Madsen admits 'Sideways' a career booster
TORONTO (CP) - For two decades Virginia Madsen has been regarded as a Hollywood actress far better than the parts that came her way. Then last year, as she crossed over the big four-oh line, along came the role of Maya in Alexander Payne's Academy Award-nominated indie film Sideways.
And that has made all the difference.
"Oh my God, everything's changed," exclaims Madsen in a telephone interview from Los Angeles to promote Tuesday's home video release of Sideways.
"I'm making money now. And I also, for the first time, have three films lined up, and I've never had that luxury in my career, ever. You know, to be booked for a while, that's every actor's dream."
The blond Chicago native with one green eye and one half-green, half-brown, broke into the movies in the mid-1980s in such promising titles as Dune, Electric Dreams and Candyman. But in the '90s her rising star seemed to get eclipsed by her brother with the tough-guy image, Michael Madsen (the scary ear-slicer in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs).
Then along came Payne's Oscar-winning script for Sideways, about the misadventures of Miles and Jack, two middle-aged buddies who embark on a last-chance wine-tasting tour through California vineyard country.
In her Oscar-nominated supporting role, Madsen plays a wine-savvy local waitress who has already been beaten up by life and who falls for divorced, failed writer Miles (American Splendor's Paul Giamatti).
While many filmgoers were skeptical that the appealing Maya could like such a sad sack, Madsen finds it entirely plausible, insisting Maya was definitely not "settling."
Her character, she notes, was drawn to Miles's simple honesty, compared with her former professor husband who she found to be a "fraud."
"A lot of the women pick up on that particular word, because it means he was a fake, none of the things she thought (Miles) was.
"Some of us like nice guys. You know, I'm not 25 anymore. I'm not looking for James Dean on a bike, you know. I've got a 10-year-old son, I don't need another one."
So the Sideways role, to Madsen, puts the lie to the Hollywood theory that there are no good parts for women over 40.
"I've had the best roles of my life at this age," she maintains. "I don't think there's very good roles for women in their 20s. There's an abundance, but not many realistic portrayals of 23-year-olds."
She says while she can play a woman like Maya, she would have found it difficult at 25 or 30 trying to play, say, a mother and a lawyer, a character who had lived life.
As for moviegoers who found it difficult watching a film with two "heroes" who were so deeply flawed and outright obnoxious, Madsen says perhaps they should go see Scooby Doo and analyse it for its characters' imperfections.
"If you really examine the character of Shaggy, you will find a sad little man whose best friend is a dog and who has a serious eating disorder!"
Sideways, she adds, is about flawed people because writer-director Payne has admitted he doesn't know any likable heroes.
"We're all sideways people, we're all twisted and we all have our eccentricities and we've all done terrible things and good things. Martha Stewart, for God's sake, just went to prison for lying."
Frankly, she admits, she was braced for a different kind of debate about the film, convinced Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for example, would launch a vigorous campaign protesting the drinking and driving that went on during Miles and Jack's pilgrimage though the grapes.
As for reports the film has singlehandedly raised public awareness of, and interest in, wine-making and wine-tasting, Madsen says it's because wine has evolved from an elitist pastime to an approachable experience in American culture.
"Wine's become so affordable. You can get a really nice bottle of wine for $20 and you can have wine-tasting parties at home, and it's a real communal experience, a fun thing to share with friends."
Madsen says she has been filming in Vancouver recently and is scheduled to visit B.C.'s Okanagan Valley for a wine-tasting.
"I haven't found one (B.C. wine) that I like yet. Everyone of course in Canada really wants to turn me onto it, so I'm getting a new bottle practically every day in my hotel and I'm kinda like, 'I don't like that one, either' but I'm willing to give it a try."
When in Toronto recently, she says she was given a nice bottle of Ontario wine - she couldn't recall the name - but California wines remain her favourite.
Pamela Anderson Newest Face for M.A.C.
NEW YORK - Pamela Anderson is the newest face of the VIVA GLAM V lipstick and lipglass, the primary fund-raising tools for the M.A.C. AIDS Fund.
The former "Baywatch" actress joins the roster of the VIVA GLAM V lipstick advertising campaign that includes Christina Aguilera, Missy Elliott, Linda Evangelista, Chloe Sevigny and Boy George.
"M.A.C. VIVA GLAM V is a great campaign to be involved with," Anderson said in a statement. "I feel privileged and empowered to help raise funds and awareness of the importance for getting tested.
"After being diagnosed with hepatitis C, I knew the importance of knowing your status. Only then can you make informed and wise decisions for your health and life."
Anderson was to be introduced Thursday at a Manhattan news conference. John Demsey, chairman of the M.A.C. AIDS Fund, was among those expected to attend.
The M.A.C. AIDS Fund, created by the professional cosmetics company in 1994, has raised more than $44 million, according to the fund's Web site.
The company says 100 percent of the sales of the lipglass and lipstick directly benefits the fund.
ABC's Koppel Leaving 'Nightline'
NEW YORK - Ted Koppel, who has provided a late-night alternative to laughs as anchor of ABC News' "Nightline" since it began 25 years ago, said Thursday he will leave the network when his contract expires in December.
Koppel, 65, said he's not retiring. His departure casts doubt on the future of "Nightline," although Koppel and ABC News President David Westin expressed confidence that it will continue.
The broadcast's longtime executive producer, Tom Bettag, will leave ABC News with Koppel.
Westin had made it clear that he wanted to expand "Nightline" to an hour and air live each weeknight (sometimes it's taped). Koppel was offered the chance to continue, or perhaps switch jobs with Sunday morning's "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos, but told Westin upon returning from a vacation this week that he wanted to leave.
"I would have preferred Ted to have stayed a few more years, but I respect his decision and I admire his courage to walk away," Westin said.
Koppel and ABC News executives had worked out a transition plan when he signed his last contract five years ago, but it blew up in 2002 when ABC's entertainment division made a secret bid to lure David Letterman from CBS. Letterman chose to stay, and the incident made "Nightline" employees question ABC's commitment to their show.
Koppel said Westin has assured him that he was not being pushed out the door.
"But who knows?" Koppel said. "Maybe it was. I'm too much a reporter and a realist, and have been in this business too long, not to recognize that my salary is very high, particularly for someone who only does three days a week now."
He said he understands that it is harder to keep an audience and make money in a fragmented television market where there are many more options than when he started "Nightline." As a direct competitor to Letterman and NBC's Jay Leno, the show's viewership has dropped from an average of 6.3 million a decade ago to 3.8 million this season, according to Nielsen Media Research.
"Maybe they feel that it's time to give somebody younger and willing to go downmarket a chance, but I'd only be speculating," he said. "I hope they don't go downmarket."
ABC has tested some new "Nightline" ideas at the network's Times Square studio in New York, and current "Nightline" staffers have submitted a proposal to keep it in Washington. Stephanopoulos and Chris Bury lately have served as subs on nights Koppel is absent.
"It will be a somewhat different program, but it will be a program that the `Nightline' audience will recognize and, I believe, embrace," Westin said.
Westin is working from the assumption that "Nightline" will continue, although it's ultimately ABC President Anne Sweeney's decision. It's also hard to imagine Robert Iger, incoming chief executive of ABC parent Walt Disney Corp. and a former ABC executive, won't weigh in.
Many in ABC's news division are hopeful, believing ABC's entertainment division and corporate cousin ESPN have no better alternatives for the 11:35 p.m. time slot.
"Nightline" began as a series of special reports during the Iranian hostage crisis in November 1979 (originally anchored by Frank Reynolds). Then ABC News President Roone Alredge seized on the opportunity to wrest the time from affiliates, and it became a regular newscast the following March.
Koppel's use of technology to conduct live interviews with subjects all around the world and show remote shots from far-flung places like Mount Everest — now television staples — were groundbreaking when "Nightline" started.
He also said he's proud of the show's efforts to investigate subjects that often didn't get much attention on television, such as the criminal justice system. "Nightline" did some 40 shows on the AIDS crisis over the years, he said.
Koppel had been ABC News' chief diplomatic correspondent for the decade before "Nightline" began. He joined ABC News as a general assignment reporter in New York at age 23 in 1963.
Koppel "is just a terrific reporter and as good an interviewer not only as there is today but as there has ever been in network news," Westin said. He's "a symbol for the best that we aspire to be."
Bettag, who has been Koppel's off-screen sidekick for 14 years, said the two men anticipate sticking together in some future projects.
"We're genuinely jumping off a cliff and declaring to the world eight months before our contract is up that we're out there looking to do good work," Bettag said.
They may not have to look long. Koppel said a news release announcing his departure was e-mailed to the world at 10:59 a.m. on Thursday and he got his first job offer at 11:01 (he won't say from whom).
"It was sort of lovely," he said. "I was disappointed that it didn't come in at 11, of course."
Noah Wyle to Leave As 'ER' Regular
LOS ANGELES - The doctor is out: Noah Wyle is leaving "ER" as a regular cast member at the end of this season, NBC said Thursday. Wyle, 33, the only original star who remained with the medical drama through its 11 years, will return for four episodes in each of the next two seasons. "ER" has been renewed through the 2007-08 season.
True love steals away his character, Dr. John Carter, who reunites in the May 12 episode with girlfriend Kem (Thandie Newton), a health administrator he met doing volunteer medical work in Africa.
Carter leaves Chicago's County General Hospital in the May 19 season finale.
"It's very sad for me. Noah and I have a lot of history together," "ER" executive producer John Wells told USA Today. "He's a wonderful actor and a wonderful man, and it's been great to watch him grow up and get married and have a family."
In 2004, Wyle said he intended to leave "ER" when his contract ended this season.
"I've just got other stuff going in my life right now," Wyle told "E! News Live" last September. "I've got a son, I've got family and friends that said goodbye to me 12 years ago and are wondering when I'm coming back, and this little urge to scratch a different kind of itch in my career, and it's just coming to the end of the character's run."
When the series debuted in September 1994, Wyle played the impressionable young resident in a cast that included Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Eriq La Salle, Julianna Margulies and Sherry Stringfield.
As they departed, Wyle turned into the show's centerpiece.
Stringfield returned to her role as Dr. Susan Lewis in 2001 after a five-year break.
The drama has been a durable performer for NBC, although it lost its No. 1 ratings status to newcomers including Fox's "American Idol." In head-to-head competition with CBS' "Without a Trace" at 10 p.m. EST Thursday, it trails in total viewers.
Sony's PSP Selling Well But Not Sold Out - Analyst
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Corp.'s new handheld video game unit, the PlayStation Portable, is selling well but is far from sold out at stores nationwide, an analyst said on Thursday.
One week after the $249 PSP package was launched in the United States, American Technology Research found that only 50 of 150 stores surveyed nationally in the last two days were sold out. Another 15 stores had three or fewer units left.
Sony pushed hard to have as many as 1 million units available for the U.S. launch, postponing the device's European debut indefinitely so it could have enough hardware to meet that U.S. goal. Supplies have been thin in Japan as well, where the PSP debuted in a frenzy late last year.
The PSP, which also plays movies and music in addition to games, is Sony's first entry into handheld gaming, a market controlled since 1989 by Nintendo Co. Ltd. . Nintendo's established Game Boy Advance SP sells for $79, and its new dual-screened DS sells for $149.
Analyst P.J. McNealy said the specialty gaming retailers have already sold through two waves of hardware, but "big-box" retailers like Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. got more units than expected at launch and have inventory remaining.
McNealy estimated the PSP sold as many as 575,000 units in its first week, with up to 300,000 left in the inventory channel.
"The PlayStation Portable (PSP) has been solid but not spectacular. We believe that the PSP launch, while not the blow-out event expected, will be considered successful as retailers continue to sell through existing inventory levels," McNealy said in a note.
With sales of console games slowing as manufacturers prepare for the next generation of game hardware, the industry is counting on the handheld market to pick up much of the sales slack in calendar 2005. Most analysts expect U.S. software sales growth to be flat to up 5 percent this year.