‘Anything’ for love
Cameron Crowe’s “Say Anything” was perhaps the most romantic teen comedy of the ’80s. But it wouldn’t have been so if star John Cusack hadn’t actually fallen in love during the filming.
“At first, he didn’t want to say ‘I love you’ in the movie,” says Ione Skye, who played Diane, Lloyd Dobler’s love interest. She contributes to the extras on the film’s 20th anniversary DVD release, out Tuesday. “He liked women very much, but he hadn’t opened up to the vulnerability of being in love yet.”
But while Crowe, the film’s writer-director, initially had to talk his star into letting his emotions inform the role, all that changed when Cusack met a girl named Suzanne.
“Cameron was trying to convince John to say ‘I love you,’ and John’s like, ‘I don’t want to say it in the movie,’” says Skye. “Then he met this girl Suzanne, and all of a sudden he loosened up and seemed more open and mature. He was comfortable saying it and playing it.”
Skye says that Crowe’s natural sense of romance also helped cement the film’s tone.
“Cameron’s very passionate about romance,” she says. “He told me how the first time he said ‘I love you’ to his wife [Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson], she didn’t really hear him, and minutes felt like hours until that was revealed. He remembered every detail of their falling in love.”
Skye, who was also in her first serious relationship at the time, feels that the platonic nature of her friendship with Cusack (who she did date briefly years later) helped create some of their emotional sparks.
“There was a very high-pitched chemistry there,” she says. “Maybe not doing anything about it made it stay at that level of intensity — how, before you do anything about it, it can be more exciting.”
But while the friendship held elements of romance, the film’s most romantic and iconic moment — when Lloyd stands outside Diane’s window for a minute and a half, blasting Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” from a boom box held high above his head — was lost on both of them.
“It’s part of Cameron’s style to have these romantic moments,” says Skye. “He realized [the scene’s power], but we didn’t. I think John was like, ‘This is corny’...I don’t think I knew that this was a moment.”
Now that it’s become a central moment in her career, however, Skye well understands the scene’s effect — although, when asked how she’d react to such courting in real life, she advises against potential Romeos using it unwisely.
“If I liked the person, I would think it was the most amazing thing in the world,” she says. “But if I didn’t, it would creep me out.”
Also on DVD this week: “It’s a Wonderful Life,” newly restored on Blu-ray ● “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert,” expanded and enhanced ● Denzel in “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.”
Cobain’s best concert
THE day after his daughter was born, Kurt Cobain, terrified that Frances Bean would be taken from him, walked into Courtney Love’s hospital room with a pistol and suggested they kill themselves in a double-suicide pact. Less than two weeks later, he played the most thrilling show of his entire life.
Nirvana’s set at the UK’s prestigious Reading Festival in August 1992 is the most cherished and widely bootlegged concert in the band’s history. On Tuesday, it will be officially released for the first time, as a limited-edition CD/DVD. (Separate CD, DVD and LP versions will follow on Nov. 24.)
While the show is revered for Cobain’s high-energy performance, its legend is rooted in the circumstances surrounding his downfall.
“Many people thought Nirvana was no more,” says Charles R. Cross, author of the Cobain biography “Heavier Than Heaven,” which chronicles the hospital anecdote. “There were rumors that the band had broken up. Rumors swirled that Kurt wouldn’t appear because he was either too ill or deceased.”
But Cobain surprised everyone by not only showing up, but also making one of the more memorable entrances in the annals of rock. Rolled onstage in a wheelchair, he wore a frizzy blond wig and a hospital patient’s gown, looking like Norman Bates from “Psycho.” Bassist Krist Novoselic, meanwhile, fueled whispers in the crowd by saying, “It’s too painful.”
Cobain then stood up, warbled the first two lines to Bette Midler’s “The Rose,” and collapsed — before rising again, fully revived, and leading the band into the feedback intro of “Breed.” An impassioned 25-song performance followed, showing just how alive Cobain really was.
“Kurt always had a certain sort of mocking attitude with the audience,” says Mickey Zetts, a longtime Nirvana fan and author of “Apathy: The Gen X Musical.” “But he seemed like he was actually enjoying it — like he still cared.”
Cobain would have many less glorious moments in the months and years that followed — he died less than two years later — but “Live at Reading” is a shining reminder of why Cobain remains a rock legend.
“The first 30 seconds of that show,” Cross says, “have to be some of the greatest 30 seconds in rock history.”
Elton John suffering 'serious' infection, flu
Singer Elton John has postponed several more concert dates, putting off three performances with Billy Joel in the United States in November.
John recently put on hold the final dates of his Red Piano tour in Britain and Ireland.
A posting on his website over the weekend said promoters were "informed by management that Elton has been advised by his doctor to postpone these performances due to a serious case of E. coli bacterial infection and influenza."
That means his concerts with Joel in Seattle on Nov. 4 and 7 and another in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 10 are postponed.
The pair already had a previous postponement in the summer during their Face 2 Face tour. Joel had to pull out because he got sick. They had been on the road for two months at that point.
Fans are being asked to hold on to their tickets.
The cancelled concerts in Britain and Ireland are expected to be back on in December.
British media are reporting that John has checked in to a hospital in London. His Canadian partner, David Furnish, told reporters the performer is "fine."
'SNL': January Jones and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to host in November
Saturday Night Live announced its line-up of guest hosts and musical acts for November and it’s looking like there will be a lot of new faces in Studio 8H. Mad Men’s January Jones will host the show on Nov. 14, with the Black Eyed Peas doing the musical honors. A week later, on Nov. 21, (500) Days of Summer star Joseph Gordon-Levitt will stand center stage with the Dave Matthews Band, who return to the show after nearly a decade. As previously reported, pop star Taylor Swift will wear two hats as both host and musical guest next Saturday night, Nov. 7.
"This Is It" tops charts with $101M worldwide
LOS ANGELES – "Michael Jackson's This Is It" pulled in $101 million worldwide in its first five days, and distributor Sony is extending the farewell performance film beyond its planned two-week run.
The film was the No. 1 Halloween thriller domestically with a $21.3 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Paramount's low-budget horror sensation "Paranormal Activity," slipped to No. 2 with $16.5 million, lifting its total to $84.8 million.
"This Is It" raised its domestic total to $32.5 million. The movie pulled in $68.5 million overseas, including $10.4 million in Japan, $6.3 million in Germany, $5.8 million in France and $3.2 million in China.
"He's just loved everywhere on the planet," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It doesn't matter if it's Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, South America. Every continent in the world loved him and his music."
In Great Britain, where Jackson had planned a marathon series of 50 London concerts starting last July, the movie earned $7.6 million.
"This Is It" captures Jackson in behind-the-scenes performances in the weeks before his death last June, as he rehearsed his biggest hits for the London shows.
"This Is It" originally was scheduled for a theatrical run of only two weeks. The studio has extended it a few more weeks domestically, leaving it in theaters through Thanksgiving weekend, one of the year's busiest moviegoing times.
Sony plans to extend the run of "This Is It" overseas on a country-by-country basis, with most territories probably getting one to three weeks of extra playing time, Bruer said.
The studio paid $60 million for film rights to Jackson's rehearsal footage, an investment the movie recouped in days.
"They bet $60 million on this and got $101 million in just five days," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It was a gamble and a bet that paid off."
The movie fell far short of last year's $31.1 million opening weekend domestically for "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert." But Bruer said "This Is It" has a shot at surpassing the $65.3 million domestic total during the entire run of Cyrus' movie, which tops the all-time charts for music documentaries.
Worldwide, "This Is It" already has shot past Cyrus' concert film. Cyrus mainly appeals to American teens, and her movie got only a limited release overseas, where it took in about $5 million to give the film a global total of just over $70 million.
"This Is It" played in 3,481 theaters domestically, about five times the number for Cyrus' movie. But "Best of Both Worlds" ran in 3-D, for which theaters typically charge a few dollars more.
And Cyrus' young fans are an audience segment that tends to rush out to see movies over opening weekend, the movie doing nearly half its business in the first few days.
Sony hopes for a longer shelf life for "This Is It," which drew older crowds that catch movies on their own schedule, with less regard for the opening-weekend frenzy. Fans older than 25 accounted for 62 percent of the audience, according to Sony.
While "Paranormal Activity" led Halloween's scary movies, an established horror franchise lost its fear factor as Lionsgate's "Saw VI" fell sharply in its second weekend after an anemic debut.
"Saw VI" came in at No. 5 this weekend with $5.6 million, raising its total to just $22.8 million after 10 days. Previous sequels in the serial-killer series all had topped $30 million during opening weekend alone.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com; final figures will be released Monday:
1. "Michael Jackson's This Is It," $21.3 million.
2. "Paranormal Activity," $16.5 million.
3. "Law Abiding Citizen," $7.3 million.
4. "Couples Retreat," $6.1 million.
5. "Saw VI," $5.6 million.
6. "Where the Wild Things Are," $5.1 million.
7. "The Stepfather," $3.4 million.
8. "Astro Boy," $3.04 million.
9. "Amelia," $3 million.
10. "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," $2.8 million.