Jodie Fostering strength
NEW YORK -- Jodie Foster has finally figured out what her weakness is: She doesn't have one.
Simply put, Foster is a two-time Oscar winner with a damsel in distress-sized hole in her resume that will never be filled.
She doesn't have a clue how to play a powerless female, and she doesn't have much interest in learning.
"I do tend to play strong women," says Foster, who continues that tradition by portraying an above-the-law "fixer" in director Spike Lee's bank heist thriller Inside Man, opening in theatres Friday.
"I've played different kinds of strong women," Foster says during a recent interview for the film. "I've played morally bankrupt strong women, I've played good girls, I've played straight-laced straight arrows, I've played wild women. Yet they're always strong.
"Sometimes I feel like that's my Achilles heel as an actor. I don't really know how to play weak characters. If I played a weak character, I don't think you'd believe me."
Foster is all too believable as Inside Man's icy and iron-willed Madeline White, a woman who knows where the bodies are buried and isn't afraid to use that information to benefit her high-paying, anonymity-seeking clientele.
"She's been in these dangerous situations where you have two dead hookers and a mayor," Foster says, likening her character to an exaggerated, corporate-world version of legendary Hollywood publicist Pat Kingsley, the image shaper who has represented clients ranging from Tom Cruise to Courtney Love to Foster herself.
"The vault that (Kingsley) is ... I mean, if anything that's in her memory or in her head ever came out, the world would probably implode."
And some of that implosion would likely involve Foster, who deftly avoids scrutiny of her social life. She's never revealed the identity of the father (or fathers) of her two sons, and has never addressed rumours about her sexual orientation.
Yet she is unfailingly warm, polite and articulate, even when it comes to defending her last starring role, 2005's Flightplan. A box-office success with a worldwide take of over $200 million, Flightplan was carved by critics who felt the film's premise crashed and burned in the third act.
"I'm really proud of Flightplan," Foster says. "It's is not an art house film , it is a genre movie, and I make no apologies for that. I really feel like that character was beautifully drawn, truthfully drawn, and I'm really proud of that as an actor. I killed myself for that movie."
Foster's next two films are Neil Jordan's revenge thriller The Brave One, opposite Hustle & Flow's Terrence Howard, and the socially conscious Sugarland, which she will direct and co-star in opposite Robert De Niro.
That will lift her career tally to something in the ballpark of 50 movies and dozens of TV appearances, though Hollywood only truly woke up to Foster's talents after her Oscar-nominated turn as a teenaged hooker in 1976's Taxi Driver. That was also the year Foster did the Disney identity-swap comedy Freaky Friday, which was remade in 2003 with Lindsay Lohan in the Foster role. And oh, how the times have changed.
"In my time, 18-year-olds could do stupid things and not necessarily be on Access Hollywood the next day," Foster says, lamenting the voracious public and media appetite that dogs young stars like Lohan today.
"You can't have a young life and be an actor anymore, and that's a shame. Because there's a lot of value to those years when you do dumb things and make mistakes and you have experiences that you don't necessarily want everyone to know about."
Foster says she was lucky: When she was growing up in the business, she had people who cared about her watching out for her best interests, and the scrutiny of young stars was nothing like what it is today.
"There was a kind of privacy that you had in your life, and I think the media had a lot of respect for the adolescent years," she says.
Foster's 40 years in the biz have taught her how to play the Hollywood game, and how to separate her work from her life. She doesn't begrudge her fame, but she doesn't enjoy it, either.
"I'm trying to think of one good thing about fame, but I can't," she says.
"Respect is good and accolades are good and doing work you love is good. But there really isn't one good part of fame."
'Doctor Who' Born Anew
Once upon a time, there was a BBC science-fiction series called "Doctor Who" whose special effects were of the bubble-gum-and-rubber-band variety and whose basic premise sounded as cheesy as the show looked: A wanderer from the distant future fights intergalactic evildoers while traveling through space and time in a machine that is camouflaged as a London police box.
Uh, right.
Yet somewhere along the line, "Doctor Who" became the longest-running sci-fi series in TV history (26 years), spawned several movie spinoffs, a mini-publishing empire, audiotapes, memorabilia, conventions, you name it. Now, after being off the air for 17 years, a new "Doctor Who" series, first seen on the BBC last year, comes to the Sci Fi Channel on Friday (March 17). And therein lies a tale.
When "Doctor Who" first appeared on the BBC in 1963, it was a show for older children that aired late on Saturday afternoons. But quicker than you can say "Daleks" -- the race of robots who became the title character's chief nemeses -- the program became a national sensation.
The reasons were soon evident. The doctor's ability to go backward and forward in time meant that story lines were highly flexible. Although obviously a kids' program, "Doctor Who" also had a wink-wink sense of humor that appealed to adults. Then there were the seven actors who played the doctor, who tended toward the warmly avuncular. And because Doctor Who takes on traveling companions from the places he visits who then join him on his adventures, the show could bounce its protagonist off against an ever-changing roster of foils. Plus, "Doctor Who's" cheesy look actually worked in its favor.
"It was shameless about its shortcomings," says Russell T. Davies, executive producer and head writer of the new series. "They did intergalactic wars and invasions of the Earth with $2. Somewhere, by accident, they captured something very true about the world, that the future is very clumsy and nailed together. There is something beautifully normal about the 'Doctor Who' universe."
Los Angeles resident Shaun Lyon, who wrote "Back to the Vortex," a book about the new series, and whose Outpost Gallifrey (gallifreyone.com) is the premier "Doctor Who" website in this country, echoes this "It's the story line, stupid" sentiment by noting that America's most popular science-fiction program also had similarly cheesy production values.
"If you look back at the original 'Star Trek,' you'll see the same thing -- bad special effects," Lyon says. "The appeal is in the storytelling, even if there are no $10 million visual effects budgets. It's the stories, the characters, the actors themselves."
Although the series has been seen on PBS over the years, "Doctor Who" never really developed a massive fan base in this country. Competition from shows like "Star Trek" certainly held it back, and its chintzy foreign flavor didn't always translate well. But it did acquire a rabid cult following that now sponsors several "Who"-oriented conventions (last month's L.A.-based Gallifrey One conclave was the 17th annual).
But as with "Star Trek," "Doctor Who's" 1989 demise did not end the appetite for it. So when veteran British TV writer Davies ("Queer as Folk") pitched the BBC a new version of the venerable doctor, the network went for it.
"I knew it could work again," says Davies, "that there was a new generation that could enjoy it. But I wasn't certain what the BBC wanted, whether they wanted an ironic version late at night. What they wanted was 7 o'clock prime time on a Saturday, which was how I wanted to bring it back. There hadn't been a sci-fi show on prime time in Britain for over 20 years, since 'V.' "
Davies understood that the fan community would want to have a say in the series' new direction, but he completely ignored the sci-fi message boards, claiming, "It's the most stupid thing you can do, and people are seduced into believing that the most creative thing you can do is engage with your online fandom." He also instinctively realized that the 21st century version of the doctor would have to be hipper, smarter and sexier than any previous incarnation.
"I decided to write it like anything else I'd write," he says. "I write character, I write funny, I write dramatic, and there's no way science fiction can't be the same thing. You just have to not steep it in nostalgia and not write techno-babble either."
Gussied up with state-of-the-art special effects and the kind of self-referential story lines that both kids and adults appreciate, the new "Doctor Who" debuted on the BBC in March 2005 and proved an immediate smash hit (the series is in production on its second season).
When he was developing the show, says Davies, "I was thinking of 'Toy Story.' We were specifically aimed at getting a family audience, which people said didn't exist anymore. It was simply following the pattern of the old 'Doctor Who,' which was quietly witty while appealing to kids at the same time. The Pixar art of aiming at adults and kids is really difficult, but that's the path I tried to follow."
The Who Not Rushing First New Album Since 1982
Surviving Who principals Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are making progress on the first new album under the group name since 1982's "It's Hard," but Daltrey says there is no timetable to finish the project.
"It will come out when it is ready," he tells Billboard. "What's the point of trying to give yourself deadlines that aren't really important? I think we have to get it good before we can finish it."
Describing the process of developing material, Daltrey admits, "We are doing it in a very different way. All the time that [the late bassist] John [Entwistle] was in the band, we kind of felt we had to go in as a group. Now, it is really only Pete and I, and Pete wants to do all the guitars and some of the bass playing. Whether we will end up going into the studio with a band and recording it all again, I don't know. These are all the kinds of bridges that we need to cross."
Daltrey says he has three tracks written for the project. "One of them is particularly fantastic in the older Who-type vain," he enthuses. "Another is particularly fantastic in a completely different way. These songs are all about the spirit and the emotion. Whether or not they are successful in today's world, who knows? The business is totally different now."
The artist says he's particularly excited about the Townshend song "Black Widow's Eyes," which concerns Stockholm syndrome. "The fact that he's done that in music and words, and he completely sums up Stockholm syndrome in this song, is so haunting," he says. "Imagine how difficult it is for Pete. He doesn't need to write another song. God almighty, all that music out of one head. But he seems driven at the moment, which is great because I've always felt that he was the kind of writer who would write his best stuff at the age he is now. His skills have caught up with his intellect."
As previously reported, the Who will tour Europe this summer, with additional international dates to follow later in the year. "If we can go out and play festival spots and play our hits, we can relight the fire," Daltrey says. "It's amazing when young people see the band. We've had an incredible resurgence with young people.
Daltrey is also involved in a long-in-the-works biopic about late Who drummer Keith Moon, but declined to reveal details. "We've had three or four scripts written, and we've never quite nailed what we wanted to do," he admits. "We've got a new writer. A very famous writer, a Pulitzer Prize winner indeed. I can't name him because I don't know the situation at the moment. You can't tell someone's life story in two hours on film. If I can do it, I hope to make a real rock'n'roll film that will be funny, poignant, sad, celebratory, all the things that Moon was. But if I can't, I'm very glad that I'm holding the reins and stopping any bad films of Keith Moon being made."
Judge Halts Notorious B.I.G. Album Sales
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A judge halted sales of Notorious B.I.G.'s breakthrough 1994 album "Ready to Die" after a jury decided the title song used part of an Ohio Players tune without permission.
The jury Friday awarded $4.2 million in punitive and direct damages to the two music companies that own rights to Ohio Players recordings.
The sales ban imposed by U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell affects the album and the title song in any form, including Internet downloads and radio play.
It was unclear when or how the ban would take effect. By Saturday evening, a search of BestBuy.com and Amazon.com showed "Ready to Die" was still available for purchase online.
The jury decided that Bad Boy Entertainment and executive producer Sean "Diddy" Combs illegally used a part of the Ohio Players' 1992 song "Singing In The Morning."
Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records, which owned the song rights, have filed hundreds of lawsuits over "sampling," the practice of lifting parts of old music for new recordings. Most were settled out of court.
The companies get most of their income from song royalties by their artists, which include funk legend George Clinton, the Funkadelics and the Ohio Players.
"We've just been battling this for such a long time," Armen Boladian, owner of Westbound and Bridgeport said. "So many have been settled because companies didn't want anything to do with it, and we knew we were right."
The defendants, Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy LLC, Justin Combs Publishing and Universal Records, plan to appeal. "We think (the verdict) is without merit," defense lawyer Jay Bowen said.
The estate of Notorious B.I.G. was originally sued but was dropped later as a defendant. The artist, born Christopher Wallace, was 24 in 1997 when he was killed in a shooting that remains unsolved.
The rotund New York rapper, also known as Biggie Smalls, was one of the most influential hip-hop artists of the 1990s. His albums "Ready To Die" and the posthumously released "Life After Death" together sold nearly 8 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.
More "Simpsons," "King of the Hill" on Fox
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox is loading up on animated comedies "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill."
The network has ordered two more seasons of "The Simpsons," its 18th and 19th, and one more of "King of the Hill," the show's 11th.
The two-year renewal for "The Simpsons," the longest-running entertainment primetime series on the air, guarantees it will be on the air at least through the 2007-08 season, during which the show will hit its 400th episode.
The show's principal voice cast, which includes Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith and Hank Azaria, who threatened to go strike a few years ago until they got better deals, are all said to be locked in for the duration of the new pact.
After a two-month hiatus, production on "King of the Hill" recently resumed, after new deals were sealed with principal behind-the-scenes talent, including showrunners/executive producers John Altschuler and David Krinsky and co-creator/executive producer/voice actor Mike Judge.
Because "King of the Hill" has been a subject of frequent pre-emptions for Fox's NFL football coverage, the network has enough fresh episodes for the rest of this season. The show is slated to return for its 11th season in January.
'Groove Me' Singer King Floyd III Dies
NEW ORLEANS - King Floyd III, the soul singer and songwriter best known for his 1970 hit "Groove Me," died March 6 of complications from a stroke and diabetes, his record label said. He was 61.
As a young man, Floyd sometimes sang with the house band at the Sho-Bar on Bourbon Street. After serving in the Army, he tried to launch a career as an entertainer. On the West Coast, Floyd met Harold Battiste, a fellow New Orleans expatriate who was an established producer and band leader.
Battiste produced Floyd's debut album, "A Man in Love," which featured songs written with Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack. The album did not fare well, and in 1969 Floyd returned to New Orleans and took a job with the post office to support his family.
A year later, Wardell Quezergue, an arranger of R&B scores, brought Floyd to the Jackson, Miss., office of Malaco Records where he recorded a song he had written, "Groove Me," during the same session that Jean Knight recorded her classic "Mr. Big Stuff."
Atlantic Records picked up the song and promoted it nationally. It reached No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 6 on the pop chart.
Canadian acts angry at Junos' international lineup
TORONTO (CP) - With Coldplay and Black Eyed Peas among the scheduled performers, this year's Juno Awards are fast becoming must-see TV for music fans.
Some musicians and industry folk, however, are uncomfortable with the international lineup, arguing that homegrown artists should be the focus - particularly at a time when Canada's music scene is being lauded around the world.
"A lot of people are talking about it. A lot of people are very upset," said Fred Litwin, who runs Ottawa-based indie label NorthernBlues Music.
Trevor Larocque of Toronto's Paperbag Records didn't attempt to hide his sarcasm: "Coldplay's playing I hear. They're an amazing Canadian band."
Some in the indie music sector feel the TV component of the Junos has lost its focus, letting ratings and broadcaster CTV dictate the content rather than the country's pool of talent.
Entire genres, such as roots, country and jazz, continue to be excluded from the televised show, they say.
"We would never be asked (to perform on the broadcast). Blues is too much of a small genre. They have no commercial interest in it," said Litwin.
There's also the thorny issue of how many CTV personalities, including Ben Mulroney and Canadian Idol faces, will be included on the April 2 program.
As it stands, about nine acts get to perform and only a handful of the 39 Juno categories are awarded during the TV broadcast. The rest are handed out during a dinner the night before.
"Our award isn't going to be presented (on TV) because Coldplay and Black Eyed Peas have to play," lamented Marco Raposo of Pocket Dwellers, which is nominated for best new group.
Bringing in international superstar acts isn't new for the Junos. In the 1980s, Tina Turner and Crowded House performed. Last year, country hotshot Keith Urban was invited as a presenter.
And producers haven't ignored homegrown talent.
Indie performers like Broken Social Scene, Bedouin Soundclash and Massari are all set to play. As well, Halifax's cutting-edge rapper Buck 65 will compose and perform the show's theme music.
Other high-profile Canadian acts include Michael Buble and Bryan Adams.
Industry watcher Larry LeBlanc said the content wasn't really an issue until bombshell actress Pamela Anderson was announced as host.
"The lightning rod is Pamela Anderson," said LeBlanc, the Canadian bureau chief for Billboard magazine who's been covering the Juno Awards for more than 30 years.
"This is the year they didn't need international acts. Pam's two breasts will do more for ratings than Coldplay and Black Eyed Peas."
But the show's executive producer, John Brunton, said naysayers should look at the flip side.
"It used to be we had to beg Anne Murray and Gordon Lightfoot," he said. "We couldn't get Canadians to the show. Now the show has grown up . . . we can compete with everyone in the world."
He said Canadians should be proud to have a "world-class awards show" that attracts international acts and press, and can compete against other programs like the Grammys.
"Can we not start behaving like a world-class country and not be shy about sharing our stage with the biggest bands in the world?" he said. "The small town thinking makes me insane."
Labels lobby hard to have their acts play at the Junos, given the show's enormous profile.
A talent committee made up of representatives from the industry decides who ultimately gets one of the coveted performance spots, said Brunton, adding that organizers consider all the genres, looking at what the "big story" of the past year was.
He said the country's blooming independent music scene won out.
"Next year it might be an urban scene. (The Junos) really just tries to reflect what the stories are in the Canadian music scene each year," he said.
While Raposo said he can understand the draw of international acts, he insisted his seven-piece hip-hop funk outfit is just as entertaining as the Black Eyed Peas.
"We have enough talent in Canada that we could have put on a great show," he said.
Another option, says blues man Litwin, would be to pair less commercially viable acts with mainstream ones.
At this year's Grammy Awards, for example, gospel artist Hezekiah Walker performed with superstar Mariah Carey. At a past Juno show, Nelly Furtado was brilliantly paired with aboriginal group White Fish Juniors.
Said Litwin: "They could be worked into the show if (the Junos) really cared about different genres of music."
'V for Vendetta' Tops Box Office
LOS ANGELES - Audiences were in a rebellious mood, lifting the action tale "V for Vendetta" to the top spot at the weekend box office with a $26.1 million debut.
The Warner Bros. film, which stars Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving in a story of revolution against a totalitarian British government, bumped off the previous weekend's box-office leaders.
Paramount's romantic comedy "Failure to Launch," which debuted at No. 1, slipped to second place with $15.8 million, raising its 10-day domestic total to $48.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Disney's family remake "The Shaggy Dog," which premiered at No. 2, fell to third with $13.6 million, lifting its 10-day total to $35.9 million.
This weekend's other new wide release, Paramount's "She's the Man," opened in fourth with $11 million. The romance stars Amanda Bynes as a teen disguising herself as a male to play on a boys' soccer team in a modern update of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night."
Fox Searchlight's tobacco-industry satire "Thank You for Smoking" opened to huge numbers in limited release, grossing $260,066 at five theaters for a whopping $52,013 average a cinema. By comparison, "V for Vendetta" averaged $7,767 in 3,365 theaters.
Starring Aaron Eckhart as a spin doctor for cigarette companies, "Thank You for Smoking" gradually expands into nationwide release through April 7. The film was directed by Jason Reitman, son of filmmaker Ivan Reitman ("Ghostbusters").
Overall box office revenue continued a monthlong decline, with the top-12 movies taking in $93.8 million, down 11 percent from the same weekend last year, when "The Ring Two" opened with $35.1 million.
"V for Vendetta" was adapted by Andy and Larry Wachowski, creators of "The Matrix" franchise, from a graphic novel about a masked freedom fighter battling British fascism in the near future. The film was produced by Joel Silver, who also made "The Matrix" flicks, and directed by James McTeigue, a protege of the Wachowski brothers.
Critics generally gave thumbs up to "V for Vendetta," calling it a smarter-than-average, visually impressive action thriller. The movie touches on disturbing notions in a post-Sept. 11 world, raising questions about when violence is justified and examining definitions of freedom-fighting vs. terrorism.
"Here we have a movie about a guy who wears a mask the whole picture, with controversial subjects, some hot-button issues. Not the standard-fare movie, and we did a strong opening and attracted a huge amount of people," producer Silver said.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "V for Vendetta," $26.1 million.
2. "Failure to Launch," $15.8 million.
3. "The Shaggy Dog," $13.6 million.
4. "She's the Man," $11 million.
5. "The Hills Have Eyes," $8.1 million.
6. "16 Blocks," $4.7 million.
7. "Eight Below," $4.2 million.
8. "Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion," $3 million.
9. "The Pink Panther," $2.5 million.
10. "Aquamarine," $2 million.