Owen Wilson's career is soaring in more ways than one. The Zoolander star plays an F/A18 fighter pilot in Behind Enemy Lines, but he never actually flew in that aircraft while making the movie. That changed for the drama's premiere. Navy Commander Gregg "Mongo" Sears, who does some of the flying in the film, gave Wilson a gravity-defying 45-minute flight from a Navy base north of L.A. to one near San Diego, where the film's premiere was held. With Wilson aboard the $35 million Super Hornet jet, Sears broke the sound barrier, subjected the actor to 5 G's—five times the force of gravity—and at one point traveled just 10 feet from another F/A18. Taxpayer alert: The government picked up the tab, but the joyride was part of a routine training mission. How did the actor do? Well, he held onto his lunch, but, says pilot Sears, "When we reached 5 G's, Owen said, 'That's enough.' "
The Force was with the cast and crew of The WB's Gilmore Girls when George Lucas arrived on Nov. 19. His 13-year-old daughter Katie is a huge fan of the show, so the Star Wars director arranged a visit to the set in Burbank. Lucas didn't offer any advice to director Nicole Holofcener, but, says Gilmore costar Scott Patterson, "Can you imagine? She had to direct a scene with George Lucas looking over her shoulder. She was trembling."
You'd think one of TV's hottest new stars, Tom Welling of The WB's Super-boy series Smallville, would have no problem getting a car and driver, especially when he sometimes makes the two-hour drive home after an 18-hour workday on location in Vancouver. But it wasn't until the other lead actors on the budget-conscious show waived their rights to a car and driver that Welling got the wheels, since contractually, if one got a car, they all did.
New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless celebrated her first Thanksgiving in the U.S. with producer-husband Rob Tapert and their 2-year-old son Julius at their L.A. home. (Her daughter Daisy, 13, from her first marriage, is in boarding school in New Zealand.) Lawless tells us that she wasn't allowed in the kitchen—except to clean—while Rob and his brother Jeff, a professional chef, did all the cooking.
- Contributors:
- Hugh McCarten,
- Marisa Laudadio.
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!
