The Matt Damon Column - January 2004 Archive

Updated 1/30/2004

1/30/2004
  • Variety reports that a preview of Bourne Supremacy will not be shown during this Sunday's Super Bowl telecast.

1/29/2004
  • As part of HP's support of Project Greenlight, Matt, Ben and Chris Moore submitted a small digital photo gallery of their subject. Matt chose to feature the artwork of his brother Kyle, photographed in Matt's apartment. A photo is at right, and the description is below. Thanks to EL.

    About Kyle's Art
    In the spirit of Project Greenlight, my YouStory focuses on a fantastic, undiscovered artist. I have many of his pieces in my home. Actually, to be honest, the artist is my brother Kyle Damon. Despite my bias I think he is a great talent worth checking out. Here you can see some of his work. You can also see my dad Kent and Kyle sitting in custom directors chairs that he created for me.

  • An international featurette for Eurotrip has been released, and Matt can be seen for the first time in character, although his face isn't clearly shown. Links are available at the devotedtosmallville.com site, which also has screencaps from the clip here. If you've been waiting to see Matt with a bald head kissing Kristin Kreuk, here's your chance. My thanks to Julie for the link.

  • Gary Ross has been doing some work on the Bourne Supremacy script according to yahoo. Brian Helgeland is also listed on the IMDB as an additional writer.

    Seabiscuit director helping script 'Supremacy'
    Seabiscuit director Gary Ross has revealed that Universal Studios have asked him to lend a hand with the script for espionage sequel The Bourne Identity.

    Ross, who's previously penned the screenplays for hit movies such as Dave, Pleasantville and Big, admitted his involvement backstage at the Golden Globe Awards.

    "I'm helping Universal with The Bourne Supremacy. They asked me if I would write a couple of scenes so that's what I did," he explained.

    The movie, which is currently shooting in Europe, once again stars Matt Damon as the errant CIA agent while Brit Paul Greengrass is directing.

  • A photo of Matt filming Bourne Supremacy in the lobby of the Westin Grand is available as a PDF file here.

  • The party on Friday night in Berlin at the Dorian Gray was for 80 members of the Bourne Supremacy cast and crew.

1/27/2004
  • From Roger Friedman's column at Fox News.

    Eva Mendes and Matt Damon: Just Friends

    Like you, I read and heard about Matt Damon finally succumbing to the feminine wiles of gorgeous Eva Mendes. The pair starred in "Stuck on You" this winter, and the gossip mill started churning around Christmas. It seemed to be very authoritative too.

    So wasn't I surprised to run into Eva and her longtime beau George at the Golden Globes? What did this mean, I wondered? Where was Matt? How can I trust the Star and US Weekly?

    George explained it for me: "We've been laughing about it for a while. Matt did spend some time with us at New Year's. But he's a friend of both of ours, and that's it. Eva and I are obviously still together."

    I can tell you that I am relieved to hear this. Mendes seemed so nice. It also seemed impossible that she could have dumped George and run off with someone else so quickly. After all, everyone knows that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are a couple! (Just kidding, calm down!)

    How does George deal with all of this? "Hopefully, this (meaning show business) is just five percent of our lives. The rest of the time we're just normal people." Good answer!

  • My thanks to Carola for sending me a summary of an interview with Matt in the February issue of German magazine Jolie:

    The article uses as the headline Matt's quote:"I'm one of the most boring people on earth." There's nothing new really, just information about Matt for the people who weren't up-to-date with his life and work. They wonder what's 'behind his damonic attraction', talk about his ex-girlfriends and that none of them had a bad word for him afterwards.

    They also discuss his openness concerning the press, that he discusses rumours before they become speculations and so on. Franka Potente's comment that :"He's a real gentleman, a nice and down-to-earth buddy" shouldn't lead to the conclusion that he's all too normal, and that he worked and works hard for his place amongst the top paid actors in Hollywood.

    According to the magazine Matt said that he sticks to the advice Jack Nicholson gave him once: "Don't tell anyone what you're doing after work and the whole world will think for ages how interesting you are."

  • This isn't relevant to anything, but I thought it was fun. It's part of an old transcript from Good Morning America's show the morning after Matt and Ben's Oscar win in 1998:

    BEN AFFLECK: Hi, hi. Who are you? I'm...
    MATT DAMON: You're Ben Affleck.
    BEN AFFLECK: And he's Matt Damon. And we're watching Good Morning America.
    MATT DAMON: Go to work. Don't you have anything better to do?

1/26/2004
  • Berlin paper bz.berlin1.de printed this story about Matt with an unknown woman in Berlin on the weekend. My translated version of the text:

    Matt, who is the beautiful girl?
    He is slowly becoming a firm fixture of the Berlin nightclub scene: Hollywood star Matt Damon, 33. This time the actor did not go to the 90grad - he went to the Dorian Gray at the Potsdamer Platz. There Damon could reserve the complete VIP Lounge, and photographers at the entrance were refused entry. The (probable) reason: A young, pretty woman - but allegedly his girlfriend is Eva Mendes, 29. Allegedly. But the waiters in the Dorian Gray were puzzled: Is it real? Nevertheless, Matt stayed with his beautiful girl at the club until 6.20am, when he left in a taxi and disappeared. As to where nocturnal escapades in Berlin can lead, Damon and his best friend Ben Affleck, 31, knows. The two had celebrated together recently in the 90Grad - and the day before yesterday Affleck was abandoned by his friend Jennifer Lopez, 33...

  • At the Golden Globes Eva Mendes (yet again) denied that she and Matt are in a relationship, saying to Melissa Rivers that she has a boyfriend is in love with him. Matt is just a friend and nothing more.

  • The play titled Matt and Ben is casting for new women to play the lead roles - details at filmjerk.

    The producers of the play are searching for actresses in their early- to mid-20s to "take on each character's essence, while adding their own uniqueness to the role," as well as "extremely versatile actors with strong comic timing and sensibility."

1/23/2004
  • So it's the end of Bennifer, and Matt's night out with Ben in Berlin is being labelled a relevant factor, at least by Us Weekly. As the New York Post delicately wrote:

    The last straw came Jan. 10 when he was caught on camera chatting and boozing it up with a bevy of bodacious babes in a Berlin bar with best buddy Matt Damon.

  • Another photo of Matt with Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit, from an official press release here, is at right.








1/22/2004
  • Matt and Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit had a public meeting in Berlin yesterday. Here's a few translated stories from the Morgenpost and the Tagesspiegel.

    Mayor Klaus Wowereit meets the Hollywood star during filming

    Yesterday noon, on the roof of an office high rise close to the police headquarters at the Alexanderplatz: A man is on the escape, chased by the Russian Mafia, the CIA and the German police. Berlin's reigning mayor Klaus Wowereit watches the escape, and goes finally toward the man, who wears black shoes with thick soles and a black winter down jacket. He is Hollywood star Matt Damon (33), in Berlin filming scenes for the espionage thriller "The Bourne Supremacy", sequel to world success "The Bourne Identity". "I saw the first part. Matt Damon I found marvelous. In addition, Franka Potente pleased me", said Wowereit in a fur-lined and black leather jacket. Laughing he answered the question in the negative when asked if he would take a small guest role. "No, I just saw how arduous the filming can be." Wowereit stressed again the "great advertisement" for the capital, once the film in America (start: July 2004) and in Europe (Germany premiere in September) is released.

    Wowereit said about Matt Damon: "He is very uncomplicated in his personal dealings." Damon, who has filmed here since 20 November and lodges privately in a dwelling in Mitte, said: "I like Berlin very much, but I have however too little time to discover the city. Six days a week I film from morning until night, but I will come back certainly." In February filming will move to the Babelsberg Studios, and then finish in India.

    Klaus and Matt obviously understood each other well. Chatting and joking they came together in a filming break on the roof, allowed themselves to be photographed and gave themselves patiently to the press. The cold weather in Berlin? Damon, who is from Boston and accustomed to something completely different, is nonplussed. "For me this is warm - like in the summer." Naturally Damon praised the city extensively - "I love it. Great!" - and regrets only because of the tight schedule - "We film six days each week" - he has seen too little. Wowereit again praised Damon, praising his uncomplicated behaviour, is naturally pleased officially about this large Hollywood production in the middle in Berlin. He saw the previous film "The Bourne Identity". His judgement? "It was good."

  • More information on Thursday's filming and the media's coverage of the above press event was provided by Ulrike (thanks!):

    Filming is taking place at Keibelstr. close to Alexanderplatz at the moment, but no access is possible. It's in a backyard behind the Berlin police headquarters and all you can see is the tiny streets stuffed with props, wardrobe and security vehicles.

    The interviews on TV showed only journalists shouting questions towards Matt about weather and going out and stuff. He said that he does not mind the icy temperatures as he was from Boston and rarely gets this warm in summer over there. However, he wants to come back to Berlin in summer to do some tourist things. At the moment they are filming 6 days a week and all he does on the seventh is sleep...

  • The WENN story published on the IMDB which claims Matt has "gushed over Eva Mendes" repeats a quote that is about eight weeks old, and derives from a press junket with the UK media (where it was included in FHM and BBC Teens interviews). It is definitely not new, and implies no romantic involvement - Matt was simply commenting about a co-star he likes. Here's the original quote, where Matt was asked what it was like to work with Eva:

    Damon: She is awesome. She's right up there. She is going to be as big a star as she wants to be. She is so beautiful, she is such a good actress, she is so smart, she's really funny. And she's a normal person too, the world is her oyster basically.

  • This townonline article with the band Lustra discusses Matt's cameo role in the upcoming film Eurotrip.

  • Casey Affleck has answered reader questions at the CaseyAffleck.com message board, and will be returning to answer further questions.

1/21/2004
  • To promote Stuck on you in the UK, Matt did an interview with the magazine Loaded for their February 2004 issue. This is an unashamedly fun and frivolous blokes mag which is similar to FHM. Here are some excerpts from the interview, but note that the language and responses are entirely in keeping with the style of the magazine, and I haven't modified any of the text. OK, disclaimer over...

    What's the best prank you've ever played on someone in the business?
    Ben (Affleck) and I organised for a producer friend to be arrested on the set of Good Will Hunting. It was his birthday, so we hired an actress to accuse him of sexual assault. It was great.

    Charming...
    No, no, it was funny, man. We were shooting in Boston - mine and Ben's hometown - and we'd talked to some of the local cops we knew. They came on set with this actress we hired. In front of the whole crew she screamed, "That's him! He did it!" She broke down in tears, and the cops slapped the handcuffs on him. It was pretty brutal, but it worked.

    Is he doing porridge now?
    Well, we did own up, obviously. We brought out the birthday cake and took pictures of the whole thing, which he's got on his wall. He's got a priceless look on his face when the girl shows up.

    Did you get into football - or shall we say soccah?
    When I went to the UK for Saving Private Ryan, the only team they showed on TV consistently was Manchester United. But everyone on the crew assured me that was just like rooting for the New York Yankees, who I hate because I'm a huge Boston Red Sox fan. I don't like supporting teams like Chelsea, Arsenal and Man U. There was this one poor, sad bastard on that movie who supported Leeds so I would watch the Leeds games with him to try and cheer him up. West Ham I liked, but they're down to Division One now.

    What's the best offer you've had from a star-struck female fan?
    The funniest one I had was when I was having a meeting about an upcoming film I'm in, Bourne Supremacy. We were sitting at lunch, and this girl walked up and said, "Are you Matt Damon?" I said, "Yes". She said, "You know, I was never into you. I never thought you were hot at all. You just never did it for me. But then I saw that Bourne Identity and I touched myself for a month." [Laughs] I like that story, only because there were two witnesses.

    Well, there's a few more who know about it now. Anyway, you've dated some Hollywood types in your time, like Minnie Driver. Still keep in touch?
    I haven't spoken to her in years.

    Didn't you famously dump her on Oprah?
    I don't know where that came from, but that isn't true. It's kind of jarring and bizarre to even ask me questions about her. There are some things like that which become true just because they've been written down so many times.

    It's also been reported that Anna Kournikova did a pole dance for you and your mates at a club?
    Who the fuck reported that? Oh man! I hear all these stories all the time. I want to live the life I read about. But I've never even met Anna.

    Here's another: old flame Winona Ryder reportedly gave away some of your old designer clothes to a Hollywood thrift store recently. Did she ask you first?
    I can't imagine her doing that. But if she did, I hope people are having a good time with my old suits. I haven't spoken to her in a while.

    We suspect you have a whole apartment full of flash clothes?
    Kind of. You know those Calvin Klein boxer briefs? I had one pair of those when I was a broke actor and they were my favourite pair of underwear. I remember once a week I would do my laundry and I would always get excited that I would get to wear that pair of underwear. They were so comfortable. I remember thinking, "When I get enough money, I am going to buy 10 pairs of these Calvin Klein underwear."

    And then that heady top class grundie day arrived.
    Certainly did. A few years ago, I went out to the store in New York and walked in to buy 10 pairs of underwear. It was a big moment for me. I walked in and then suddenly the sales people saw me and the manager came out and said, "Let us take those for you." I said, "No, I will carry them over to the register." He said, "The register? What do you mean, the register? Just take the underwear." I said, "No, I have to pay. This is an important moment in my life." I got into an argument with him, and at the end they wouldn't let me pay for them - now I go there to get underwear for all of my friends.

  • Filming for Bourne Supremacy is continuing around the Alexanderplatz in Berlin, where Matt and co-star Julia Stiles passed by reader Ulrike when they were on a break from shooting at an underground station.

    Matt is scheduled to meet Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit for a photo opportunity (press conference?) at 12.30pm today (21 January) at the world time clock, Alexanderplatz.

1/20/2004
  • A new still from Bourne Supremacy was included in the LA Times 2004 movie preview issue (but not online), and is pictured at right. Thanks to the1stofficialmattdamonclub yahoo group.

  • Update: Terry Gilliam discussed progress on Brothers Grimm with Empire at a London premiere:

    Terry Gilliam was on fine form at the Big Fish premiere, and paused to chat to Empire Online about projects old and new. We asked about his upcoming film, The Brothers Grimm.

    "Well we've finished shooting! Now we're editing it. I actually saw the first assembly today for the first time, and, well, it's going to be busy for the next few months. There's hundreds of special effects shots. Part of it is editing in the dark, because you're trying to imagine extraordinary things."

    The film stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as the eponymous brothers, who are con men travelling around 18th century Europe and pretending to rid villages of mythical beasties. Their bluff is called, however, when Napoleon orders them to a forest actually plagued by enchanted creatures. So how did Matt and Heath handle it?

    "Well these are very different from their normal characters. They're cast completely against type, which is always a gamble, but when it pays off I love it. The actors love it, and the audience likes waking up and discovering the world is different every day."

    There is, however, one question on everyone's lips for Gilliam, and that concerns his lost film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. No one who has seen Lost in La Mancha, the story of its abortive production, could fail to care about the fate of what looked suspiciously like the perfect Gilliam film. So is there any hope that it could rise from the grave?

    "That's one reason for making The Brothers Grimm - make a big successful film and generate the money for that. I'm actually going to Paris at the end of this month to try to get the rights to the script back - we've been at this for two years. It's just become very complicated, mainly legal things. I'm going to go over there and hopefully resolve some of these issues face to face, because this film is going to be finished fairly soon and I've got to work again."

  • Here's the full text of the Evening Standard article which discussed problems with Brothers Grimm, referred to a few days ago.

    It's looking Grimm in row over Monty Python man's film

    Matt Damon's new movie comedy Stuck On You is drawing in the crowds. But on the set of his next film, The Brothers Grimm, which has just finished filming in Prague, there's anything but a fairytale atmosphere. Director and former Monty Python man Terry Gilliam has been involved in "a titanic battle of egos" with Miramax moguls Harvey and Bob Weinstein.

    Eyebrows were raised when Miramax asked Gilliam to direct the $100 million fantasy flick, starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger and Monica Bellucci, which reinvents Hans Christian Andersen's Jacob and Will Grimm as 16th century con men.

    Gilliam has not made a film for five years and the abandonment of his ill-fated film adaptation of Don Quixote was memorably chronicled in last year's documentary film Lost in La Mancha.

    "Terry wants to make the film his way, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that his vision of The Brothers Grimm differs from Miramax's," says my source. "Bob Weinstein was sent to Prague to oversee production. But after taking one look at the rushes, he replaced Gilliam's trusted cinematographer with his own man.

    "Now Terry has been telling everybody: 'Harvey Weinstein needs to learn a lesson and I'm the one to teach him it.' The majority of the crew seemingly agrees with Terry. It's a titanic battle of egos."

    A spokesman for Miramax in the States denied any knowledge of discord: "I'm not aware of any this at all."

    Matt Damon seems in the dark too. "It's going to be spectacular," he said recently. "But I don't know what the tone of the movie will be."

  • More details about the Project Greenlight/HP competition are available from this press release.

  • TV alert: Lisa says Access Hollywood is promoting a story with Matt for Tuesday's show.

  • The Bourne Supremacy stunt involving a helicopter at the Alexanderplatz in Berlin on Monday had to be postponed due to heavy snowfalls.

1/19/2004
  • A Project Greenlight update from Sundance, via the Toronto Star - some excerpts:

    (Affleck) played stand-up comic at the Sundance Film Festival late Saturday night, during an announcement of his latest plans for Project Greenlight, the organization he and Matt Damon, his pal and fellow actor, set up in 2000 to fund and promote independent filmmakers.

    Affleck blew into Plan B, one of Park City's funkier nightclubs, alongside Chris Moore, the third member of the Project Greenlight executive team. Damon was there only in spirit, as an image on a pre-recorded video, because he's busy making a movie in Berlin.

    Affleck said the organization had the best of intentions, but it hasn't made any serious money back from the two movies it has backed with sponsor Miramax Films, Stolen Summer and The Third Wheel. Now it's time to start making films that will actually sell some tickets, because Project Greenlight can't run in the red indefinitely.

    They announced a contest called YOU Take Five, which will offer to digital still photographers around the world a chance to enjoy their own 15 minutes of fame. The contest, sponsored by the Hewlett-Packard computer company (now called just HP for short), wants people to contribute online stories and images through a series of digital photos they'll upload online as mini slide shows. (Details are on the Web at (hp.com/you).

    The winner of the contest gets to be the on-set still photographer for the next Project Greenlight movie, the "sell-out" one, and will also get a walk-on role in the movie. Perhaps he or she will get to have sex with a pie, or get their head chopped off. HP will use the winner's images in its ads.

    To illustrate what they have in mind, the Project Greenlight boys showed their own digital slideshows at the bar.

    Moore's was a chronicle of his family Christmas vacation trip. Damon's was a look at the artwork of his brother Kyle, whom he calls "the greatest inspiration in my life."

    But Affleck certainly was basking in the limelight Saturday night, and eager to encourage other people to follow in his and Damon's footsteps.

    "If we can do it, absolutely any idiot can do it."

  • A positive review of the Bourne Supremacy script (with spoilers) is at Latino Review.

1/18/2004
  • In an interview with Bild, Ben was asked whether he would be working with Matt in another film soon. My translated response:

    Affleck: We're looking at a couple of things. Perhaps it will happen this year.

  • Another article about Ben's night with Matt at 90grad, which discusses the photo I posted on 14 January, and adds (invents?) a few new quotes, is at the Sunday Mirror:

    Ben at it again
    Jan 18 2004
    Exclusive by Ben Todd, Showbiz Editor

    Ben Affleck has been the star of pictures he doesn't want fiancee Jennifer Lopez to see - him out partying with a group of girls and best pal Matt Damon. Ben, 31, tried to duck out of sight behind Matt when he was snapped chatting up the beauties in a Berlin nightclub. Hollywood ladykillers Ben and Matt caused a sensation at the German capital's trendy 90 Grad nightspot as they bought round after round of �5-a-time vodka cocktails.

    Club insiders say they later retreated to Matt's penthouse apartment where the partying continued until dawn with several girls. One of the club girls, 19-year-old Klara Seewalkd, said: "Matt was so cute. He said he liked to cut loose after being on set and was thrilled that Ben was in town to join him.

    "He said he liked coming to Europe because he found the girls 'less complicated than Hollywood chicks' and that people in general had a cool outlook. He was very nice and friendly - but Ben wasn't so approachable. I had a quick drink with him and said, 'Hey, so what's the latest with J-Lo?' He just glared and said, 'She's off the conversation, if you don't mind'."

    It's not the first time Ben has set tongues wagging - last year exotic dancer Tammy Morris claimed she shared a night of passion with him after they met in a Canadian strip joint, which he later denied. And this latest incident will do nothing to stop rumours that his relationship with J-Lo, 33, is on the rocks.

    While he was in Berlin, she was partying until 4.50am with old flame rapper P.Diddy at a club in Miami. Diddy said later: "We just happened to be there at the same time. It was a coincidence." Damon, 33, is filming the thriller The Bourne Supremacy in Berlin and hooked up with Ben when he arrived in town to promote his new movie Paycheck.

    They took over the VIP area of the club. A club official said: "He made it very clear he didn't want pictures taken of him. He danced and drank along with Damon but there was no one special girl. They just flirted around and had a good time."

    At 4.30am the pair left the club alone for Matt's penthouse, but 30 minutes later a production assistant on Damon's movie turned up with a posse of giggling girls. A source said: "Neighbours told me there were about six in all. One lady said it looked like a delivery of girls in an Austin Powers sketch!"

  • Another report denying any relationship between Matt and Eva Mendes was in People magazine's 19 January issue:

    Judging from the good time Matt Damon and Eva Mendes had in Las Vegas over the New Year's holiday with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez and a posse of friends, it's no wonder several newspapers declared them an item. But it's not true, says Damon's rep, who adds that Mendes's boyfriend was with her most of the time. Damon "laughed" at the news, says the rep. "He finds it amusing that he is linked with someone new every time he goes out."

  • This was also in People magazine:

    Tanks a lot
    There have been reports of a falling out between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Not so. They don't see each other as much as they once did, but the former roommates remain close. In fact Damon is partly responsible for Affleck's latest gig, Paycheck. Director John Woo initially approached Damon for the lead, but he passed, not wanting to do another amnesia-themed movie after The Bourne Identity. Damon liked the script so much, however, that he called Affleck and told him to pursue it. Still, he's probably not looking for a thank-you note: Paycheck tanked with critics and audiences alike.

  • This Tagesspiegel article suggests that filming for Bourne Supremacy will be at the Alexanderplatz on Monday, incorporating the use of a helicopter. It also mentions rumors are continuing that Ocean's Twelve will be partly filmed in Berlin.

1/16/2004
  • Photos from a police chase filmed a few days ago for Bourne Supremacy were printed in the bz.berlin1.de newspaper, and shown below (taken from the PDF file at link):

  • An early teaser or trailer for The Bourne Supremacy may be shown during the commercial breaks of the Super Bowl on 1 February. From CNN:

    Those tuning in may get glimpses of Sony's "Spider Man II," Touchstone's "The Alamo," Universal's "The Bourne Supremacy," staring Matt Damon, Warner Bros. "Catwoman" with Halle Berry, or "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," according to Ad Age.

  • A few more details about the new screenplay were provided by Ben in Madrid interviews: here and here. The title is a very strange combination of Run Lola Run and Gone, Baby, Gone, the latter of which Ben is adapting from the Dennis Lehane novel.

    "I saw Matt (Damon) recently in Germany and we will have a script ready in a year". Already he has a title (Run baby run), and it will be set in Boston. "It is a film about people, in the style of Good Will Hunting, but I cannot say any more".

    "Last weekend I was in Germany with my friend Matt Damon and we have a screenplay on which we are working. I believe that in a year we are going to have something," said Affleck to a group of journalists in Madrid. "It is a story similar to Good Will Hunting, it is set in Boston and it deals with people."

  • People magazine reports that Matt and Ben spent part of last weekend in a Berlin bar watching the NFL gridiron playoffs on TV. In another story describing their visit to club 90grad last week, this Bild article provides a few more details on Ben's activities.

    Ben flirted with the Berlin models, and had one to the left and to the right of his arm. Then he disappeared to the gentlemen's toilet. A blond (female) in tow. If Jennifer doesn't know...

  • Another article describing Bourne Supremacy filming in Berlin, and subsequent problems for local commuters, is here.

  • I received this message about a book co-authored by Matt's former personal chef, Alex Hilebronner:

    Matt and Ben's personal chef, Alex Hilebronner, has co-authored an upcoming book (out on January 29th) titled "Win Her With Dinner: Food, Booze and Tunes for Cooking Up the Perfect Evening", a book that teaches guys how to cook for women. Alex has worked as Matt's personal chef (and travelled with him to Paris, Prague etc) on many of his recent films, including The Bourne Identity, Oceans Eleven and The Brothers Grimm.

    Matt, Ben and director Kevin Smith have supplied the authors with quotes supporting the premise of the book - all three quotes will be printed inside the front cover of the book, which is published by Rodale.

  • This quote about Matt's support for an unsuccessful English soccer team appeared in The Sun, and probably derives from an interview in Loaded magazine (UK).

    Matt Damon became a Leeds fan when he was in the UK filming Saving Private Ryan. He says: "One poor bloke on the movie supported them. I'd watch their games with him to help cheer him up."

  • An Ocean's Twelve update from George Clooney in Us Weekly magazine:

    He's leaving in April to start shooting Ocean's Twelve in Europe with the rest of the cast. "We'll be shooting near my house in Italy", says Clooney, who owns a house on Lake Como, where he and Krista Allen spent the summer of 2003. "I'll get to take a boat to work for 10 days".

  • An article about the unusual friendship between 'Rocket' Valiere and Bobby Songin, two friends of the Farrellys who appeared in Stuck on you, is here.

1/15/2004
  • Here's a report about potential Brothers Grimm conflict from Jeannette Walls at MSNBC. Disagreements between the director and studio started with casting, continued into production and do not appear to have been resolved. Note that the studio may be waiting for Gilliam's cut of the film, but he does not have final cut specified in his contract. The original Evening Standard article is not online.

    Miramax and Dimension Films are denying overseas reports that their forthcoming film, "The Brothers Grimm," has dissolved into power struggles. "Director and former Monty Python man Terry Gilliam has been involved in a titanic battle of egos with Miramax moguls Harvey and Bob Weinstein," reports the London Evening Standard. A Dimension spokeswoman calls the article "egregiously inaccurate," and adds: "What we've seen of the film we're thrilled with. It's a cross between 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Princess Bride.' We have been extremely supportive of Terry Gilliam and cannot wait to see the director's cut."

  • Ben flew into Berlin for interviews yesterday and then left within hours. In a rp-online.de article Ben said he and Matt have been working on another screenplay for a while and intend to finish it in 2005, but would give no further details. (Thanks to Britt for assistance with the translation.)

  • The upcoming Us Weekly reports that Casey Affleck and Summer Phoenix are engaged, and that their first child is due in May.

1/14/2004
  • Another day of filming, another report from Berlin. This bz.berlin1.de article describes a scene where Matt's chased by 25 German policemen along city streets and over the river Spree. After ten takes, it had to be done yet again when the many lights used in the scene caused a power failure. The photo at right was with the article, but could be new or old.

  • Sophie sent in a link to the Reuters story confirming Bourne Identity as the top-renting video/DVD of 2003 here.

  • A story at Aint It Cool News, which posts a rumor that Matt could be the lead in a remake of Logan's Run, a 1970's sci-fi film, was sent in by Jennifer. Harry Knowles mentions the project could be directed by X-Men's Bryan Singer. The last mention of the film in Variety was back in August 2000, where it was described as:

    "...a Joel Silver production now in development at Warner Bros. Skip Woods is scripting the story, which concerns a future society whose citizens are executed at the age of 21."

  • More photos of Matt and Ben at the 90grad club on Saturday night in Berlin are available as a PDF file here. Ben's shown at right hiding behind Matt. You can guess the text.

  • If there are any fans of Matt in Berlin who are interested in looking for filming locations with another fan, please contact Ulrike.





1/13/2004
  • Updated: Universal has released two stills and some general information about The Bourne Supremacy as part of their 2004 preview, and it is online at Latino Review.

    The Bourne Supremacy
    Release Date: July 23, 2004
    Distributor: Universal Pictures
    Film Genre: Espionage Thriller
    Country: United States
    Director(s): Paul Greengrass
    Screenwriter(s): Tony Gilroy
    Cast: Matt Damon, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles, Karl Urban, and Franka Potente
    Official Site: Unavailable

    Synopsis: The Bourne Supremacy re-enters the shadowy world of expert assassin Bourne (Damon), who continues to find himself plagued by splintered nightmares from his former life. The stakes are now even higher for the agent as he coolly maneuvers through the dangerous waters of international espionage - replete with CIA plots, turncoat agents and ever-shifting covert alliances - all the while hoping to find the truth behind his haunted memories and answers to his own fragmented past. Compelling use of exotic worldwide locations and the muscular cinematic edge brought by vanguard director Greengrass maintain the aggressive style and fresh, non-traditional perspective established in The Bourne Identity. The Bourne Supremacy is the latest entry in a refreshingly new breed of that time-honored genre, the espionage thriller.

  • A very complimentary article about temporary Berlin resident Matt is online at the Morgenpost. My translated version follows:

    When he came in November with boxes and suitcases to Berlin, he had a wish: "I don't want to stay in a hotel, but in an apartment in Mitte." The film crew of "The Bourne Supremacy" gave the Hollywood star his wish. The US actor is the first international star that has stayed as a guest for three months in Berlin who wants to enjoy and explore the city like an entirely normal resident. From his American friends Matt Damon has received various tips, and on the list apart from the club 90 grad at the Dennewitzstra�e are also the Lola bar and Cookie's.

    For weeks Damon has travelled through the city, at times with his crew colleagues from the set, other times alone or with friends such as Ben Affleck. Matt Damon has developed amazingly quickly a special affinity for Berlin. Whenever one meets him accidentally at one of the filming locations - whether in Charlottenburg or Mitte - Damon gives himself openly and enthusiastically. On his arrival in Berlin, he publicly said: "Berlin is a crazy city." Now he shows us with his smile: Berlin is exactly his thing. Here he can be human. And after office hours he can drink beer and relax like everybody else.

    Matt Damon is on the way to becoming an actual ambassador for Berlin in Hollywood. He has not been reduced to a transient, whose impressions of the city are from the back of a limousine or a suite in a classy hotel. Matt Damon lives in our city. He senses it in all its facets.

  • A London tabloid is the first to pick up the Matt/Ben/drinking/girls story from Berlin - here's the Mirror report. They included all of the facts from the original story, which I chose not to include (and Jeannette Walls at MSNBC did not pick up).

    Ben has a Berlin ball with star pal

    Poor J-Lo will tear her hair out when she hears that fiance Ben Affleck has been partying with pal Matt Damon and a bevy of beautiful women.

    The Hollywood hunks spent the weekend in Berlin and late on Saturday night decided to hit the city's 90 Grad disco. According to sources, Ben, 31, and his Good Will Hunting co-star, 33, were the centres of attraction, sipping vodka cocktails and flirting with the gorgeous girls flocking around them.

    They left the disco at 4.30am and were spotted heading towards Damon's rented penthouse where a production pal on Matt's new film, The Bourne Supremacy, turned up half an hour later with more girls. What can it all mean?

  • From TV week.com:

    CBS is in early talks with Live Planet, the production company owned by Matt Damon (who starred in the poker movie "Rounders") and Ben Affleck, about a prime-time poker show, sources said.

  • Here's an excerpt from a review of Peter Biskind's new book about Miramax and the independent film scene, titled Down and Dirty Pictures, in Time magazine:

    Ben Affleck and Matt Damon didn't really get paid enough for Good Will Hunting. Their 1997 hit cost about $10 million and made well over $200 million worldwide, but their payout for writing and starring in the film came to little more than a million dollars combined. Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein later gave them each a $500,000 bonus check - a nice gesture, yet not quite what they felt they were owed. "You had to do some great accounting to hide net profits on that movie," grumbled Affleck. Nevertheless, they bided their time and learned to play Weinstein's game. When he needed them for a new project, they demanded $2 million in cash up front before signing on. Weinstein arrived at their meeting with a tote bag filled with Monopoly money, hurling it at Affleck before handing over the real checks. "We should have asked for four," says the actor now.

1/12/2004
  • Ben Affleck visited Matt in Berlin Saturday night, and they were both seen at top club 90 Grad. The article at bz.berlin1.de claims Matt and Ben flirted with the local women and drank Vodka shots before leaving at 4.30am.

  • At the Fox website for Stuck on you in Australia, there's a new version of the trailer and a competition for locals - here.

  • My thanks to Angela, who provided me with details of her experience as an extra on the set of Stuck on you:

    I was in four different scenes, including the hospital scenes shot on location at Holy Cross Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale, and Milano Cafe in Miami Beach.

    Matt was the nicest guy (at least when I was on set with him). He had a dry sense of humour which made me laugh, was very intelligent, and had advice for some of us, even the crew. He seems like a very loving family man since friends and family were on set with him. My biggest scene on this film was in a caf�, where I was seated at a table just behind Meryl Streep's table (I am just behind her camera view), and Matt and Greg Kinnear approach her in the scene. Matt said he used to do extra work while going to Harvard, so never give up.

1/11/2004
  • I received this note from a reader:

    I can surely confirm that Matt and Eva are not dating. They both spent New Years in Las Vegas, and are very close friends!! Eva was with her boyfriend the entire week, and partied with Matt and his friends. Yes they were both at Mon Ami Gabi for dinner on New Years Eve, and were sitting at the same table with friends, but onlookers failed to mention that Eva was sitting with her boyfriend at one end of the table and had also arrived with him, after Matt and his friends had already been sat down. They spent their New Years celebration at Light with all their friends,and again, Eva was with her boyfriend, and Matt with his friends.

    There's nothing going on between the 2 romantically, and they both have their private lives that should be respected!!

  • Here's a summary of the three German articles about Bourne Supremacy I linked yesterday. Filming on Saturday evening was at the Schlo�platz in front of the old GDR-Palast der Republik and the Berlin Dome (thanks to Ulrike for the information).

    -- The Maerkische Allgemeine.de article discusses filming of scenes with Matt at an inspection point and petrol station. It talks about the requirements for the German production team, including the signing of 1,000 contracts, and the need for duplicate cars to be available if required, as each production day costs about US$250,000.

    -- This document discusses the signing of contracts for various actors (including the returning Brian Cox, Gabriel Mann and Julia Stiles), and notes that the filming began as intended on 26 November at the Babelsberg studio.

    --And this PNN article from 10 January describes a day of filming last week on the Ku'damm in Berlin, where an office building was recreated as a hotel foyer. Filming had been conducted at night all week, and night shoots will continue for another two weeks at famous locations in east Berlin. It was the 27th day of filming, and the production chief noted that the atmosphere had improved significantly since pre-Christmas shooting, as Universal executives were more confident after viewing Berlin operations "through a looking glass", and had provided more money.

    Two young girls had waited around for Matt, and he gave them an autograph, a hug and a chat. That day of filming had required only rain as a special effect, and this was insignificant in comparison to the blowing up of a house on the Wannsee at the end of November, which required nearby tenants to move into a hotel for three weeks.

1/10/2004
  • From In Touch magazine:

    What About Matt's love life?

    Though Ben gets all the attention, rumors have been swirling that his hometown buddy is stuck on his Stuck on You co-star, Eva Mendes. Matt and Eva were spotted December 30 gambling at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas with Ben and J.Lo, and later letting loose at Light at the Bellagio on New Year's Eve. But the actors say they are not a couple. "It's not true,' a spokeswoman for Matt told In Touch."Eva's boyfriend was also there." Matt has been a free agent since he split with Odessa Whitmire, as reported exclusively by In Touch in October.

  • And a filler story in Us Weekly magazine, as described by a reader:

    Us has a story called Male Baby Fever! Who's Got It? Suddenly these Hollywood hunks can't wait for midnight feedings-but the clock is ticking!

    The four guys that are in the article are Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. It's a two page spread and each gets a picture with text underneath. And a small picture of a baby next to him. For Matt is says: In the Market: Matt Damon, 33. Relationship Status: Dating. Daddy Dream: After years of doting on his two young nephews, Damon recently said he's "really excited about having my own kids."

  • Three new articles (in German) about the filming of Bourne Supremacy in Berlin are available here, here and here.

1/08/2004
  • This report from People will hopefully stop all of the false rumours about Matt and Eva Mendes.

    As for other seemingly and/or genuine Valentines, the magazine notes that although Matt Damon, 33, and Eva Mendes, 29, had a good time in Las Vegas over the New Year's holiday with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez and a posse of friends, the couple is not really a couple, says Damon's rep, who adds that Mendes's boyfriend was with the "Stuck on You" actress most of the time.

  • Project Greenlight will continue for another year at a new network. Details from PR Newswire and Zap2it.com.

    Miramax Television has joined forces with Bravo for a new season of "Project Greenlight," the Emmy nominated filmmaking contest, feature film and warts-and-all behind-the-scenes filmmaking documentary TV series that chronicles the challenges of first-time-writers and directors given the opportunity of a lifetime. For the show's third season, partners LivePlanet and Miramax are hopeful they will be able to create a series and a film that will revolve around a genre script such as horror or thriller (The past two season's films were based on coming of age stories). The agreement with Bravo, which calls for nine, one-hour episodes to air on the network, was announced today by Miramax Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein and Bravo President Jeff Gaspin.

    One of the reasons cited for HBO's passing on the show, which chronicles the making of a Miramax-funded film by a first-time writer and director, was the fact that producer Chris Moore might not be involved in the third season. But Moore, who also produced the "American Pie" films, will be part of the series after all.

    He won't take the central role in the show that he previously has and won't produce the movie that results from the "Greenlight" contest, says Frances Berwick, Bravo's senior vice president of programming and production. Moore will, however, take part in selecting the contest winners with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, his partners in the production company LivePlanet.

  • An interview with Matt (in Spanish) for Stuck on you is available at the website for Argentinian newspaper Clarin.

  • According to videobusiness.com, The Bourne Identity was the most rented video/DVD for 2003 with $75.5 million. The film also made an additional $76.3 million in sales of the video and DVD during the first half of 2003. That's why there's a sequel due 23 July.

1/07/2004
  • Julia Stiles talked about Bourne Supremacy in this mtv.com article:

    'Bourne' Again: Julia Stiles Back In Bigger Role For Sequel

    Matt Damon turned down the lead role in "Paycheck" because the "Bourne Identity" star didn't want to play another amnesiac hero. And now, having successfully recommended pal Ben Affleck for the job, Damon is in Europe reprising the Jason Bourne character in "The Bourne Supremacy," which started shooting in November.

    Based on the series of spy novels by Robert Ludlum, "The Bourne Identity" established Damon as a viable action star and provided his biggest commercial success since "Good Will Hunting," earning more than $120 million domestically.

    "The Bourne Supremacy," the second part of a proposed trilogy from Universal, sees Joan Allen ("Face/Off") and Karl Urban ("The Lord of the Rings") joining Damon, whose character must identify the assassin who's using the Bourne identity for dirty deeds and getting him in a lot of trouble.

    Brian Cox ("X2") returns as Ward Abbott, and Franka Potente ("Blow"), Damon's love interest in the first, has a cameo. Julia Stiles ("Mona Lisa Smile") is back as well, in an expanded role as Nicolette, the CIA agent who was tracking down Damon's amnesiac assassin in the first flick.

    "I get to be interrogated by Joan Allen," revealed Stiles, who will join the rest of the cast in Berlin at the end of the month.

    "Jason Bourne is still sort of tormented mentally by his experience working for the CIA," she explained. "He's still on the run and the CIA is tracking him down. But they think that I was in cahoots with him because I'm the only one that survived when my boss, played by Chris Cooper, died. It's exciting and I'm looking forward to it."

    Director Doug Liman, who struggled with numerous production problems on "The Bourne Identity," will not be returning. Instead, English director Paul Greengrass, whose gritty drama "Bloody Sunday" was much acclaimed but not widely seen, is heading things up.

    Though he enjoyed Liman's take on the first, Damon said last year he was only interested in making a sequel if the script promised to top the original. The screenplay ended up being written by "The Bourne Identity" co-writer Tony Gilroy, whose credits also include "Proof of Life."

    "The Bourne Supremacy" is scheduled to finish shooting sometime in February and is due in theaters July 23.

  • From the Boston Globe:

    Turns out Britney Spears wasn't the only celebrity inside a Las Vegas chapel in the past week. According to US Weekly magazine, our very own Ben Affleck and the muy lovely J.Lo stopped by the Wedding Bells Chapel on New Year's Eve, but left before swapping "I do's." "They checked it out," says someone who was there. "But they were just kind of joking around." The on-again, off-again lovebirds had planned to ring in the New Year at the trendy nightclub Light, with Affleck's pal Matt Damon and Damon's new best friend and "Stuck on You" costar Eva Mendes. But the pair, joined by Lopez's mother, Guadalupe, her sister Lynda Lopez, and Lynda's boyfriend, "Entertainment Tonight" reporter Chris Booker, stayed in their Hard Rock Hotel & Casino suite, ordering in dinner and -- get this -- a touch-screen slot machine. At 2:30 a.m., US Weekly reports, Affleck and Lopez hit the hotel's Peacock lounge to gamble, but turned in two hours later. Bennifer and Damon did make it to Light the following night, where they hung out with Paris Hilton's ex, Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher. But by then, the good times were taking their toll on Affleck: He was spotted popping several Tums.

  • A questionable report from the Chicago Sun-Times:

    Meanwhile, as Britney Spears was getting married in Vegas, Matt Damon greeted the new year in Sin City and appeared to put the official stamp on his relationship with his ''Stuck on You'' co-star Eva Mendes -- confirming the romance rumor flying for weeks. Joining Jennifer Lopez and best buddy Ben Affleck, a Vegas spy tells me, ''Matt was grinning from ear-to-ear, looking delighted to be with Eva ...as well he should be -- she's a hottie!''

1/06/2004
  • The Eva Mendes rumors are continuing, but they're based only on three sightings, and that's hardly a relationship. The TV program Extra reported Eva saying that she and Matt are just friends.

    Here's a late Vegas story in the Las Vegas Sun.

    Anchor love

    Matt Damon has a new fan: KLAS Channel 8 anchor Paula Francis. She and co-anchor Gary Waddell were broadcasting live from the Mon Ami Gabi (Paris Las Vegas) patio on New Year's Eve when they came across the film star and gal pal Eva Mendes.

    Francis says it was "amazing" to see him go completely unnoticed.

    "I think it says something about the way he views his celebrity. He must be very down to Earth," Francis told VegasBeat on Sunday. "Quite the opposite of most of the glitzy types who come to town and make a big splash."

    She also admitted it was "quite a thrill" to have Damon sitting only a few feet away during her broadcast.

  • A recent NY sighting from gawker.

    Matt Damon in Park Slope Brooklyn walking with a couple that had a baby and a toddler. This was pretty neat except that my friend and I geeked out and Matt observes said geeking out while crossing the street. Oh well at least he didn't make a movie called Gigli.

  • Project Greenlight, and Matt as a producer, have been nominated in the Producer's Guild of America Awards. Details from the Hollywood Reporter.

    Nominees for best reality/game/informational television series -- a category added only last year -- include Simon Fuller, Nigel Lythgoe, Ken Warwick and David Goffin for Fox's "American Idol"; Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Moore, Sean Bailey, Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz, Eli Holzman and Tony Yates for HBO's "Project Greenlight," David Collins, Michael Williams, David Metzler and Lynn Sadofsky for Bravo's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Three other shows have also been nominated, though their eligible producers are still being determined through an arbitration process. Those shows are CBS' "The Amazing Race," A&E's "Biography," and CBS' "Survivor: Pearl Islands."

  • If you still wanted more after seeing the play of Matt and Ben, there's a new show in Boston called Thanksgiving When You're Dating Matt Damon, with details from the Boston Globe below. I think the title is taken from a line stated by Chris Moore in the E! Revealed program a few years ago.

    Friday 1/9
    Can I Sit Next to Bennifer? Still Good Will Hunting? Search no more. Go see "Thanksgiving When You're Dating Matt Damon," a play by Lisa Burdick, 8 p.m., Theatre Cooperative, 277 Broadway, Somerville. $10. 617-623-5510. T: Orange Line, Sullivan Square.

  • An interview with Matt in the UK Independent is now online at unison.ie.

    Matt Damon: The Q interview
    By Tiffany Rose, London Independent

    Matt Damon, 33, shot to fame when he won an Oscar for co-writing Good Will Hunting with his childhood friend Ben Affleck. He has since starred in hits such as The Bourne Identity, Ocean's Eleven and Saving Private Ryan, as well as Dogma, also with Affleck, and played the eponymous lead in The Talented Mr Ripley, opposite Jude Law. With his latest film, the Farrelly brothers' Stuck on You, he breaks into farce with a role as one half of conjoined twins, alongside Greg Kinnear. Damon is single and lives in New York.

    I never knew you could be funny!
    I've done a lot of comedies before. Didn't you see The Legend of Bagger Vance? Cracked me up. Do you mind if I smoke?

    How was being stuck to Greg Kinnear? Did you annoy each other?
    No, it actually went really, really well. We had no choice but to hang in each other's space, and learn all the dirty secrets about one another. There would be days where Greg would be on the phone to his wife, Helen, and I'd be sitting there next to him, and he'd be discussing the colour of the drapes he was buying. I'd put in my two cents' worth by saying: "I'd go with the mauve drapery." And Greg would go: "Matt thinks mauve would be nice - but I don't care."

    Did you gain weight for the film?
    At the time I quit smoking so I was about 20lb heavier. When we were strapped together in our body suit harnesses, if I wanted to go right, we were going right.

    But you're smoking now.
    Yeah, I'm no quitter! I'm a lot fitter now, because I'm in the middle of shooting the sequel to The Bourne Identity. I've been trained to chop people's heads off, so I had to quickly get back into shape.

    Are you going to be writing with Ben Affleck again?
    I hope so. We wrote Good Will Hunting to get work as actors, and for the past five years now we've been working really steadily.

    Are you keen to collaborate with him again?
    Sure, I'd like to, but it would involve getting through the National Guard that's barricading his house right now.

    Is it that tough to get to him these days?
    It's not tough to get to him; he's got a cell phone. If too many people get the number, he just emails and says: "This is now my cell phone number." No, look, I think that in some cases, he doesn't get enough respect - right now, certainly, it's got so out of control. I've been away from it because I've been working in Prague. But I know he's really sick of it and he's been saying for months: "Please, I'm sick of myself. I don't want to read about myself any more..."

    Are you still best friends?
    Yeah. In the past few years we've seen each other less than we did in the previous 20, so that's weird. But when you have friends for that long, the second you see each other, you fall right back into the old routine.

    Did you laugh when you watched yourself in this comedy?
    I laughed a couple of times. My brother and father were with me, and when they laughed, I laughed, because that just made me happy that they were happy.

    Is this your kind of humour?
    I like to think I have a pretty broad sense of humour. Dogma made me laugh. The Christopher Guest movies [This is Spinal Tap] make me laugh. And The Office, which is some of the best comedy I've seen.

    What's your favourite episode?
    The one where he gets fired - the scene which is one of the funniest, but heartbreaking at the same time, when David says, "Don't make me redundant." I just worked with Mackenzie Crook ["Gareth"] on The Brothers Grimm, and he gave me the last season on tape.

    What's Mackenzie like?
    He's a nice guy, and he's very serious. I'm a huge fan of his.

    Do hordes of fans hang around your movie sets to catch a glimpse of you?
    Yeah, especially when we were shooting in the Boston area. Like, 15-year-old girls would come storming after me, with about 25 of them surrounding me for autographs.

    How do you feel about that? They're half your age.
    It's always bizarre. The older I get, the more I'm like: "Hey there - so, what's going on?" I think it's cute when they come up and want my autograph, but when the 45-year-old guy comes up, and he's like [puts on a deep voice]: "Hi, I really like your movies." That's when it gets creepy. But in general, I've noticed, teenage girls will travel in packs and for them it's more about the experience of getting hysterical together. They all scream: "Helllooooo." It's just an experience they're having together. It's really all about them - it's not about me at all.

1/05/2004
  • Add this one to the rumour file - from the NY Post:

    Stuck together

    Their reps denied it for months, but now that they're both single, Matt Damon and Eva Mendes are going public with their love. The happy couple rang in the New Year in Las Vegas, gambling at the Hard Rock Hotel with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez on Dec. 30 and partying with them at Light at the Bellagio on Jan. 1. "They were definitely together," our source said. Damon and Mendes met while filming "Stuck On You," last year. Neither star's rep returned calls.

  • From the Boston Herald:

    It's so hard to get in anywhere good on New Year's Eve. Sometimes, you just have to lie and scheme - and even then you can find yourself out on the street!

    First off, there was Star 93.7's big New Year's Eve bash starring retro ``Saturday Night Fever'' act Tavares at Club Vetro up in Manchester, N.H. Imagine the Fever that was set off when Matt Damon's people called up to say the Cambridge homey - and ``Stuck On You'' star - was up in the Granite State skiing and was itching to Check It Out.

    Well, it Only Takes A Minute to fall in love, but it took a lot longer than that to arrange security, photographers and a VIP reception for Matt. Who was, alas, nearly 3,000 miles away, partying with Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez and his ``Stuck'' co-star, Eva Mendes, in Las Vegas! (We hear, BTW, that Matt and Eva, who deny they are a couple, were rather cozy at Club Light at the Bellagio. . . .)

    "We were ready for him,"' said Star gal Ami Heart. "The Dom was on ice, but he never showed."

  • Update: A sighting from Norm's column in the Las Vegas Review Journal:

    Bellagio honcho Bobby Baldwin and his wife, Donna, socializing with Matt Damon and his new galpal Eva Mendes at Light, the Bellagio nightclub last week. The Mirage Resorts chief executive and Damon share a love of poker. Damon played a high-stakes gambler in the 1998 film "Rounders" and participated in the 1998 World Series of Poker. Baldwin is a multiple winner of the event.

  • There's an interview with Matt in the February edition of the UK FHM magazine.
  • At right is a picture of Bourne Supremacy filming in December, from bz.berlin1.de.

  • An excerpt from a translated Berlin interview with Greg Kinnear:

    Were you allowed to select your your twin brother?
    No, Matt Damon was already on board. The prospect of becoming so close with someone physically for four months released a multitude of feelings in me at first. I called all possible people who had already had dealings with Matt. Fortunately I heard only good things.

    (Question about being together all day)
    We spent the waiting periods playing video games or telephoning. Clearly, one then got very quickly a view of the private life of the other one. I gave Matt pieces of advice if he had a date, he helped my wife during the renovations of our bedroom. We were like a large family.

1/04/2004
  • An interview with Terry Gilliam, where he talks about The Brothers Grimm and other projects, appeared at this site, and was translated (thanks!) by Costanza.

    My Uncensored Grimm

    "Why did I make a film about the Grimm brothers? Because I wanted to bring back the real meaning of their fairy tales, very different from the sugar sweet version Disney gave them. In reality the Grimm brothers have always been censored. For example, the Rapunzel princess, the one that threw her long plait to the prince who climbed the tower and saved her, in the end of the story she was pregnant".

    Terry Gilliam, cult director of "Brazil" and "12 Monkeys" is speaking about his latest film "The Brothers Grimm", which he's just finished filming between the USA and Prague. This is an 80 million dollar colossus which will hit the screens in the USA next fall. Written by "The Ring" screenplay writer Ehren Kruger, the film tells about the fantastic lives of the brothers Grimm, making them live in the magic and imaginary world of their fairy tales.

    "It's a film for everyone, adults and children", says Terry Gilliam, who will be awarded in Capri the Lifetime Achievement Award, "where you can see trees that move and eat people, and lots of special effects to create really incredible scenes and situations." The cast includes Matt Damon, Heath Ledger and Jonathan Pryce, as well as a very beautiful Monica Bellucci. "Her character", says Gilliam, "is a 500 year old witch, very beautiful as you look her in a mirror, but in reality really ugly and creepy."

    "If I have to be honest", says the director joking, " I don't really remember what her role is: she is so beautiful the role she plays is not important. It's a very difficult film and it took me lots of devotion, so to use a metaphor, Monica is like the dessert at the end of a very abundant dinner."

    With his typical Monty Python sense of humor, where he was the only American member, Gilliam tells anecdotes and episodes about his career. "I have always done films I really liked, refusing also great worldwide blockbusters like Forrest Gump. I actually go rarely to the movies, especially when I am filming: seeing works from other directors makes me depressed and makes me lose confidence."

    "I love Italy: I even own a house in Umbria, where I go as often as I can. I also worked with many Italians: Gabriella Pescucci, who created the costumes, and Michele Soavi, my assistant in directing the film."

    "I am here in Capri" says Gilliam, who arrived on the island with his family, "also to meet Goran Bregovic [awarded with the Capri Music award], to whom I'd like to ask to work on the soundtrack of this film."

    Among Gilliam's future projects there's the wish to complete the Don Quixote film, played by Johnny Depp, which was interrupted 2 years ago. "It's my long time dream, together with my next film, to which I have written the screenplay as well: "Good Omens", a comic and surreal version of the Antichrist."

1/03/2004
  • Another sighting of Matt in Vegas from the Las Vegas Sun. TV program Extra on Friday's show aired footage of Matt, Ben and Jennifer Lopez at the Hard Rock gambling tables earlier in the week. Ben, Jennifer and her family celebrated New Year's Eve in a hotel room.

    Their pal Matt Damon was sitting virtually unnoticed with three friends eating dessert on the deck at Mon Ami Gabi (Paris Las Vegas) when the pyrotechnics exploded at midnight.

  • Update: And more sightings from the Review Journal:

    Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, playing poker with Rene Angelil in the Bellagio's high-limit section on Thursday night... Affleck and J.Lo, dancing up a storm at Light (Bellagio) later Thursday with Damon and galpal Eva Mendes...

  • An interview with Matt to promote Stuck on you, which opened Friday in the UK, is at the Mirror. There are a number of factual errors in the article, but here are some excerpts.

    Stuck on Matt

    There's something about Matt Damon, but it's hard to tell exactly what. He's got a pleasant little face, but it's certainly nothing special. His acting talent is somewhat dubious and he's definitely a Mummy's boy. Yet women around the world adore him, directors beg him to take roles in their films and men want to be him.

    And it's not just his money - Matt rakes in �7m a film - or his many Hollywood friends such as Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt and George Clooney which attract the women. Apparently he's always been a lady magnet.

    "Women always loved Matt," says Casey Affleck, Ben's younger brother. "They used to throw themselves at him from about the age of five. He always had a good looking girl on his arm. But the guys loved him as well. He's a real man's man and loads of fun to be around."

    When you meet Matt Damon, his innate charm is immediately apparent. It may not be sincere, but he certainly makes you feel like you're the centre of his world.

    "It's not a game," he says, throwing his hands in the air in a 'whatever' gesture. "I am genuinely interested in people. I love hearing their stories. I suck them all in and use them. It's an acting method. It is a skill to make people comfortable with you, but it's not something I've learnt or perfected. It is simply who I am."

    His easy-going manner and distinctly non-brattish behaviour are the result of his long climb to the top. He was already 27 when he finally broke into the top ranks of the film world, practically a pensioner in LA where youth is valued over anything else.

    "I want kids, I want the little house with the picket fence and I want a wife," he admits. "But it has to be with the right person. I saw the hurt my parents faced when they divorced and it made me never want to go through that."

  • The critic for the San Francisco Examiner placed Gerry fourth in his top ten list:

    4) Gerry
    Not since Jack Nicholson appeared in Antonioni's "The Passenger" has a major Hollywood star worked in such a brave, experimental work. Matt Damon justifies his entire existence with his role as one of two hikers -- the other played by Casey Affleck -- who find themselves lost in the desert. Director Gus Van Sant eschews survival film clich�s and concentrates on meditation and the feel of the desert. While the two Gerrys walk and walk and walk, we contemplate nothing less than the mystery of the universe.

1/02/2004
  • Vegas updates from the Las Vegas Review Journal and the NY Post. The quote by Eva was in People magazine a few weeks ago.

    Sighting: At Light (Bellagio) on New Year's Eve: Matt Damon, with "Stuck on You" co-star Eva Mendes, recently crowned by People magazine as the "newest `it' girl." When People asked her about her rumored relationship with Damon, she shot back: "I say show me a picture. Otherwise you've got nothing."

    Jennifer Lopez's nagging of Ben Affleck about his gambling habit was supposedly one of the things that caused them to cancel their wedding. But it seems J.Lo has learned to live with her fianc�'s favorite vice. She escorted Affleck and his pal Matt Damon for an all-night poker jag at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas Tuesday. She even smiled and cooed for the cameras when she won a hand.

  • From columnist Amy Longsdorf at mccall.com. The IMDB listing for Hero (aka Ying xiong) is here.

    Celebs pick personal bests

    Celebrities are a notoriously self-involved bunch, but some of the nicer ones are willing to answer questions that don't necessarily pertain to their latest movie. Late last year, I began polling some Hollywood types about their favorite films of 2003, and some of the results were surprising.

    Matt Damon opted for ''Hero,'' a Chinese-language film by Zhang Yimou, the filmmaker behind ''Raise the Red Lantern.'' Said Damon, ''As far as I'm concerned, 'Hero' is one of the greatest movies of the year. It really blew me away.''

1/01/2004
  • Best wishes to all readers in the New Year.
  • Update: After spending Christmas in Boston, Matt was photographed in New York on 27 December (small photo at right), and later went to Las Vegas. My thanks to Ava, who met Matt en route to Vegas, and sent in this note:

    I had the pleasure of meeting Matt at the Denver International Airport on 30 December, where he was not only polite and considerate, but a true gentleman to his two traveling partners. He is every bit the gentlemen we hear about from other people, and a great person to meet. I was really nervous to meet him, but he was sooooo polite in person, and even asked how to spell my name correctly for the autograph. Good luck to all who meet him, because he is sure not to disappoint.

    Here are a few items from the Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review Journal.

    By the way, Lopez and Affleck checked into the Hard Rock Hotel at 8 p.m. Tuesday for New Year's Eve fun. Their pal Matt Damon had a 10 p.m. sushi dinner at Nobu ...

    Affleck and Lopez, who ignite wedding rumors whenever they set foot in Las Vegas, dined at Nobu and attended Jeff Beacher's comedy show at the Hard Rock on Tuesday. Affleck's pal Matt Damon was coming in to join Ben and Jen for New Year's Eve, Affleck told Jay Leno during an appearance "Tonight Show" on Monday.

  • Update: From a NY Daily News article which speculates on a possible Bennifer wedding in Vegas:

    Adding fuel to the wedding rumors was the presence of Ben's best pal, "Good Will Hunting" co-star Matt Damon, who also was spotted at the Hard Rock.

    According to Bennifer spies, Damon tried to keep a low profile - pulling his baseball cap low over his eyes - as he dined solo at the Las Vegas sushi hot spot Nobu on Tuesday night.

  • 'Italian Daydreamer' sent in new details about Brothers Grimm. Did anyone catch a visit to the set of Grimm that aired recently on Access Hollywood?

    Italian newspaper "Il Giorno" has published an interview with Terry Gilliam, who recently has been awarded a prize in occasion of the Italian Festival "Capri Hollywood" and revealed a few interesting news on his upcoming last dream "The Brothers Grimm", a 90 million dollar movie.

    "I just finished shooting "The Brothers Grimm", starring Matt Damon, Jonathan Pryce and Monica Bellucci. We shot in Prague in six different languages: English, French, Russian, Czech, Spanish, Italian. It's the most expensive film I've ever done. It concerns the brothers Grimm, who first pretend to save people in their village, then they find themselves in the middle of a real curse. It will be full of special effects: walking trees, flying wolves and a flock of crows doing incredible things... Monica Bellucci is the Queen of the Mirrors, thanks to her the film becomes an adult fairy-tale..."

  • A related item was in the NY Daily News.

    Director and Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam made some jaundiced observations about the U.S. movie industry during yesterday's session of the Capri-Hollywood Film & Music Fest in Italy.

    "I don't go to movies. I get bored," said the 63-year-old Minnesota native turned resident of Italy, adding that he has little use for American-made films. "America isn't passionate. America is sentimental," Gilliam declared. "I keep trying to abandon Hollywood. But they still have the suitcases full of money that I need to produce my films. ... I'm very corrupt."

    Gilliam, who directed such cult faves as "Brazil" and "12 Monkeys," just finished spending $90 million of Hollywood's money to make "The Brothers Grimm" in Prague.

  • More information about Matt's involvement with Paycheck was found in cast interviews with the Calgary Sun and Filmstew.

    Woo originally approached Matt Damon to play the role of the computer thief. "I didn't see the computer guy as a superhero. Matt looks so real, honest and vulnerable. We talked but he had already committed to Stuck on You, and he was also afraid that the basic premise of a man waking up not knowing his immediate past was too close to the situation in his spy movie The Bourne Identity." Woo recalls it was Damon who recommended Affleck...

    "To tell you the truth my first choice was Matt Damon," admitted Woo, who on this sunny Saturday afternoon was struggling a bit to explain his way out of a minor controversy. "I wanted to have a 'real person' to play this role since this guy's no superhero, but an ordinary guy who's smart."

    "I sent a script to Matt and he loved it, and he also wanted to work with me, but he already committed to another movie, and he also didn't want to repeat the same role," Woo continues. "And then he highly recommended Ben Affleck to me. He kept saying, 'Ben could do better than me,' and I thought, what a good idea - I like them both."

    Despite Woo's minor protest that Affleck was none the wiser about the bait-and-switch with best pal Damon, the actor chimed in with his own affirmation that yes, indeed, Matt was the Stradivarius to his own second fiddle. "John saw The Bourne Identity, and loved it obviously. Matt is kind of an obvious choice for this movie, in fact so obvious that while Matt was honored to meet John and wanted to work with him he was kinda like I just can't do two amnesia pictures or else I'm just gonna be amnesia guy."

    Thankfully, the Good Will Hunting co-screenwriters still share more than the same gold trinket on their mantelpieces as they saw their individual A-list careers converge upon one another, if for only a brief instant. "He called me up," continues Affleck. "He was in New York, and called me after the meeting and said you've got to get hold of this script, it's really smart, it's good, it's Philip K. Dick, it's John Woo."

General links

Other good sources of information about Matt

www.mattdamonfanpage.com: Kelly's great site about Matt, which includes articles, photos and interviews.
www.mattdamonforum.com: A community website and message board for fans of Matt, moderated by Kelly.
http://cometo/mattdamon has a comprehensive photo gallery.
www.screen-icons.org: A site for all fans of Matt & Ben.
http://damonfantastik.tripod.com: Photos, wallpapers and original artwork


To contact Matt

Send mail to:
C/o Patrick Whitesell
Endeavor Talent Agency
9701 Wilshire Blvd.
10th Floor
Beverly Hills CA 90212

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