from those who have seen it in the cinema?
• The Premiere issue on fall movies is out, and I think both ATPH and BV are listed in the 'hopeful' category (third best). Charlie's Angels cover.
• From Val:
  The creator of a BAGGER VANCE website has made some revisions to his site. While it's not complete, it is looking good and there are a few pics of the set I hadn't seen. Check it out at: http://spielberg-dreamworks.com/legendofbaggervance/

• Anna wrote (thanks!):
  HEy, just a note: a pic of matt is in the new Premiere Mag. August, 2000 w/jennifer lopez on the front. an old one but still valid :) of good will hunting
• From Val:
  Here's a cool site to browse through when you have time to play:
  http://www.young-hollywood.com
  Many of the gallery pics of Matt are familiar ones but we NEVER get tired of looking at him, do we?

• News from Felicity:
  And another week goes by without any news...
  The only scrap of news I've found recently is from the forum at the Cormac McCarthy site, which includes this post, in response to a query on how BBT will adapt the book:
  "You might not even get to see Thornton's version of anything. Right now he's locked in a very unpleasant fight with Columbia over the running time of the film which originally came in at about 3 hours and has been cut down to 2 hrs 40 mins or so by the Columbia studio hacks, who want to be able to show the film at least once more per evening. This is the basic problem that's held up the film for a year. Thornton has threatened to reject the film and publically disavow it if the cuts are allowed to stand, which would be just as disastrous for the studio as would losing the extra showing per night, if not worse -- so they're at an impasse. It's not a good situation, so don't hold your breath. We may all wind up waiting for the DVD of the director's cut. "
  When pressed for more info, the person wrote:
  Peter Josyph, who's been working on Acting McCarthy, a film documentary about the making of Thornton's ATPH and also of The Gardener's Son and the proposed Blood Meridian, is in frequent touch with just about all the pricipals of the film (except, so far, Penelope Cruz -- whose p/r people have been less than cooperative, but whose interview responses I've read have been so predictably mindless and supermarket-tabloid-brain dead housewife oriented that I doubt Peter'll think she was worth the trouble when he catches up with her). The information I have is a composite of remarks by several of the folks involved, including Thornton himself.
  In any event, Chip's information may be a bit dated because it seems the Columbia beancounters may have moved the goal posts again, which was apparently once too often for Thornton's patience.
  (And again later, asked whether it was the same documentary the Cormac McCarthy society was raising money for...)
  Ken: Yep,that's it. It's coming along brilliantly -- I've been privy to some of the stuff (the interviews with Thornton, Bruce Dern, Matt Damon, Harold Bloom [!] and Kevin Conway in particular) are fantastic. He's heading for Alabama to interview Lucas Black (Jimmy Blevins in the film) next week. He's still got to negotiate for rights to incorporate film clips from Gardener's Son and ATPH into the documentary, and will need about another $25,000 to complete the editing and copying of the film for distribution. He's got a professional fundraiser working on grants now but any considerable donations (anything $1000 & over) will be appreciated; smaller ones won't make a dent.
  Anyone who's got that kind of spare change can make it payable to the Cormac McCarthy Society (which will make it fully tax deductible) and designate it for the Acting McCarthy fund; we've already run over $20,000 in private funds through the Society as grants-in-aid to the film.
  *** It's a shame that neither ATPH or BV will be at the Venice Film Festival - my hope now (for either) is the London Film Festival, scheduled for 1-19 November. Not bad timing for the release of either film.
  From an article with Billy Campbell of Miramax in the London Guardian about Project Greenlight:
  Eventually a shortlist of 40 candidates will be drawn up. It's at this point that Harvey Weinstein (the formidable Miramax boss), Matt Damon and Ben Affleck enter the fray, and that the "fast-moving, verite-style" TV series begins shooting in earnest.
  Campbell, a Harvard Business school graduate who helped develop such series as ER and Everybody Loves Raymond, promotes the competition with all the fervour of a Mark Twain-era mountebank selling hair tonic. No, it's not simply another of those marketing wheezes which Miramax is famous for. No, Matt and Ben aren't just along for the ride. The project is being organized to fit in with their busy schedules. ("This would not work if their participation was just nominal They've been to every pitch meeting we've had... they're completely hands-on guys.") No, the 13-part series isn't catering to the new fad for voyeuristic TV shows. "This is not Survivor or Big Brother," he insists. "We're not going to create games that pit people against one another." In the next breath, he adds that he has never been around a film or TV set where there haven't been "creative conflict and personality issues - so we won't have to manufacture any of that."
  *** From an interview with Jonathon Mostow, the writer and director of U-571: Any actors or actresses you're dying to work with?
  Too many to list. I have the obvious A-list movie star choices like Cruise, Pitt, Damon, Ford, Gibson, etc.
  (I like the order there!)
  I can't copy it, but there's a slightly amusing study of TTMR at the Cinema Nutrition column at www.corona.bc.ca/coming attractions I can't really explain it, but it's a calorie breakdown of Ripley.
  Titan AE opened in Britain yesterday, to mediocre reviews. Sure the story is pretty bad, but the animation is superb. Not a bad film, in comparison to many others. The character of Cale (Matt's voice) is generally described here as being 'David Beckham before his latest haircut'.
• More from Felicity:
  Just two small things from the NY Daily News:
  Maximum Golf: Robert Redford excels in method directing. While filming "The Legend of Bagger Vance," a golf movie coming out in the fall, the still-handsome actor-turned-director kept funnyman Will Smith in character for his serious role by keeping him on the links. "Whenever he [Smith] was not on camera, Redford had him off playing golf," reports a studio spy.
  Evidently it worked: Smith is said to have turned in a sterling performance.
  Not-so-odd Couples: The Lemmon is turning sweet on acting. Jack Lemmon is peddling a proposal for a book to be based on his interviews with major male stars like Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Will Smith, Michael Douglas and Robin Williams. The idea came to the "Days of Wine and Roses" star after he played reporter and interviewed Kevin Spacey (for another newspaper) just before the Academy Awards.

Click on a column

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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