The Vault
River Phoenix: Young Man River
Far from Hollywood, amid frogs, snakes, canaries, and potheads, our intrepid reporter encounters the elusive irreducible River Phoenix.
The Vault
Kenneth Branagh: Beyond the Bard
Kenneth Branagh made such a splash with his Henry V that Hollywood imported him not only to direct the thriller Dead Again, but star in both leading roles.
The Vault
Ice-T: From Rap to Riches
The matte black machine gun might be a prop. Maybe it's a souvenir from New Jack City or Ricochet, the Joel Silver action film Ice-T just finished shooting with Denzel Washington. Then again, it could be the real thing. Hell, I figure, the rapper/actor is from gang-infested South Central Los Angeles. His songs chronicle a life of crime. He probably knows his way around automatic weaponry. Gun in hand, walking with a cat burglar's grace through his pristine Hollywood Hills home, Ice-T leads me into a seemingly virginal kitchen and pops open a white formica cupboard door. All doubt about the authenticity of his high-powered firearm is instantly erased: stashed where the cups and saucers should be is enough ammo to take out every studio executive in town.
The Vault
The Look: Heather Graham & James Walters
A POOL WITH A VIEW
"Waiting for Heather," James Walters suddenly says aloud, seemingly apropos of nothing. But it's not really a non sequitur--nor is it the title of some Hollywood revival of Samuel Beckett's classic play. It is, in fact, what we're doing. "The movie we made together, Shout, took weeks, no, months," he explains, "and I spent most of that time exactly like this--waiting for Heather's hair."
The Vault
The Look: Celebrity Fashion
Sure they can all tie their shoelaces, but when you get right down to it, how many Hollywood stars can actually dress themselves? Here are 37 celebrities we wouldn't mind being seen out in public with.
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My Favorite Scene
Philip Noyce, Cameron Crowe and others play My Favorite Scene with Movieline.
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Michael J. Fox: Keep it Small
"Does anyone outside of 'enquiring minds' care a rat's ass about Michael J. Fox?" --Letter to the Editor, Esquire magazine.
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Martin Short, Very Short
Most people have never seen the funniest character Martin Short ever concocted. The guy behind comedic eccentric Ed Grimley of "Saturday Night Live" fame surpassed even that lunacy with his parody of a Hollywood agent in The Big Picture, for which he taped back his eyes to give the appearance of botched cosmetic surgery and adopted a psychotically ingratiating manner that more than did justice to showbiz b.s.
The Vault
Bad Movies We Love About Marilyn Monroe
In his 1975 movie version of The Who's "rock opera" Tommy, Ken Russell answered everything you ever needed to know about our culture's cultish fascination with Marilyn Monroe. In hopes of finding a miracle cure for her autistic son, a concerned mother takes the lad to a church where the lame gather to worship the image of MM. In a hall decorated with pin-up posters, the chosen acolytes wear identical platinum blonde wigs and MM lookalike masks as they lead each tragic case forward to touch the silvered slippers of a mammoth, 25-foot-tall statue of MM in her trademark Seven Year Itch pose, with the flared skirt of that pleated dress frozen forever in mid-air.
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The Look: Jean-Claude Van Damme
GYM DANDY
It's a broiling Southern California afternoon, and the further into the San Fernando Valley you push, the hotter it gets. Proof positive that not all celebs reside in Beverly Hills, Jean-Claude Van Damme lives way, way out there, in the shadows of the towering rock formations where they shot low-budget westerns and the old "Rin-Tin-Tin" TV series, way back when. But once inside Van Damme's personal gym - behind his electric gates, beyond his children playing in the Olympic-sized pool, and past his matched set of deadly serious Rottweilers - things are cool.
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Barbra Streisand: Sacred Cow
Though Joe Queenan hasn't yet seen Barbra Streisand's new film Prince of Tides, it's unlikely to change his opinion of her. He just watched all her old movies on video, and he's convinced "she should have stuck to making comedies."
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B.D. Wong: Breaking the Barriers
Hollywood always offers successful actors cheesy stuff to play," says Tony winner B. D. Wong with a knowing sigh. "That's dangerous for an actor, because then you're basically selling yourself out." Though Wong says he has no intention of doing that, he's the first to point out it's an uphill battle to break the Tinseltown mold of Asian stereotypes. "To most producers in Hollywood, breaking through the racial barrier is having an Asian actor play, oh, a computer nerd."
The Vault
Woody Harrelson: So You Think You Want Fame and Fortune?
Like a good bartender, which he plays on the hit TV series "Cheers," Woody Harrelson knows how to work a room. During a lengthy late night photo session after a day's rehearsal with Glenn Close and Laura Dern for the play "Brooklyn Laundry," Harrelson passes the time by singing Beatles songs and cracking jokes with visitors: "I wish I hadn't taken LSD before this shooting!" he says with a laugh.
