From PEOPLE Magazine
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The Deauville Film Festival celebrated its 25th anniversary last week by feting Robin Williams. Scoop joined the French press in quizzing the actor.
Do you still do stand-up comedy?
I'm getting ready to go out and perform a one-man show again. It's such an incredible release. After all these movies, to be free! There are so many interesting things to talk about. Like in Kansas, where they're banning Darwin again. You look around Kansas, and you think maybe Darwin was wrong.
Your new film, Jakob the Liar, is set in a Jewish ghetto in World War II. Yet it has a humorous tone.
There's a joke we didn't use, about two old Jews who are supposed to kill Hitler at 12 o'clock. They're waiting, they've got the guns and knives. It's 12 o'clock, no Hitler. 12:30, no Hitler. 1:00, no Hitler. Finally one turns to the other and says, "My God, I hope nothing happened to him." That's a joke from the period, jokes people told to keep themselves going.
If laughter is survival, what are you trying to survive? Is laughter your protection?
Yes. Laughter is my condom. To protect your mind.
What does the new film mean in terms of your religious background?
My religious background is that my mother is a Christian Dior Scientist.
Are you evolving from a comedian into a serious actor?
I think the next film I will be doing is Gandhi, the Musical! [or] Gandhi on Ice! It's an evolution for me.
Million Dollar Mania
Regis Philbin's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? inspires (a) new rivals; (b) revivals; (c) 22 million viewers
Focus
Last month, smack in the middle of rerun season, ABC aired an American version of a quirky British game show. Hosted by Regis Philbin, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? became summer's out-of-left-field phenom, with all 13 episodes winning their time slot. "A million dollars, that's the grabber," Philbin told CNN's Larry King. "Everybody wants to be a millionaire." ABC estimates that more than 5 million would-be contestants phoned the show's 900 number at a cost of $1.50 per call, with some of the proceeds going toward the prize money. Twenty-two million viewers watched the summer's final episode. Authorized knockoffs of the British original now air around the world.
Following Hollywood's oldest commandment—anything worth doing is worth overdoing—executives are playing a game that might be called Who Wants to Launch the Next Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Another British import, Have I Got News for You? to be hosted here by Norm Macdonald, will soon be on ABC's schedule. Greg Lipstone and Ben Silverman, the William Morris agents who brought Millionaire to the States, expect to find homes for two other British shows, They Think It's All Over and It's Only TV, but I Like It. CBS is considering new versions of the quiz show What's My Line? And—yes, it's a drama, but it does have a million-dollar title—the 1950s series The Millionaire. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! are adding fans with new Internet versions, as is Comedy Central's Win Ben Stein's Money. But the competition had better act fast to grab viewers: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? returns in November.
Men Without Shirts
Take note of a fleeting trend: guys who go bare-chested on occasions that would seem to call for something more formal—a tank top at the very least. Could it be the influence of the World Wrestling Federation, home of such noted pec flexers as Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H? Whatever the cause, there was Andre Agassi, his bare chest stubbly-haired (he had shaved) on the practice courts before his U.S. Open win. And rap rocker Kid Rock went topless onstage at the MTV Music Awards at Lincoln Center. "It's just a whole 'nother level of confidence," Rock says of the look. "That's how cocky and confident I am about what I do."
Jenny Finds Herself
Some women marry men who remind them of their fathers. Jenny McCarthy, who married director John Asher, 28, in the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sept. 11, with Brooke Shields, Suzanne Somers and Paula Abdul among the guests, knew he was Mr. Right because he reminded her of...herself. "He is 100 percent me," she says. "When I introduced him to my friends and family, they said, 'Oh, my God, it's Jenny McCarthy as a man.' "
The 26-year-old Playmate turned actress met her man in the mirror on the movie set of Diamonds, a drama due this spring. "By the second day of filming, I told him I was in love with him. He said, 'I feel the same way.' " Those Jenny McCarthy types are just so romantic.
The Most Becoming Attractions
Those with short attention spans may want to make tracks to the first Golden Trailer Awards in Manhattan on Sept. 21. We're talking movie trailers—those short promo films shown in theaters before the feature starts. The panel of judges, which includes director Quentin Tarantino, picks winners in such categories as best trailer, no budget and, inevitably, trashiest trailer. Asked for recent favorites, awards director Evelyn Brady, 27, cites the trailer for Stigmata. "It was very scary," she says. She also likes the preview for The Sixth Sense, although she notes that "the movie was different than what you were led to believe." Still, it may get consideration. The small envelope, please.
Bed & Bard: Brosnan's Special Bond
The latest mission for James Bond's alter ego, Pierce Brosnan? Acquiring the bed of the late Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. It's owned by Laugharne, Wales, innkeeper Tom Watts, 67, who was given it by Thomas's widow years after the poet died in 1953 from alcoholism. Two years ago, says Watts, Thomas's daughter Aeron Ellis, 56, demanded it back, and "a hell of a row" ensued. Brosnan expressed interest while visiting the area. "He's written to me about it, and he's given me his private phone number," says Watts. A rep for Brosnan, 47, admits "Pierce is fascinated by Thomas." But for now the bed remains in Wales, although Watts is inclined to give Brosnan "first preference" should he sell.
ON THE BLOCK
FENG SHUITE
Michael Caine may be able to increase your sense of well-being. The actor renovated his South Beach, Miami, apartment in accordance with feng shui, a Chinese art which claims that properly arranged living space can produce spiritual harmony. But since Caine and his wife, Shakira, recently moved to the English countryside, they're selling the 10,000-square-foot Florida penthouse. The $3.5 million price includes six bedrooms, a gym, gourmet kitchen and rooftop gardens with ocean views.
Travolta Encounters Turbulence
The skies are not-so-friendly for John Travolta's Boeing 707. On Sept. 12 the plane carrying his pregnant wife, Kelly Preston, 36, (but not Travolta) made an emergency landing at Boston's Logan Airport after one of its four engines overheated. Crash rescue vehicles were called out but not needed. The passengers transferred to another aircraft while the 707 was taken to a nearby hangar for inspection.
It's the same plane that, with Travolta, 45, serving as copilot, buzzed his neighbors in tiny Islesboro, Maine, on July 26 and caused a ruckus. Travolta kept quiet then, but his lawyer, Jay Lavely, finally fessed up. "If the noise caused any disturbance," Lavely says, "he regrets that."
- Contributors:
- Mike Neill,
- Dan Jewel,
- Liza Hamm,
- Erik Meers,
- Lorenzo Benet,
- Kelly Carter,
- Eric Francis,
- Kevin Kwong,
- Elizabeth Leonard,
- Grace Lim,
- Liz McNeil,
- Cathy Nolan,
- Michael Sommers,
- Joseph V. Tirella,
- Ellen Tumposky.
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!
