Do stars use clout to get sons and daughters cast in their movies?
Focus
The kids are taking over Hollywood. Take a look at The Out-of-Towners, featuring Goldie Hawn and son Oliver Hudson. Or True Crime, with Clint Eastwood and daughter Francesca Fisher-Eastwood. Or Free of Eden, a Showtime original movie with Sidney Poitier and daughter Sydney Tamiia Poitier. Stars' children are lining up to sample the family business, a tradition that has included Kevin Costner and son Joe in 1996's Tin Cup, Sylvester Stallone and his boy Sage in 1990's Rocky V and Joanne Woodward and daughter Nell Potts in 1972's The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.
But please don't call it favoritism. Towners casting director Ilene Starger insists that Hudson, 22, didn't get the part because of his mother. "Honestly," says Starger, "we all unanimously thought, 'He's terrific, he can do this part, he's talented.' But in no way did Goldie campaign for it."
Of course, a strong family resemblance never hurts. Not for Hudson in his role as Hawn's son or for Francesca Fisher-Eastwood, 5, portraying her dad's daughter in True Crime. Eastwood has directed his older children Kyle and Allison in movies, but he told the Chicago Sun-Times that he's aware of the downside: "You understand how traumatic it would be if you were forced to fire them."
Demi Moore and Bruce Willis experienced minor trauma when their daughter Rumer, then 7, asked if she could play Moore's offspring in the racy 1996 film Striptease. Both parents were reportedly against the idea at first, but Rumer's persistence—and acting skills that helped her beat out eight other girls—won the day.
Sidney Poitier reportedly had his own doubts about daughter Sydney, 25, and told her to try another line of work. He changed his mind after seeing her perform Shakespeare on a tape that he later gave to Eden's casting director. The daughter won a role on her own in NBC's upcoming miniseries Noah's Ark.
Casting director Starger admits that a star can give a kid a head start, but she insists a son or daughter with a famous name "isn't going to keep working if one doesn't have the talent." Not only will talent always win out, it sometimes pays big dividends. Charlie Matthau, whose dad Walter got him a part in 1973's Charley Varrick, has gone on to direct his father in one film and' two TV movies. "I believe in nepotism and I benefited from nepotism," says the younger Matthau. "I also think there's a way of doing it with some honor."
Dusty's Cool Fat Cat
Once there was a time when the only one who could reach Dusty Springfield "was the son of a preacher man." But that was before the British pop star met Nicholas, a pedigree California ragdoll kitten she adopted 13 years ago. So after Springfield, 59, died of breast cancer on March 2, friends were not surprised that her will left specific instructions to perpetuate her feline friend's pampering. As Vicki Wickham, Springfield's agent, told Scoop: "The cat meant everything to her and it was a true member of her family." So much so that the will specified that Springfield's nightgown line Nicholas's bed, that her recordings serenade him to sleep and that his special diet of imported American baby food be continued for at least a year.
Nicholas will also enjoy the comforts of his old 7-foot-high indoor tree house, studded with hearts and replete with a garden of foliage. Keeping a promise she made to Springfield, Lee Everett-Alkin, a longtime friend, moved the complex into her home. "She was greatly comforted by this," Everett-Alkin told Britain's Sunday Mirror. Springfield's pal will also arrange the "wedding" of Nicholas to her own cat, Purrdie, a British blue. "I'm serious, it's what Dusty wanted," Everett-Alkin said. "She always felt the cats should be together."
Casting About for Heavenly Creatures
The Charles Townsend detective agency is hiring. Drew Barrymore has already come on board. Cameron Diaz is expected to join any day now. And producers say that Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Lauryn Hill and Angelina Jolie are also under consideration—though Jolie says she's not interested. Once the firm—better known as the home of Charlie's Angels—is fully staffed, it can get back to business. During its 1976-81 run on ABC-TV, business meant sending beautiful young women to fight crime on tropical beaches, fashion runways and, in one memorable episode, on the roller derby circuit. This time the trio will do their detection on the big screen. Leonard Goldberg, co-creator of the original series with Aaron Spelling, teamed with Barrymore's production company for the Angels remake and hired Men in Black scriptwriter Ed Solomon to craft new adventures for Charlie's undercover operatives. Filming may begin this fall, but will there be cameos for original angels Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett? Neither Jackson nor Smith has heard a word from the film's producers (Fawcett's spokesman isn't talking), but they may soon. "We're still finding our story, but we'd love to work with them," Angels producer (and Barrymore partner) Nancy Juvonen told Scoop. "They still look exactly the same!"
Country's One Hit Wonder
One out of two ain't bad. One out of 22—Garth Brooks' performance at the plate during a spring training stint with the San Diego Padres—is another batter, er, matter. Brooks, 37, who eked out a run in his last Cactus League game April 1, insisted his spring fling was no lark, and team officials say the country singer's washout wasn't for lack of trying. "He's been the first to arrive and the last to leave," Padres right fielder Tony Gwynn told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "He's really worked at this." And Brooks, who played left field, did his best to boost the game's image by signing autographs for thousands of fans. But that wasn't enough to keep him on the roster. Not even if he offers to sing the National Anthem at every game.
Beyond the Blockbuster
Movie critic Roger Ebert, whose sparring partner Gene Siskel died on Feb. 20, is hosting his first-ever Overlooked Film Festival April 21-25 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, his alma mater. Scoop caught up with Ebert on the aisle to talk movies—and friendship.
Are there any common themes among all the movies?
They're [just] films I love. For example, Shiloh, the family film, is about a boy who falls in love with the neighbor's dog. And the neighbor is a drunk who mistreats the dog. And the dog keeps running away from the owner because the boy and the dog love each other. But the father keeps explaining that you just can't do that, because that's that man's property. So it's a film about ethics. The movie is not only very dramatic—I really got involved in it and so did Gene—it's a lot to talk about.
Do you think most of these movies are overlooked because audiences pass them up for lighter fare?
Well, not all of them are available, because some of them don't have distribution, so audiences couldn't find them. For example, Hamsun (a 1996 Swedish movie about a novelist turned Nazi sympathizer) has never been
distributed in America.
How are you carrying on with [Siskel & Ebert] without Gene?
Oh, I really miss Gene. It's not the same without him. We had a long relationship, a long history of talking about films [and] we had a kind of verbal shorthand. It was always exciting and challenging to do the show with him, because he was very aggressive and very smart. This conversation went on for so long, and in a way it's still going on. It's uncanny.
Do you think Gene would have agreed with your film festival picks?
Most movies are either clearly good or clearly bad; it's the movies in the middle that you fight about. I would say that these 10 movies are clearly good. Gene and I used to point out that we didn't disagree as much as people thought. They thought we disagreed on everything. Now, whether Gene would agree on all 10 or not, I can't say. But I think he would certainly agree about most of them.
ON THE BLOCK
THE GIFFORDS' ISLAND SWAP
Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford have traded up. The couple, who bought a three-story, five-bedroom 18th-century house on one of the busier streets on Massachusetts's Nantucket Island in September (left), have sold it for $1.5 million to the owners of a $5.8 million beachfront house that the Giffords in turn bought for themselves (right). "Anybody who has visited Nantucket has loved it, and we do too," Kathie Lee told PEOPLE. Locals say the Giffords—whose first island home became a tourist attraction—moved for more privacy.
- Contributors:
- Larry Sutton,
- Anna Lisa Raya,
- Matthew Beard,
- Chris Lee,
- Scott LaFee,
- Jennifer Longley,
- Ward Morehouse III,
- Ulrica Wihlborg,
- Kelly Williams.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
