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

• Stacey wrote:
  I just saw Matt on Live with Regis, and thought it was a great interview. Matt was wearing his jeans and gray sweatshirt, which seems to be his uniform lately. Regis brought his mom out, and she is a very lovely lady. She shared stories from when Matt was little, acting out plays with Ben. Regis also brought up the touchy subject of Penelope, but Matt just seemed to laugh off the idea of them dating. It was great to see Matt and his mother, and I absolutely can't wait for "All the Pretty Horses" to open!
• Val also wrote:
  snuck a peek at Matt on Regis in our office conference room--funny, endearing interview. Matt flew into NY just for this interview.
  Regis kidded Matt about his "lusty" embrace with Pene at the NY premiere. Matt was careful to neither deny or admit to any potential for a romance with Pene altho he did say that the ATPH experience forged some lasting friendships.
  Regis brought Matt's mom on stage (she looked lovely)and did a mini interview with her on how she felt about Matt's success. Nancy was joining Matt on a flight to Paris for more filming immediately after the show.
  Regis did say nice things about the movie and showed the clip where John Grady Cole meets Alejandra on horseback--let's hope his viewers take it in this holiday.
  I hoped you all taped this one--it's a keeper!
• From Jeffrey Wells' column on reel.com:

  Pretty Festive

  All the Pretty Horses played just as well for me the second time as it did the first. It's a lovingly rendered, beautifully edited, mostly satisfying film, but for some reason it's getting dumped on by the big guns. The kindest review I could find is in Time, calling it "a perfectly coherent, handsomely rendered couple of hours" that "might have been more … [but] it could easily have been a lot less." Sometimes I just don't swing with the crowd. All the Pretty Horses is a real Western, steeped in scenic beauty and meditation and spirituality. It is also, by any movie-going standard, a very full meal. I can't imagine anyone except for my film-critic friends coming out of it feeling burned. If you're going it might be a good idea to have a double cappuccino before it starts. It's not boring, but it is somewhat … well, pastoral. I saw it again at a Sunday-night premiere at Westwood's Bruin Theatre. I then went to an after-party under a big, warm, comfortable tent erected in a nearby parking lot. Matt Damon wasn't there, but director Billy Bob Thornton was. Ditto Horses co-stars Penelope Cruz, Henry Thomas, and Robert Patrick. Bruce Willis was at the screening and the after-party, as were Peter Falk and Jon Voight. The film was supposed to begin at 5 p.m. (which means 5:30, because premiere screenings always start at least a half-hour late). I arrived early to get a decent seat. 95% of the seats at premiere screenings are reserved for VIP's and their friends, leaving only a few rows for journalists and other second-tier types. I'd met Billy Bob a couple of times before — at an IFP Spirit Awards ceremony three or four years ago, and then on the set of Armageddon in late '97 on the Disney lot. I happened to be in the lobby when he walked in, and he smiled and said hello without my trying to get his attention. That's unusual. But then Billy Bob's a friendly, folksy guy. Talking to a celebrity at one of these things can sometimes take as long as 10 or 15 minutes, depending on the number of competitors. You have to position yourself nearby, then start to move in through the circle without being too pushy. Then, when you're finally close enough, you have to jump into the conversation at just the right "lull" moment without seeming rude or too desperate. It's a lot of work. Too much, I think. Billy Bob stood in front with a mike and introduced the film. He said he really loved it and was proud of his work, but he seemed a little unsure of what others might think. He said that making a film was "like disembowelling yourself with a sharp rock."

• I thank the reader who wrote to say thus:
  Matt will be on regis 2morrow thursday december 21, i saw it on access hollywood, his mom is with him on the show as well
• This article appeared in today's Boston Herald:
  Sitting `Pretty': Matt Damon thinks his newest movie has all the `Horses' to be a winner
  by Stephen Schaefer
  Wednesday, December 20, 2000
  When Matt Damon talks about his Christmas Day release, ``All the Pretty Horses,'' he doesn't sound as if he's discussing a movie. He sounds as if he's discussing a peak life experience.
  ``I've never been prouder of anything (more) than this one,'' he said, speaking with apparent sincerity. ``This was a significant, life-changing experience, making this movie, and I feel I'll be chasing this the rest of my career.''
  The reason for his passionate declaration? ``Billy Bob,'' said Damon, referring to Thornton, the Oscar-winning husband of Angelina Jolie who directed this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's bestseller about two young cowboys in 1940s Texas who head to Mexico for adventure.
  ``He's just a miracle of a director and an amazing human being,'' said Damon. ``The way he worked with all of us and the way he runs a set were bliss. The result, I'm so in awe, and the acting in the movie - I'm not counting myself in this - but all those actors are flawless, top to bottom.''
  They include Henry Thomas, of ``E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial'' fame; Lucas Black, the child star of Thornton's 1996 directorial debut ``Sling Blade''; Spanish siren Penelope Cruz; and Bruce Dern, father of Thornton's former girlfriend Laura Dern.
  For a film that's been widely perceived as troubled - it was edited down from three hours to just under two and it was originally set to open last Christmas - Damon's upbeat take is surprising, but plausible.
  After all, Thornton, rather than being upset with the final cut (which he oversaw), has been publicizing the film. Damon also points out that there was a practical reason for shelving ``Horses'' in 1999: his starring role as a psychopath in ``The Talented Mr. Ripley'' last December.
  ``Both are Miramax co-productions,'' he said. ``Harvey Weinstein, the Miramax honcho, didn't want to take money out of his own pocket.''
  But when conversation turns to Damon's fall flop ``The Legend of Bagger Vance,'' the star doesn't talk up that project in quite the same way. `Bagger Vance,' which teamed him with Will Smith on a 1930s Savannah golf course, was directed by Robert Redford, another actor turned helmer, and dropped out of sight faster than any Damon picture since 1997's ``Good Will Hunting'' made the Cambridge native a star.
  ``In retrospect,'' he said of the openly hostile reviews ``Bagger'' attracted, ``I guess people were waiting with loaded rifles for Redford's next movie. I had no idea. The vitriol! Really, for a guy who's just done amazing things, good things with his name and his career. It seemed too hostile to be just about our movie. I was surprised.''
  Has the experience made him worried about ``Horses''?
  ``For the first time in my life I don't care,'' he said. ``I want people to really love it, to love it as much as I do. But if they don't, it's OK. We just disagree. I've never felt that way before. I've always felt like, `Well, maybe they know something I don't.' But not in this case - we just disagree and that's fine.''
  Nonetheless, Damon is a realist. ``I'm not ignorant of the effect stringing together a bunch of bombs will have on anybody's career,'' he added. ``I'd like to keep working on movies like this - and not worry. If I could do a movie like `Horses' every few years, I'd be very happy.''
  The actor had flown from Paris, where he's filming ``The Bourne Identity,'' an adaptation of Robert Ludlum's Euro-thriller about a man with amnesia. Once he finishes, he will join Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Julia Roberts in director Steven Soderbergh's update of ``Ocean's Eleven.'' Both films look, at least on paper, to be highly commercial.
  But Damon, at 30 and with 14 feature films to his credit, says box-office potential never really figures into his thinking when he agrees to a picture. ``I know actors who say they need a big movie, and they choose something on that basis and they have a miserable time because they're not connected to it,'' he said. ``Or like it even. Or any of the people they're working with. And it comes out - and it's terrible! It's a totally miserable experience all the way around. Then they go back to the drawing board and say, `I've got to strategize somewhere.' I say, Who cares? Fail or succeed based on your own taste.''
  Damon, who won an Academy Award with Ben Affleck for scripting ``Good Will Hunting,'' hasn't had time to collaborate on another screenplay. But he and Affleck are buoyed by the success of their Internet effort to give other aspiring screenwriters a chance.
  Called ``Greenlight,'' the project welcomes anyone to submit a script to be reviewed by a screening committee. After the committee narrows the pool down to 30, Affleck and Damon will read the finalists' work and choose a winner, who will be guaranteed a production deal.
  ``We're down to 250 and the screenwriting community seems really strong,'' said Damon. ``We can't create that community. It's up to the writers to do it, and they're into it and it seems to be doing exactly what we hoped it would do. It's getting exciting. . . . Hopefully, all these 250 will get some action.''
  And, hopefully, given Damon's unabashed enthusiasm, so will ``Horses.''

• The amazing Felicity wrote from San Francisco:
  • Village Voice review (excerpt):
    There's no getting around the fact that Damon is too old to pass for a teenager. Still, he has the robust physicality and emotional honesty that the role demands. As the more retiring Rawlins, Thomas displays similar conviction. But both are upstaged by Lucas Black as Jimmy Blevins, a horse thief and fledgling psycho killer. Blevins is the cowboy version of Robert De Niro's Johnny Boy in Mean Streets. Moved by his vulnerability, Cole and Rawlins can't bring themselves to brush him off, but they are also powerless to save him.
    Running just over two hours, All the Pretty Horses is a choppy ride. (It's reported to have been two hours longer in earlier versions.) What's missing from the adaptation is the sense of history that gives the novel its scope and depth. An even more crucial problem is the absence, in Thornton's direction, of a specific perspective on the land itself. Compared to films like Thelma and Louise or My Own Private Idaho, which filter familiar landscapes through the eyes of unique and profoundly alienated characters, All the Pretty Horses is merely picturesque.
  • Article from the Pioneer Press:
    Cutting `Horses'
    The Oscar-laden cast of `All the Pretty Horses' won't say much about how the four-hour film was cut to two.
    By Chris Hewitt
    Movie Critic
    New York
    So many people at the press junket for ``All the Pretty Horses'' have so many things they don't want to talk about that you can't help wondering why some of them are there.
    Penelope Cruz declines to comment on whether she had a thing with her co-star, Matt Damon, or whether that thing has ended so she could start a thing with her more recent co-star, Nicolas Cage (they just finished making ``Corelli's Mandolin'').
    Damon won't discuss Cruz. Surprisingly, director Billy Bob Thornton will discuss his wife, Angelina Jolie, and cheerfully volunteers that he enjoys wearing her underwear.
    But nobody is crazy about revealing why ``All the Pretty Horses,'' which opens Monday, will hit theaters in a version that's much shorter than originally planned.
    They'd rather not discuss that last topic, but they will. The trouble started nearly a year ago, when Damon told reporters he'd seen a four-hour-long cut of the movie and that it was one of the best things he'd ever seen.
    Then ``All the Pretty Horses,'' a Western about a young Texan who meets tragedy and love on a horse trip to Mexico, was shifted from one studio to another, which led to rumors about its release-ability, and now it has turned up in a version that is under two hours. So what happened?
    ``I made the mistake of inviting all the people at both studios to my house and, against my better judgment, I said, `I'm going to show you all the footage I shot,' but it was just an assembly of footage, not a finished print. I mean, even the `assemblies' of teen comedies are four hours long. So the myth of the four-hour cut came from that screening,'' says Thornton.
    ``The cut we have now is the cut everybody feels good about,'' says Damon. ``There's nothing missing. Nothing got cut out.''
    Screenwriter Ted Tally has a slightly different version of the story. He says the studio decided, in advance, to film every scene in Cormac McCarthy's dense, 300-page novel and then choose later on what to leave out. He acknowledges that major cuts were made -- how could he not, since the movie's closing credits list half a dozen characters who are not, in fact, in the finished film? But he says he thinks they were good cuts.
    ``I'm glad they took out some of my stuff. A lot of screenwriters would say, `They destroyed my baby,' but it's a collaborative business. A lot of people have to be satisfied with the way the movie plays,'' says Tally.
    Pragmatism does seem to be the key concept. The truth about how long ``All the Pretty Horses'' should ideally be -- and the movie does feel rushed in spots -- may never be known unless Thornton decides to put together a director's cut for DVD.
    In the meantime, he lets slip a hint that, whatever he and Damon say for the official record, the decision to trim ``All the Pretty Horses'' was a business decision, not an artistic one.
    Thornton's contract guarantees him the final say on what goes into the movie, with one proviso: ``I had final cut (as long as it was) up to two hours, if that tells you anything. So if I wanted to put the movie before people in my version, it had to be under two hours.''
    Length issues aside, ``All the Pretty Horses'' seems to have been a golden shoot. What with Cruz and Damon possibly falling in love, and Thornton reuniting with a favorite actor, Lucas Black (the kid from ``Sling Blade''), it was, by all accounts, a happy set.
    ``Everyone is entitled to their opinion about it, but I love the movie, and this is the first time I really don't care what other people think,'' says Damon. ``This is one I'd want to do over and over, because the experience with Billy was so good.''
    That news may surprise some in backstabby Hollywood. ``All the Pretty Horses'' is probably the first movie in history with three Oscar-winning screenwriters on the set (Tally won for ``Silence of the Lambs,'' Thornton for ``Sling Blade'' and Damon for ``Good Will Hunting''), so it's easy to imagine the three of them going at each other with well-sharpened red pencils. Didn't happen, though.
    ``Billy added some things to the script, but Matt's attitude was, `I'm wearing my acting hat here.' You would never know he was an Oscar-winning writer,'' says Tally.
    You wouldn't know it to listen to Damon, either. ``Ben (Affleck) and I wrote `Good Will Hunting' strictly out of an acting (perspective). We just loved these characters and tried to make each other laugh and hoped they'd get us jobs,'' says Damon. ``We wrote a couple of thousand pages and some of it is good, but most of it sucked. We had no idea how to structure it.''
    Self-deprecation aside, there was some good-natured whose-Oscar-is-better talk on the set.
    Thornton, chuckling, reveals, ``Matt would say, `When you did your little hillbilly picture, you won for best adapted screenplay, but mine was for best original screenplay.' And I'd say, `Yeah, what material was my screenplay adapted from? Oh, yeah. My own story. And, oh, by the way, you've been nominated for best actor, but have you been nominated for supporting actor? No? Hmm, because I have.' ''
    ``Yeah,'' says Damon. ``And Billy would say, `Oh, and also, when you won that Oscar with Ben, did you, like, both get one or did you have to share it?' ''
    Damon and Thornton's ease with each other indicates that they genuinely had fun working together. It doesn't tell us a lot about the movie, of course, but you hate to interrupt them once they get going on a topic they're willing to discuss.
• Silke wrote from Germany:
  I have read a post from a german fan and I wanted to ask you, maybe if you could give me her/his e-Mail address or at least ask her if she wants to correspond with me, because I am also from Germany and I don't know anyone who is also a Matt fan. (
  If you are the German fan who wrote me, please write again and I will forward your mail to Silke.)
• NY POST...CINDY ADAMS
  SO WHERE will they all be this coming weekend?
  ...
  Matt Damon: "Boston. I'm always with my family. We're together every Christmas." Standing with his dad at the screening of "All the Pretty Horses," he added. "I wouldn't think of being anywhere else."
  ...
• Old note from a Big Matt Fan:
  Last night (12/18), ET had a story on the jobs actors had before they became famous. Included in the segment was an interview of Matt in which he talked about his and Ben's days working at a movie theater. He said the only movie that was showing was "The Dead Poet's Society," a film both of them had auditioned for. He said they had been close to getting it, but of course, they didn't, and it was "a kind of purgatory" having to tear tickets for it the whole time.
  I suspect this was part of a larger interview shot during last week's press junket. Perhaps we'll see the bulk of it later this week. Stay tuned!
• A Matt fan in Utah (thanks!) sent in these snippets last week:
  It's from the December issue of Cosmo. The spread is called "Men Who Make Us Melt 2000: Check out Cosmo's pick of seven knee-weakening, lust-worthy Hollywood hunks. You might just go crazy from the heat." Under a great picture of Matt it reads "Psst... did you hear the year's best news? This Boston-bred babe is single again (yes!) now that he and Winona Ryder have broken off their two-year romance. Seems he's been using the extra free time to double his workload--he's starring in back-to-back flicks, The Legend of Bagger Vance and All the Pretty Horses. In both, it's apparent he's gone through a serious growth spurt and evolved from the adorable aw-shucks boy-next-door to the kind of manly screen stud who will leave us all needing a cold shower."
  There's also an article about his Oscar contention in Entertainment Weekly this week. The link is http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6595,91321,00.html.
  Also, on the show MTV News Now: "When Sex Goes Pop: Not That Innocent", there is a very brief clip of Matt saying, "If you can vote, you're probably old enough to wear what you want." It's in reference to the raciness of young female pop stars and the clothes they are choosing to wear or not wear.
• A note from Felicity, from last week:
  • More from foxnews.com's Roger Friedman:
    Billy Bob: All the Pretty Diets
    Billy Bob Thornton is not anorexic, contrary to published reports. That's what he told me when we talked on Sunday night. But the director of All the Pretty Horses has lost a lot of weight since his heftier days on the John Ritter comedy Hearts Afire.
    He described his diet for me and I listened very carefully. Folks, don't try this at home:
    "Every morning I have oatmeal, bananas, and papaya. For lunch it's protein � chicken or fish. Dinner is a salad with almonds or pecans, with oil and vinegar. I'm not saying that I'm all anti-carbohydrates, but I try to avoid them as much as possible. No bread, no pasta, none of that. The reason people think I eat orange food is the papaya, which I have a lot of."
    Thornton, who's married to Angelina Jolie, says he's also enjoying having Jon Voight as a father-in-law. When he was asked about him, his face lit up. "He's cool, isn't he? We talk about lots of stuff," Thornton said.
    Damon and Cruz Hug Goodbye
    More from Sunday night's premiere party at Sotheby's auction house: Tom Brokaw and wife Meredith broke bread with Dan and Jean Rather, while co-stars Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz were thisclose all night, according to observers. Cruz had to stay behind to continue making Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky.
    Cruz carried around Damon's one-year old nephew on her shoulder when she and the star weren't nuzzling. She said, "I love children," while patting the tow-headed kid on the back. Damon's dad, Kent, was overheard saying: "It's nice to see they're such close friends."
    Miramax's Harvey Weinstein couldn't get close enough to Cruz to say goodnight while she and Damon were entwined in an embrace. "I'm not breaking that up," Weinstein said and scurried away. Indeed, Damon and Cruz's farewell was a full-bodied adios � or was it adiosita � and seemed quite emotional.
    Affleck Adds Film Editor to Resume
    Ben Affleck told me that he is not dating Shoshanna Lonstein, Jerry Seinfeld's ex, and that's the story he's sticking with. Sounds good to me.
    More interesting Affleck news: brother Casey, who's a good actor and looks nothing at all like Ben, has taken up a new career. He was an assistant editor on Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester.
    "I did the edit assembly," he told me. That means he actually lined up the footage scene-by-scene and readied it for the movie's head editor.
    Casey got a screen credit, too. "I learned on the job," he said. "My early edits were awful, so the stuff I'm most proud of comes toward the end of the movie."
    Of course, Casey is not responsible for Finding Forrester being one of the most God-awful bad movies of 2000. More on that in the next few days. Suffice to say, if Forrester is found by audiences it will have been a terrible, terrible mistake.
    Meanwhile, director Billy Bob Thornton made nice all night with Damon and Weinstein and wound up taking an overnight flight with them to Los Angeles for last night's premiere of Chocolat and next week's opening of Horses.
  • The NY Post has a small bit only on the closeness of Matt and Penelope, but says nothing else. The NY Daily News has a story on Billy Bob and a photo, but that's all.
    From USA Today:
    Damon rides 'Pretty Horses' to happiness
    By Jeannie Williams, USA TODAY
    
    "This is the happiest I've ever been. I'm serious," says Matt Damon about his new movie, All the Pretty Horses.
    "I don't know if I'll ever have this feeling again. I'm just going to try and enjoy it," said the versatile young star, who was surrounded Sunday in Manhattan by his family � "My dad, my mom, my brother and his wife and their kids, and about 20 other friends." He beamed as he greeted director Billy Bob Thornton and introduced his lovely co-star, Penelope Cruz, to his relatives.
    Thornton also was happy. He and Miramax's Harvey Weinstein brushed off media talk about a supposed battle over the movie's length, now a minute or two under two hours. Thornton said his contract gave him final cut "for two hours and under, so I had to cut it to two hours. It's just what we wanted. We love it."
    Although Damon and Cruz get a skinny-dipping scene in a lake, Thornton says they only "smooch a little. It's about an innocent romance." The modern western is based on Cormac McCarthy's novel.
    Thornton got in a New York weekend with wife Angelina Jolie, who returned to England on Sunday to continue shooting Tomb Raider, in which she sees lots of action. Her hubby said: "I think she's over with all the dangerous stuff. She had to swing on a few ropes and climb a couple of things. She sprained her ankle once, but she did great. She's a trouper, and very strong � stronger than me physically. I think she could push me around!"
    Cruz turned up in a tweedy turtleneck and leather pants ensemble by Ralph Lauren. "Billy made everything full of magic," she said. "I remember it as an experience that changed my life." She's a trouper too: She got seriously cold in that lake and worried about slimy creatures crawling up her legs.
  • From the Boston Herald:
    Matt: Break that rumor
    Cambridge homey Matt Damon is trying desperately to set the record straight on his purported past as a Harvard Square break dancer named ``Matty D.''
    At the New York premiere for his new flick, ``All The Pretty Horses,'' Damon told Big Apple gossip king Baird Jones that his head-spinning past is an urban legend.
    ``I never break danced in my life,'' Damon told Jones. ``Ben Affleck's younger brother, Casey, loves making up these yarns about me and Ben just to screw up our interviews. He told that tall tale to People magazine two years ago and ever since then, talk-show hosts have tried to get me to show a few of my break-dance moves.''
    Meanwhile, Casey of ``Committed'' and ``Drowning Mona'' fame, was standing a few feet away, still spinning The Legend Of Matt Damon.
    ``Damon is always trying to make me stop telling people he was a break dancer because he says it hurts his acting career by making him look like an idiot. But it happened and I won't shut up about it!'' said Casey.
    ``I remember when Matt was 15, he came back from Harvard Square one summer day and complained to Ben that he had really had his best splits and spins but after an hour, he quit because he only had managed to collect 15 cents.''
    Just 15 cents to watch Matt bust some moves??? Oh give us a break. . . .
  • This was the bit from the NY Daily News:
    NY DAILY NEWS/RUSH AND MOLLOY....
    It's true: Billy Bob Thornton really does eat orange food.
    At the Sunday premiere for his Tex-meets-Mex film, "All the Pretty Horses," someone offered him some mangoes, and we couldn't help but ask whether it was true Thornton is on some kind of weird Sunkist-and-yams diet and that's what really put him in the hospital back in September.
    "I do eat orange food," said Thornton, resplendent in a Metallica T-shirt and rosary bead necklace. "But that's not the whole story. I also eat brown, blue, black and purple foods."
    Thornton's curious image — made curioser by his Las Vegas elopement with much-younger Angelina Jolie in May — sometimes eclipses the Oscar-winner's work. Then again, you'd have to be a bit crazy to make a Western today.
    But this ain't no John Ford retread. The celluloid is peyote-soaked. One scene, for instance, has Matt Damon's heartbroken cowboy character drifting through a crowd that fairly bleeds on him — to a soundtrack of guitar chords like glass shards.
    Thornton says he "tried to be true" to Cormac McCarthy's prize-winning novel about the adventures of two young guys and a kid who flee Texas for the horse country of Mexico. Damon finds trouble there in the irrestible form of Spanish siren Penelope Cruz.
    Their love scenes are said to be so steamy they were among the cuts famously demanded by Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein. Not so, Thornton said at the premiere.
    "I cut out a scene where Penelope is walking naked toward the water, much to the dismay of my friends, probably. But I cut it because it was gratuitous. He's already swimming, why isn't she already swimming? But I never filmed it. I cut it out of the script."
    One scene that Thornton did film but, perhaps mercifully, cut was a dream sequence where he wanders naked. Some things may be best left for Angelina's eyes only.
  • This was the article in the Sunday Times that I mentioned (published February 20): A reclusive gay murderer? The Talented Mr Ripley is a huge career gamble for Matt Damon, but he's more worried about the corrupting power of fame. And, GARTH PEARCE discovers, his next job will be writing, not acting
    Count him out
    Matt Damon's photograph stands 30ft high on a poster on a Berlin hoarding, advertising his new film, The Talented Mr Ripley, with the teasing question: "Have you ever wanted to be somebody else?" The real-life, 5ft 11in version is sitting next to me, reeling off a list of the men he once longed to be, starting with every player in the Boston Red Sox. Even during daily six-mile runs to lose weight for the film, he listened to music tapes on headphones and imagined he was Eric Clapton. But the truth about Damon is that, at 29, he's become exactly who he wanted to be: a film star. There's one problem. Is living the dream all it's cracked up to be? He's no longer so sure. "There's definitely a price to pay," he admits. "Sometimes, it seems very high. It has eaten up my private life and I have had to hold on to some form of normality, otherwise it would be easy to lose the plot of real life." Some would say he showed signs of losing it two years ago, when he was involved in an infamous slip on The Oprah Winfrey Show: he announced he was "single again" during a relationship with Minnie Driver. The British actress claimed she had been dumped on national television. His embarrassment became more acute when he started dating the obsessively private Winona Ryder shortly afterwards. They have maintained a monklike vow of mutual silence, never discussing each other. "It was my own decision," he says. "And, clearly, it has been hers for many years. I know this sounds ungrateful, but the only time I can really enjoy privacy is when working on a film set."
    Yet this is a man who set out to become exactly what he now is. He quit Harvard in his final year of an English degree in the hope that his appearance in the 1993 film Geronimo: An American Legend was going to make Hollywood sit up and take notice. It didn't. While many stars have to be dragged into fuelling the publicity machine, Damon, even as little as three and a half years ago, eagerly volunteered to take part in a round of television interviews with Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington for the promotion of Courage Under Fire, in which he had a modest role as a heroin-addicted soldier. His request was spurned by 20th Century Fox. He was left, instead, to nurse himself back to fitness after being warned by doctors that he had put his health in danger by crash-dieting to lose 45lb in 100 days so he could add realism to his role.
    He then wrote his own film script, with his childhood friend Ben Affleck, just to get a part. The film, Good Will Hunting, won them both best screenplay Oscars two years ago. From that moment to this, he still can't quite work out what has gone right. The result is that he hasn't dared to stop working. He had dreamed the dream so much, he felt that a rest between movies would be a self-destructive act of treachery.
    After Good Will Hunting, he made John Grisham's The Rainmaker in Tennessee, Saving Private Ryan in England, Rounders in New York and Dogma in Pittsburgh. He has been living in New Mexico while filming the forthcoming All the Pretty Horses, directed by the actor Billy Bob Thornton and set to be launched at the Cannes Film Festival in May. He is fresh from Savannah, Georgia, from a film directed by Robert Redford about a fictional 1931 golf match, called The Legend of Bagger Vance, to be released this autumn.
    But none of this quite compares to the summer he spent in Italy with the English director Anthony Minghella and a glittering cast, including fellow Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow and Bafta-winner Cate Blanchett, making The Talented Mr Ripley. In a remarkable reshaping and reinvention of what we have seen of Damon on screen so far, he plays Tom Ripley as a gay virgin, cautiously pushing open the closet door.
    Ripley is hired in New York by a shipping millionaire to travel to Italy and attempt to persuade his son, Dickie Greenleaf (superbly played by Briton Jude Law), to give up a wayward life of jazz, girls and sunshine and return to the business in America. Instead, he falls in love with Dickie, murders him and assumes his identity. If this plot twist is not enough to put Damon's female fans in a spin, then his performance as a lonely, achingly insecure man who wants the guy rather than the girl will surely put their loyalty to the test. The sight of his white body, plodding across a hot Italian beach in yellow swimming trunks and brown shoes, is just an early light moment before the darker deeds that are to come.
    The script, written by Minghella from the 1955 Patricia Highsmith novel, the first of five she wrote about the deeds of Mr Ripley, is dangerous for Damon, despite the $75m the film has taken in just seven weeks in America. Even the film's veteran producer, Sydney Pollack, a successful director in his own right, says: "It is so risky for a hot young leading man - the newest man in town, in some ways - to play a gay guy. I can't recall any girls' idol being prepared to break the unwritten laws of Hollywood in such a way." Damon is only too aware of what he has taken on. "I am nervous, because the jury is still out on me," he says. "I have taken to making jokes that 'the career was good while it lasted'." He was more sure-footed on the subject of a best actor Oscar nomination (which, in the event, he didn't get, though the film got five): "It is still the same film, whether it wins 10 Oscars or does not get nominated for any," he says. "I am proud of it."
    We meet in the Four Seasons Hotel in Berlin, during the film festival and his tour of Europe, including London, to talk about Ripley. It is the sort of setting that has become home to him since he collected his gold statue in 1998. He can now earn $7m for a film, but does not own a stick of furniture, a car or even a suitcase. Laundry is done, beds are made, meals are delivered.
    His worldly possessions are still proudly carried in two large duffel bags he bought at WalMart before his success. Not that he has had to buy any of the clothing he keeps in them. He receives vast amounts of clothes, all free, from some of the world's most famous fashion designers. He prefers casual, so is today in plain dark green T-shirt and cotton trousers. He's good-looking in an everyman kind of way, with blue eyes, even teeth and brown hair. But smoking a Camel Light and chatting about his love for British-style beer, with Guinness and Newcastle Brown his favourites, he could also be an off-duty waiter or chauffeur, the kind who insist they are just earning money between acting or writing a movie.
    "In the rare moments I've had when not working, I have felt confused," he says. "I am still in a state of shock, with people asking for autographs and wanting to know things." Indeed, he was to be seen the day before we met, baseball cap pulled tightly over his eyes, spending 20 minutes with a large crowd of German fans asking just that. He seemed at ease, although he admits to finding his public appearances very strange.
    "I will be sitting in my room watching television, Armani will arrive with a free suit that fits perfectly and it's off to a premiere. I am driven for 10 minutes, get out, have photographers take 1,000 pictures, then return to the hotel after the film has started. I get out of the suit and put the TV back on. It all looks very jet-set, but it's half an hour out of your life. And where was the free suit when I really needed one? That is the kind of false world that was created and agreed many years before I came on the scene. It will be happening many years after I've finished, too."
    Damon's good sense sounds as if it was hammered home by his mother, Nancy, a professor in early child education who describes herself as a "progressive leftist". She brought him up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with older brother Kyle, after she divorced his father, Kent, when both the boys were children. He was not embarrassed when she delivered one of her few public comments to The Washington Post a year ago: "My beautiful boy is being used to sell products," she said. "He is just a cog in the capitalist system." Her warnings about Hollywood are regularly handed out to her famous son. "She worries about my fame," he says. "She tells me she wishes I was not quite so successful. I know exactly what she means. She is vigilant in safeguarding against some shift in me. I have seen attitudes change in other actors. Someone is doing good work, then something happens. All their movies become totally narcissistic."
    But he has enjoyed equal support from both parents, particularly when it came to quitting Harvard. "I thought I was on a fast track to achieving something as an actor," he says. "It was an early lesson that there are no guarantees." There was another lesson: in the art of negotiating a fee. His first screen appearance was at the age of 19 in a made-for-television movie, Rising Son. "I was paid $25,000, which seemed like great money," he says. "Five years later, after two feature films, I was back doing another made-for-television movie for $20,000. I knew my career was not going the way it should." Such memories still nag him. "I feel responsible to the person I was a few years ago, who could not get the right jobs." he says. "I feel guilty if I take a night off and go out to dinner. I feel as if I am betraying that person."
    He says he suffered the same sensations on The Talented Mr Ripley, even when filming in the golden countryside of Tuscany and on the streets of Rome and Venice. He was not visited by Ryder - they seem to insist on a work-no-play policy on their film sets - and tried to concentrate on the loneliness his character would be feeling. He looked at 27-year-old Jude Law, who was there with his actress wife, Sadie Frost, and their son, Rafferty, aged three, and wondered if he was missing out. "There is much to envy about Jude," he says. "Not only does he look as if he was sculpted out of stone, he is happily married with a great family. He was travelling and having fun, while I was living with the thoughts and manners of Tom Ripley. I have visitors when I am working, but I've not yet figured out a way of marrying my work to my life."
    He is about to have the opportunity. He has stopped acting to write, again with Affleck. He has bought a loft apartment in Greenwich Village, New York, and, when renovations are complete, will be looking to buy furniture and retrieve his Oscar from his mother. After learning how to play the piano and sing the Chet Baker hit My Funny Valentine for The Talented Mr Ripley, ride a horse for All the Pretty Horses and swing a golf club like a pro for The Legend of Bagger Vance, he is concerned about a real life. "I do not have a single hobby," he says. "I would like to say I'm a great mechanic or collect model trains. But I am realising that I have no real talents, other than those that are linked to films. It's time to put that right."
    At this moment, it seems that, after all, Matt Damon just wants to be somebody else.
    (Commented Felicity: It's quite a sad interview, isn't it. A few months old but probably still very apt.)
  • Boston news:
    A mention in GWH now has more background. Remember the painting in Sean's office, the Winslow Homer rip-off? The real painting, I didn't know before, is actually in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, called something like 'Incoming Fog'. I saw it on the weekend and thought it really interesting. Either Matt or Ben visited the museum and knew the painting, or found out about it somehow. I've seen various Homer paintings in museums world-wide, but this one of 'whitey rowing the boat' is just the perfect image of the one that Van Sant ripped off (remember that a competition was held to re-do the painting and he won).

• From Val:
  Watch for these ATPH related appearances:
  Friday, 12-22 Penelope Cruz on LENO
  Friday, 12-29 Matt Damon on LETTERMAN
  Friday, 12-29 Billy Bob on LENO
  Lucas Black is scheduled to appear on LIVE! With Regis on Wednesday, 20 December and Matt is set for Thursday, 21 December.
• Also from Val:
  Nice interview with Katie Couric this morning (Dec.18). I will have to look it over again but my first impression was that Matt looked a bit tired and a little pale--obviously no on-air make up today.
  His hair is very dark brown and very short. He was wearing his ol' favorite blue jeans and black suede hiking boots, and a grey sweat shirt. He must be on a break from BOURNE which leads me to wonder if he'll be doing more press this week or will be Europe bound again. Have any of you read of any more appearances this week?
  As for the off screen romance question, Katie implies that he and Pene got along well off screen as well as on ...? Matt replies, "Yeah, yeah ... not like 'that'." I hope that response was a "one does protest too much", Matty!
• Val again:
  The December issue of the SANTA FEAN has a section called "Bueno Bye" (this is a common Spanish slang term used in NM to convey an affectionate message of "Ok, loved talking to you but I gotta go ..."
  This month's is devoted to Billy Bob and his work on ATPH in the northern NM area. There are a few nice, new pictures I hadn't seen.
  I'm not sure if the mag is distributed outside the Southwest. Worth a look if you can find it!
• From Felicity:
  • Seems like there's going to be plenty of press coverage coming up, and don't forget the Golden Globe nods on Thursday.
  • One ad in a local paper for ATPH has the "Two Thumbs Up" from Ebert and the other, but no other comments from them. But on the Ebert site he does mention ATPH first as films given an 'honorable mentioned' in another sub-set.
  • This was in an interview on Newsday with Finding Forrester actor Rob Brown: Still, there was at least one event on the set that he doesn't just take in stride: the appearance of Matt Damon in a cameo role. After all, Damon's break-out acting role was in "Good Will Hunting," the 1997 film (from his script with Ben Affleck) directed by Van Sant. "Someone made a joke," said Rob, "that a few movies down, I'll be doing a cameo for Gus."
  • This was an article from Virtual New York:
    Billy Bob Thorton's Pretty Horses
    Friday, 15 December 2000 13:14 (ET)
    Billy Bob Thorton's Pretty Horses
    By KAREN BUTLER
    NEW YORK, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- It's been four years since Billy Bob Thornton took Hollywood by storm with his disturbing, Oscar-winning "Sling Blade." Now the acclaimed actor-writer-director is back behind the camera with another eagerly awaited coming-of-age drama, "All the Pretty Horses."
    "It's about the end of the Western," Thornton says of the film that stars Matt Damon, Penelope Cruz and Henry Thomas, and is based on Cormac McCarthy's beloved novel.
    "Teenage audiences (may enjoy it because) they can watch Matt and Penelope fall in love, but don't let the billboard fool you," he warns. "The movie is also about the end of the West and a young man's search for what his future will be and the future of America and the end of America, in a lot of ways.
    "And it's about walking the path you were comfortable in and assumed you would be living in forever that's no longer there; that's being ripped up from underneath you and where do we go now?"
    Asked if he felt any pressure from Miramax to focus on the love story aspect, Thornton replied: "People who put up the money for a movie will always want to sell it with sex and violence. That will never end. That will never, ever end."
    But Thornton is quick to add that he didn't bend to the pressure when he wasn't comfortable, explaining how he deliberately cut out a sexy scene in the screenplay that called for Cruz to disrobe before meeting an already naked Damon in a lake.
    "That has gratuity or gratuitousness, whatever the word is, written all over it, if you ask me," he said.
    Adds Damon: "(Thornton) undermined the Hollywood machine....That's just one of the many reasons we love working for him."
    The director took over "All the Pretty Horses" when Mike Nichols dropped out a few years ago to pursue other projects. Upon committing to the film, Thornton insisted on using the crew he worked with on "Sling Blade" and the yet-to-be-released "Daddy and Them," instead of hiring better-known actors, as suggested by Miramax.
    Decked out in a Metallica T-shirt and black rosary beads, jeans and baseball cap while lounging at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, Thornton seems to enjoy his image as an artistic rebel. The director insists, however, that when it came to boiling McCarthy's 300-page book down to a two-hour movie, he showed nothing but respect for both the author and his material.
    "You have to respect the guy's vision who wrote the book," Thornton explains, adding that his goal was to make "a classical sort of movie" that stays true to the spirit of the novel and that people will flock to theaters to see.
    "That can be a little hard to do because in this quick-cut, video age many people have the attention span of a gnat," he laments.
    Although Thornton only met McCarthy once on the movie's set, the director recalls it was a wonderful experience.
    "He's a great gentleman," says Thornton of the reportedly quiet and reserved writer. "He's not the type of man that you would think would ever write a book like that. You'd think he'd write a manual for how to build a boathouse or something."
    He went on to say: "I respect Cormac McCarthy very much and he understands this. Cormac McCarthy is all for this. He knows that he sold his book to Hollywood and I think if he loved the movie or hated the movie he would have the same feeling about it....He knows that his book is there forever and hopefully our movie will be there forever."
    As for the movie's length, Thornton hints that a much-longer "director's cut" will be made available when the film eventually comes out on DVD.
    "I've never been happier with anything I've been in," says Damon. "I've never been prouder of something. Whether or not it's for everybody, I have no idea, but it's the first time in my life I'm fine with whatever people think about it because I feel so good about it....I imagine that's how all the people I admire really deeply-like Billy or the Coen Brothers or Martin Scorsese -- I imagine that's how those guys feel all the time. You know like, 'I'm a genius and here is my work...' I just never feel that way and this is the first time I've looked at something [I've been in] and went, 'Wow." Leaving myself out of it, the other actors just down the list....Every single actor came and was just so good and then the bar got raised by the way Billy directed us."
    Damon says that he loved working with Thornton and would leap at the opportunity to do so again some day.
    Explaining some of Thornton's ground rules, Damon says: "There's no fighting. You're fired if you get in a fight, if you argue or if you're just a jerk. There's no reason for it. (Billy) says, 'If I'm not nervous there's no reason for you to be.' As a result, you get this group of people, who, every single one of them knows what this movie is about. Everyone's read it. Everyone believes in it. Everyone's taking their work very, very seriously and yet there is this atmosphere of people just being relaxed and good to each other. Billy would just wrap early and take everyone bowling."
  • Another photo of Penelope at the ATPH LA premiere is on people.com
  • A mini-review from newsweek:
    ALL THE PRETTY HORSES***
    OPENING NATIONWIDE: Dec. 25
    It�s always dangerous turning a beloved novel into a film; its fans are likely to resent anyone�s hijacking their own private images of the tale. In the case of a book as writerly as Cormac McCarthy�s �All the Pretty Horses,� there�s no way a filmmaker can find a visual correlative for such serpentine sentences, for rhetoric that can soar as high as a hawk over the Mexican landscapes where two young Texas boys go riding in search of adventure. What you�re left with is the story, and how well you tell it. In Billy Bob Thornton�s handsome, morosely romantic, but ultimately disjointed Western, Matt Damon is John Grady Cole and Henry Thomas is his best friend, Lacey, the two lads who, displaced from their Texas ranch in 1949, wend their way to the vast estate of a rich Mexican (Ruben Blades). There, Cole is hired to break the landowner�s wild horses. There, though he�s warned not to, he falls in love with the man�s beautiful daughter (Penelope Cruz), a dangerous move that will lead to his violent coming of age. Thornton had bitter fights over the editing of his movie, which shrank from its first cut of four hours to its final two-hour shape. The result is a movie of arresting pieces that don�t harmonize into a satisfying whole. The dialogue captures McCarthy�s tangy, laconic tongue (Ted Tally did the adaptation), and the landscapes dazzle. But �All the Pretty Horses� comes fully alive only when young Lucas Black is on the scene. He plays the volatile teenager Blevins, who tags along with Cole and Lacey, bringing them bad luck at every turn. This skinny, scruffy, quicksilver young actor sneakily steals the show.
  • Ads for the film promote www.alltheprettyhorses.com, but it only links to the Miramax 2000 site, which hasn't fully openedy yet. The film has not made it onto any of the end of year 'best' lists from critics so far.
• A Big Matt Fan wrote on 12/13:
  From an interview of Billy Bob Thornton on http://www.etonline.com:
  Jann: At one point, in an article, Matt Damon said that the horses were the best actors in the film. Now I don't agree with that -- but how tough was it? There was a lot of wrangling going on.
  Billy Bob: What was amazing about it, what most people don't know is that I did all the wrangling myself. We didn't even have any wranglers. I handled all 200 horses myself (smiles).
  Jann: You did not.
  Billy Bob: What Matt meant by the fact that the horses were the best actors in the movie, I think, is the fact that they behaved. We didn't have a lot of trouble the horses, and normally you do.
  Jann: And they were such an integral part. Now, Matt's accent, how much help did you give him?
  Billy Bob: Matt hung around with me a lot. And not just me, these other guys, too. He was in Texas with a bunch of guys. Matt's good at picking up ... he claims that I can do the New England accent better than most people. But, I'm not doing that until I do a movie about that. We traded off accents.
  Jann: Can you do a Matt?
  Billy Bob: Matt's hard to do. He does an impression of me.
  Jann: Do you like it?
  Billy Bob: I'm not so sure how good it is. I finally saw it.
  Jann: Did he mean for you to, or ...
  Billy Bob: Oh, people who he'd been doing it for convinced him to do it for me one night. He only did it for a few seconds. He was embarrassed by it. But, part of it he got.
• Also from the Big Matt Fan on 12/13:
  Early ATPH reviews are in, and sad to say, they 'aint "pretty." Variety's is pretty rancorous, and the Hollywood Reporter is also depressingly negative. There's also another bad review at Dark Horizons. At this rate, it looks like the critical reception may be even worse than BAGGER VANCE. If that's the case, it looks like we won't see Matt at the Oscars this year.
  Maybe you all were right and the extensive editing was ruinous. Maybe the book's plot just isn't cinematic enough. After all, this is a story where the guy doesn't get the girl. Or maybe, we can hope, the film is good and these particular critics "just don't get it."
  I don't know. I hope something positive can be found. However, at the point, things aren't looking rosy....
• And Felicity sent an equally depressing note on the same day:
  Just when things were looking good, something's happened. Mike Nichols has taken off his producer credit, the number of screens has been dropped to less than half, and the reviews are terrible. Is it editing, or what is it (Billy Bob)?
  Jeff Wells talks further about the problems on reel.com, including a discussion of why people don't like it (even he calls it Matt's best performance), even though it's not that bad.
  No visible posters in NY so far (that I've seen), only one in a theatre.
  And by a fluke bit of luck, I happened to catch a moment of Regis today which mentioned that Henry Thomas will be promoting Horses on tomorrow's edition (Thursday, same show as Mel Gibson).
  Nothing much in today's press, except a note in Jeannie Williams' column that Matt said that he believes Sean Penn and Robert Downey Jr are the two best actors of his generation.
• A brighter note from the Big Matt Fan sent on 12/14:
  FYI: Today's Oscar ads in the trades (there have been ads every day for a week or so) touts a quote from Rex Reed declaring ATPH "one of the year's best". So somebody out there likes it. I don't see his review on the New York Observer site, but perhaps it's in print. May be worth checking out...
• The Big Matt Fan sent in this note on 12/12:
  Of the three major entertainment shows, E! had the most coverage of ATPH. For those of you that missed it:
  Steve Kmetko: My colleague Jules Asner is also here in New York. Her assignment: to corral Matt Damon.
  Jules Asner: Thanks, Steve. While you spent your morning with George Clooney, I'm over here on the other side of town spending part of my day with Matt Damon. He's saddling up with Penelope Cruz and director Billy Bob Thornton for the New western, "All the Pretty Horses."
  Jules: How's it going?
  Matt (in a grey sweater and jeans. Hair, cropped short.): Good.
  Jules (in an adoring tone): It's great to see you.
  Matt: Yeah, you, too.
  Jules: I was talking to Billy Bob. He asked me what I thought of the movie and I said, I think this is, like, your (gesturing to Matt) finest work.
  Matt: Yeah. Thank you.
  Jules: Do you think that?
  Matt: Uh huh. (He breaks into a grin.) No, but that's all because of him.
  Scene at a dance. Henry Thomas and Matt near a door, looking at Penelope dancing with someone.
  Lacey: You're probl'y right.
  John: That don't change nothin', though.
  Matt: I just had a great experience working with him and just really learned a lot. Scenes of Matt smiling on the set with Billy Bob. This was a really significant experience in my life.
  More scenes from the movie.
  Jules: I don't know what it is about the thought of like, making a western, but a lot of people really seem to respond to it.
  Matt: Yeah. I think it's that, and it's also, kind of, the themes of the movie are pretty universal.
  Jules (over more scenes): It's kind of, so many things. It's a western. It's a love story, and like, the strong buddy relationship, and is it true that you and Henry Thomas took a road trip together?
  Matt: That's how we met. We went over to his house and picked him up and we drove to Texas together. He's from San Antonio, so we drove from LA through San Angelo, the whole area these guys are from, and then down to San Antonio. Then, we were in San Antonio for about a month before the movie just working with the horses all day, every day.
  From the film:
  John: You're not sorry we came down here, are you?
  Lacey: Not yet.
  
  Jules: You had to become a cowboy. There's not much faking.
  Matt: Definitely. It's all us in the movie, except for the stuff they couldn't insure us for, like some of the bronc busting stuff. They're not going to put the prima donna actors on the horse, so they get some cowboys in there to do it.
  (Scenes of Matt and others crossing a river on horseback as the cameras shoot. They holler in character.
  Billy Bob (amused): They love it. They love the whoopin' and hollerin', don't they?)
  Jules: And you're going to do"Oceans 11." Now what are you going to do in that?
  Matt: I'm playing one of the eleven guys that Danny Ocean gathers. It's kind of an ensemble movie. I mean, it's Clooney's movie. He's the man. The rest of us are kind of there in support and I'm really, really looking forward to it. It's a great script and Soderbergh is great, so, it should be a lot of fun.
  Jules: All the Pretty Horses opens in theaters in time for Christmas, but they actually showed the film last night for it's big New York premiere and Cindy Ham has the story.
  (At the premiere)
  Matt: I've never been prouder of anything I've done.
  Cindy: Matt Damon, Billy Bob Thornton, Penelope Cruz and Henry Thomas galloped down the red carpet Sunday night at the premiere of their new movie, "All the Pretty Horses."
  (More scenes of the movie.)
  Cindy: Directed by Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton, the movie is based on the novel by author Cormac McCarthy. It tells the story of a clandestine love affair between a wealthy landowner's daughter, played by Penelope Cruz, and a hired hand, played by Matt Damon.
  Billy Bob: He can play innocent and he can play a guy who's lost his innocence, and that's what I had to have. I had to have someone who could do both sides of the coin.
  Matt: Everybody's outlook kind of changed on life, and I just wish I could do this movie over and over again.
  Penelope: I know it sounds very dramatic, but it really changed my life, to meet all of them and to go through this period, this process with them.
  Billy Bob: We all went through a great change in our lives. We all grew up some in this movie.
  Cindy: You can see for yourself what all the fuss is about when "All the Pretty Horses" opens Christmas Day.
  Access Hollywood focused on Billy Bob second wedding to Angelina Jolie, to which Matt joked, "Does that make me the maid of honor?" However, there were a few interesting comments about bowling:
  Matt (smiling): We're all terrible. That's the point. The whole crew that Billy works with, none of us can really bowl, so it's kind of, more, an exercise in humility.
  Penelope: I never did it before, so I'm terrible. But they're my teachers. They're very good.
  Billy Bob (big grin): They all bowl now. They're all obsessed with it now. It's great.
  You probably saw that Entertainment Tonight also focused on Billy Bob Thornton. Perhaps they're saving Matt for later? Stay tuned.
• There were more news items sent in - I will post them tomorrow.

• Felicity is now in Boston! And she managed to find Matt news there, including this piece - look down to find it, excerpted below:
  Matt Damon's New Film Changed Horses Mid-Stream
  All the Pretty Horses, starring Matt Damon and directed by Billy Bob Thornton, started 2000 as a Columbia Pictures release. It ends it as a Miramax film with a premiere on Sunday night in New York. Yesterday critics finally got to see the finished version.
  The movie is based on Cormac McCarthy's award-winning novel. As a film it's had quite a history. Mike Nichols was going to direct a version, then Anthony Minghella wanted to do it. The job fell to Thornton after much wrangling.
  Miramax
  Ride 'em cowboy: Matt Damon in All the Pretty Horses.
  Thornton � who's become better known for his marriages, divorces, and eating disorders � won an Oscar for his original screenplay for Sling Blade, a movie he also directed and starred in. Another film in which he's worn several hats, Daddy and Them, is considered so bad it's almost unreleasable. It may see the light of day next summer.
  All the Pretty Horses was also rumored to be in a lot of trouble, which is why Columbia switched places with Miramax and let the latter company take responsibility for domestic release. Miramax is Thornton's home and Damon's home; the smaller studio has more invested in making the horses canter properly. The rumor is that studio honcho Harvey Weinstein, who does not especially like long films, worked with Thornton to cut a four-hour version down to the present incarnation.
  So what of this long-aborning project? Well, it's not bad. It's not necessarily great either, although Matt Damon gives his absolutely best performance ever and may wind up with an Oscar nomination. Damon's character, John Grady Cole, is on screen for almost the entire two hours.
  Even when the action is not about him, Damon manages to attract the camera. He is not a quirky or adventurous actor � indeed, his earnestness is what has probably turned him into a star on the level of Tom Cruise.
  Miramax
  Matt Damon with co-star Penelope Cruz in All the Pretty Horses.
  It's worth noting because his best pal and cohort in real life, Ben Affleck, has definitely chosen a different road � Affleck can be much more disarming. Neither is a preferred way to get your star on Hollywood Boulevard, although I think I prefer Affleck's.
  Nevertheless, Damon � in The Legend of Bagger Vance and All the Pretty Horses � is paving a road toward big, big things. The problem is that with Horses is that the filmmaking is so uncertain that you can see the seams.
  When Tom Cruise became a sensation, in Top Gun, the movie-making wasn't artistic, but it was one piece. It was manipulative, but you could accept the conceit. In Horses, Matt is caught in an ambitious but failed artistic endeavor. It's to his credit that he survives.
  Henry Thomas, who we all remember so fondly as Elliott from E.T. almost twenty years ago, is very good as Damon's sidekick on their adventure to Mexico. Penelope Cruz is great to look at, although sometimes her accent is heavy enough to be intrusive.
  There's a trio of good cameos � by Sam Shepard, Ruben Blades, and Bruce Dern � and some other good casting. The cinematography, of course, is gorgeous, and if the story tracked a little better, we'd all say that All the Pretty Horses is an epic for the ages. We'll have to settle for Not Bad, instead.
  All the Pretty Horses is better than a lot of the films I've seen in the last month � certainly better than Gus Van Sant's execrable Finding Forrester or Robert Zemeckis's ludicrous Cast Away. But what a crop of interesting failures this year: Quills, Unbreakable, Traffic, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Bounce, Pay It Forward, Remember the Titans, What Lies Beneath, etc.

  And Felicity wrote further from Boston:
  The new EW has a story on the actors with two shots for Oscar nods this year, Matt's mentioned and it says only what we know, that the push will be for Horses. The latest issue includes reviews of films including Cast Away, so my bet is that the next will be a double issue, possibly featuring Horses.
  The computer won't let me look at the EW page, but there's a story which says Matt is an Oscar contender in a "smaller film".
  (Here's an excerpt from the story:
  To make it an even dozen, let's throw two final names into the hat: Matt Damon, whose work in ''All the Pretty Horses'' could make him a contender for a third nomination (he won for writing ''Good Will Hunting'' and was also up for acting), and Ralph Fiennes, who has the virtue of playing three roles in the epic ''Sunshine.'' ...)
  Cultural reference: a new play in New York (Old Money) has a character that's a director who has just re-made Citizen Kane with Matt.
  Haven't found Premiere yet but the latest Ocean Drive has a feature with Penelope (Madonna cover). Couldn't view the article when I saw it.
  I haven't seen the Pretty Horses (not even the trailer at a Miramax movie!), or a poster. Apparently it is now going to open on less than 1,000 screens to gauge audience response.
  Did you see this from yahoo - article about the number of movies with Spanish ties this season:
  "I do not care how much an American practices the accent. The only way to play a good role is to speak Spanish fluently and become immersed in the culture," Matt Damon said in defense of co-star Cruz after director Billy Bob Thornton convinced the studios of the need to hire someone who knows the language.

• A Matt fan wrote from Germany:
  Hy,
  I just wanted to tell you, that Matt has a lot of fans in Germany (I met him at the "Berlinale" last year, a big film festival in Berlin. He was there because of "Talented Mr. Ripley" and he was very very nice...... and cute!!)
  But I have some news, maybe you know it:
  Matt and Ben will make a new movie together next year. The director will be Kevin Smith again and it's a movie about Jay and silent Bob, the two guys of "Dogma". That's all I know.

• Thanks are due to a reader who wrote thus:
  I was just watching ET and they said that on Monday (I think) they will be interviewing Matt Damon about his new movie. ET comes on @7:00 on channel 6. Just thought you would want to know.
• And a Big Matt Fan wrote: I was digging around the NY DAILY NEWS site and found a couple of old, old articles. You may have seen them before, but in case you haven't, click here.

• A reader wrote:
  Do you know someone who has the "Inside the Actor's Studio", on video? I would love to have this interview and I would pay for it very well! Please e-Mail me back to the address: Tigermaus@telda.net
  Thanks in advance!
• Felicity is on the road for a while. I thank a A Big Matt Fan, who came through with the followings:
  • Hey, ya'll catch the new ATPH commercial? I was watching KTLA this morning and there it was. So, of course, afterward, I started switching channels and caught it again on NBC. Using much of the trailer footage, it basically promotes the "rich girl/poor boy" storyline without really giving it all away. Not too bad, I thought. Will it pull audiences away from Castaway, Family Man or Miss Congeniality? I'm not sure, but let's keep our fingers crossed.
  • Just a couple of items:
    From The NY Daily News:
    'Finding' Parallels Director Gus Van Sant knew people would compare his new film, "Finding Forrester," with his 1997 flick, "Good Will Hunting." Like "Hunting," "Forrester" is about a brilliant street kid (played by Rob Brown) who's taken under the wing of an eccentric mentor. But wasn't Van Sant inviting critical wisecracks by actually having his "Hunting" star, Matt Damon, do a cameo in "Forrester"?
    "I just did it intuitively," the director tells us. The scene involves Damon, playing a lawyer, who hands over a significant set of keys to Brown. "I'm glad Matt trusted the project enough to do that."
  • And from Marilyn Beck's column:
    TALENT TIE-UP: Contrary to other reports, it's going to be tough -- if not impossible -- for Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and George Clooney to squeeze any film projects in-between their wrap on "Ocean's Eleven" and the threatened industry strike in June. According to Clooney, unlike the typical studio flick with a three-month production schedule, "Ocean's" is "a big ol' film that's going to take about four and a half months. It'll be shot in nine cities, from Atlantic City to Monte Carlo." And as far as the strike deadline, "It'll take us right up to it."
    With studios vying hard to sign A-list stars who still have pre-strike holes in their schedules, you've got to know "Ocean's Eleven" is causing some gritted teeth among producers around town.
    NINE cities? Wow! That sounds grueling...and intriguing. (What a job for the location supervisor!) I guess Matt's Wal-Mart duffel bags will get a work-out!

• From A Big Matt Fan, to whom we all owe a big thanks for sharing the photos shown above:
  • This bit from Cindy Adam's column (emphasis added):
    CASEY AFFLECK, 24, Ben's kid brother, got his major casting break. He nailed producer Jerry Weintraub's "Ocean's 11," the George Clooney / Julia Roberts / Matt Damon / Alan Arkin / Brad Pitt remake of Sinatra's Rat Pack flick. However, Brad Pitt's "Spy Game" opposite Robert Redford, was slated for Israel but had to relocate to safer Morocco. This caused a domino effect. Mark Wahlberg had to quit due to scheduling conflicts. With "Oceans" temporarily in limbo, Casey was having a meltdown.
    Now it's on track again. It shoots in Vegas in March.
    Of course, it's possible that this is the start of shooting in Las Vegas, while shooting could start earlier elsewhere. Or, Adams could simply be wrong. As we've seen, even VARIETY can get a start date wrong. However, if accurate, this is quite a delay, isn't it? Wouldn't Mark Wahlberg be furious if he was actually available by then and the producers stuck with Matt?
  • The Dark Horizons website has the following dubious report:
    All the Pretty Horses: Uncut reports that there's a bit of squabbling going on over Billy Bob Thornton's "All the Pretty Horses". The flick was originally shot a while ago and was supposed to come out in the Fall, but then switched from Columbia Pictures over to Miramax who are now trying to get it out on December 29th. There's a slight problem though, the final cut which Thornton turned in apparently clocked in at a whopping six hours - though other cuts are in existence including some which are under two hours, though the main print now stands at around three. Thornton is 'attached' to some footage and doesn't want to cut it - despite threats from the execs that they may even bring in someone else to try editing it. On the upside Penelope Cruz apparently gives a good performance though. Thanks to 'Anna'.
    Of course, I say "dubious" because; a) Most reports list the original version as FOUR hours long, not SIX; b) Recent reports are saying the film is just under 2 hours which would comply with the Sony contract; c) Thornton and Weinstein have publicly denied that execs threatened to take ATPH from Thornton; and d) This film is premiering TOMORROW. One would expect things to be resolved by now. These are the types of negative rumors that the Army Archerd and Liz Smith interviews were supposed to combat. It's just surprising that they're still being circulated despite abundant newer information to the contrary. I have no doubt that there were was conflict between Thornton and Sony execs (a dispute which has been well documented in many publications, most recently in the newest PREMIERE issue). However, this piece implies a level of panic and disorder that I don't think really exixts.
• Felicity sent in this note:
  The National Board of Review awards are American, and were named yesterday. Pretty Horses won for best adapted screenplay, but did not make the ten best films (some pretty obscurish ones did). Javier Bordem won for best actor (Before Night Falls). Quills won best film (and if that's the best film of the year, I'd be pretty upset).
  (You can read the article by clicking here).
  Chocolat didn't win anything, so the Post has already claimed that Miramax has failed this year.
  The Oscar ads look good, but I'm waiting now for the first professional review.
  I was clueless as to the song from ATPH, and found this on an Oscar board - it's called "Faraway" by Marty Stuart (it's probably stated in the Oscar ad).

• Erin wrote:
  Just wanted to let you know that there's a short story on ATPH in the January 2001 issue of Premiere magazine called "Wild Horses." There's a black and white shot of Matt on a horse, as well as photos of his cast mates and director. The article talks about the relaxed atmosphere on Billy Bob's set and how he fought to get Penelope cast as Alejandra (Matt says Penelope "thinks in Spanish," which is why she was better for the role than any American actress), as well as the fight he put up to make the movie the way he wanted it to be done. It's worth a read.
  There's also this short blip in their "News You're Not Supposed to Know" column; "Speaking of...Big Brusiers: The potential cast of the 30's era gangster flick "Hot Springs" reads like a list of Hollywood's favorite men. Billy Bob Thornton and Matt Damon are ready to top off the cast as (fictional) residents of the titular Arkansas town, where big time gangsters took vacations. Brendan Fraser, Giovanni Ribisi and Ben Affleck have expressed interest in the roles of Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and John Dillinger, respectively. Stephan Frears (High Fidelity) is in talks to direct." As we know, Matt and Ben have worked with Brendan Fraser in "School Ties" and Ben's worked with Giovanni Ribisi in "Boiler Room" while Matt's worked with him in "Saving Private Ryan." Small world, eh???
• And beaucoup good finds from Felicity:
  • A very good piece with Matt in Army Archerd's column today:
    Wednesday December 6 1:22 AM ET
    Archerd: Miramax steps up PR campaign for ``Horses''
    By Army Archerd, Daily Variety Senior Columnist
    HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Although Miramax will premiere Billy Bob Thornton's ``All the Pretty Horses'' Sunday at the Beekman in N.Y., a screening for our critic was not set, as of Tuesday.
    ``Horses'' kicked up speculation about disagreements among Thornton, studio co-chairman Harvey Weinstein and Sony, the latter a 50-50 partner with Miramax. While the studio partnership remains intact, it is Miramax that now has the domestic distribution and Sony, overseas.
    The much-discussed running time, based on the director's original cut -- which is usually longer than the final -- is now a minute shy of two hours. And Miramax's praisery has been mounting a campaign to undo any preconceived mal de mouth.
    F'rinstance, they had Thornton, Weinstein and the film's star Matt Damon conference-call Liz Smith to erase the evil droppings of fellow fourth-estaters. She printed the trio's denials of problems and praise of one another.
    But, with due appreciation of Liz's power, it didn't seem to be enough for Miramax because they then called yours truly to ask if I'd talk to Damon (between takes in Paris on his current film, ``The Bourne Identity''). Of course I would be happy to talk to Damon, any time -- and did, Tuesday.
    The always-affable actor said he will fly in from the Paris location to attend this weekend's premiere of ``Horses,'' then return to France.
    ``This ('Pretty Horses') is a very special picture,'' Damon said. ``Hopefully it will be for everyone. It is truly profound and I am prouder of this than anything I have ever done. I wish I could make it over and over again.''
    As for working with Thornton, Damon stated, ``He is a miracle worker; I learned so much from him.''
    Damon had similar remarks of praise for director Gus Van Sant (``Good Will Hunting''), for whom he did a surprise cameo in the Sean Connery starrer, ``Finding Forrester.'' Damon explained, ``Any time Gus says 'jump,' I say 'How high?' It is great to even have just one day with Gus. We are always looking to do something together again.''
    Just as he and Ben Affleck keep hoping to find time to write/act together again. ``When we get the time, we will probably just sit around and try to make each other laugh,'' said Damon, ``and then put it on paper.'' He reminds that they wrote ``Good Will Hunting,'' ``just to get ourselves acting jobs.''
    For his current ``acting job'' in ``Bourne Identity,'' Damon said he trained for three months in martial arts, boxing and weapons handling, each with specialists in the field. In the picture, he's washed ashore an amnesia, bullet-riddled victim -- who is unknowingly carrying top-secret info implanted in his side. He laughingly answered my query about a comparison to Tom Hanks being washed ashore (in ``Cast Away''). No, Damon's already been picked up floating in the Mediterranean waters off the coast of Italy. Tuesday's sequence was near the DeGaulle airport where the smell of burning rubber had the company worried about another air disaster -- but it was a demonstration via tire-burning!
    From the Paris locations, the company moves on to Prague, with studio and exteriors to double Paris (!). And no, Damon's amnesia in ``Bourne'' is not similar to that to be suffered by Jim Carrey in his about-to-start ``Bijou.'' But interestingly these three top stars' roles have something (albeit small) in common.
    To celebrate the exceptional visual beauty of ``All the Pretty Horses,'' Sunday's N.Y. premiere will be held at Sotheby's new building at York & 72nd St. and underwritten by Kodak, which will decorate the giant loft with 4'x6' museum-style framed photos of the picture's scenic settings -- plus equally large images of its impressive participants: Damon, Henry Thomas, Penelope Cruz, Bruce Dern, Lucas Black and, of course, Thornton. Shouldn't Harvey be up there, too?
    (Noted Felicity: Is Miramax worried? Why are they pushing these interviews with the leading press? And why is the final cut now under two hours?
    To which I responded: I think they are really trying to get Matt an Oscar. I think the movie itself is suspect - halving it from its conceived length does not bode well - but I think Harvey Weinstein is really trying to promote Matt.
  • Ocean's Eleven could go longer than expected: (12/5/00) George Clooney told columnist Marilyn Beck recently that it's very unlikely any of the cast would be doing much other pre-strike work after Ocean's 11, because the filming schedule is for 4 and a half months, starting in late January, and going nearly right up to the SAG 6/30/01 deadline.
• A Big Matt Fan wrote:
  • Robin Williams was Charlie Rose's guest last night. On the subject of working with great directors, he mentioned how laid back Gus Van Sant is--offering little direction and fostering a comfortable atmosphere on set. He said that when making GOOD WILL HUNTING, Van Sant would have Matt and Robin run through the 'therapy' dialogue without so much as one directive. Pretty soon the 'rehearsed' conversation become very natural and real and often spontaneous--those were the takes that appear in the film.
  • E! Radio had a little plug for Matty this morning reporting that he is showing a "HOT",lean, muscular body on the set of BOURNE. The remainder of the report went something like this: "Some 3 months of physical training have left the actor even more desirable than before. When lovelorn Winona Ryder next sees him, she will most likely have regrets .... speaking of Winona, she has been seen sporting a cowboy hat around L.A. Could she be having flashbacks of her time spent with Matt on the ALL THE PRETTY HORSES set? Move on, Ms. Ryder."
  • I imagine the reviews of HORSES will come fast and furious after this weekend! Let's all keep our fingers crossed!
• And Val wrote:There are ATPH screening set for LA prior to the Dec 25 opening--might you make one of these? Check the screening schedule at here.
• And I thank the reader who wrote to express her opinion about Ben's appearance on "Inside the Actors' Studio.":
  I beg to differ from people who say that Ben was a little tough on Matt. In fact when Matt's name would come up Ben becomes animated, the same way he gets animated when he talks about another person that he loves, his mom. What Ben actually said they were a couple of guys who took themselves too seriously in school (it is just a part of Ben's self-depracating humor). I would like to remind some of the posters who were offended that Matt was laughing and clapping during the interview and that the 4-hour interview was condensed into one hour so 3 quarters of the interview was actually edited out. Ben and Matt are best friends and I believe that the kidding around and the teasing between the two of them were said in good humor ( another thing that the two of them seem to share). I do not think that we should be pitting one guy against the other. They have a friendship that has withstood the test of time (20 years!}
• And reader Kris has a request:
  Do you think it would be possible for me to request a copy of the Billy Bob special on Bravo? Perhaps someone involved in your site would send me a copy--I would be glad to pay for both postage and the tape. My VCR doesn't tape above channel 125, and Bravo is 181 here--I was unable to see the entire special, and it's obvious from your column that I missed the best parts. Please write to her if you can help.
• A Big Matt Fan wrote thus:
  There are more Oscar ads today in the trades. VARIETY has a full page sepia toned ad touting the film for everything from Best Picture to Best Song. Matt for Best Actor. Billy Bob for Directr. Penelope, Henry and Penelope for Supporting roles. It features a bunkhouse scene between Matt and Henry, with the following dialogue printed between them:
  GRADY: Down in Mexico, they got ranches so big you can't ride from one end to the other in a week. It ain't all fenced in and sold off and played out, not down there. (RAWLINS seems powerfully attracted, but hesitates.) RAWLINS: If I don't go, will you anyways? GRADY: I'm already gone.
  At the bottom of the page is a scene of Matt on horseback riding by a pick-up truck and the words, "AL THE PRETTY HORSES From the Great American Novel by Cormac McCarthy."
  THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER has a half page black and white version of the same ad, although it only promotes Matty and Henry. I'll try to send you scans tonight.

• From The Big Matt Fan:
  Studios have been buying Oscar ads for a few weeks now, but today I saw the first one for ATPH, and it pushes Matt for Best Actor. It's just a small one (less than 1/4 page), but it's on the first page. It's a nice, golden shot of Matt in a cowboy hat looking up with horses in the background.
  Yes, the race has begun!

  Anyone catch this tonight? An illuminating program. Billy Bob comes across as a brilliant, authentic, and good natured person, though more than one person (including Billy himself) comments that he's borderline crazy. Like Matt, he also seemed genuninely attuned to the lives of people less fortunate than he. One producer (and former lover) mentioned that once she gave Billy Bob a pair of boots that he had really coveted, after which, he actually cried. He said that whenever he gets something like that, he can't help but think of all the people who will never have boots like that. Matt is generous in his praise throughout the program (in which he wears, of course, a black sweater and his favorite Panavision cap).
  There are several behind-the-scenes segments from ATPH, though they look like ones we've seen before. However, the best part was the very end of the program when Matt is with Billy and his friends at the Nashville recording studio. Matt is among friends who sing with Billy, and there's quite a bit of friendly joshing between them. Matt and Billy both seem to do their Robert Duvall impersonations, as well as some other southern accented scenes that seem improvised. During the credits, Billy puts his hand on Matt's shoulder and says, "I tease my young friend here, but the love I have for this kid..." Matt looks up and they both start laughing. The program ends with Matt doing a hilarious Slingblade impersonation, after which Billy tells him, "You're going to have to put your chin out there if you're going to do that role." Matt complies with comic effectiveness. Matt then says with embarrassment, pointing to the camera, "Now it's on video." Billy answers, "It's not on video..." , then in unison, they say,"it's on Bravo!" Much laughter.
  It was a bit strange to see Matt hanging out with Thornton and his buddies, all of whom are older and considerably more southern than Matt. Made me wonder what the attraction was. Then, as I was rewinding the tape, I reviewed a segment in which Billy Bob talked about his younger brother Jimmy Don who died in 1988. Apparently, the two were very close. I recalled that old PREMIERE quote in which Thornton mentioned that he "immediately felt a sort of big brother connection" to Matt. Then I looked at Jimmy Don's tombstone. He was thirty when he died--Matt's age. One can't help but speculate that Matt somehow fills a hole in Thornton's life. As for Matt's interest, it seems that Thornton is what Matt imagines he would like to be--a talented actor, writer and director who remains true to his origins and the people he came from.

• I thank Jules for sharing this:
  I saw the Bravo Special last night-very interesting side of Matt. He was relaxed, funny and very open. There were multiple shots of the filming of APTH as well as very interesting comments made by Matt regarding Thorton's body of work and creativity. It seems he must have become very good friends with Billy, one could pick up on the deep respect and trust he has for him in Matt's surprisingly lengthy interview segments. For me, the most exciting portions of the program were seeing Matt at play and his interaction with Billy and Billy's friends. It served to reaffirm what an amazing guy he is.
• Felicity wrote:
  • Here's a lovely bit from yahoo:
    HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Sony's premiere of ``Finding Forrester'' Friday night turned into a futile search for the picture's star Sean Connery, who quietly slipped away in the minutes between the screening and dessert reception at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills. Helmer Gus Van Sant was willing to talk, though, and he commented on his decision to give Matt Damon a cameo in the picture -- which, by the way, elicited the biggest audience response all evening.
    ``It's interesting metaphorically, because he had such good will with 'Good Will Hunting' and he's, like, sliding the keys over to Rob (Brown) -- and there's sort of a connection there between the two leads,'' Van Sant said.
    (Commented Felicity: Matt drawing the best response - good news! I hope he doesn't detract from the film (like the Ted Danson bit in SPR, or just a celeb cameo for no reason). But good to see him there, especially if the film does well. Funny though that the film will open on Christmas Day, but go into wide release in January.
  • There's another Charlize Theron cover story in the latest GQ. This was on 'culture briefs' in the Washington Post: 'She's funny and loud and loves to laugh. She's not the girl sitting in the corner worried that no one's talking to her,' says Damon of his on-screen love interest in . . . 'The Legend of Bagger Vance.' 'I think she'd much rather have a beer and shoot pool than sit around and talk about [German filmmaker Rainer Werner] Fassbinder.' "
    � John Brodie, writing on "Charlize Is Hungry," in the December issue of GQ
    Matt sure does know his movies. Fassbinder here and remember the reference to Aguirre, Wrath of God in the ad-libs with Robin Williams (Premiere mag)?
  • (The) National Board of Review awards announced tomorrow (6th). Ripley made it to their top 10 of the year.
  • If you want to see more of Ben, the episode with Leno (and Rodney Dangerfield) is on tonight.

• Tons of goodies from Felicity:
  • From the NY Post today:
    THE THREE KINGS: Matt Damon, Harvey Weinstein and Billy Bob Thornton! Well, I talked to this trio simultaneously-Matt calling from Paris, Billy Bob on a cell phone in the middle of Somewhere USA and Harvey conferenced in from his NYC office. Matinee idol Damon, studio head Weinstein and director/actor Thornton want to put to rest rumors around their upcoming film, "All the Pretty Horses," which also stars Penelope Cruz. Contrary to what we might have heard, they say, there was no in-fighting, no on-set fighting, no quibbles over the length of the film, its content or casting. Harvey never threatened to take the movie away from Billy Bob because it first clocked in at four hours. "That is utter nonsense; the movie that opens on Christmas Day is the movie we all wanted, right from the beginning," Harvey says. Thornton insists, "If only 15 people went to see it and loved it, then I'd have done my job, made the perfect movie for 15 people!" Harvey, the super-competitive mogul to whom success is a way of life, adds, "I've had plenty of success, but I'd rather be proud of the work this studio produces." Damon didn't say much as Billy Bob and Harvey heaped praise on each other, but did volunteer, sincerely, almost shyly, "I don't think I've ever been this good onscreen. But all that's entirely because of Billy Bob." (Elsewhere, Matt told a reporter, "It was the first time I saw myself on screen and didn't want to throw up!") Damon is modest. His work is always first-rate-and he sure was robbed of an Oscar nod for "The Talented Mr. Ripley." He went on to say, "If I could make every movie for Billy Bob, I'd die a happy man." Thornton quipped, "We'll try to accommodate you, kid." Thornton added that the only true rumors surrounding the production concerned, "my relationship with several of the animals in the film. A horse, and a smaller creature I'd rather not name." How good is the "buzz" on this one? Well, President Bill Clinton, for the first time in the eight years he has known Harvey, called the studio head for a screening. Rather than vice versa. Clinton wanted "All the Pretty Horses." The movie will premiere Sunday at the Ziegfeld in Manhattan.
  • A story in the NY Post (anyone seen People?)
    PENELOPE: broad support
    PENELOPE Cruz is upset with the suggestion in this week's People that she landed the part in "All the Pretty Horses" because of director Billy Bob Thornton. Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein supposedly wanted Natalie Portman to play the sultry Mexican farmgirl. In fact, Weinstein was so charged up for Cruz, he flew her to Rome to audition opposite Matt Damon. A rep for Cruz said, "Harvey was and is a big advocate of Penelope's."
  • Was the press junket held last weekend? This was in Jam Showbiz:
    Damon saddles up
    Last-minute casting meant a crash course in horsemanship
    By LOUIS B. HOBSON
    Calgary Sun
    HOLLYWOOD -- Billy Bob Thornton's much-delayed western All the Pretty Horses will be released on Christmas Day.
    Miramax Pictures will release it in the U.S. and Columbia Pictures will release it in Canada.
    "Billy Bob had to cut the film from three hours to just over two hours," explains Matt Damon, who stars as a 1940s horse wrangler seeking adventure south of the Texas border.
    All the Pretty Horses also stars Henry Thomas, Bruce Dern and Penelope Cruz.
    "When the DVD comes out, every minute will be back in. That's the wish of all of us who starred in it."
    Damon, a last-minute replacement for Leonardo DiCaprio, had to take a crash course in horsemanship.
    "For a month, all day, everyday, I rode horses, brushed horses and cleaned their stalls.
    "Billy Bob wanted everything I did to look absolutely natural.
    "It was his dedication, encouragement and guidance that motivated me."
    In Cormac McCarthy's best-selling novel, Damon's character John Grady rides nude several times.
    "For the movie, only the horse is nude. I was wearing a bikini and Billy Bob shot around it to make me look nude, so if pictures start appearing on the Internet, they've been doctored."
  • And an item in the London Times:
    New York�s finest takes a fast route to fame
    To Off Off Broadway and the tiny East 13th Street Theatre to watch Philip Seymour Hoffman direct Jesus Hopped the A-Train, an energetic new play performed by the LAByrinth (sic) Theatre Company and written by a young New York playwright, Stephen Adley Guirgis. Hoffman has an uncanny talent for selecting unusually good scripts. In his other life as a movie star, he has already chalked up several awards for Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Almost Famous and The Talented Mr Ripley. He is also that rarest of creatures, an artist who is apparently nice to work with � a fact supported by two $5,000 cheques that arrived earlier this year to help workshop Jesus Hopped, from two of his former co-stars, Tom Cruise and Matt Damon.
• I didn't get to see Matt and Ben on "Actors' Studio", but some who did reported thus -
  • From a Big Matt Fan:
    As for "Inside the Actor's Studio", Ben was his typical funny, articulate self, although I wasn't crazy about how, at times, he tended to portray Matt as somewhat pretentious during his childhood and teen years. He said that he met Matt at the park because Matt had heard there was another kid actor in town. He mentioned that Matt had done some theater work at the Wheelock Community theater and that he wanted to see if Ben was a serious actor or just a dilettante. He said that in high school, Matt took him aside and told him that high school was serious, "and that it wasn't like TV where it's just about your face." Ben then added, "as if he hasn't traded on his good... it's so sad that Matt's so ugly as a character actor." Honestly, I sometimes felt that he didn't give Matt enough credit. For example, when asked about where GOOD WILL HUNTING came from, he mentioned their mutual desire to further their careers. He didn't say that it came from Matt's Harvard class assignment. Of course, he was frequently and extensively asked about Matt, prompting Ben to quip, "Why does this guy's name keep coming up?"
    Yes, Matt was there. For most of the show, he sat in the shadows in the back, wearing a dark sweatshirt, khakis and that familiar Panavision cap. Apparently, Ben didn't know he was in the theater because once he found out, he acknowledged to that he'd have to make it up to him because of all the things he'd said previously. When introduced at the end of the show, Harvey Weinstein prompted Matt to stand up and waive, which he did. The host invited Matt to ask Ben a question, to which Ben said something like, "I am your lover?" to which Matt joked, "Was I the best you ever had?" Ben answered something like, "Well, you always lie to the ones you care about." Ben declared that Matt probably knew all the answers and Matt confirmed that he did because it'd been twenty years. He joked that sitting through the interview "was killing him."
    I still find it strange that Ben was in a seat usually reserved for well-established actors whose talent and reputation are beyond reproach. It was interesting to watch how the host barely mentioned such films as Armaggeddon and Forces of Nature, but instead focused on Good Will Hunting, Shakespeare in Love and of course, Bounce. In fact, much of the admiration expressed was toward the writing of GWH and not toward Ben's performances as an actor. When asked about his career choices, Ben stated that he tried to do "profitable" films so that he could afford to do smaller ones like The Boiler Room. This is in such contrast to Matt, who on Oprah, specifically spoke against such a strategy. (Remember, he said something like, "People say they want to do one big movie so they can do a small movie, but the big movie isn't really big, it just costs a lot of money. Then people don't see it and the actor is left with an empty feeling because he didn't really care about it.") I think Ben is well aware that Matt has a better reputation as an actor, (he may even believe he is the better actor) and it seems as if his defense is to cast him as the somewhat pretentious thespian while Ben assumes the role of the practical populist.
    Just my humble opinion...
  • And from a reader:
    Why I don't like Ben Affleck- a rant by a disbeliever.
    I watched Inside The Actor's Studio last night on Bravo. My thoughts-Affleck is a buffoon. He brags, boasts, exaggerates, and yet, says nothing at all. His jokes are seldom funny and his stories ain't all that witty. Affleck has no class; this is a guy overly impressed with himself, who feigns intelligence and pontificates like a bloated King whose subjects pray for his abdication.The most talent he has ever shown was in Good Will Hunting; a glimmer of it came through in Bounce; however, the rest of his catalogue has been submerged in overacting and empty sentiment. He plays the same character in every film, he just changes the pitch of his voice. How sad this guy feels that he must tear down his best friend in order to gain any credibility-. While some could discount these comments as "buddies f***ing around" --guys screwing with each other good-naturedly. Nope, for some reason with Affleck, it never really comes! across as anything other than bitterness and jealousy. It was hilarious to hear him basically state that Good Will Hunting was originally his idea. Has he forgotten all the press reports and the interviews which revealed it began as a one act play written by Damon? Did he miss the interview with the Professor who originally read it? Yep, he CO-wrote the final product with Matty- but who is this guy trying to fool?
    You gotta wonder about the patience and good will Damon must possess to stay friends with this idiot for twenty years. Finally, could he have mentioned sex more? Could he have been more crude and vulgar? It's very doubtful
    Thanks for allowing me to vent.
    (You are welcome!)
  • And someone who came to Ben's defense:
    I too saw Ben on ITAS and I wasn't quite as unimpressed with Ben as your other two commentators. I do agree that Ben and Matt are just different; they choose different roles, they have different personalities, they joke about different things and they come off completely different in interviews. However, I think Ben's really funny. Yes, he's done some really bad movies (Armageddon is one I've seen and didn't like, and I didn't really like Bounce either). But he's done some good ones too; Chasing Amy was awesome, his part in Shakespeare in Love was perfect for him, and the same goes for GWH. I wonder why Ben keeps choosing roles that aren't that challenging, because I think he has potential to be a good actor. Most likely not as good as Matt, but still good. (Matt hasn't had a perfect track record either...Rounders was pretty flat and I have yet to see the Rainmaker because it seemed to be a typical, redundant lawyer movie that was just a guarantee of making money.) Anyway, I too wonder why they chose Ben instead of Matt to be on ITAS, but it seemed like James Lipton loved him and the crowd loved him and he made me laugh a lot, so maybe that's why. Yes, Matt thought of the concept of GWH and wrote the basic story for a class, but they've both said that they would spend a great deal of time, together, improvising scenes and feeding off one another and bouncing ideas off of one another. I don't think GWH would have come to see the light of day in the form it developed into without both Matt AND Ben. I think both of them can be seen in the film's dialogue. And as for Ben being crass...when they asked Matt what he wanted to ask Ben at the end of ITAS, Matt actually said "Actually, it's just killing me sitting through this f***ing class." I'll betcha 10 to1 Matt's mouth is just as "crass" as Ben's, but he isn't quite as open about it!!!
    That said, I do think Matt's the better actor and will probably go further in his acting career because he makes choices that are well thought out. I hope, though, that Matt's having a lot of fun too, as Ben seems to be.
    P.S. Just turned on the TV and Billy Bob Thornton was on Bravo Profiles. I only caught the end but they showed Billy Bob and Matt and others singing a song together, and then goofing off as the credits rolled. Matt was spoofing Billy Bob's Sling Blade character. I'm going to try to record it late tonight to see if Matt's interviewed about Billy Bob.

• Alexa wrote (thanks!):
  Hey Matt Fans,
  Matt made an appearance on Inside the actors studio with Ben Afflleck.
• From Felicity:
  The (ATPH) poster has finally come online (sort of).
  It can be found as an ebay item, with the tagline "Some passions can never be tamed". A little corny. The only named cast is Matt, then Henry and Penelope. Same design as the versions we've seen, with the title at the bottom of the poster.
  Click here.
• And it was good to hear from Kathryn of Edinburgh>
  I don't know if you knew this, but there was the tiniest bit of news on Matt in The Mirror a couple of days ago - he was spotted (apparently) watching Jerry Hall in The Graduate in London. It may be true, it may not be, but I thought you might like to know.

• Old news:
  THE BIG PICTURE
  SEPTEMBER 4, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 10
  So Much For Star Power
  The summer's hits were short on big names. Is this the post-Arnold era?
  BY RICHARD CORLISS
  ...
  But the younger actors--you just can't trust these kids. You can't get Matt Damon to sign up for a franchise series that will make him world famous and beyond rich. He'd rather play an evil angel in Kevin Smith's shaggy Dogma than be a Tom Clancy spy stud. Only Nicolas Cage seems willing to shoulder the burden of action star. And the women are worse! Cameron Diaz won't let herself be crowned as the next romantic-comedy heroine. For every Charlie's Angels, she has to make three weird indie films. There are plenty of potential stars--the Gwyneths and Winonas and the rest of that sorority, blessed with intelligence and a glow that comes off the screen like musk--but they seem averse to stardom, not avid for it.
  That is a good thing. Good for them, being actors in edgy little films rather than action figures in dumb big ones. And good for Hollywood, because their reduced visibility will make them less likely to demand a fortune when they decide to make a "real" movie. Besides, there will always be some youngish actors who take stardom seriously. Hell, Tom Cruise is only 38.
• News from Felicity:
  The two magazines with Penelope on the cover are both now available in London. I didn't buy either, so here's what I can remember.
  Interview has the much raunchier photos (of the fishnet stockings type), while Harpers Bazaar is classier. In both articles she says virtually the same thing, but does give more detail in HB than what was quoted in Liz Smith's column. Yes, she's had enough of talking about their relationship, saying they are just friends, but she does then rave about his attitude and ability.
  It does say in the Harpers article that before the Ralph Lauren show, Penelope met up with Matt, Billy Bob and some Miramax people to go bowling. I can't remember the exact words, but Penelope does say that Matt's performance in ATPH is the best of his career, and that it is "pure, whole, true". Also saying that when Matt looks at you (in a role), that he really looks at you, which is why she thinks he's so good.
  Of course, there's various news stories around at the moment claiming that Penelope has now moved on to (or rejected, according to various reports), Nicolas Cage.

  Yet more discussion on the Pretty Horses running time, from reel.com:
  The Incredible Shrinking Western
  Billy Bob Thornton's All the Pretty Horses, the Matt Damon/Penelope Cruz Western that Miramax is opening on 1,800 screens Christmas Day, keeps getting shorter and shorter. Based on the Cormac McCarthy prize-winning novel, Horses is supposed to be a prestige holiday release for Miramax, but it's mainly acquired the rep of being a film that can't seem to leave the editing room or decide on a final commercial length. It started at around three hours � by the time it opens on Christmas Day it may be down to 113 minutes.
  After principal photography ended in June '99, and as Thornton began editing it for release by Sony Pictures, the word was that he'd shot Horses with an eye for the pastoral and that the finished cut would probably run about three hours.
  Greg Dean Schmitz's Web site Upcoming Movies also reported that an early cut had run a whopping 240 minutes. I also heard during '99 that Horses might turn out be a little shorter, or two hours and 50 minutes.
  But Thornton kept editing and editing, and Sony, I kept hearing, wasn't especially thrilled with how things were turning out. Too slow, too many master shots, etc. Sony eventually swapped responsibility for the domestic distribution of Horses last August with Miramax, the international rights holder, who passed these over to Sony.
  A key point in the Miramax deal was that Thornton would deliver a two hour, 15-minute cut. (A source close to the project says honcho Harvey Weinstein "never demanded [this] ... the shorter cut was part of a contractual obligation from Sony�s side.")
  Now, with Thornton's film less than a month away from opening, I'm hearing that even shorter cuts of Horses have been tried and test-screened. On Thursday morning, a post-production technician who answered the phone at the Horses editing facility said the current length of the film is just shy of one hour and 53 minutes. With credits, it's about three minutes longer.
  I'm also hearing that Thornton hasn't been all that vigorously involved in the editing, and that Weinstein has more often than not been calling the shots. This, if true, would be in keeping with Weinstein's reputation as "Harvey Scissorhands," a taskmaster with a tendency to recut the films he's acquired for distribution, sometimes (often, his critics say) against the wishes of the filmmakers.
  Whatever the truth of it, a Miramax spokesperson insists that Horses "is Billy Bob's movie. He's editing this movie, not Miramax."
  And Thornton, through his publicist Paul Bloch, sent the following statement over by fax: "I�ve worked very closely with my editor Sally Menke since day one of this project. Harvey and I are friends and partners. We�ve made many films together and he has always stood by me. We both felt that it was important to remain true to the artistic vision of the film while dealing with the length � and we have. Filmmaking is a collaborative process and we agree that this is our best one yet."
  "It's really quite beautiful � it really is," says a publicist who's seen the film. "Billy filmed the book. It's got that long, sweeping thing � that epic quality. It comes down to 'Are you into that book, that Cormac McCarthy story?' But shooting films like this in a long, sprawling fashion is nothing unusual. Kevin Costner's first version of Dances with Wolves ran four hours."
  But a Hollywood-based manager with ties to the project says that "obviously, with all the different cuts and different people putting their hands in over the last two years, it's in trouble."
  Thornton is currently starring in the Barry Levinson film Bandits. Before this, he played the lead character in that black-and-white film noir from Joel and Ethan Coen known as The Barber Movie.
  Set in the late 1940s, Horses is about a pair of Texas cowpokes (Damon, Henry Thomas) who ride into Mexico looking for work and adventure. Along the way they hook up with a young dude named Blevins (Lucas Black). After arriving at a large Mexican hacienda, Damon gets himself into trouble when he falls in love with the owner's daughter (Cruz).
  Co-starring are Ruben Blades, X-Files star Robert Patrick, and Bruce Dern, the father of Thornton's ex-squeeze Laura Dern. Rumor has it that Bruce's screen time was reduced after Thornton left Laura for his current flame, Angelina Jolie. I was told earlier this year, actually, that the editing went more smoothly after Thornton decided to reduce Dern's part.

  There was another article in the New York Times on Thursday about Project Greenlight (it is getting very good press). All positive, but nothing really new. Chris Moore does say that either himself, Ben or Matt will produce the film, depending on who is available at the time. The final 250 have just been named on the site. Ben also made his first appearance on the greenlight messageboards (on the site), and said he would be back (usual thoughtful, decent comments).

• "Cowboys and Indians" Magazine

  A Big Matt fan shared her excitement:
  The January 2001 issue of Cowboys and Indians finally arrived at my local Barnes and Noble! It was well worth the wait!
  Great photos, including the one(s shown here). Terrific quotes. Billy Bob Thornton says more about Matt here than I've ever seen anywhere else, such as this:
  Damon might have been born and brought up in Boston, "but he took to his Texas character as natural as if he was breathing," Thornton says. In All the Pretty Horses "he shows his heart like he hasn't shown it before. He displays a vulnerability that you haven't seen in his other movies. And then you see a real toughness in him, because this is a guy who gets in his share of fights."
  Matt describes his preparation thus:
  "My Ripley character would have been kicked right in the head by a horse. I needed to re-condition myself. I had to learn again how to approach a horse. I spent hours brushing them, saddling them, taking the saddle off, leading them around, beng slow and gentle. I spent as much time on getting things right as how to wear a hat and how to ride a horse and how to cowboy as I did working on my lines."
  Another quote by Matt:
  "In All the Pretty Horses, I was just struck by the kind of life that is disappearing, and the need to remember that life. There's been nothing like it in our history."
  According to the article, ATPH has been edited to two hours fourteen minutes, which Billy Bob seems to accept. "There's a lot gone, and I keep thinking at night, 'Is there enough of the book? Is there enough of the book?' But as time has passed, I know I captured the spirit of the book." The piece talks about the book, the struggle with studio executives, and even addresses the Penelope/Matt romance rumors. It's the most comprehensive article on the movie I've seen so far.
• Erin wrote:
  I was looking on the Ain't It Cool web site (never looked there before) and there is a really old interview with Matty from 1997, per GWH, pre Oscar, pre women following him into the bathroom (hee hee)... here's the link:
  I just liked reading it now in light of all that has happened to him in the last three years. He's also a lot less guarded about his life and pretty much gushes about Minnie. Anyway, it's interesting if you haven't already read it!

• A Big Matt Fan wrote:
  This morning, the local news reported this item from Liz Smith's column:
  . . . AND HERE's something that is said to have happened to Matt Damon recently. The "All the Pretty Horses" star was dining at Fred Segal in L.A. He excused himself to go to the men's room. Upon his return he was "pale, stunned, shocked." He told his pals that a woman followed him into the bathroom, removed her clothes and, well, offered herself. Matt politely declined. I mean, really! Some stars might consider this sort of thing a perk of fame - and enjoy the sleaze factor of the setting. Damon, didn't . . .
• And another reader sent in the same with the humorous subject line: No, it was not me.
  LOL :-) :-) :-)
• Kelly heard it on TV:
  I happened to be watching KTLA news here in L.A. this morning. They had a news bit on Matt when he visited the Fred Segal store in L.A. recently. They said that Matt went to use the restroom and when he came back out, he looked shocked and very pale. It turns out that a woman followed him IN to the restroom, undressed herself, and offered herself to Matt! Everyone was dying with laughter and the newscasters just couldn't keep a serious face. I just had to share this with you.
• And Felicity wrote:
  • From an article in the NY Daily News with Philip Seymour Hoffman: "Things have changed that way in my life," he says shyly, a hint of scarlet shading his face. "But I don't think I'm a movie star ... not because that's a bad thing or something I don't want to be. I just think my life isn't as drastically changed as, say, Matt Damon's. He stands on the corner and he's bombarded by everybody. I don't think I'm like that."
    For sure, he's no Matt Damon. Dense and pale with dirty fingernails and a carpet of strawberry blond hair reaching across his lips and chin and shooting every which way from beneath his Yankees cap, Hoffman easily blends in with the regular Joes on the street.
  • That Liz Smith story is very funny. Poor Matt. There's actually a similar story in the current National Enquirer (a 30-second quick flick, I promise!) The report goes that Matt hired a boat for family and friends off the LA coast, and that a group of females in a nearby boat recognised him and suddenly went topless. Again, he was left speechless.
  • More on Ocean's Eleven, from a George Clooney interview: George Clooney reports that the start of his "Ocean's Eleven" has been "bumped back a little bit, to the end of January" -- as the team waits for Brad Pitt. Pitt's currently-lensing "Spy Game" "was shooting a few weeks in Israel, but had to move due to the bombings," which pushed back its wrap date, notes George.
    He adds, "Ocean's" is now set to sail "definitely with Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Brad, myself, Alan Arkin and an actor I adore, Don Cheadle."
    ***
    So is that now confirmed that Matt's in? I don't think it's ever been officially announced.

• Felicity came through with the usual goodies:
  From yahoo:
  Affleck, Damon Design Benefit's Cod
  
  BOSTON (AP) - Looking to reel in a good catch?
  
  Check with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who designed one of the fiberglass cod sculptures being auctioned to benefit charity.
  
  The fish, titled ``Good Cod Hunting,'' is painted black and has a mathematical equation drawn on one side and the answer on the other. Its tail is signed by the actors.
  
  The fish's design is derived from the film ``Good Will Hunting,'' in which Damon plays a janitor who solves a nearly impossible mathematical equation on a blackboard at the college where he works. Affleck played a friend of Damon's character in the movie.
  
  The actors designed the fish with the help of Boston artist Nicholas Doriss.
  
  The auction will be Dec. 8 at the Massachusetts College of Art. A silent online auction - at www.cavalcadeofcod.com - began Nov. 16 and ends Dec. 6.
  
  Sales from the auction are to benefit several charities including, the Boston Public Library Foundation and the American Cancer Society
  
  ***
  That slight story above got an absurd amount of press, and there's even a photo of the fish on the www.empireonline.co.uk website, which also gives a link to the www.cavalcadeofcod.com official site.  Here's another capture, from people daily:
  
  Affleck, Damon: Something Fishy
  
  That seemingly inseparable couple, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, are making news again. The Associated Press reports that the two "Good Will Hunting" collaborators designed a fiberglass cod sculpture to be auctioned off for charity, titled "Good Cod Hunting." They worked with Boston artist Nicholas Doriss and the sale of the fish at a Dec. 8 auction at the Massachusetts College of Art will benefit several charities, including, the Boston Public Library Foundation and the American Cancer Society. The fish itself is painted black with a mathematical equation on one side and the answer on the other. Both stars autographed the tail. Meanwhile, The New York Times is highlighting the home page of Project Greenlight, Damon and Affleck's effort to help fledgling screenwriters. The winner will receive at least $1 million to get a film project produced. "People are always asking us, how did we do it?" Affleck, a relative rookie when he and fellow neophyte Damon made "Good Will Hunting," told The Times. "So it seemed karmically appropriate to try to engineer something whereby other folks could get the kind of access we'd had."
  ***
  There's also new talk of a Daredevil movie at AICN, and Matt's the favourite on the talkbacks for the lead.
  
  For those who get Bravo, Ben's appearance on 'Inside the Actor's Studio' will broadcast this Sunday, December 3.  Matt apparently makes an appearance.
  
  And for more from Ben, here's an excerpt of an interview with IMDB:
  
  Q: Does the whole Good Will Hunting experience still seem like a dream to you after winning the Oscar and having your name and Matt Damon's given so much publicity?
  
  AFFLECK: I think what was great about that is that it was played by the media as a Hollywood fable about how Matt and I worked hard to get the picture made when it almost looked like it was dead. But after about a year of talking about our childhood friendship we were both getting sick of the story and that eventually the public would be sick of the Matt and Ben story. Now things have settled down and our names aren't constantly linked although obviously we're always going to be remembered in some way for Good Will Hunting. Which isn't a bad thing, but of course we want to accomplish a lot more in our careers.
  
  Q: Do you ever get bothered by stories or articles about you?
  
  AFFLECK: Sometimes the tabloid rumors that get printed are pretty evil because sometimes friends will read or hear things and it starts getting passed around without your even knowing it. But I accept it as part of the territory that comes with being an actor and being a celebrity. Bruce Willis once offered me a great piece of advice. While we were doing Armageddon, I was getting all this publicity about Good Will Hunting and I was kind of fed up. He told me that I should enjoy the ride while it lasts because once the media starts running out of good things to write about you then they'll turn on you. He's right. I have to go out and do my job and accept the fact that my life is going to be the subject of media speculation whether I'm in the mood for it or not.
  
  Q: Matt Damon doesn't seem to share your attitude?
  
  AFFLECK: Well, Matt is a lot more worried about the press than I am. He's been burned a few times and now he feels that he shouldn't say anything because that way he can be sure that he won't get hurt or cause any scandal. He's more concerned that our success is so fragile that our world can come crashing down on us at any time.
  
  But I don't think I can do myself much harm by being fairly open and honest about the experience I'm living through.
  
  Q: Are you and Damon ever jealous about each other's success?
  
  AFFLECK: Actors are always competitive because that's the nature of the game. We're all aware of what the big movies are and what good parts are available and who has the inside track. So whenever Matt and I would learn that the other had got a good role, of course we feel jealous but we also feel good that at least it was one of us and not someone else who we really hate! We worked for a long, long time in getting Good Will Hunting made and we lived a lot of ups and downs with that film.
  
  Q: So your friendship will always survive those peaks and valleys of your careers?
  
  AFFLECK: I think so. No matter what happens with our careers and our personal lives, our friendship will always be there and we're always going to be hoping for the other one's success. That's why we've developed a TV series together and that's why we're going to work on more scripts together. We trust each other as friends and our professional abilities. It's never lost on us that we've stayed friends since childhood, baseball games, everything. We know how rare that is so we're always going to work hard not to become so obnoxious with fame and fortune that it affects things between us. It's our reality check.
  ***
  If you want a much better version of the pseudo ATPH poster (this version's an audiobook!), there's one for sale on ebay, and it's a very good colour pic.  It's just a little strange (or off-putting) that Brad Pitt is the reader.
  
  And on Pitt, it seems Oceans will be delayed because Pitt's current film with Redford will be shooting into overtime.
  
  Western Horseman has now updated its website, and the cover pic is online (www.westernhorseman.com)  The description:
  ON THE COVER:
  To horse people, any western movie is good news. And it's even better when a major star such as Matt Damon is involved. To learn more about the making of All The Pretty Horses, including how the horses and the stars were trained, see this month's cover story beginning on page 50.
  
  Inside.com is running a tracker on the Oscar races, and Matt's moved to 5th for Best Actor (that's actually a very good score, based on numerous factors).  ATPH is 14th for Best Picture.
  
• From IMDB Celebrity News
  Brad Pitt is holding up the start of George Clooney's Rat Pack tribute Ocean's Eleven (2001) - because his current film Spy Game, The (2001) is running over schedule. But Clooney claims the extra time will work in his favor, because he can fine tune the script so his gangster romp will be better than the original. He says, "I'm sure we're gonna take a lot of heat. With a cast like ours people will sit back with their arms crossed going, 'Show me.' The guys in the original film are great, but the movie doesn't really work on any level. Maybe we'll make up for not being as cool as Sammy, Frank and Dean by having a better script." Clooney's Ocean's Eleven (2001) will star himself and Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle.
• Interesting posting on deja: talking about Matt Damon mentiong Elvis on Oprah..just watching 'Good will hunting' right now and 15 mins into the film, above a bar setting in the film, a picture of Elvis..actually the LP 'Lets be Friends' from '69. This guy Matt must like Elvis.
• A big thanks to the Big Matt Fan:
  
  Y'all catch Matt on "Access Hollywood"?  In case you haven't, here's how it went:

  Nancy:  Well he's already won an Academy Award for writing and been nominated for another for acting.  Now Matt Damon says he's doing his best work ever and for that he has the pretty praise for his latest director, Billy Bob Thornton.  Tony Potts rolls out the "welcome Matt" for Damon.  Shot of Matt walking along a New York street in a T-shirt, jeans and jacket, carrying a garment bag.  He waives.

  Matt in a familiar blue-grey short sleeved shirt, hair very short, looking a bit lean but not bad. 

  Matt (looking down):  I think this is the best movie that I've ever been a part of.

  Scene in what looks like a Mexican prison office:

  Mexican Officer:  You make bad trouble for yourself.

  Intercut scene of Matt on the ground shooting.

  Matt in the office pointing a gun at the officer:  Mister, I've got trouble you never even heard of.

  Matt:  It was the first time I'd ever seen myself on the screen and not wanted to throw up.

  Scene of Matt on horse waiving a hat and whooping.

  Tony:  Strong words from a guy who at the age of thirty already has an incredible body of work...

  Montage of shots of Matt in Good Will Hunting, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Saving Private Ryan and The Legend of Bagger Vance.  Then, over shots of Matt as John Grady Cole striding down a street, talking on the phone, kissing Penelope in the lake....

  Tony:  ...But Matt credits director Billy Bob Thornton with pushing the star to an all new level and it wasn't always pretty.

  Matt:  I got so mad at him one time I wanted to hit fight him.  I didn't tell him that.  A shot of Matt fighting in the film.  Another close-up of him looking up.

  Matt:  You'd have no idea what he was going for, so he was outfoxing you half the time.  Shot of Billy Bob and a shot of a smiling Matt in character.

  Tony:  The mischievous director and star then outfoxed visiting studio executives with a staged argument on the set.  Scenes of Matt and Henry Thomas crossing a river on horseback, and a close-up of Matt laughing in the film.

  Matt:  He was just screaming at me, yelling at me going, "This ain't no damn Teen Beat movie! I'm not.. Don't you give me that!" and meanwhile, the executives from Sony, one of them turned to the other and said, "I knew we shouldn't have come today!  I knew we shouldn't hav come today!"

  Dimly lit scene of Matt in bed with Penelope.

  Matt:  I love you.  I'm gonna love you 'till the day I die.

  Penelope:  I believe you.

  Over that great scene of Matt's character seeing Penelope for the first time on horseback.

  Tony:  This mid-twentieth century epic is about a cowboy who falls for the wrong gal, breathtaking Spanish beauty Penelope Cruz.  Cruz, who auditioned for eight months, finally captured the role by doing a screen test with Matt in Italy on the set of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" with Ripley director Anthony Minghella supervising.

  Shots of Penelope posing for a camera shoot.  Shot of Matt on the beach as Ripley.  Shot of Minghella and his wife at a premiere.

  Penelope:  They just wanted to see, more, the chemistry of the couple.

  Matt:  Anthony Minghella said, "Dance" and we were like, "Dance?"

  Penelope:  We were like, dancing flamenco with Matt dressed like Mr. Ripley, and it was very funny.

  Scene of Penelope and Matt dancing.

  Penelope:  My name is Alejandra.

  Penelope:  For me, he's one of the most generous partners I've found.

  Matt:  I hope people go see it and appreciate what she does in the movie because she's so good.

  Scene of Matt putting Penelope on a horse.

  Matt:  You're going to get me in trouble.

  Penelope:  You are in trouble.

  Shot of Matt and Penelope kissing.

  Tony:  Okay, here's a little bonus Access info for you. You'll never guess how Billy Bob kept his stars happy at the end of the day when they had some spare time.  Bowling.  That's right.  Matt, Penelope and Billy bowling up a storm.  As for "All the Pretty Horses," you can catch it when it opens December 25th.  That would be Christmas Day."

  Comments:  Penelope's interview seems like an old one.  Matt's could have been done when he was in New York last month.  He looks about the same as he did there.   I think these scenes all came from the trailer, but they're still great to see again.  Interesting, though, that Matt said he wanted to fight Billy Bob!

• Erin also caught the show:
  Caught Matt on Access Hollywood tonight just by chance. They showed a quick clip of him walking down the street with a garment bag over his shoulder. Does the guy ever look put out by his privacy being invaded? He just gave a big wave and a cute smile and moved on. The showed more clips from ATPH...it looks fantastic! They showed a short interview with Matt talking about getting in a mock fight with Billy Bob just to freak out the studio execs, and then talked with Penelope and Matt (separately) about her months of auditions for ATPH...apparently she went to Italy to audition with Matt while he was doing The Talented Mr Ripley. Anthony Minghella had them dance flamenco together while Matt was in his Ripley outfit to get the "chemistry of the couple" as Penelope put it. She added that Matt is "one of the most generous partners" and Matt said he hoped everyone would go see how amazing she is in the film. It's nice to see actors speak so highly of one another. Anyway, look for more stuff like that Access Hollywood thing as Christmas draws closer. BTW...Matt's looking thinner these days...probably because he's working out so much for The Bourne Identity??? I'm interested to see how buff he gets for the role!
• Notes from Felicity"
  I expect you all saw the news that Casey Affleck and Scott Caan have been added to the Ocean's Eleven cast. Matt will be happy with Casey aboard - they seem very good friends. And Caan was in Boiler Room with Ben.

  Here's a late quote from Redford from Jam Showbiz:
  He cast Matt Damon as the golfer and Will Smith as the mysterious stranger who helps him rediscover his game on and off the golf course.
  "Matt and I talked a little about my early career because he is going through a similar phase now. I told him to have a real good grip on himself and I know he will."
  Redford says Damon, 30, is far more focused on his career than Redford was at Damon's age.

• Felicity wrote:
  Sometimes all it takes is a little research. I think I've found the poster for All the pretty horses, as shown on the book tie-in.
  I've found it at Barnes and Noble's website (www.bn.com) - go to Books in Film, then Coming Attractions. It's quite dark, but golden-hued, and with a style similar to the "City of Angels" poster. The top of the poster is side-on profiles of Matt and Penelope (equal prominence), and then silhouette shots of people and horses at the bottom of the poster (OK, book, but the poster will be similar). Just try a search at the site.
  Amazing US box-office over the weekend. Bounce didn't slip from its $11 million of last weekend, and will overtake BV in boxoffice (sad). It was planned that Bagger Vance would increase in its number of screens over the Thanksgiving weekend, but I don't know if that happened (now out of top ten for first time). Over in the UK we had the release of Charlie's Angels and a David Arquette movie. Sad...
  (The poster is shown here - albeit a little fuzzy.)
• Val wrote:
  I was out looking for (the magazine) COWBOYS AND INDIANS last night and was not able to find the Matt issue, BUT I was pleasantly surprised to find an issue of WESTERN HORSEMAN (mag is dedicated to cowboys, horsemen, ranchers, etc). Matt is on the cover in his John Grady attire atop Redbo. There are some pictures inside the best of which is a gorgeous shot of Matt on Redbo (full picture). He looks incredible (as does that great horse!). There are also shots of Henry Thomas and Penelope. The article itself give a synopsis of the movie's plot and Matt's talent as a horseman--the wrangler who worked with Matt and Henry was extremely impressed by Matt's sensitivity in dealing with the horses.
  This piece is not written in typical 'Hollywood' flavor and therefore a refreshing look at Matt from a different perspective.
• A Big Matt Fan dropped off this line:
  Was watching the tail end of Access Hollywood today and saw a promo for tomorrow's show. They're promising an interview of Matt with clips from ATPH. Perhaps there's been a press junket? If so, look for Matt in other media outlets as well.

Click on a column

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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