While filming her second go-round as dog's worst friend Cruella De Vil, Glenn Close began taking on her character's prickly behavior. "One of the hats I wear has real porcupine quills, which are sharp," says Close, 53, who costars with Geérard Depardieu in 102 Dalmatians, the sequel to her 1996 Disney hit 101 Dalmatians. "One day Gerard and I were sitting in our director's chairs. I leaned in to make a point and punctured his chin. I'm screaming, 'He's bleeding!' Then I leaned the other way and grazed the makeup artist. Afterwards, anytime I approached, it would be, 'The hat is coming!' "
Accent-uate the Positive
Everyone else seems to get laughs by imitating his thick Austrian accent so Arnold Schwarzenegger recently decided it was time for him to do the same. "I found out that there are 40 or 50 radio stations in this country that are having contests imitating my voice and my dialogue," says Schwarzenegger, 53, who's back battling bad guys in The 6th Day. "So I called one myself. I didn't say who I was. I just said, 'I want to try to do that Austrian—what do you call his name?' She said, 'You sound just like him.' And I said, 'Don't get me out of character, I'm practicing.' " When it came to capturing first prize, however, he got the old hasta la vista, baby: "I don't think that I won, which is pretty funny."
Fierce Footwear
Balancing the fashion and fighting requirements of Charlie's Angels forced Cameron Diaz to do some serious sole-searching. "There were times when I'd go, 'This outfit would look so badass with stilettos, says Diaz, 28. "You wanted those 4-inch heels, those wrappy-strappy, show-off-your-pedicure shoes, but you couldn't do it. At the beginning of the scene it would have been fine because I'm just hanging out with the dude. But the next thing you know, you're kicking the dude's [rear], so you had to make sure you had the right shoes on."
Poultry in Aisle 3
Now that the Dixie Chicks are clucking along nicely, lead singer Natalie Maines hopes she has seen the last of the band's questionable performance venues. "It's wonderful to look back and say you've paid your dues," says Maines, 26, who makes up the country-rocking trio with Martie Seidel and Emily Erwin. "I don't think we'll ever be desperate to play a grocery store again." Now Maines has her eye on acting; in particular, she'd like to work with her husband, Adrian Pasdar, who stars in the supernatural PAX series Mysterious Ways. "I'm holding out to do something with Adrian because he knows me well. He'd be gentle, take it slow and give me the confidence I need to do something like that," says Maines, who already has one project in development with Pasdar: a son, due in April, whom they've decided to name Jack Slade. "We thought it sounded tough," she says. "He can't get beat up on the playground with that name."
Role Model
Samuel L. Jackson wasn't quite sure what to think when writer-director M. Night Shyamalan told him he had written a part specifically for Jackson in his Sixth Sense follow-up, Unbreakable. "A lot of people tell me that they wrote a script for me, and I wish they hadn't bothered," he says. "This was a total compliment." Probably because Jackson, 52, had little difficulty relating to his character, a recluse since childhood because he has osteogenesis imperfecta, a condition that gives him extremely brittle—and easily breakable—bones. "I stuttered as a kid," Jackson says. "And the other kids called me Machine Gun. So I stayed in the house a lot. I know what it's like to isolate yourself."
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!
