Complete LA Times article
LA Times:
5/31/00
MOBY'S LONG PLAYER

Music from his year-old 'Play' album is ubiquitous, thanks to canny marketing. He showed how movies, TV shows and commercials can take the place of radio playlists in establishing who hits platinum. Maybe the first time you heard it was in that funky Nordstrom commercial, or while you were sitting through "The Beach" or "Any Given Sunday" at the theater. Or perhaps the first time you heard Moby's music was during an episode of "Veronica's Closet" or "The X-Files." Wherever it was, odds are you did hear it, placing you among the millions of Americans who have been exposed in the last year to the evocative, ethereal music from Moby's album "Play," which marries decades-old blues and gospel with electronica and deejay culture. You've also been exposed to a music industry success story that was written early on, largely without radio, defying the traditional view that airplay is key to making a music star. It was one year ago this week that "Play" hit stores, loaded with baggage that made it a longshot for any commercial success: The album was on V2 Records, a small independent label, and it was chock-full of songs that defied any traditional radio format. It was also from an artist who, despite critical acclaim, had recently parted ways with Elektra (the major label home of big sellers including Metallica and Busta Rhymes) because he couldn't click with a mass market...

..."His music just stands out; there's something almost three-dimensional about it," says Carr, who also used Moby while working on the film "Heat." "It's vibrant, it's not just wallpaper in the background. . . . It adds life to the screen, and directors love that." Taylor says another film, "The Beach," gave "Play" a major consumer-awareness jolt when it used the song "Porcelain" in its trailer and soundtrack. The verdant island setting of the Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle meshed well with the song and, again, helped the music "seep into the consciousness" of audiences, as Taylor put it.
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NY Post:
5/31/00
ECO-SCIENTISTS DENY AMAZON'S IN DANGER

For a dozen years, pop superstar Sting has warned that man has brought the Amazon rainforest to the verge of extinction. He and a host of celebrities have insisted that Amazonia - 2.7 million square miles of nearly impenetrable Brazilian forest, an area nearly as big as the lower 48 states - is being destroyed at a horrifying rate. But now, two of the world's top eco-scientists, Patrick Moore and Philip Stott, say the save-the-rainforest movement is wrong: at best, vastly misleading; at worst, a gigantic con. "All these save-the-forests arguments are based on bad science," says Moore, a founding member of Greenpeace who recently returned from a fact-finding mission to the Amazon. "They are quite simply wrong. We found that the Amazon rainforest is more than 90 percent intact. We flew over it and met all the environmental authorities. We studied satellite pictures of the entire area." TV reporter Marc Morano, who's spent more than a year investigating the rainforest movement's claims for an American Investigator TV program that will be broadcast nationally next month, says he was amazed when he discovered the truth. He says the statistics he found--backed up by satellite imagery of the forests--speak for themselves. "We learned that only 12.5 percent of the original Amazon has been deforested, leaving 87.5 percent intact," he said. "Of the 12.5 percent deforested, one-third to one-half of that land is fallow or in the process of regeneration. That means that at any given moment up to 94 percent of the total Amazon is left to nature. That is not wanton destruction." Stott, who has spent nearly 30 years studying tropical forests, agrees. "Many of these stars want to have an impact beyond their normal music and the environment is an area that they feel they can move into quite easily. It's a convenient one for them to go to. So a lot of the young teenagers, the 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds, follow them," he says. Everyone has jumped on the rainforest bandwagon - from actor Leonardo DiCaprio to supermodel Naomi Campbell, from Greenpeace to the Rainforest Foundation, the group formed by Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler. William Shatner - "Star Trek's" Capt. Kirk - beamed down to earth to narrate a National Geographic video, saying "rainforest is being cleared at the rate of 20 football fields per minute." These eco-warriors say the rainforests are the lungs of the earth, pumping out oxygen. Without them, they say, we will all choke on polluting hydrocarbons. The eco-warriors turned out in force last month for the 10th annual Save the Rainforest rock concert at Carnegie Hall. Sting, Elton John, Billy Joel and Tom Jones joined hands with Ricky Martin, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder before a sellout crowd of 1,800. During one set, Sting, Jones and Martin donned Day-Glo wigs to become Gladys Knight's backup group, the Pips. After the concert, the celebrities trooped to the Pierre for an auction. Marie Claire magazine editor Glenda Bailey paid $8,000 for lunch with Courtney Cox. An afternoon sail on Billy Joel's yacht went for $20,000. A walk-on part on "Law and Order" cost $45,000. And co-chairwoman Sarah Ban Breathnach paid $140,000 to do a duet with Sting on "Every Breath You Take." Altogether, the night raised more than $2.7 million for Sting's foundation, and the feel-good factor was enormous. THE rainforest movement started when the environmentally friendly Body Shop company decided to buy nuts from Amazon Indians to put in its lotions. Not to be outdone, Sting took three Amazon tribal chiefs on a world tour in 1989. First stops: the pope and French President Francois Mitterrand. Brazilian environment minister Otavio Moreira Lima was furious. "We see this melancholy spectacle of an Amazon chief in Europe being presented like a prized wild animal in the hands of a rock singer," he said. "This is revolting and I consider it an affront." But he was ignored. Now an increasing number of scientists are siding with the Brazilians, who have for years insisted that while their Amazon policy may have been flawed initially, it has since been corrected. Among them are Moore, a Canadian who helped found Greenpeace, and Stott, professor of biogeography at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies and editor of the Journal of Biogeography. Both started as conventional environmentalists - agreeing with the accepted wisdom that the rainforests are endangered. Moore, in particular, was in the vanguard of Greenpeace's early direct-action campaigns, sailing into nuclear test grounds to get the United States, then France, to stop nuclear testing in the atmosphere. But in the '80s and early '90s the two independently started to dig deeper into the rainforest issue. Separately, they came to remarkably similar conclusions - public opinion is wrong. ‘IF THE rainforest in Amazonia was being destroyed at the rate critics say, it would have all vanished ages ago," Stott says. "One of the simple, but very important, facts is that the rainforests have only been around for between 12,000 and 16,000 years. That sounds like a very long time but, in terms of the history of the earth, it's hardly a pinprick. "Before then, there were hardly any rainforests. They are very young. It is just a big mistake that people are making. "The simple point is that there are now still - despite what humans have done - more rainforests today than there were 12,000 years ago." "This lungs of the earth business is nonsense; the daftest of all theories," Stott adds. "If you want to put forward something which, in a simple sense, shows you what's wrong with all the science they espouse, it's that image of the lungs of the world. "In fact, because the trees fall down and decay, rainforests actually take in slightly more oxygen than they give out. "The idea of them soaking up carbon dioxide and giving out oxygen is a myth. It's only fast-growing young trees that actually take up carbon dioxide," Stott says. "In terms of world systems, the rainforests are basically irrelevant. World weather is governed by the oceans - that great system of ocean atmospherics. "Most things that happen on land are mere blips to the system, basically insignificant," he says. Both scientists say the argument that the cure for cancer could be hidden in a rainforest plant or animal - while plausible - is also based on false science because the sea holds more mysteries of life than the rainforests. And both say fears that man is destroying this raw source of medicine are unfounded because the rainforests are remarkably healthy. "They are just about the healthiest forests in the world. This stuff about them vanishing at an alarming rate is a con based on bad science," Moore says. "Anyone who has been in the jungle knows that if you want to live there, you'd better take a few machetes. Otherwise, it'll take it all back."
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Excite News:
5/31/00
ID Checking Effective in Reducing Underage Drinking, According To Brewer Survey

The vast majority of Americans (86%) believe that ID Checking is an excellent or good way to reduce underage drinking, according to a recent Anheuser-Busch survey that assessed Americans' views of ID Checking effectiveness. The survey is part of an ongoing public education campaign to reduce incidences of underage drinking. The poll, conducted by the Data Development Corporation, reveals that Americans have witnessed efforts firsthand to combat underage drinking. In fact, 9 in 10 young adults (aged 21-39) say they have been "carded" when making an alcohol purchase, indicating that bartenders and alcohol beverage retailers are checking IDs and are doing their part. Further, 93% agree that alcohol retailers should be trained to spot fake IDs. "According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, teen drunk driving fatalities are down 65% since 1982, the lowest number since record keeping began," says Francine Katz, vice president of Consumer Affairs at Anheuser-Busch. "These historical low levels show how retailers, parents and youths themselves can all make a difference in decreasing incidences of underage drinking." The poll findings also indicate that when it comes to celebrities' real ages, Americans want "proof." When asked to pick the one celebrity of legal drinking age most likely to be asked for ID when purchasing alcohol, youthful-looking Leonardo DiCaprio was picked by more than half (55%) of Americans, followed by Will Smith, Winona Ryder and Gwyneth Paltrow. And, 30% want to personally check Cher's ID to learn her true age, followed by Dick Clark (19%), Raquel Welch (15%), Zsa Zsa Gabor (15%) and Paul Newman (8%).
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Excite UK:
5/31/00
Robbie's the one - again

Pop heart-throb Robbie Williams proves he's the one by being voted the world's sexiest man - for the second year running. The singer, 26, triumphed in the poll for the 100 top blokes by Company magazine, finishing just ahead of Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt. Williams - who topped the charts with She's The One - has shown his sensitive side to fans by launching his own charitable trust, but also played rough earlier this year by challenging Liam Gallagher of Oasis to a fight. Number three in the poll was EastEnders' star Michael Greco, who plays Beppe Di Marco - one of five new entries in the top 10. Other stars from Albert Square include Martin Kemp (Steve Owen) at 41, Craig Fairbrass (Dan Sullivan) at 70 and former Walford regular Paul Nicholls (Joe Wickes) at 49. British Oscar nominee Jude Law leaps from 1999's 39th place to fourth position. Newcomers to the list include number five Naked Chef Jamie Oliver, who shows the way to a girl's heart may well be through her stomach. And chart star Kelly Jones from Welsh band Stereophonics has shot in at number six in the chart compiled from votes of 5,000 readers. Prince William is not only the youngest entry in the list but at number 12 - 10 places higher than 1999 - is the highest placed royal ever. But youth is not the only criterion for success. Sir Sean Connery, 69, manages to weigh in at number 22, ahead of 25-year-old movie star Leonardo DiCaprio at 24.
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Hollywood Reporter:
5/26/00
Giacchetto's parents in hock for legal eagle

Money manager Dana Giacchetto's parents are mortgaging their home to pay veteran defense attorney and onetime mob lawyer Ronald Fischetti to join the case. Giacchetto appeared in federal court Thursday represented by Fischetti, who has counted mafia don John Gotti's brother Gene among his clients. Fischetti also represented New York congressman Robert Garcia and his wife during the 1992 Wedtech scandal, in which officials were allegedly bribed for military contracts. More recently, Fischetti represented New York police officer Charles Schwarz last year in the Abner Louima police brutality case. Thursday marked the first appearance for Giacchetto since he was given two weeks by the court to find new representation after his original attorney, Andrew Levander, withdrew from the case, saying Giacchetto could not pay legal fees. Giacchetto's assets have been frozen in connection with a civil suit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although Fischetti asked Judge Robert Patterson to schedule the trial for "next year or sometime into November" so he could clear his calendar and review the mountain of evidence prosecutors have gathered, Patterson set June 29 as the case's next step, when a status conference will be held and defense motions are due. Giacchetto, 37, has pleaded innocent to federal charges of securities fraud, stealing more than $9 million from two dozen clients, lying to the SEC and illegally altering his passport. To retain Fischetti, Giacchetto's parents, Alma and Cosmo, will mortgage their Medford, Mass., home. Fischetti told the court it will take a month for bank approval of the mortgage. Giacchetto's parents were not in court Thursday. Fischetti declined comment on the amount of his retainer or the mortgage, but the Medford home was valued at $500,000 when it was put up to secure $1 million bail following Giacchetto's arrest in April. Ironically, the home being mortgaged would have been seized had Giacchetto's alleged April 12 attempt to flee the country been successful. Giacchetto has remained in Lower Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center since breaking his bail conditions, but he will now be transferred to Otisville federal prison in upstate New York. Giacchetto will likely remain in custody for the duration of the trial because Patterson seemed skeptical when Fischetti told the court Thursday of his plans to renegotiate bail. "I'm sure the bank doesn't have a flexible mortgage amount," Patterson said, intimating that Fischetti shouldn't waste Giacchetto's future funds by spinning his wheels on the bail issue. A source close to the SEC's civil suit against Giacchetto said that case should move forward sometime next week. Through his Cassandra Group, Giacchetto made investment decisions for Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and the band Phish, among others.
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LA Times:
5/26/00
photographer David LaChapelle opening

Portraits of Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Marilyn Manson and other equally colorful but not-so-famous characters will be featured in an exhibition of photographs by fashion photographer David LaChapelle opening today May 25 at Fahey/Klein, 148 N. La Brea Ave., West Hollywood. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., through July 8. (323) 934-2250.
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LA Times:
5/26/00
Summer's Highs and Lows

This summer's home entertainment offerings include last Christmas' big movies, as well as some of the dogs of the new millennium. Arriving in stores Tuesday is Milos Forman's biopic on Andy Kaufman, "Man on the Moon" (Universal), starring Jim Carrey; the murder mystery "Snow Falling on Cedars" (Universal) and Mike Figgis' adaptation of the Strindberg classic, "Miss Julie" (MGM). "Girl, Interrupted" (Columbia TriStar), featuring Angelina Jolie's Oscar-winning turn as a mental patient, makes its debut June 6, as does the hip-hop comedy "Next Friday" (New Line). Best picture nominee "The Green Mile" (Warner), starring Tom Hanks, is scheduled for June 13, along with the Robin Williams sci-fi drama, "Bicentennial Man" (Touchstone), and Chen Kaige's epic "The Emperor and the Assassin" (Columbia TriStar). June 20 is jammed with goodies such as Mike Leigh's "Topsy-Turvy" (USA), Woody Allen's bittersweet comedy "Sweet and Lowdown" (Columbia TriStar), with Sean Penn and Samantha Morton, and Barry Levinson's nostalgic "Liberty Heights" (Warner), along with the disappointing "Anna and the King" (Fox) and the sleeper Christmas comedy, "Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo" (Touchstone). Set for June 27 is Anthony Minghella's Oscar-nominated psychological thriller, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (Paramount), starring Matt Damon and Jude Law. Also due that week is the dull comedy "Hanging Up" (Columbia TriStar) with Meg Ryan and Walter Matthau. And horror fans can ring in the Fourth of July with Wes Craven's "Scream 3" (Dimension). Pedro Almodovar's Oscar-winning Spanish drama, "All About My Mother" (Columbia TriStar), is scheduled for release July 11, as is "The Hurricane" (Universal), starring Denzel Washington in his Oscar-nominated performance, the Jane Austen drama "Mansfield Park" (Miramax) and the sentimental family film "My Dog Skip" (Warner). Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry headline the popular comedy "The Whole Nine Yards" (Warner), which arrives July 18. Also set for release that week is "Angela's Ashes" (Paramount), based on Frank McCourt's autobiography, the Garry Shandling bomb, "What Planet Are You From?" (Columbia TriStar), Ang Lee's little-seen western, "Ride With the Devil" (Universal) and "Diamonds" (Miramax), which heralded Kirk Douglas' return to the screen after his stroke. Tom Cruise's Oscar-nominated performance is on view in the ensemble drama "Magnolia" (New Line), which hits video stores on July 25. Also due that date are two bombs from earlier this year: the Leonardo DiCaprio drama "The Beach" (Fox) and the black comedy "Drowning Mona" (Columbia TriStar).
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Fox 411:
5/26/00
Dana Comes to Court, Gets a New Lawyer

More on Dana Giacchetto: Since his bail was revoked, Giacchetto — who ran with a crowd that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Michael Ovitz — has been incarcerated at Otisville Prison pending a trial. Last month, he pled not guilty to four counts of fraud and one count of doctoring a U.S. passport. In court Thursday, Giacchetto introduced a new attorney to the court, replacing Andrew J. Levander. Before U.S. Magistrate Ronald Patterson, attorney Ronald Fischetti proposed to take over Giacchetto's case in one month, saying it would take four weeks for his client to arrange a way to pay him. Giacchetto plans to have his parents mortgage their Medford, Mass., home — the same home they put up for his bail bond in April, before Giacchetto was re-arrested and his bond was revoked. Arriving in court with two marshals, Giacchetto looked more robust than in previous appearances. As usual he looked better groomed than most prisoners. His girlfriend, Allegra Brascia, sat in the visitors' gallery along with her cousin and two unidentified young men, neither of whom was Leonardo DiCaprio
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USA Today:
5/26/00
With Leo in mind, some at ABC are antsy about Jennings' 'Jesus'

Had ABC News not taken such a public-relations beating over Leonardo DiCaprio's interview with President Clinton for Earth Day, an upcoming documentary on the life of Jesus might not have raised any concern. But with the DiCaprio fiasco fresh in their minds, some ABC News executives are worried about how viewers will feel June 19 when the network airs Peter Jennings' two-hour In Search of Jesus. Some insiders think the portrait is bound to generate heat from religious groups. In his report, Jennings tries to separate fact from myth and includes disagreements between scholars about what is or isn't true about the life of Jesus. That in itself can draw battle lines, since millions of people believe in Jesus as a matter of faith. How it will all play out is unclear, but Jennings will be talking up the special, especially to religion writers, in coming weeks. The subject is a natural for Jennings, who thinks networks should report more on religion. To that end, his World News Tonight is the only network broadcast with a religion reporter. Producer Tom Yellin said Wednesday that the special is based on new information about Jesus from numerous scholars and religious people. ''That has been a gold mine for us,'' Yellin said. ''This story is one waiting to be told. If people are concerned, I haven't heard about it.''
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Official DiCaprio Website:
5/25/00
Photo's from the EarthDay 2000 fair

Photo's here
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TheStreet.com:
5/25/00
Being Rich is No Protection Against Unscrupulous Advisers

Don't be like Leo, Matt and Cameron. Take reasonable steps to keep tabs on your financial adviser. Rich celebrities are supposed to have access to the best of everything: restaurants, nightclubs, designer clothes and plastic surgeons. But when it comes to financial advisers, they seem to have an uncanny knack for making the wrong choices. Does the name Dana Giacchetto sound familiar? It has spilled out of the gossip columns and onto the business pages recently. This friend and financial adviser to the likes of Leo DiCaprio , Matt Damon and Cameron Diaz is in jail, accused of stealing as much as $9 million from client accounts and using the loot to pay for dinners, hotels and even the rent on a Soho loft in New York City. (Giacchetto plead not guilty to the charges, according to published reports.) If it can happen to Leo, it can happen to you. Even if you are worlds away from the lives of these jet-setting actors, there are lessons you can learn from their predicament. Let's look at a few preventative steps you can take when putting your money into the hands of a financial adviser. Background Check The process of finding a financial adviser might seem as easy as picking a new dentist. You ask your friends who they use, pick the one who gets the most recommendations and then make an appointment. When hiring the person who is going to handle your money, you should do more footwork than that. First, use public documents to check the background of the adviser or the firm he or she works for. You want to make sure your potential investment adviser has the appropriate registrations and has never been disciplined for mishandling a client's funds. Anyone who presents himself or herself to the public as someone who gets paid for giving investment advice about securities has to register as an investment adviser. "If someone says they don't need to be registered because they only handle international money, walk away," says Ralph Lambiase, director of the securities division for the Connecticut Department of Banking . "In fact, call us with the tip." Both the Securities and Exchange Commission and state securities agencies regulate investment advisers. The SEC oversees firms with more than $25 million under management. The states handle those with less than $25 million. Whether a firm is registered with the SEC or a state agency, it must file something called a Form ADV. This two-part document includes important background information on the disciplinary record of the firm and the people running it. You can get the Form ADV by calling the SEC's Public Reference Room at 202-942-8090. The SEC will charge you a fee for copying the document, so ask how much it is going to cost first. Or you can try calling your state regulator. The North American Securities Administrators Association , the national organization of state securities agencies, offers a list of each state's regulators on its Web site at www.nasaa.org, along with the necessary phone numbers. The giant SEC doesn't typically handle the registration of individuals who work as investment advisers. That is left up to the states. To check a person's disciplinary history, call your state regulator. If in doubt about who regulates a firm, check with both the SEC and the state in which the individual or firm is doing business. Of course, you can start by asking for all of this information from your possible adviser first. "I am a firm believer in the fact that the firm should help you do this," says Bob Barry with Barry Capital Management in Hackettstown, N.J. "I would ask a firm point blank: What can you do to allay my fears in this area? And it should be more than three references." You should know how much experience the adviser has and from where, all educational background and how much money that person currently has under management. Many individuals who are registered to give investment advice also have brokerage licenses. If so, you can check that person's background history through the Central Registration Depository , a disciplinary and employment database available from NASD Regulation, an arm of the National Association of Securities Dealers . Barry also suggests checking with organizations that dispense credentials. If the adviser is a certified financial planner, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards , which gives out the CFP mark, would list any disciplinary actions taken against him or her on its Web site. Setting Up the Account Often, opening an account with an investment adviser also involves setting up a custodial account with a brokerage or other financial institution. When you do this, don't give an adviser unlimited control over your money. The best way to handle this is to open the account yourself and only give your adviser the ability to buy and sell securities for the account. Do not give him the ability to withdraw funds from account directly. Your adviser might be able to request a disbursement of funds, but the firm should be instructed to mail the check to you -- the client -- at your address of record. Giacchetto, the aforementioned friend to the famous, is accused of calling his clients' custodian and having checks sent directly to him. He then allegedly endorsed those checks and put the money into his firm's own account. "I would look to have a reasonably recognizable custodial relationship -- a well-known name holding your funds," says Barry. You might look to a firm like Charles Schwab or Fidelity . All of these details should be laid out in the advisory agreement that you sign with the investment adviser of your choice. This document will outline how the accounts will operate, what your adviser is and isn't allowed to buy and the fees you'll be charged. "If you don't understand it, you should try to get someone else to read it who does understand it," says Pamela Wilson, an attorney with Hale and Dorr in Boston. Scrutinizing Your Statements You should receive a regular statement from your custodian or brokerage. Bill McDonald, the enforcement director for the Department of Corporations in California , recalls one adviser who was sending people statements every month saying they owned a certain number of securities but the statements were pure fiction. "They were all made up," McDonald says. "No one ever bothered to check if they had those things or not in their names. You have to literally verify that the money and securities are there." Separating your broker from your adviser can help prevent this from happening. If you are getting two statements regularly, you can see if any money is going out of your account that shouldn't be. Your balance should be in sync with your returns and the amount of money entering or exiting the account. Thievery tends to happen over time, not all at once. You should carefully examine your monthly statements. And you shouldn't rely on someone else to do it. "The fact that you trust someone is not reason to let your guard down. It's the people who you trust who are going to steal from you," says Barry. If you aren't receiving any statements, you should be worried. Joe Borg, the director of the Alabama Securities Commission , remembers asking one wealthy investor who had been robbed in an offshore investment scam why he didn't have any statements. Borg says the man replied, "Well that's the beauty of it. I don't have any statements and the Internal Revenue Service can't tax me." The lesson: Don't let your money out of your sight.
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NY Post:
5/25/00
EX-PAL THROWS THE BOOK AT DANA

ONE of Dana Giacchetto's former key associates is shopping a tell-all book about what went so spectacularly wrong and how Hollywood heavyweights lost maybe $12 million to the investment adviser to the stars. I understand that Soledad Bastiancich, who joined Dana's Cassandra enterprise even before the stars began handing blank checks to the personable finance guru, has a book and movie proposal doing the rounds right now. Of course, Giacchetto has not yet had his day in court, but wouldn't it be fun if his bold-faced "victims" played themselves in the flick and recovered some of their losses that way? Soledad would seem to be in a unique position to reveal the details of the alleged scheme. She quit Cassandra about a year ago, after her demand for an internal audit of Giacchetto's books was refused. TV hunk and Leo DiCaprio chumChris Cuomo, who also seems to have smelled a rat, bailed from the firm shortly after. Meanwhile, the prospects of Downtown Dana's investors recovering anything from the ruins of his trendy empire appear bleak. I understand he had invested their money in some of the "new economy's" biggest stinkers, including Digital Entertainment Network (which went out of business last week) and Iridium, the Motorola offshoot which tanked two weeks ago. Interestingly, Giacchetto clients who stuck to his art advice are still doing very nicely. I understand that Dana, who didn't know much about art but knew what he liked, got Leo and a few other young stars to buy some real bargains. He was, for example, pushing the drawings of the late Jean-Michel Basquiat a couple of years before their prices started soaring
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Complete Sun-Times article
Chicago Sun-Times:
5/25/00 Timing is everything in boat-wreck proposal

Oh man. Oh come on. That's really not fair. How could these women do that to those guys, making them agree to marriage when their lives were in danger! Talk about manipulative. In case you missed the story in Tuesday's paper, two couples got engaged Saturday night--but it wasn't one of those deals involving rings dropped in champagne glasses or the guys dropping to their knees or a surprise message showing up on a baseball scoreboard. It was fear of drowning that set up this double engagement. The scene: Bryan Henegar and five friends were bobbing in the Gulf of Mexico, about 14 miles offshore, after Henegar's boat sank. For 11 hours, they fought off hypothermia and fatigue. "I'm going to die tonight, aren't I?" said Mary Jane Grau, Henegar's girlfriend. "You're not going to die tonight!" proclaimed Henegar, just like Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack said in "Titanic." But Grau played a card that even Rose didn't try with Jack in that most romantic of movies, saying, "If I don't die tonight, we're going to get married." I would have tried to change the subject. Something like, "Boy, that little Elian really was a tough cookie to survive in this stuff, you know?" Henegar's a better man than I am. He may have been literally treading water but he stopped treading water, relationship-wise. "OK!" he said. "When we get out, we'll get married." Then, like Jerry Seinfeld getting engaged because George Costanza got engaged, Henegar's buddy Bill Daugherty made the same pledge to his girlfriend: "You know what, Kathy? I'll marry you. We're all going to get married." Of course they were rescued a few hours later. The caption in the Sun-Times under a picture of Grau and Henegar: "Mary Jane Grau is comforted by fiance Bryan Henegar at a Florida Coast Guard Station . . ." See that dude, now you're labeled. Now you're a fiance. A double wedding ceremony is planned for Labor Day weekend and I wish everyone the best, but can you imagine the scene if things don't work out down the line? Grau: "I wish I never married you in the first place, you jerk!" Henegar: "Well whose idea was it to get engaged? I'm clinging to a freakin' life preserver and you're talking commitment!" Grau: "You didn't have to say yes!" Henegar: "I thought I was going to DIE. Who knew?"
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MTV.com:
5/25/00
Q-Tip, Heavy D, Slated for launch party

Q-Tip will be one of the DJs on hand during the launch party for Onelevel.com, a new Web site described as "the one-stop shop for the hip-hop fanatic." The high-profile launch party, which will take place Sunday, May 28 at Conscience Point in Southampton on New York's Long Island, will be hosted by rapper Heavy D. DJ Mark Ronson will also be spinning records for a guest list that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Def Jam executive Russell Simmons, and Bad Boy Records executive Andre Harrell. Q-Tip, whose debut solo album "Amplified" has gone gold, recently appeared on Lucy Pearl's debut album
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Electronic Telegraph:
5/24/00
Catch it all on the net

Fashion junkies can get their fix of hot gossip from a host of websites. Melanie Rickey reports DID you know that model Gisele Bundchen is dating Leonardo DiCaprio? That photographer Mario Testino's forthcoming Gucci campaign has been shelved, and relative newcomer Alexei Hay has taken the coveted job instead? That the BBC was recently forced to hand over unused footage of the MacIntyre Undercover programme about the modelling industry to Elite New York? I didn't think so. These choice titbits are the stock-in-trade of a bunch of websites dedicated to the minutiae of the fashion world, and they are the latest addiction for style junkies everywhere. For them, no event is too small and insignificant to read about, and nothing is sacred. Where it's happening

www.hintmag.com Gossip, sexy shoots, hot designer features and interactive message boards.

www.fashionwiredaily.com Fashion industry news, celebrity sightings, gossip and show reports.

www.vogue.com Things to buy from Browns, daily news, personalised email and Vogue Cam, which lets you see what the Voguettes wear to work.

www.models.com Everything you ever wanted to know about the modelling industry, plus gossip and interviews.

www.pagesix.com The gossip page of the New York Post. Find out what the glitterati are up to.

fashionlive.com Paris-based high fashion website. Cool, interactive visuals, trends, catwalk shows and fashion shoots.

www.fuk.co.uk London-based website with click-and-buy fashion shoot, trends, street style and young designer interviews.
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Complete SF Gate article
SF Gate:
5/24/00
COUNTDOWN TO BLASTOFF

So far there is no finished script for the next installment of ``Star Wars,'' though the fifth in the series is due to begin filming in just a few weeks in Sydney, Australia. But no one is panicking. Creator George Lucas reportedly has had the story down for years. Creating the screenplay is just a matter of dramatizing that story and filling in the dialogue -- not to mention coming up with silly names for the various characters... ...Now, he will be on the cover of teen magazines. He will, at a ridiculously young age, be assured of a permanent place in film history. Most important, he will be making so much money he'll never again have to endure the bad musical taste of his roommate. In six months, any memory young Mr. Christensen might have about struggling to pay the rent will seem like something that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. For the record, the actor is 6-foot-1. He has light brown hair and blue eyes. His description sounds not unlike that of Leonardo DiCaprio, who was supposedly considered for the role. DiCaprio, however, apparently took himself out of the running by choosing to make a Martin Scorsese gangster movie instead. (Yes, he chose Scorsese over ``Star Wars.'' Maybe DiCaprio really is as cool as all those teenage girls think he is.)
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Excite News:
5/24/00
2000 GQ 'Men of te Year'Poll Released
Exclusively Online At www.gq.com! Nominees Include Women for First Time Gentlemen, start your search engines! GQ Magazine starts the polling for the 2000 GQ "Men of the Year" on Tuesday, May 23rd, and this year, the voting's all on-line at www.gq.com! Will it be Tom Cruise? Russell Crowe? Tiger Woods? Carlos Santana? Art Cooper, editor in chief of GQ, has announced nominees from the fields of film, television, sports, music, fashion, and theater, to be voted exclusively online by GQ readers. For the first time in GQ's "Men of the Year" history, nominees include women -- Donna Karan, Donatella Versace and Miuccia Prada have been nominated for their contributions to men's fashion. Winners will be featured in the November issue, and honored at the fifth annual GQ "Men of the Year" awards show to be broadcast December 9th on Fox. Voting at http://www.gq.com begins Tuesday, May 23rd and continues through June 15th. As a bonus for casting a vote, participants will be automatically entered in a sweepstakes to win a trip to New York or Beverly Hills, plus a wardrobe worth $10,000! Last year's GQ "Men of the Year" were Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Kevin Spacey, Michael J. Fox, Mark McGwire, Dylan McDermott, Will Smith, Oscar De La Hoya, Joe Torre, the Beastie Boys, Eric Clapton, Stone Phillips, Tom Wolfe, Mario Batali, and Michael Dell. Here are the categories and nominees for the 2000 GQ "Men of the Year":
FILM ACTOR - Ben Affleck, Jim Carrey, John Cusack, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise,Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Ed Norton, Kevin Spacey, Mark Wahlberg

FILM DIRECTOR - Farrelly Brothers (Me, Myself & Irene), Roland Emmerich (The Patriot), Stephen Frears (High Fidelity), Jonathan Mostow (U571), Wolfgang Peterson (The Perfect Storm), Ridley Scott (Gladiators), Brian Singer (X-Men), John Singleton (Shaft Returns), Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brokovich), John Woo (Mission Impossible 2)

MUSIC: BAND - Blink-182, Creed, Dru Hill, Foo Fighters, Goo Goo Dolls, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Savage Garden, Smash Mouth, Third Eye Blind

MUSIC: SOLO ARTIST - Beck, D'Angelo, Eminem, Enrique Iglesias, Kid Rock, Moby, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Carlos Santana, Sisquo

SPORTS: COACH - Bobby Bowden, Scotty Bowman, Tony Dungy, Phil Jackson, Jeff Fisher, Doc Rivers, Buck Showalter, Jerry Sloan, Jeff Van Gundy, Dick Vermeil

SPORTS: INDIVIDUAL ATHLETE - Andre Agassi, David Duval, Sergio Garcia, Maurice Greene, Michael Johnson, Roy Jones Jr., Lennox Lewis, Pete Sampras, Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods

SPORTS: TEAM ATHLETE - Vince Carter, Nomar Garciapara, Ken Griffey Jr., Allen Iverson, Jaromir Jagr, Peyton Manning, Shaquille O'Neal, Mike Piazza, Kurt Warner

TELEVISION: COMEDY - Drew Carey (The Drew Carey Show), Will Ferrell (Saturday Night Live), Matt Groening (The Simpsons), Sean Hayes (Will & Grace), Chris Kattan (Saturday Night Live), David Letterman (Late Night with David Letterman), Matthew Perry (Friends), Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond), Jon Stewart (The Daily Show), Christopher Titus (Titus)

TELEVISION: DRAMA - Billy Campbell (Once and Again), Eddie Cibrian (Third Watch), David James Elliott (JAG), James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), Jason Gedrick (Falcone), Rob Lowe (The West Wing), Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order), Rick Schroder (NYPD Blue), Martin Sheen (The West Wing), Goran Visnjic (E.R.)

TELEVISION: NEWS - Dan Abrams, Wolf Blitzer, Jeff Greenfield, Ted Koppel, Steve Kroft, Jim Lehrer, Dan Patrick, Tim Russert, John Stossel, Brian Williams

MOST STYLISH - Marc Anthony, Beck, Pierce Brosnan, Rupert Everett, Enrique Iglesias, Derek Jeter, Ricky Martin, Dylan McDermott, Mos Def, Brad Pitt
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Excite News:
5/24/00
Dartmouth medical school says movies are smoking-gun

What do movie stars Brad Pitt, Sharon Stone and Leonardo DiCaprio all have in common? According to one new study, they may influence teenagers to smoke by playing characters who use tobacco. While a number of social influences on smoking have already been examined -- such as peer pressure -- the link between movies and smoking is relatively uncharted territory. But James Sargent, MD, thinks he has found a connection. "Visual Media Influences on Adolescent Smoking Behavior," a recently released study by Dartmouth Medical School, is the first part of a series of studies intended to show the correlation between adolescent smoking and smoking on-screen. "Lots of people have looked at obvious influences, like friends, but no one has ever looked very hard at the influence of media," said Sargent, the principle investigator for the research project. "Knowing what we know about adolescents and how much media they consume, and the amount of smoking in media, we decided to examine the correlation," Sargent continued. The first stage of the study, an analysis of tobacco use in over 500 major motion pictures released between 1990 and 1999, provides a guideline for rating movies according to the amount of tobacco usage they portray and the attitudes surrounding it. Not surprisingly, more then half of the movies studied featured tobacco use by a major character. Females who smoked on screen were found to be associated with sexual affairs, illegal activities and reckless driving. Male smokers tended to be associated with violent behavior and dangerous acts. This analysis was used in the second stage of the study. The researchers surveyed adolescents about both their current smoking behavior and their favorite movie stars. The researchers then scored the amount of tobacco in the movies the adolescents had been exposed to. "We have a very media-aware adolescent population especially due to home videos," Sargent said. "This exposure is part of the reason we are suggesting that the additional input has increased the tendency to use tobacco." Of the teenagers surveyed, 44.7 percent were non-smokers, 34.8 percent reported they were experimental smokers, and 20.4 percent said they were smokers. The subjects chose 43 different actors. Of those, 25 never portrayed smoking. Some of the more popular actors however -- Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sharon Stone -- have smoked in a number of their movies. The researchers found, after controlling for other factors, the odds of higher adolescent smoking behavior was greater in those adolescents who chose smoking stars. "We are finding adolescents are exposed to a lot of inappropriate behavior that parents need to be alerted about," Sargent said. "But it's hard to control, kids really want to see these films, and the movie industry kind of winks about it." Sargent and his colleagues are currently working on another survey in which they will ask 6,000 adolescents what movies they have seen and then use the first component of the study to score these movies for tobacco usage. The first two components of the study were presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies on May 13 in Boston. The researchers are planning on publishing the studies soon.
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Birmington News:
5/23/00
Not just an herb

The combination of more potent marijuana and a casual attitude has health officials concerned If you haven't noticed, marijuana is in vogue again. Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach, Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys, and Kevin Spacey in American Beauty are shown lighting up. Vice President Al Gore and other politicians admit puffing in their youth. And a spate of studies about marijuana's medicinal value has re-ignited the legalization debate. "I'm seeing an attitude like in the early '70s," said Steve Moore, program coordinator for the Addiction Recovery Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "More and more kids consider it just an herb."
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NY Daily News:
5/22/00
Fun-Lovin' Clooney Not Pining for Ex

Guess it really is over between George Clooney and ex-girlfriend Celine Balitran. They were both at the Cannes Film Festival last week, but never hooked up for so much as a stroll down the Croisette. It's not that they're on bad terms. But Clooney had no trouble having fun by himself. One night at the Terrace Bar of the Hotel du Cap, he fixed his gaze on a popular mademoiselle across the room and declared: "There are 16 guys around that girl. But I can't be bothered by the competition." George Clooney, the first Vogue coverboy since 1992, shares the spotlight with Gisele Bundchen. Raising his glass, he joked out loud: "I am an alcoholic. This is the second day of alcoholism. I am going to stay up all night." He offered a barmate his three rules for weathering the festival. "You've got to keep it simple: Stoli, Stoli, Stoli," the Stolichnaya vodka customer declared. If Clooney is drinking to forget, it doesn't seem to be working. In June's issue of Vogue, he talks fondly of Balitran and how he has done his best to look after the French actress/law student since their breakup last year. "She pulled up roots and came [to America] for me," he says. "So I made sure that she had a great place to live. And I made sure that she had cash. We still keep in contact — even though we're not really in a relationship. Quite honestly, I don't want to be sitting in the lap of luxury and hear, 'Well, Celine had to go back to Paris because of the lawyers, or because her visa kicked out or she didn't have any money.' "I had a French dip and it cost me three years of my life," Clooney quipped. Jokes and pranks, of course, are a Clooney trademark. At "Spin City" actor Richard Kind's wedding, best man Clooney and the other guys grabbed disposable cameras on the tables and took turns taking pictures of each other in the bathroom with their pants pulled down. Bantering with his buds about a new flick starring Charlize Theron, Clooney jokes, "Does she take her top off? If so, we'll be there." Neither does Clooney seem to be having a bad time cavorting in Vogue with Brazilian supermodel (and Leo DiCaprio girlfriend) Gisele Bundchen. "She's amazing," said Clooney after watching Bundchen's backfield in a Herb Ritts beach shoot. "She even knew how to handle a football."
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Story source
Electronic Telegraph:
5/22/00
Lecter gets his teeth into Florence

As the filming of 'Hannibal' begins in Tuscany, Mark Monahan looks at the legacies of location shoots HANNIBAL LECTER, the world's best-known psychopath, is back in the news. Last Thursday, Thomas Harris's follow-up to The Silence of the Lambs was published here in paperback. A week earlier, director Ridley Scott's adaptation of the new novel, Hannibal, was causing a stir in Italy, where filming has just begun. Italian job: Anthony Hopkins at a press conference in Italy earlier this month Much of Hannibal takes place in Florence, most notably, a grisly murder at the 13th-century Palazzo Vecchio. At a press conference in the Tuscan capital to mark the start of shooting, Anthony Hopkins reportedly stayed entertainingly in character, as the warped Dr Lecter. Not long after, the mayor of Florence received an open letter urging him to withdraw permission for the shoot. The letter's authors argued - in vain - that Florence, and particularly their beloved Palazzo, would be permanently tarnished by the horrific association. This is the second time in less than a year that the issue of location-shooting has come under scrutiny. In the early part of 1999, while filming The Beach, Danny Boyle was criticised by conservationists for altering a sandy stretch of Phi Phi Leh island in Thailand. A year on, though, the beach is still there, still beautiful, and, according to the local tourist board, actually better than before. Much of the flora planted by the film crew has survived, and, as Phi Phi Leh is a protected island, accessible only by day-trips on small boats, it has not fallen victim to hordes of DiCaprio-fancying backpackers.
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Complete NY Post article
NY Post:
5/22/00
THE BATTLE OF THE BOUTIQUE BOOZERIES

...Over the next several years, Gerber and his brothers, Scott and Kenny, opened and successfully ran the bar in Morgans, the Whiskey Bar and mezzanine bar in Paramount, and the now legendary Skybar in the Mondrian in Los Angeles. The bars are the exact opposite of noisy nightclubs, but what the bar and club concepts have in common is a hip, cool ambience and a celebrity-laden clientele. The Skybar and the Whiskey Bar are star magnets and their reputation brings in the nubile and well-heeled as well as the well-known. Kate Moss and Claudia Schiffer, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mel Gibson, John Travolta, Marilyn Manson bandmate Twiggy Ramirez and a host of other celebrities hang out in Rande Gerber's bars. So eager were some wannabe trendsetters to get in, they checked into Schrager's hotels to be sure of a place at the bars - even if they lived just a block away
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Complete Jam Showbiz article
Jam Showbiz:
5/22/00
Big-time laughs from Woody

Wealth, fame and infamy haven't changed Woody Allen. He insists he's still the same sweet, hard-working guy he's always been. "I think I was always a sweet guy and having money hasn't changed that. I may be a little pretentious in my work, but I have always led a simple life," says Allen. "Before I made any money, I always got up in the morning, I'd write, practise my clarinet, go for walks and go to Knicks games. "That's always been my routine. I'm going to be 65 soon and I do the same things now that I did when I was 25. "When I finally got my money and power in this industry, a tyrant did not emerge. A terrible person did not emerge. "That's how I see it. "You can ask people who've known me for a long time and I think they will say the same things about me." .... ....As a filmmaker, Allen enjoys a unique stature. When he or his agents contact actors with an offer, there is no room for salary negotiations. And except for the films' leads, the actors receive scripts for just the scenes in which they will appear. "Most actors are willing to work for no money if they like the project," he says. "Actors know everyone in my films gets the same salary. "There are actors (like Julia Roberts and Leonardo DiCaprio) who get $10 million or $20 million a picture who agree to work for me for $50,000. "That's my offer to everyone in the cast, whether they work 10 weeks or two weeks."
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Arkansas Democrat Gazette:
5/22/00
Euro drop affecting box office

Ask any American in Paris, and he'll tell you that the strong dollar and weak euro have made travel in Europe the most inexpensive it's been in years. The problem is that it's made American exports -- even movies -- too costly for European wallets. The euro's plunge against the dollar is casting a pall over this year's Cannes Film Festival, forcing European distributors to curtail their purchases of American films and triggering concessions by U.S. producers of a sort once unheard of in this glitzy resort. "In a word -- 'ouch,' " says Paul Hertzberg, president of Cinetel Films of Los Angeles, to describe the effect of the fledgling European currency's 24 percent nosedive against the dollar since its introduction nearly 17 months ago. "For us it's a nightmare," adds Jean Labadie, president of France's Bac Films, which must now shell out a lot more euros to obtain U.S. blockbusters. "Since the beginning of the film festival, the exchange rate is something that comes up every minute in every discussion." The dollar's spectacular rise against the euro is a big issue around the posh hotel bars of Cannes because the international movie business is priced almost exclusively in dollars, and Europe is such an important market for U.S. producers. NO GUARANTEES The euro, which was launched at $1.17 on Jan. 1, 1999, stood at $1.07 at the time of last year's Cannes extravaganza. On Friday, it closed at just 89.992 cents. Long before a film goes into production, a U.S. studio seeks to "presell" the foreign rights to distributors, and those presales are crucial to a film's financing. For a $50 million film, a U.S. producer might seek 10 percent to 12 percent of the total budget from a distributor in Germany, 7 percent to 9 percent from France, 6 percent to 8 percent from Italy and 4 percent from Spain, amounting to nearly a third of the movie's budget from the major continental European countries. "It's now harder for us to achieve the kind of guarantees we seek in dollars," says Mark Damon, chairman and chief executive of Behaviour Worldwide, which is preselling D'Artagnan, a $42 million Musketeers yarn starring Mena Suvari (the teen temptress in American Beauty) and Gary Oldman. JUST A PLOY? Some U.S. producers dismiss the European distributors' exchange-rate gripe as a negotiating ploy, arguing that if a European distributor really wants a film, it will pay for it. And many of the larger Hollywood studios have their own distribution mechanisms that make them less vulnerable to currency fluctuations. But Cannes remains important for small, independently financed films, and sales agents are offering novel financing deals to lessen the blow. "We've got only two options: lower prices or help them with their cash flow," says Richard Sands, world-wide distribution boss at Miramax Films, the company behind such recent global hits as Shakespeare in Love. Miramax usually insists on a 20 percent payment at the time of initial signature and 80 percent when a film is ready, but Sands says he has instead struck some deals with European distributors that call for 20 percent down, 40 percent on film delivery and another 40 percent when videos are delivered much later. Sands also concedes that if the exchange rate "gets worse, it could affect pricing," which could really hurt a U.S. movie industry whose big stars are paid in tens of millions of dollars per film. FEEDING THE MACHINE The acquisitions director for Copenhagen-based distributor Scanbox Entertainment, Jorgen Kristiansen, says he has shied away from such pricey U.S. films as Martin Scorsese's $100 million The Gangs of New York, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, because the exchange rate makes it prohibitively expensive. Scanbox pays 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent of a film's budget for rights to Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, and figures that for Gangs it would have to spend an extra $1 million on "P and A" -- film-business slang for movie prints and advertising. "We have a machine to feed, but we're now more picky," says Kristiansen. Of the four Nordic countries, only Finland has adopted the euro, but the other three shadow the currency closely. The head of Trimark International, the U.S. film company now selling Skipped Parts with Drew Barrymore and the parody Bogus Witch Project, even says he would seriously consider pricing in euros if the dollar appreciates much more. "It's a dilemma," says Trimark Chairman and CEO Mark Amin. "You can't give a discount every time something happens in the economy, but on the other hand you don't want to see a good customer have problems and go out of business." The dollar's rise against European currencies hasn't been all bad news for U.S. producers and sales agents. Summit Entertainment, the foreign distribution agent for Affair of the Necklace, starring Hillary Swank as an 18th-century French aristocrat, says the film's budget stretched much further because of filming in Prague and Versailles. Given the dollar's strength, one might think that European films would be benefiting from the current exchange rate at U.S. films' expense, but that's too simplistic a plot even by Hollywood standards. "Even if we buy a French or Spanish film, we still pay for it in U.S. dollars," says Scanbox's Kristiansen. "The film business runs on dollars. That's just the way it works."
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NY Post:
5/22/00
IT'S CACHET-AND-CARRY AGAIN IN HAMPTONS' SUMMER SWIRL

There'll be more of everything this summer in the Hamptons - more money, more celebs, more partying. And more traffic. Among those joining the weekly snail's-paced pilgrimage to make the fast-paced scene is funnyman Jerry Seinfeld, who'll get his feet wet as the newest high-profile Hamptons homeowner by hosting a Memorial Day benefit next Sunday - complete with classic car show. Back - but no longer on the sly - will be Hizzoner, Rudy Giuliani, visiting his "very good friend" Judi Nathan's weekend retreat in Southampton. Out of the picture will be piano men Billy Joel and Marvin Hamlisch, making way for rappers Sean "Puffy" Combs and Jay-Z. Adding to the frenzy will be the titanic Leonardo DiCaprio. The young actor is expected, along with some high-profile pals, to be a frequent visitor at the 11,000-square-foot Yahoo!-sponsored Synergy Spa house in Water Mill. It's also the planned site of Puffy's annual Fourth of July blast, which should be a relief to his East Hampton neighbors and the town police - the Puffster last month was fined $2,000 for the wild shindig he threw at his Springs house last year. "The only neighbors close enough to complain about the Spa house will be the Wilzigs," laughed a local, referring to Ivan and Alan Wilzig, the swinging banking brothers whose home next door is known as "the Castle." Summer renters have been shelling out as much as a wallet-numbing $500,000 a season to be part of it all and homebuyers have been snapping up spec houses for more than $6 million. Few have paid more to be a Hampton regular than Seinfeld, who, depending on various reports, paid anywhere from $20 million to $30 million to buy Billy Joel's 12-acre oceanfront pad. But his estate looks like a quaint cottage compared to industrialist Ira Rennert's colossal $100 million, 29-room, 39-bath, 62-acre "home" with 200-car garage under construction in Sagaponack. "It's an overpriced rat race disguised as a vacation," sniffed one year-round East End resident. "Kinda like a 48-hour rush hour that leads right back into the city." "It's crazy," sighed Angela Boyer Stump of Hamptons Country Real Estate in Bridgehampton, who said many wannabe-renters have been having trouble finding summer digs. It's so crazy, she said, that houses are going for more than their asking prices. "There's a huge bidding war, much more than last year," said Boyer Stump, noting that a four-bedroom house in Bridgehampton listed for $75,000 was rented last weekend for $90,000. The average rent for the full season (Memorial Day to Labor Day) for a four-bedroom house with pool - north of the highway and farther from the ocean - is about $30,000, said Stuart Epstein, president of Devlin-McNiff Realty. The homeowner collecting the highest rent is Lee Radziwill, sister of Jackie O, who leased her oceanfront East Hampton "cottage" for $500,000. "Money has no meaning out here in the Hamptons," said Steven Gaines, a best-selling author and editor of the ihamptons.com Web site. "Once you're insanely rich, this is the place to come. It's really summertime on laughing gas." Some of that money will be dropped at major fund-raising events - most with one or two "cause celebs." Seinfeld's season-opener next weekend - to benefit the American Cancer Society - is just the beginning. "You're going to see [lots of] charity and political events," predicted Gaines. Among the other big events of the season will be publicist Peggy Siegal's coveted movie premieres. The first, on June 3, features a Sundance flick called "Groove" that's about a rave party. The after-party will be hosted by MTV news anchors Serena Altscul and Carson Daly at Jet East nightclub.
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APB News:
5/22/00
Will Daniel Day-Lewis join Gangs?

Daniel Day-Lewis may join Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz in Martin Scorsese's upcoming film Gangs of New York. According to Variety, the actor is currently in negotiations with the film's producers. Day-Lewis is considering taking the role of Bill the Butcher, a character who clashes with a gangster played by DiCaprio in the film, which centers on 19th-century street gangs in New York City.
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Time Magazine: Letters
5/19/00
Save the Planet

Congratulations on your issue covering Earth Day 2000 and the celebration of the 30th anniversary of this event [Special Edition, April-May]. As a marine biologist, I am gravely concerned about the delicate balance of the aquatic ecosystem and how it will be affected by global warming. I was appalled, however, by the choice of Leonardo DiCaprio to write about global warming. DiCaprio has adopted a facade of "caring" about the environment, but ethically he had no problem starring in a movie like The Beach, for which the production team altered the beach in one of Thailand's most cherished natural parks. Do I smell free publicity here or what? HAYDEN DE GRAAF Phuket, Thailand

Your special issue should have relied more on the numerous well-documented scientific studies that support the conclusions you reached in your articles. Marxists have found a successful way to preach their gospel: using lies (which they think nobody can prove false) to make the masses afraid. But those who care about the environment have proof in scientific studies to substantiate important information about it. We need to bring it to the attention of those who have the power to change the course of disastrous political decisions. JOHANNES W. BLOEMENDAL
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Time Magazine:
5/19/00
The Man Who Will Be Vader

Had he not won the privilege of playing Anakin Skywalker in the next two installments of the Star Wars franchise, Hayden Christensen says he would have been happy to walk away with the souvenirs of the audition process: "I got to meet George Lucas, hang out at Skywalker Ranch, and I got a couple of new hats," he reports. As it turns out, the 19-year-old, all but unknown Canadian muscled out some of the best-known actors in North America (reportedly including Leonardo DiCaprio) to claim the starring role. Picking up the part from Jake Lloyd, who starred in Episode 1, Christensen will, over the course of the next two films, become involved with Queen Amidala, played by Natalie Portman, and his character will eventually devolve into the ponderously breathing, funereally attired Darth Vader. "It's awesome to portray a character who becomes Vader," says Christensen. "I'm getting ready to go to the dark side."
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NY Daily News: 5/19/00
Vault Lounge

Leonardo DiCaprio, Cisco, John Cusak and Peter Beard checking out the new Vault Lounge — a one-time bank vault in the basement of downtown nightspot Chaos.
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MSNBC:
5/18/00
Notes from all over

Nicole Appleton, of the hot group All Saints, is blasting reports that she made out with Leonardo DiCaprio in a public bathroom. “I didn’t do anything with him!” she told the Independent of London. “Somebody has made up a story because I was there. It was very convenient. He was talking to me. We were all doing tequila shots. Next thing I know, I’m in the paper and I’ve been in the toilet with him.”
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Hollywood Reporter:
5/17/00
Rival Addis takes Ovitz to task on ethic

Industry Entertainment co-chief Keith Addis blasted rival Michael Ovitz during an extraordinarily candid seminar about talent representation Tuesday at the American Pavilion. The hard-charging Ovitz has long been a lightning rod for controversy, but Addis raised eyebrows in the audience by questioning Ovitz's integrity in such a high-profile forum. Addis accused the former agent of breaking unspoken rules in the management business when he wooed away former Industry staffers Rick Yorn and Julie Silverman Yorn to set up Artists Management Group, taking executive talent and clients -- such as Leonardo DiCaprio -- away from Industry. When asked if he thought Ovitz displayed business savvy by combining the Yorns' younger clients with his own more established list -- Addis replied: "On a Machiavellian level, it has been brilliance, provided there's no karma in showbiz." Addis' comments -- given during the seminar "The Dealmakers: Agents, Lawyers, Producers & Managers" -- helped launch a salvo of ethical and legal questions discussed by participants Addis, agent Tom Strickler, attorney John Sloss and Seven Arts executive Eric Sandys, in a discussion moderated by Stephen Galloway, editor-at-large for The Hollywood Reporter. Addis was no less restrained in questioning Ovitz and the Yorns' judgment in investing their money -- and encouraging their clients to invest their money -- with Dana Giacchetto, the whiz-kid money manager who faces trial for allegedly stealing from his clients. While Ovitz and Yorn were two of several high-profile clients of Giacchetto, there has been no indication that either of them encouraged clients to invest money with him. Reached Tuesday in New York, Ovitz declined comment. Although optimistically defined during the seminar as the "business of relationships," it seemed that the state of Hollywood dealmaking is one of fast-and-loose bridge burning. All those present spoke of the difficulties of doing business in a world in which the definitions of manager and agent have become blurred. They noted that this has become further complicated now that the Screen Actors Guild has withdrawn an original plan to revise the rules governing each group. "I've been in this business since 1980, and managers have always been crossing the line," Addis said, referring to managers' tendency to negotiate deals -- despite a law restricting this function to agents and lawyers. "But what's going on now is very sad and disappointing." When the discussion turned to the problems of retaining clients, Endeavor agency's Strickler said: "Manipulation is a bad word, but 'steer' is a good one. ... An agent must comfort their client and be in touch with their feelings in order to help them make the right decisions." Illustrating his own concerns on the issue, Addis pointed to Industry client Angelina Jolie, one of the most sought-after actresses working today. "Angelina has no agent and no lawyer, which isn't a good thing for us," he said, adding that his firm employs a whole team just to help cover the bases, as well as hiring legal counsel to help guide her deals. Sloss noted that the collective bargaining clout of an agent/manager/lawyer triumvirate more than justifies the expense to the client. "75% of a lot of money is better than getting 85% of much less money," he said.
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Electronic Telegraph:
5/17/00
Hollywood has lost its glamour, says Peck

THE Hollywood actor Gregory Peck declared the era of star glamour to be dead when he arrived at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday. There was "no way" that the stars of today could compete with those of his own generation in terms of style said Peck, 84, who bemoaned a lack of glamorous male screen actors. In a reference to the high fees commanded by big names, as much as £20 million a movie, Peck said: "I was born too soon." The Hollywood of his era was less stressful than that of today, he added. He said: "It seemed that it was a more fun place to go to work. I remember whistling on my way to work in the morning. I remember meeting Groucho Marx. He said he did the same thing in the morning, whistling." Peck was in Cannes to promote the documentary A Conversation With Gregory Peck, which was produced by his daughter, Cecilia. He recalled how Cary Grant told him he gave up acting because he was fed up with going to work at 5am, "tripping over the lighting cables and getting the hot lights". Peck's one big regret about his career was that he turned down the lead role in the classic western High Noon, which starred Gary Cooper instead. "I might have had two Oscars on the mantelpiece instead of one," said Peck, who received his award for his role in To Kill a Mockingbird. The actor, who also starred in The Omen, Cape Fear and The Big Country, said his most frightening acting experience was when he played Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. He said: "I was out in the Irish Sea and the water was very choppy, and there was fog and the conditions were extremely difficult. I drifted off from the camera crew, into a fog bank riding this rubber whale. "I felt if I slipped into the water, I was gone. I wouldn't know which way to swim. I was disorientated." The actor said he was eventually rescued by the camera crew. Peck said his Roman Catholic upbringing stayed with him as an influence throughout his life, as had his education at a military school. He said: "Fifty years of fame and what's left in the long perspective is not the fame, but the work and especially family. It all fades away in the long run and what's left is a few times that I did good work and my family. Those are the important things." Among today's male heart-throbs, Tom Cruise, 38, now earns £20 million a film and is renowned for shrouding his private life in secrecy. He tends to stay in with his wife, Nicole Kidman, and their adopted children when he is not working. Cruise turned down his fee for his latest film, Mission: Impossible 2, opting for a chunk of its gross takings. Leonardo DiCaprio, 24, can command more than £15 million a film and was reported to have applied to trademark his name last year. His weight gains and wild lifestyle are regularly chronicled in the press. Brad Pitt, who starred alongside Cruise in Interview with a Vampire, also earns £15 million a movie. Pitt, 36, shuns the limelight and gives few interviews. Like DiCaprio, Pitt's love life is widely reported. He is engaged to Friends actress Jennifer Aniston after breaking off his engagement to Gwyneth Paltrow.
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Mississippi Sun Herald:
5/17/00
- Superstar Leo DiCaprio

''I'm lucky. I grew up being famous, so I don't have any weird things about being famous. I imagine it must be harder if fame hits in the middle of your life. I wouldn't know how someone handles that.''
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Check it out here!
E! Online:
5/16/00
Make your reservation Chateau Hollywood

Check into Interactive Fun with Hollywood's Biggest Stars Want a room with a view? Then visit Chateau Hollywood, where the celebs come to stay and you get to play. Sign up now for our exclusive interactive series, and you'll be privy to some of the wittiest and wildest action in Hollywood. What happens when Brad and Jen and Madonna get behind closed doors? Will Leo fill the bill for George? Can Britney and Christina peacefully coexist? It's all up to you, because Chateau Hollywood is totally interactive. When you click on the stars, you change the course of each episode. Plus, you can play each story several times, and uncover new twists and turns. How It Works: We've got eight star-crossed, laugh-filled episodes waiting for you. You can watch the first one when you sign up. After that, we'll email you a new episode every Thursday. What You Need: You'll have to download the Chateau Hollywood/togglethis player to get the episodes. Use our "Check in Here" button to start the process, then we'll lead you through the simple steps.
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Yahoo News:
5/16/00
E! Online and togglethis Introduce 'Chateau Hollywood'

Visitors to E! Online ( www.eonline.com ), Entertainment's Home Page(TM), are now able to download and interact with ``Chateau Hollywood,'' an irreverent, eight-week animated series about the supposed personal lives of some of Hollywood's most celebrated personalities. Sponsored by Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treats. The desktop series is a collaboration between E! Online and togglethis, a leader in interactive entertainment and advertising. ``Chateau Hollywood'' revolves around the imagined comings and goings of a make-believe apartment complex housing a host of famous inhabitants, including Madonna and Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez and Puff Daddy, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Nick Carter, John Travolta and L. Ron Hubbard, George Lucas, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Pamela and Tommy Lee. E! Online created the concept and writes the scripts; togglethis provides the animation and technology to bring the series to life. ``Everyone wonders what stars do in their off-hours,'' says Lew Harris, E! Online's editor-in-chief. ``This series will answer questions like: 'What does Madonna wear around the house?' 'What does Jennifer Lopez read at home?' And, 'who's most likely to win in a cat fight: Britney or Christina?' Where else but E! Online are you going to get such important insider info?'' Users can sign up for ``Chateau Hollywood'' on either the E! Online or togglethis websites. Then users can easily download the toggle player, which will allow them to receive the first 3-minute episode of the show on their desktop. During the program, users can interact by clicking different icons to change the story. Once the episode is over, a skit follows from Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treats, ``Chateau Hollywood's'' exclusive sponsor. After that, the users' browser is launched and they are sent to the Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treats' Official Website. Every Thursday, beginning May 18, new episodes (a total of 8) are sent by email to the subscribers. The series runs from May 8 through June 26, 2000. However, users may sign up at any time and will receive episodes in sequential order starting with the first. ``Through marketing programs such as New Line Cinema's 'Austin Powers' and the Cartoon Network's 'Space Ghost's Hollywood Extravaganza,' togglethis has demonstrated the effectiveness of entertainment-oriented toggled campaigns,'' added Michael Conner, CEO of togglethis. ``'Chateau Hollywood' is the latest example of our exciting work in this area. We are pleased to have collaborated with E! Online to create this series, which is an entertaining look into celebrities' personal lives.'' About E! Online E! Online ( http://www.eonline.com ), Entertainment's Home Page(TM), delivers original entertainment news, featuring celebrity gossip, movie, TV and music information to entertainment enthusiasts through an interactive format maximizing the brand awareness and reach of E! Entertainment Television. Based in Los Angeles, California, E! Online reaches over 5.3 million unique US adult users monthly, and is the #1 entertainment news and celebrity gossip Website. E! Online also operates shop.eonline.com, ``your one-stop shop for entertainment merchandise(SM).'' E! Online is a wholly owned subsidiary of E! Entertainment Networks, which is currently available to 60 million cable and direct broadcast satellite subscribers in the US. About togglethis togglethis, a leader in interactive marketing, provides the technology necessary for media companies and advertisers to successfully attract consumer attention, retain it, and turn it into action. toggled rich media applications can be used for a variety of marketing purposes, including email-based promotions, targeted and personalized advertising and e-commerce, data collection and delivery, and entertaining interactive programming. As a result media companies and advertisers create toggled marketing campaigns that extend their brands to the Web, create strong relationships with consumers, and generate revenues through advertising and sponsorship. Click-through rates for toggled campaign consistently average 15 percent. Companies that have partnered with togglethis include Lycos, Disney, Warner Bros. Online, Intel.
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Mr. Showbiz:
5/15/00
Leo Rents a Slice of the Beach

It's a rather grown-up dream: Get a great job, make lots of money, and score a house in the Hamptons. But it looks like 25-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio has already achieved the aspirations of many working stiffs twice his age. The lively star of The Beach will allegedly spend his summer partying in the elite New York resort area, writes the New York Daily News. DiCaprio is reportedly going to share a rented place in the sun with actor pal Tobey Maguire (The Cider House Rules) and model "friends" Carmen Kass and Gisele Bundchen — he's been romantically linked to Bundchen. Sources tell the Daily News' Mitchell Fink that DiCaprio and the model are "just friends." Yeah, sure. You betcha. DiCaprio is among a wave of younger generation renters heading to the traditionally old-money Hamptons, the New York Observer reports. He'll be at the seashore until late August, when he's due on the set of his next movie, Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.
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USA Today:
5/15/00
Learn a lesson from Leogate

It's hard so know what was more amusing about ABC's self-immolation over Leonardo DiCaprio's Earth Day special interview with President Clinton -- the protests of ABC's news stars, who seem to believe the Constitution grants them the exclusive right to talk to the president, or the explanations from the network, which got caught in the same cycle of mistake, denial and backtracking admission we've seen from a thousand political scandals. Apparently, viewers expect network news divisions to live up to the same standards of candor and make the same efforts to avoid even the appearance of impropriety that the news divisions demand of the people they cover. Who knew?
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Irish Times:
5/15/00
The film DiCaprio wants nobody to see

The film Leonardo DiCaprio wants nobody to see is available for distribution sales at the market in Cannes. The blackand-white coming-of-age film, Don's Plum, features the Titanic star with Tobey Maguire, both of whom took legal action to block the film from being released, on the grounds that they never agreed to star in it as a fulllength feature. The court ruled that the film could not be commercially released in the US and Canada, but could be sold outside North America. Don's Plum is being sold by Trust Film Sales, the sales division of Danish director Lars von Trier's production company, Zentropa. Von Trier infamously responded petulantly at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival when he was awarded a minor prize by the jury chaired by Roman Polanski. Sarcastically thanking "the midget and his jury", von Trier kicked his scroll off the stage into the audience.
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Christian Science Monitor:
5/15/00
Lean, Clean Driving Machine

Criticizing sport utility vehicles has become as popular as, well, SUVs. Why, even "Titanic" star Leonardo DiCaprio railed against them during his recent interview of Bill Clinton. The president wisely responded that SUVs would only be sustainable over the long run if they become "much more" fuel-efficient. Being gas hogs is only the half of it. The bigger, road-hogging SUVs are excessively unsafe and polluting. Even Ford Motor Co. has doubts about SUVs, though some of its six models bring up to $15,000 each in profits. Last week, chairman William Clay Ford Jr. told shareholders in a refreshingly frank "corporate citizenship report" that Ford's approach to SUVs and the environment "has not always been responsible" even though it's the industry leader. Obviously conflicted over goals, the company recently introduced the outsized Excursion SUV that gets about 10 m.p.g. in the city and can equal the weight of two Grand Cherokee Jeeps. But the great-grandson of founder Henry Ford is trying to reconcile his environmental views and sense of social responsibility with producing dirty, dangerous machines that customers love for their versatility. He says that if his company weren't making them, other "less responsible" companies would. And he laments that Wall Street investors don't have the long-term patience to back development of eco-friendly, safer SUVs. He hopes to plow SUV profits into research. And his company is advertising the vehicles less than competitors. Honda and Toyota are way ahead of Detroit automakers with their introduction of new hybrid electric-gasoline models this year. Do American carmakers need a corporate- culture shift to be environmentally responsible? Or an act of Congress? Perhaps the answer is in the market. What if Mr. Ford went beyond shareholders to customers and sparked a national dialogue on making auto purchases that were earth- and people-friendly?
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San Jose Mercury News:
5/15/00
Movie's Rome wasn't built in a day

ANTIQUITY'S most famous arena, the Colosseum, still hulks over Rome. Millions of sightseers flock to it every year, sit on the same seats as the baying mobs of 2,000 years ago and wander the dungeons where wild beasts were caged. Film director Ridley Scott is struck by its majesty every time he visits. When Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks studio commissioned an $187.2 million epic about gladiators, Scott's pulse quickened. No director in a generation had been offered the opportunity to re-create imperial Rome. It was not enough merely to evoke the Colosseum's atmosphere and scale. No other monument better embodies man's ingenuity and brutality, and the ``Gladiator'' director wanted the set of a lifetime. Scott went to Malta. The real Colosseum -- all of Rome in fact -- he left to the tourists. He preferred to build from scratch on an empty parade ground. The result? A triumph. Scott gallops the audience through a sprawling metropolis of winding streets, markets, temples, palaces, avenues and arches before depositing it, breathless, at the Colosseum. The camera climbs up its three tiers, tips over the retractable canvas roof, then plunges into the 50,000 spectators screaming for blood. Seconds later it is swooping into the bowels, where pulleys hoist cages of gladiators to the surface. The grills lift, the fighters sprint into the arena and the games begin. It is one of cinema's most ambitious, and successful, re-creations of imperial Rome -- achieved without setting foot in the city. For this, hail computer graphic imaging. British technicians built a fragment of the Colosseum's first tier -- 52 feet high and a third of the original circumference, enough to fit 2,000 extras. Computers filled in the second and third tiers and the statues, pasting images of real extras on to the virtual seating. Not all scenes were filmed in Malta. A battle in Germania between a barbarian army and Roman legions was shot in Bourne Woods in Farnham, England. A provincial gladiator school and arena were built in Morocco. Just outside Rome lie the huge, underused sets of Cinecitta, the studio where ``Cleopatra,'' ``Ben Hur'' and ``War and Peace'' were made. Attempts are under way to revive the studio, and director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio will film ``Gangs of New York'' there this summer. But Scott was not tempted. The only bit of real Rome in his film is the lead characters' footwear, made by hand and shipped to Malta.
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NY Daily News:
5/12/00
Leo Takes a Share In Hamptons Scene

Leonardo DiCaprio must love the beach. In what's got to be the ultimate summer share, "The Beach" star is taking a place in the Hamptons this season with a bunch of high-profile friends, sources say. Leo will be joined by best buddy Tobey Maguire and models Carmen Kass and Gisele Bundchen. God knows what the sleeping arrangements will be. Although DiCaprio was recently linked with Bundchen, sources tell me that the foursome is just a bunch of pals looking for a good time in the sun and surf. Leo has partied in the Hamptons before, but this is the first time he's putting down some roots. His presence there will certainly overshadow the arrival of another prominent Hamptons freshman, Jerry Seinfeld. Leo's arrival comes at a time when the Hamptons are seeing a boost in younger renters, as the New York Observer pointed out this week. If this is true, Leo should fit in easily. Look for him to spend at least part of the summer making the scene. In late August, DiCaprio heads off to Italy to shoot "Gangs of New York" with director Martin Scorsese and co-stars Daniel Day Lewis and Cameron Diaz. In the meantime, the Leo watch is officially on. But don't look for him on the Hamptons Jitney. Reps for DiCaprio, Maguire, Kass and Bundchen either didn't return calls or claimed to be unaware that such a plan had been put in motion.
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Fox 411:
5/12/00
De Niro May Join Gangs After All

Now that Miramax's Harvey Weinstein has persuaded Daniel Day-Lewis to star in his Gangs of New York, the movie mogul cannot rest. He is very close, according to sources, to adding Robert De Niro to the all-star cast. You may recall that De Niro was one of the original members of the Gangs group, along with Leonardo DiCaprio. But Gangs is being filmed in Europe this summer. De Niro, who has child custody problems with ex-wife Grace Hightower, did not want to leave the States and dropped out of the movie. But think of it: this is Martin Scorsese's epic film about Irish gangsters. Day-Lewis and DiCaprio are in, not to mention Cameron Diaz and very likely Tobey Maguire. De Niro is Scorsese's close friend and franchise actor. "It's only a matter of time before he signs on," says my source. And the hour is drawing near. Expect an announcement — a scoop! — in the Hollywood trade papers sometime in the next two weeks
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Salon.com:
5/12/00
Skywalk this way

Anakin cast! 19-year-old Canadian Hayden Christensen snags Jedi role; and what's that pacifier doing in Elizabeth Hurley's mouth? Plus: Not a good week for stalkers. In a galaxy far, far away, George Lucas has been screen-testing an array of actors hoping to play Anakin Skywalker in the next "Star Wars" flick. Over the past few months, the gossip mill has spewed out famous names like Leonardo DiCaprio and Colin Hanks (Tom's son). But it looks like Lucas has tapped an actor you've probably never heard of before: Hayden Christensen. Variety reports that, although Lucasfilm has not yet made an official casting announcement, the fresh-faced 19-year-old Canadian with just a few credits to his name snagged the plum part thanks to his socko on-screen chemistry with Natalie Portman, who will reprise her role as Queen Amidala. In "Episode II," Anakin and Queen Amidala fall in love and spawn Luke and Leia. Christensen's connections may have helped, too. The actor played a small role in Sofia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides." Not only is Sofia's father, Francis Ford Coppola, tight with Lucas, Sofia and her husband, director Spike Jonze, made cameo appearances in "Episode I." Then again, maybe the Force was with him.
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Popcorn:
5/11/00
Day-Lewis Joins Scorsese's 'Gang'

Director gets his man after months of campaigning. As reported at Popcorn last week, Daniel Day-Lewis is set to make his big-screen comeback in 'Gangs Of New York'. The 'In The Name Of The Father' star will be re-teaming with 'Age Of Innocence' director Martin Scorsese in the $80million gangster drama, which starts shooting this August. Day-Lewis's last film was 'The Boxer', four years ago, and he's spent the last few years living with wife Rebecca Miller in Ireland. (The two first met on the set of 'The Crucible', written by Rebecca's playwright father, Arthur.) Scorsese spent several months trying to coax the actor out of semi-retirement to replace Robert De Niro, who dropped out when it became apparent that the film would be filmed in Rome. In 'Gangs Of New York', Day-Lewis will play the wonderfully-titled Bill the Butcher, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz. Liam Neeson and Pete Posthlethwaite are still in talks to star.
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Rough Cut:
5/11/00
IN OTHER LEO NEWS:

BACK ON THE BEACH: For those who care, Variety estimates that The Beach will reach the $100 million plateau overseas in "the next week or so." That would take the film's total to near $140 million, closing in on breakeven. The only thing that will break evenly on Battlefield Earth is your heart if you pay full price to see it. IN OTHER LEO NEWS: Daniel Day Lewis is, as earlier rumors hummed, joining Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. Day, you'll remember, worked with Scorsese on The Age of Innocence. The movie, once making headlines only for its Leonardo DiCaprio connection, is turning into a fairly hardcore ensemble. DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Lewis, Liam Neeson and Pete Postlethwaite for starters. Particularly for Diaz and Neeson, this will be a welcome change from the kid stuff they’ve been playing in lately. Now if they could only find a way to add overweight aliens with giant fake rubber hands to the story, John Travolta could join up.
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Complete story
Yahoo News:
5/11/00
Debut Issue of ifcRANT

Slaves to Celebrity? Rants on the New Indiewood All in the Debut Issue of ifcRANT As Crudup tries to dodge impending celebrity, ifcRANT, the new consumer magazine bent on being the voice of independent film, tracks down the elusive and unassuming actor. The premiere issue of ifcRANT Magazine, featuring a screaming Crudup on the cover, hits the streets May 1. The bi-monthly magazine is a publication of The Independent Film Channel (``IFC''), published six times per year as a co-venture with indieWIRE LLC....

...The inaugural edition of ifcRANT Magazine exposes the world of Indiewood, a place where the actors call the shots: where Leonardo DiCaprio inflates a budget by $60 million and gets the director fired, where Bruce Willis finances his own movie and it still doesn't make any money, and where the ultra-low budget indie filmmaker may never rise from obscurity. However, Indiewood may also offer the greatest potential for an American film renaissance -- only if the ``wood'' part doesn't get in the way.
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Yahoo News:
5/11/00
Fox Entertainment third-quarter up on TV, movies

Fox Entertainment, driven by strong growth in cable TV operations and Leonardo DiCaprio's box-office hit ``The Beach''' reported third-quarter earnings Wednesday that beat Wall Street estimates. Net income was $19 million or 3 cents per share compared with $8 million or 1 cent per share in the 1999 quarter. Analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial had expected earnings of 2 cents per share for Fox Entertainment, which is a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (NCP.AX) (NYSE:NWS - news). Revenues for the quarter were $1.9 billion compared with $1.7 billion a year ago and operating income before depreciation and amortization or EBITDA of $262 million was 43 percent more than in the prior year. ``Fox experienced a strong third quarter, with double digit EBITDA growth at most of our consolidated businesses,'' said President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin. ``We posted a 43 percent increase in EBITDA, fueled by the outstanding performance of our cable group and strong growth year-over-year at our film and television production studios.'' At Fox cable channels - operating losses declined at the Fox News Channel; FX reported higher EBITDA and Fox Sports Networks' earnings growth was spurred by higher affiliate revenues. The Filmed Entertainment group, which includes Twentieth Century Fox studios, reported EBITDA of $111 million -- up 118 percent from $51 million a year ago. ``The Beach'' has grossed more than $135 million in worldwide box office receipts, Chernin said.
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LA Times:
5/11/00
Day-Lewis in 'Gangs' Land

In what will mark his first film work in four years, Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis is negotiating to co-star with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz in "Gangs of New York." The Martin Scorsese-directed drama centers on the attempt by a gangster (DiCaprio) to unite ethnic street gangs during a time of corruption in New York City in the 19th century. Day-Lewis is in talks to play Bill the Butcher, who stands in the way of DiCaprio's Amsterdam character. The script was written by Scorsese and Jay Cocks, with Steve Zaillian recently turning in a rewrite. The $80 million project is being financed by Disney siblings Miramax Films and Touchstone Pictures. Day-Lewis, who last starred in the 1997 film "The Boxer," previously worked with Scorsese on "The Age of Innocence," again from a script by Scorsese and Cocks. Day-Lewis won the best actor Oscar for "My Left Foot" at Miramax. With a resume as celebrated as any of his age-comparable peers -- "Last of the Mohicans" and "In the Name of the Father" are other notable credits -- Day-Lewis' decision to take an extended hiatus from acting has been considered a disappointment to his fans and something of a mystery. Scorsese has waged a months-long campaign to tempt Day-Lewis back into the fold with this project, which has been the director's passion for at least a decade. Day-Lewis awaited the Zaillian rewrite, and then talks began in earnest. With Liam Neeson and Day-Lewis' "In the Name of the Father" co-star Pete Postlethwaite also being courted by Scorsese, "Gangs" is shaping up in casting. Shooting begins in Rome in August.
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Mr. Showbiz:
5/10/00
Unknown Named for Anakin

It's destiny time for Hayden Christensen, a previously unknown Canadian actor who won't stay that way for long. Yep, say hello to the new Anakin. In today's Variety, columnist Michael Fleming confirms that Christensen has indeed been handed the plum role of Anakin Skywalker, although Lucasfilm has not made its official announcement yet. As with the casting of Jake Lloyd as the young Anakin in The Phantom Menace, George Lucas has plucked a fresh-faced actor from relative obscurity to carry the emotional weight of his epic tale of good and evil. The 19-year-old actor was one of several final candidates who shot screen tests for Lucas and casting director Robin Gurland the weekend of April 29-30. Fleming reports that the Lucas camp originally thought that Christensen was too young but reconsidered when he tested opposite Natalie Portman. In Episode II, Anakin and Queen Amidala (Portman) will fall in love and eventually sire little Luke and Leia, hence some believable screen chemistry is very much in order. Lucas hasn't said how much of that story arc will be contained in the next film, but speculation has Episode II ending with Anakin and Amidala's marriage, with a jealous Obi Wan (Ewan McGregor) also in love with Amidala. Christensen's limited acting dossier includes Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides — a role so small that he's not even credited on most movie databases — but don't discount the Coppola-Lucas connection. Sofia (daughter of Lucas pal Francis Ford Coppola) and her husband, Spike Jonze, reportedly had tiny cameos in Menace as members of Queen Amidala's court. You can also spot Christensen in a small role as "Paper Boy" in John Carpenter's horror flick In the Mouth of Madness, and, if you get Fox Family Channel, as the tousle-haired bad boy on Higher Ground. Reps for Christensen did not immediately return calls to Mr. Showbiz to comment on their suddenly famous client. Fleming reports that Christensen's big break supercedes a smaller break he'd just gotten to star in a CBS TV movie with Aidan Quinn, a conflict the young actor probably pondered for all of two seconds. According to Variety, Christensen has a two-picture pay-or-play deal for the next Star Wars films. Details on what the action-figure-to-be will be paid haven't been released. Christensen, Portman, McGregor, and Samuel L. Jackson report for duty next month in Australia.
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Mr. Showbiz:
5/10/00
Leo and Latest Model Ruin Party

Serial model-dater Leonardo DiCaprio nearly caused a battle of the runway waifs when he showed up at a trendy New York City nightclub Thursday. The unsinkable actor arrived at a birthday party for Calvin Klein postergirl — and supposed former Leo squeeze — Natane. Problem is, he had new girlfriend Gisele Bundchen, also a model, natch, on his arm. According to Fashion Wire Daily, the two breezed in and stole the limelight, making birthday girl Natane fade into the polished woodwork like last year's capri pants. Almost brings a tear to your eye, eh? Leo has been romantically linked to numerous models, including Kate Moss and Vanessa Haydon. His newest mannequin partner, 20-year-old Bundchen, is in hot demand with or without the Titanic star's cred; she was recently named VH1's Model of the Year and frequently appears in Ralph Lauren print ads. The mono-monikered Natane, who revealed to guests that she was Leo's short-term flame last year, is currently dating rapper Jay-Z. Fortunately, the two men didn't entertain any jealousy pangs or the night might have gotten ugly. Apparently, not everyone in the fashion industry loves Leo as much as the models he seems to mesmerize. One critical party guest sniffed, "I don't think he's attractive at all. He looks like a fat little pig." Ouch! Leo may be looking a tad bloated these days, but since this comment comes from a member of a community that believes a Saltine cracker to be an indulgent snack, we'll chalk it up to unfounded malice.
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Excite News:
5/10/00
JANE Magazine's Annual Entertainment Poll

Gwyneth Paltrow and Tom Cruise Named Most Overrated Actors In JANE Magazine's Annual Entertainment Poll
Angelina Jolie Lands the Cover for Winning 'The Actress Most Voters
Want to Be ... With!'in the (new) June/July Issue - On newsstands May 22nd nationwide
With responses from over 3,500 readers nationwide, "The JANE 2000 Entertainment Poll" featured in the new June/July issue will be the talk of Tinseltown once again. Published annually, JANE magazine dishes up the dirt on all of Hollywood in this ravishingly revealing superstar poll. From the celebs we want to sleep with to those we can't stand, following are highlights of the winners (and losers):
ACTRESS VOTERS WANT TO BE (or be with!):
ANGELINA JOLIE Runners-up: Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore

ACTOR VOTERS WANT CREASING THEIR SHEETS:
JUDE LAW Runners-up: Brad Pitt,Ben Affleck

MOST OVERRATED MALE ACTOR:
TOM CRUISE
Runners-up: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt

MOST OVERRATED FEMALE ACTOR:
GWYNETH PALTROW
Runners-up: Julia Roberts, Jennifer Love Hewitt

TV COUPLE THAT SHOULD GET/STAY TOGETHER:
CHANDLER & MONICA (Friends) Runners-up: Ross and Rachel(Friends), Scully and Mulder(The X-Files)

TV COUPLE THAT SHOULD BREAK-UP ALREADY:
CHANDLER & MONICA (Friends) Runners-up: Dharma & Greg(Dharma & Greg), Noel & Ruby (Felicity)

MOST GLAMOROUS CELEB:
GWYNETH PALTROW Runners-up: Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts

BEST ENTERTAINMENT SCANDAL OF THE YEAR:
PUFFY COMBS & JENNIFER LOPEZ
SHOOTOUT Runners-up: "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?," Bill and Monica

CELEB YOU WANT TO NOMINATE FOR PRESIDENT:
COURTNEY LOVE Runners-up: Oprah Winfrey, Kevin Spacey
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Variety:
5/10/00
Day-Lewis in "Gangs" land

In what will mark his first film work in four years, Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis is negotiating to co-star with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diazin "Gangs of New York." The Martin Scorsese-directed drama centers on the attempt by a gangster (DiCaprio) to unite ethnic street gangs during a time of corruption in New York City in the 19th century. Day-Lewis is in talks to play Bill the Butcher, who stands in the way of DiCaprio's Amsterdam character. The script was written by Scorsese and Jay Cocks, with Steve Zaillian recently turning in a rewrite. The $80 million project is being financed by Disney siblings Miramax Films and Touchstone Pictures. Day-Lewis, who last starred in the 1997 film "The Boxer," previously worked with Scorsese on "The Age of Innocence," again from a script by Scorsese and Cocks. Day-Lewis won the best actor Oscar for "My Left Foot" at Miramax. With a resume as celebrated as any of his age-comparable peers -- "Last of the Mohicans" and "In the Name of the Father" are other notable credits -- Day-Lewis' decision to take an extended hiatus from acting has been considered a disappointment to his fans and something of a mystery. Scorsese has waged a months-long campaign to tempt Day-Lewis back into the fold with this project, which has been the director's passion for at least a decade. Day-Lewis awaited the Zaillian rewrite, and then talks began in earnest. With Liam Neeson and Day-Lewis' "In the Name of the Father" co-star Pete Postlethwaite also being courted by Scorsese, "Gangs" is shaping up in casting. Shooting begins in Rome in August.
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NY Post:
5/9/00
We hear....

That Gisele Bundchen and Leonardo DiCaprio avoided photo ops last Tuesday at Spa by dancing separately. She claims they are "just friends." But when Gisele felt it was time to go home, she tapped Leo on the shoulder twice and waited for him outside
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E! Online:
5/9/00
Hayden Christensen (Who?) Does Darth

Virtually unknown Canadian actor tapped to play teenaged Jedi in final two Star Wars prequels With just weeks before shooting begins on Star Wars: Episode II--Whatever They're Going to Call It, E! Online has confirmed that George Lucas has finally cast Jar Jar Binks' costar, Anakin Skywalker, ending months of speculation that had every young actor from Leo to Christian Bale up for the coveted role. And the man who would be Darth Vader? Hayden Christensen. Lucas made good on his promise to give the part to an actor with limited experience who is not immediately associated with any other production. Christensen's a 19-year-old unknown to anyone who hasn't seen Fox Family Channel's teen rehab drama Higher Ground (read: nearly everybody), in which the actor plays a teenager who turns to drugs and misdemeanors after being seduced by his stepmother. Christensen (a Toronto native whose favorite color is blue, according to one fan site) inked a deal Thursday that will have him playing the adolescent Anakin in the final two Star Wars prequels. An official announcement from the secrecy-minded Lucasfilm folks is forthcoming. As E! Online's TV Scoop columnist Kimberly Potts reported weeks ago, Lucas became aware of Christensen when his agent/manager forwarded a copy of the show to the action figure mogul. This casting news comes hot on the heels of last weekend's tryout at Skywalker Ranch when Lucas invited a handful of Anakin finalists to play scenes with Natalie Portman before a new digital camera Lucas will use to shoot Episode II. Chemistry with Portman is critical because she will resume her role as Queen Amidala and become Skywalker's love interest in the highly anticipated sequel. Among the also-rans? A source close to the Ranch says finalists included Ryan Phillippe, Roswell's Colin Hanks (yes, Tom's son) and, strangely enough, Paul Catermole, a member of Brit boy band S Club 7. Although long considered a real possibility, Jonathon Jackson (who coincidentally starred in the Y2K TV movie Trapped in a Purple Haze with Christensen) did not attend and neither did teen heartthrob Paul Walker. Leonardo DiCaprio and Bale, often rumored as candidates a long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away...), were never serious contenders to take over the Anakin role from preteen Jedi Jake Lloyd, whose wooden performance was considered one of The Phantom Menace's weak points. In other Episode II news, Lucas has asked Ewan McGregor to grow a beard for the film, which begins shooting in Sydney at the end of June. Meanwhile, Lucas' minions Down Under are scrambling to finish building the sets. Aside from Portman and McGregor, the only other confirmed holdovers from the first prequel are Ahmed Best (Jar Jar) and Samuel L. Jackson (Jedi Mace Windu). For the new Anakin, this means a hefty cover spread in Time magazine, a two-picture deal, a potentially lucrative merchandising contract for the requisite action figures, video games and T-shirts that will soon bear his face and, most importantly, the opportunity to retire from the business for good in a few short years. May the Force be with him.
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Complete Excite News article
Excite News:
5/9/00
Biography Magazine Survey Results

Biography Magazine Survey Results Reflect Resurgence of Go-Go Eighties: Readers Choose 'Cosby' Stars Cosby & Rashad as Favorite Onscreen Couple With all the prosperity and post-Gordon Gekko greed in the air these days, it seems the "ME" decade is back to shake its high-living, shoulder-padded, designer-jeaned booty once again. As the ultimate 1980s satire American Psycho has been hitting the big screen, 80s-inspired styles like white leather, python, and denim skirts dominate the spring fashion magazines while New Kids-type boy bands like N'Sync enjoy global popularity. It's official. Trendwise, THE 80s ARE BACK. The exclusive reader survey results in the upcoming May issue of Biography Magazine (on newsstands May 2) are a glowing testament to this trend. Nearly 50,000 readers chose their favorite onscreen couple of all time (in both film and television), and more people picked Bill Cosby & Phylicia Rashad from the beloved Cosby Show (1984-1992) than any other twosome. This preference for the ultimate 1980s power couple proves that readers are looking back fondly to an era when men wore their hair high and their ties skinny, and women wore legwarmers and sweatshirts cut off at the neck ... on purpose! The following top 25 results of the survey appear in the May issue, including photos of the chosen couples and detailed information about their real-life pairings.

Leonardo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet

Choice net Percent print total total % votes votes votes

1014 2.97% 675 1689 3.47%
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NY Daily News:
5/8/00
Now Playing Dress-Up

Hollywood is on a history binge. Big-budget costume pictures — sweeping dramas that used to be a staple of the major studios — are making a comeback. On Friday, the Roman Empire epic "Gladiator" opened with Russell Crowe in the lead. Late next month, "The Patriot," a gargantuan Revolutionary War drama, stars Mel Gibson as a South Carolina farmer who takes up arms against the British. "When you have one successful [costume picture], like 'Shakespeare in Love,' [other] scripts have been around, and they're stepping up to take the chance," says "Gladiator" co-producer and screenwriter David Franzoni. "People haven't seen the epic version of the old stories like in the old days, because [the studios] didn't believe they would be commercial anymore." "Good stories are about human beings and relationships and emotions," adds "Patriot" co-producer Mark Gordon. "We're trying to find different ways to tell those stories. You talk about themes and the story you want to tell, then find an interesting arena we haven't seen in awhile." Like everything else in Hollywood, trends tend to run in cycles. But the current rush to produce period dramas is due to two converging factors: (1) Audience boredom with contemporary action flicks and teen comedies, which are suffering from genre exhaustion; and (2) The fact that digital technology can help create massive period scenes at prices that won't bust the budget. Because of this, it comes as no surprise that "Gladiator" and "The Patriot" are not the only historical epics in the production pipeline: Miramax is remaking the 1939 epic "The Four Feathers," the story of a British officer in 19th-century Sudan who must prove he's not a coward. Shekhar Kapur ("Elizabeth") is set to direct. The medieval drama "A Knight's Tale" is about to go into production at Columbia, directed by Brian Helgeland, co-writer of the Oscar-winning "L.A. Confidential" script. Also trolling in 13th-century waters is actor Edward Furlong ("Pecker"), starring in "The Knights of the Quest," an epic set immediately after the Crusades. Director Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" features Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire in a tale about 19th-century Irish hoodlums. Michael Bay ("Armageddon") is directing Ben Affleck, Gene Hackman, Cuba Gooding Jr. and others in "Pearl Harbor," about the infamous 1941 Japanese attack. "All the Pretty Horses," from the Cormac McCarthy novel, stars Matt Damon as a cowboy who rides south of the border and falls in love with a Mexican landowner's daughter. The Billy Bob Thornton-directed film opens in October. Also on the Old West trail: Teen heartthrobs James Van Der Beek and Ashton Kutcher in "Texas Rangers," opening Aug. 25, and Jackie Chan searching for a kidnapped Chinese princess in "Shanghai Noon," out May 26. Due out later this year is Baz Luhrman's "Moulin Rouge," about a young poet (Ewan McGregor) who falls for a famous courtesan (Nicole Kidman). Set in late-19th-century France, the film also stars John Leguizamo as painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. (A 1952 John Huston film, also called "Moulin Rouge," starred Jose Ferrer as Toulouse-Lautrec.) In development: Films about Lucrezia Borgia, Julius Caesar, the building of Stonehenge, the construction of the transcontinental railroad, the battle of Thermopylae and two separate Viking projects. Plus, James Caviezel (currently in the well-received "Frequency") is attached to star in a new version of "The Count of Monte Cristo." The common element in all these projects? Story. "In the 1930s and '40s there was a wealth of periods used as backdrops for Hollywood pictures," says Gordon. "[But] in the 1960s and '70s the focus was more on ourselves. "We're not [now] in a period for that kind of reflection. We're now able to look back and deal with the same kinds of issues, but in different plac
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NY Daily News:
5/8/00
Leo Uptown & Downtown

Leo DiCaprio is on the prowl. He joined Daniel Day-Lewis and Quentin Tarantino at Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein's table at Rao's in East Harlem on Thursday night.
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Fox 411:
5/8/00
Gangs Wooing Continues

How badly does Harvey Weinstein want Daniel Day-Lewis? Weinstein continued to wine and dine Danny Boy on Thursday night when he took him with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino to dinner at Rao's. For those of you who may not know, Rao's is a private Italian restaurant in East Harlem. There are only a few tables and each of them is permanently "subscribed." In order to eat there you must know the owners of the restaurant or the tables, from whom you may "sublet" for the night. (But Rao's very good, very expensive spaghetti sauce is sold in most large supermarket chains around the country.) The point of all this is to get Daniel into Scorsese's Gangs of New York, a movie about Irish mobsters that commences shooting in July in Europe. Will the semi-retired actor give in and take the part? Or will he continue to live on the meager earnings of his last movies, The Boxer and In the Name of the Father? (He must be very well invested, dontcha think?)
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Complete Monttreal Gazette story
Monttreal Gazette:
5/8/00
Celebrities like us

Stars used to be icons of glamour to be worshipped from afar. Now they like to be down with the plebes - sort of Everywhere the stars are crashing down to Earth. Madonna is a doting mom (with another baby on the way, this time fathered by a fella she loves), and Pamela Anderson Lee has her breast implants removed (feeling "much sexier"). Arnold Schwarzenegger has heart surgery, and makes his family safe from the paparazzi, while besieged Bill Gates reveals his inner child by singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to Barbara Walters. Tom Hanks relies more on his wife, Rita Wilson, than his agents for career decisions. Will Smith takes script-change suggestions from his bodyguard. Leonardo DiCaprio still plays paintball with his high-school homeboys. And John Grisham schedules book tours around his son's Little League baseball schedule. Movie stars and other celebrities creep from their gilded world, desperate to inform fans that they're just like us. The glut of television talk and "infotainment" shows make them more accessible, yet they're competing in a real world in which anyone can finagle their proverbial 15 minutes of fame.
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Yahoo News:
5/5/00
Celebrity money manager pleads innocent

A former financial adviser to some of Hollywood's hottest stars pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he looted some $9 million from celebrity clients' accounts. Dana Giacchetto, 37, the president of Cassandra Group, was arraigned in Manhattan federal court on a grand jury indictment filed last week. Giacchetto, wearing a light blue prison shirt, was incarcerated last month after violating the terms of the personal recognizance bond set on earlier charges. Giacchetto -- whose clients once included super agent Mike Ovitz; actors Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Cameron Diaz; and the rock group Phish -- had originally been charged in a complaint filed by prosecutors with taking $6 million from clients. He allegedly used the money to pay for everything from loft space in New York's trendy Soho district for Cassandra's operations to his own personal expenses for travel, dining and entertainment. The indictment expanded those charges to raise the amount of money stolen from clients to $9 million. New charges also accused him of altering his expired passport to make it appear that it was still valid. Giacchetto originally was released on $1 million bond secured by his parents' home, but lost that privilege after prosecutors said he violated bail conditions by leaving the New York area without court permission, trying to access frozen funds from ATM machines, buying numerous tickets to international destinations and falsifying his passport.
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Mr. Showbiz:
5/5/00
Has Lucas Found His Anakin?

It's far from official, but folks are buzzing that George Lucas has finally found the fellow to carry Anakin Skywalker into those awkward teen years. Word has it that the lucky guy who won the day in screen tests conducted last weekend is a perky, blond unknown with little experience. Gee, just like last time. According to Variety columnist Michael Fleming, 19-year-old fledgling actor Hayden Christensen is the name being mentioned as the heir apparent to play Luke Skywalker's adolescent father-to-be in the next Star Wars film. For now, the Lucas camp is remaining mum on who'll take over the Anakin role from young Jake Lloyd. Earlier rumors had Colin Hanks, son of Tom and a regular on WB sci-fi soap Roswell, in the top slot of Anakin contenders. Before that, Hollywood buzz had Leonardo DiCaprio gunning for the role of the Jedi Knight. DiCaprio later silenced rumors by issuing a statement that he had chatted with Lucas about the part, but the actor's schedule was just too darned full. Christensen is an agreeable-looking blond lad from Toronto, who fits the bill as far as resembling an older version of Lloyd goes, and is well within the required age range. (Unlike 25-year-old Leo.) Christensen's slim acting credits include a role as drug-addicted bad boy Scott Barringer on Fox Family Channel's Higher Ground series and a minor part as a psychotic paperboy in the John Carpenter film In the Mouth of Madness. Yep, sounds like the potential Darth Vader has some prior experience with the Dark Side. So, when will fans know who the next Anakin is? A rep from Lucasfilm says that they are not yet ready to make an announcement, but the digital word will go forth on the official Star Wars site (www.starwars.com), and of course, on Mr. Showbiz. The actor who portrays Anakin — whose personal journey takes him from wide-eyed Jedi trainee to scarred evildoer — will join the current cast of Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, and Samuel L. Jackson, all veterans from Episode I.
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NY Post:
5/5/00
A THRILLER FOR LEO?

CAN YOU bear to hear about yet another book that just has to be a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio? Sure you can. And I've got a dilly. "Boy Still Missing" is the literary thriller coming from William Morrow in March 2001. A young man gets caught up in a sexually charged relationship with his father's mistress, leading to a grisly death for which he feels responsible. It has been written by John Searles, the handsome guy who is Cosmopolitan's senior books and articles editor. (John moved to New York from Connecticut only 10 years ago, with all his belongings in the back of his father's trailer. He then had only a crazy dream of becoming a successful writer.) Paramount's literary veep Patricia Burke has been championing the idea of "Boy Still Missing" ever since she read the first 100 pages last year. Now it is one of the hottest properties on the movie market. Of course, if Leonardo doesn't need a hot movie idea he doesn't have to do it. But if he doesn't, he might be sorry.
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Fox 411:
5/4/00
Scorsese's Gangs May See New 'Day'

A secret confab was held last night here, in New York (the place from which all things emanate), that may influence the fate of Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York film. This is the movie which will star Leonardo DiCaprio when it's shot this summer in Italy and other European points. Originally Robert DeNiro was supposed to co-star, but just as the deal went through with Miramax for the money behind the film, the famed star pulled out. The story behind that may well make its own movie. But now Miramax pasha Harvey Weinstein may have found a much better solution to his problems. At this aforementioned dinner, held at Oceana Restaurant off Madison Avenue (you know, the very health Harvey is eating a lot of fish these days), Weinstein and DiCaprio brought their case to none other than Daniel Day-Lewis. As readers of this column know, Day-Lewis, 42, is in semi-retirement. Married to Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur, the Oscar winner (for My Left Foot) has had a spotty career over the last decade. After Foot, he did The Last of the Mohicans, Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, The Crucible and The Boxer. He had something of a debacle on stage in London with Hamlet when he left the stage mid-performance. Lena Olin, who co-starred with DDL in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, told this column a few months ago: "He identifies too strongly with his characters. He really lives in them when he's playing the part. It's too much for him." Producer/director Jim Sheridan, who worked with DDL on The Boxer and In the Name of the Father, echoed these sentiments when I talked to him a couple of months ago. "He feels these things very deeply," said Sheridan. But we all have to work, don't we? So DDL is being coaxed by the Gangs gang to take the part of an Irish gangster — which would certainly be perfect. The actor has already worked with Scorsese on the underappreciated Innocence — which is running now on the Starz channel in case you're interested — and the results were more than satisfying. Our advice: take the job, Dan! No more Garbo for you.
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Electronic Telegraph:
5/3/00
A steam clean works a dream

Jenni Baden Howard discovers a soothing way to pamper your facial pores and drive out dirt IN the eternal quest for a flawless, radiant complexion, having genes and age on your side helps; even so, a scrupulous cleansing routine will go a long way. The most fashionable way to purify your pores at the moment is by using one of the latest facial steam baths. Added to a bowl of hot (never boiling) water, these aromatic blends deep-cleanse the skin by helping to create a sauna-like effect, drawing out grime and leaving the skin glowing. Dr Hauschka's Facial Steam Bath (£18), part of the ultra-hip German organic beauty company's Holistic Face Care collection, is always used during the company's blissfully relaxing facial treatments, which are loved by the likes of Cate Blanchett, Jade Jagger and Stella McCartney. The key ingredients of the steam bath are daisy and soothing, spot-zapping witch hazel (for salons and stockists nationwide, tel: 01386 792642). Original Source offers a much cheaper alternative with its Tea Tree, Mint & Herb Facial Sauna (£3.50). The naturally anti-bacterial and anti-fungal tea tree oil helps to blitz blemishes and control excess oil, while other essential oils, such as lavender, rosemary, coriander and basil, help to calm and decongest the skin (available exclusively at Boots). Similarly, Kneipp's range of therapeutic Herbal Bath Oils (£5.99 each) is based on all-natural extracts and can be used in facial steam treatments. The vapour of the eucalyptus blend will help to relieve any sniffles and is wonderfully cooling in the summer, while the Orange & Linden Blossom is deeply relaxing (for stockists, tel: 01543 482505). Both Cindy Crawford and Leonardo DiCaprio are said to keep Kneipp's oils in their bathrooms. Of course, if you already have a pure essential oil such as camomile or tea tree to hand, you could simply add two or three drops to a basin of cooling boiled water. Or, even cheaper, toss in a handful of herbs from the garden, such as basil or mint, a sprig or two of lavender or a few rose petals. Draping a towel over your head will help you to make the most of the vapours. Steam opens pores and makes the skin more receptive to the benefits of a face mask. To brighten a dull-looking complexion and nip any threatening blemishes in the bud, Eve Lom's Rescue Mask (£19.50), with camphor, is hard to beat and is recommended for use just once a week (stockists and mail order, 020 8661 7991). The Body Shop's Blue Corn Scrub Mask (£4.50) also works a treat on oily/combination skins that are prone to breakouts. A final word of caution: beauty experts are divided on the merits of "steam cleaning" the face. While many swear by it as a method of keeping the skin clear, others say it is too aggressive, overly drying and often results in broken capillaries. Certainly, it makes sense not to steam if you have sensitive or very dry skin or are prone to broken blood vessels. Remember, too, not to get too close to the water - hold your face at least 10 inches above the bowl - and don't be tempted to steam for more than four minutes. Gently pat your skin dry with a tissue or soft towel and follow with lashings of your usual moisturiser.
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Washington Post:
5/3/00
The Wisdom Of Chairman Roone

Former ABC News president Roone Arledge, who tonight helps Ted Koppel celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Nightline" at the Library of Congress, practically invented the network's news division. He introduced "Nightline," "World News Tonight," "This Week With David Brinkley," "20/20" and "PrimeTime Live," and nurtured such stars as Koppel, Peter Jennings, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts. Today, the 68-year-old Arledge is news chairman and above the fray, which in recent weeks has certainly frayed President David Westin, his handpicked successor. Westin, Arledge's co-host tonight, is still struggling to overcome the fallout of Leonardo DiCaprio's late March "visit"--or was it an "interview"?--with President Clinton. "Come on, you don't think I'm going to talk about that, do you?" Arledge told us. "I don't want to point to David. There are moments at every place, from The Washington Post to the New York Times, where, in retrospect, you can say that people should have had better sense." Arledge said he meets with Westin once a week to talk things over. "I have been as supportive as I possibly can be, but if it's something I don't agree with, part of my role is to say that. I was not involved in the DiCaprio thing." The flap "hasn't totally fizzled out yet--I saw something on it again today or yesterday," he added. "Those things have a way of coming back, particularly in jokes." Arledge blames CNN President Rick Kaplan, a former ABC News executive and twice an overnight White House guest, for Clinton's savage humor at last month's Radio & Television Correspondents' Association Dinner, when the president took the lectern to the theme song from "Titanic" and quipped: "ABC doesn't know whether Leo and I had an interview, a walk-through or a drive-by. But I don't know if all their damage control is worth the effort. I mean, it's a little bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the set of 'This Week With Sam and Cokie.' " Arledge told us: "I haven't talked to Rick but I saw his fine hand. . . . He has written stuff for Clinton before." Yesterday, an emphatic Kaplan told us: "I have never in my life helped him write jokes or anything else."
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LA Times:
5/3/00
Diaz Will Join Scorsese 'Gang'

Cameron Diaz is in talks to star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in "Gangs of New York," the $80 million-plus Martin Scorsese drama set to begin shooting in Rome in August. Diaz's deal is expected to close quickly, while Scorsese is zeroing on his other leads; Liam Neeson and Pete Postlethwaite ("In the Name of the Father") are among those being eyed by the director. "Gangs" is set in 19th century New York during the peak of Tammany Hall's political corruption. Diaz will play the lead female role of Jenny, a street savvy master thief who becomes entangled both professionally and romantically with DiCaprio's character, Amsterdam, a Gotham gangster who organized street gangs in an effort to control the city's street wars between Italian and Irish immigrants. "Gangs" has long been a passion project for Scorsese, who wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks, his collaborator on "The Age of Innocence." Disney's Miramax Films and Touchstone Pictures units are fully financing and producing the film out of their respective U.K. offices. Diaz is currently filming Sony Pictures' "Charlie's Angels" alongside Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Bill Murray.
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Mr Showbiz:
5/3/00
Diaz Joins Gangs, Robs Leo

Wispy, blond hottie Cameron Diaz will ditch the cute floral dresses for soiled trousers in order to play the criminal girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's upcoming drama, Gangs of New York. The actress was in talks for a month before deciding to be a part of the $90 million portrait of grimy, politically corrupt New York, circa 1840. DiCaprio committed to the picture in February 1999. He will depict Amsterdam Vallon, a historical figure who recruited street thugs to fight violent clashes between warring Irish and Italian gangs. According to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, Diaz will star as the pretty but wiley master thief Jenny, who manipulates Vallon's heart along with safe combinations. Together, the couple manages to do some very bad things indeed. Variety also reports that Liam Neeson and Pete Postlethwaite are other leads on Scorsese's wish list. Gangs is scheduled to begin shooting in Rome in August.
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NY Post:
5/2/00
Stick to acting

Here's one quote you didn't see during Leonardo DiCaprio's "Earth Day 2000" interview with President Clinton, which aired April 22 on ABC:
Said Leonardo: "Now, Louisiana is the second largest consumer of fossil fuels and the city (sic) most at risk for sea level rise."
The quote was cut from the broadcast - but ran in full on salon.com.
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Washington Post:
5/2/00
Leo Interview: Why Hardly Anyone Cares

Now that nearly everyone in the journalism racket has had a great belly laugh at ABC News dispatching Leonardo DiCaprio to the White House, it turns out the joke is on us. Perhaps, some columnists are saying, the public doesn't see as vast a difference between a Hollywood hunk and the typical network correspondent as the self-appointed keepers of the First Amendment flame would like to think. Perhaps, as America's channel-surfers see it, flamboyant reporters, matinee-idol anchors and celluloid stars are all just performers. Consider an unsigned letter that arrived the other day on ABC News stationery: "You don't have to be a journalist to be called one on television. . . . The trusted, recognizable TV faces that feed us our daily ration of news are nothing more than multimillion-dollar-a-year celebrity presenters, the Talent. . . . Newsmagazines are just as staged as any movie or TV show. Story ideas are like screenplays. . . . The producer must spin them into mini-dramas cast with characters. . . . "The kind of journalism practiced here seems to be less about the loftier goals of civic duty and public responsibility, but about providing the right vehicle to show off the Talent as a hardball investigative reporter. The problem is, they are not. This is star making, not news reporting." Now this is unfair in certain respects. Some of the aforementioned Talent have many years of experience covering wars and campaigns and asking tough questions. They work long hours and embrace basic concepts like journalistic balance. They have a knack for making sense in live, unscripted situations. But the growing fusion of celebrity culture and network values is hard to deny. It's not just that the likes of Fergie, Charles Grodin, Chuck D, Florence Henderson and Magic Johnson have been showing up as correspondents and talk show hosts. It's not just that Larry King and the "McLaughlin Group" have played themselves in movies. It's not just that respected journalists keep chasing Michael Jackson and Tonya Harding and Madonna. It's that many network news shows--with dramatic music, slow-motion video, staged confrontations, sensational promos and tackling-the-bad-guys plots--look as slick and packaged as anything out of DreamWorks. Some columnists dismiss the media breast-beating over the low-rated DiCaprio-Clinton sit-down, which aired April 22. Steve Dunleavy of the New York Post calls the controversy "idiotic, pompous, navel-gazing self-indulgence that equates journalism with micro-surgery." In Advertising Age, Randall Rothenberg says: "Put bluntly, the viewers of TV news are dying out. . . . Instead of sinking with the star of 'Titanic,' maybe it's time for broadcasters to give up on news and leave it to the real pros--in cable and print--who remain committed to doing it right." William Powers of National Journal says nobody outside the clubby media world really cares. Perhaps, he writes, "the public is just a bunch of stupidos who no longer understand the high purposes of journalism." But, he says, "suppose the public doesn't care about a teen idol's interviewing the president because the public figured out a long time ago that network news isn't a serious business and stopped worrying about it?" Since word of DiCaprio's cameo role first appeared in The Post on April 1, every news outlet on the planet has taken a whack at ABC. But the guffaws have exposed a sizable gap between the sober self-image of television journalists and the jaundiced view of much of the public.
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Variety:
5/2/00
Diaz Will Join Scorsese 'Gang'

Cameron Diaz is in talks to star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in "Gangs of New York," the $80 million-plus Martin Scorsese drama set to begin shooting in Rome in August. Diaz's deal is expected to close quickly, while Scorsese is zeroing on his other leads; Liam Neeson and Pete Postlethwaite ("In the Name of the Father") are among those being eyed by the director. "Gangs" is set in 19th century New York during the peak of Tammany Hall's political corruption. Diaz will play the lead female role of Jenny, a street savvy master thief who becomes entangled both professionally and romantically with DiCaprio's character, Amsterdam, a Gotham gangster who organized street gangs in an effort to control the city's street wars between Italian and Irish immigrants. "Gangs" has long been a passion project for Scorsese, who wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks, his collaborator on "The Age of Innocence." Disney's Miramax Films and Touchstone Pictures units are fully financing and producing the film out of their respective U.K. offices. Diaz is currently filming Sony Pictures' "Charlie's Angels" alongside Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Bill Murray.
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NY Daily News:
5/1/00
Leo Ad-lips Scene with Model

Lusty Leonardo DiCaprio laid claim to supermodel Giselle Bundchen in a smoldering liplock Thursday night. The actor displayed some "Titanic" passion when he spotted the busty Brazilian at an NBA Fashion party thrown by his pals Alexandre Wilson and Ritchie Akiva at Saci. Like a matador, DiCaprio planned his approach. A spy tells us: "All of these guys were hitting on her and Leo was just watching from the sidelines. He started to circle her. Finally, he walked over, spun her around and started making out with her right there in the middle of all these people." No one was more amused than Sean (Puffy) Combs. "Puffy was watching them from another part of the room — giving a play-by-play to someone on the phone of everything Leo was doing," says our courtside reporter. "He thought it was hysterical." So much for Leo and Giselle being "just friends" — as the model's publicist claimed recently after they reportedly played tonsil hockey at an L.A. club. The pair left Saci together in the wee hours of Friday. P.S.: While at Saci, Leo appeared to steer clear of his former best buddy, magician David Blaine. "They were just 3 feet from each other and they wouldn't say hello," says our source.
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Complete Orange County Weekly article
Orange County Weekly:
5/1/00
Hip! Hop! Shop!

The idea for the film came to Toback in the mid-’90s when he was rolling with the most manicured, coifed posse ever to endanger the streets and $3,000-per-night suites of Manhattan, road dogs so glaringly, blindingly white as to make a Semite feel straight-out Nubian. I’m talking about Leo DiCaprio and his infamous "Pussy Posse," which included lesser heartthrob Tobey Maguire. If banging bitches was their prime directive, hip-hop was their fuel. "There was hardly a rap lyric they didn’t know by heart," Toback recalled, "and they wore baseball caps backward, baggy pants down to the knees, and affected the physical gestures of that world. And since I’ve had my own ride with the mixing of races and cultures when I was living at Jim Brown’s house back in the ’70s, I thought, ‘This is for me.’"
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Bergen Report:
5/1/00
banished classics stage a counterattack

Just when you thought those Dead White European Males were packed off for good, they come sneaking in the back door. First it was Shakespeare. Then the Greeks. Now, all the rest of them -- Dante, Milton, Keats, Tolstoy -- that whole "Great Books" crowd. For about two decades now, they've been banished from the core requirements of just about every major university. Students have been able to get through four years at an Ivy League school without reading a single one of them. No longer did being an educated person mean having at least a nodding acquaintance with these thinkers, whose works are known collectively as the Western canon. The arguments for what was wrong with the canon were summed up in the phrase Dead White European Males, which translates into sexist, racist, Eurocentric, and no longer relevant to the contemporary world. There were other arguments, some stemming from French philosophies such as post-structuralism and deconstructionism, that, depending on your point of view, were either exquisitely subtle or completely obscure. Despite all this, those Dead White European Males, or DWEMS, have proved remarkably resilient. They keep popping up where you least expect them. Consider Shakespeare. Students may have escaped him in the classroom, but he caught up with them in the movie theaters. For the past five or six years, Hollywood has been cranking out Shakespeare movies with reckless abandon. Some are semi-faithful to the originals, some loose adaptations with offbeat settings, but all recognizable as Shakespeare. We've seen Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo, Mel Gibson as Hamlet, Laurence Fishburne as Othello, Calista Flockhart and Michelle Pfeiffer in a "Midsummer Night's Dream." Even Anthony Hopkins in the gruesome "Titus Andronicus," a play that even most graduate students don't read. Hollywood as the savior of high culture? Not quite. Some of these movies have been pretty awful. But they have preserved much of the language and, more importantly, some sense of the life and vitality of these plays. And the whole thing is just so .. ironic. While academics probe Shakespeare's plays for signs of sexism or aristocratic biases, or spin theories that Juliet was having a lesbian relationship with her nurse or that "The Tempest" is a text on colonialism, Hollywood makes "Shakespeare in Love" and turns the biggest DWEM of them all into a heartthrob.
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Post Gazette:
5/1/00
Shakespeare -- stirred not shaken

Shakespeare is like a dry martini. The ingredients are simple and few, and in the right proportions it goes down smoothly and refreshingly. Mixed badly it's enough to make you "fain die a dry death." But it's hard to find a good martini in Pittsburgh. Since the prime of the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, several companies -- most notably the Public, Quantum and Unseam'd Shakespeare -- have given the Bard satisfactory whirls. Schools use him as a training tool, and some companies dangle his works like status symbols, hoping to prove to those who've acquired the taste that they are top theatrical mixologists, when most audiences would rather just have a beer. "The way Shakespeare is used sets the work apart from too many people," says Matt August, a former assistant director for the Juilliard School of Drama and staff repertory director of The Acting Company, which brings "Macbeth" to the Byham Sunday as part of the Live on Stage Series. Mixed the way it was intended, August says the play goes down smoothly and accessibly. "Shakespeare has a history of being taught [and] there's a certain taboo about it," he says. "Sequestered into high school literature classes, it's taught as literature instead of plays, and that leads to a lot of fear. There is a fear of Shakespeare where students and teachers and people [in general] feel that Shakespeare is talking and writing about people in another place. The fact is, Shakespeare has survived 400 years because he's writing about things that deal with our world today." Like a band of traveling bartenders, The Acting Company mounts lengthy tours through the heartland. Formed in 1972 by Margot Hurley and the late John Houseman from members of the first graduating class of Juilliard's drama school, the company has been a launching platform for alumni including Patti LuPone, David Ogden Stiers and Kevin Kline. Since November, The Acting Company has been from Sweet Briar to Nacogdoches and every place in between on a tour that ends in New York with an extended off-Broadway run of Richard Sheridan's "The Rivals." The tour's final stop in Pittsburgh, courtesy of the Cultural Trust, includes a matinee Monday for high school students only. "The tours are designed to take good off-Broadway productions of Shakespeare to places where they don't have good access to the classics," says August. "In Pittsburgh, you have more access than most places, but because it's not taught well in the schools, I think it's harder for young people to acquire the taste." Purists found flaws in recent Hollywood adaptations of Shakespeare's works, but August says that movies such as Leonardo DiCaprio's "Romeo + Juliet" and even new stories like "Shakespeare in Love" help to open the door to the classics to young audiences. "When people can look to and be entertained by their entertainment icons they begin to see things differently," he says. "[The stories are] spoken in a slick, fast, hard-hitting MTV visual style, and I think there were certain sacrifices made to do that. But I'm sure there are kids who saw those movies and who decided to read 'Romeo + Juliet' who ordinarily wouldn't have. We want to be a part of that appreciation."
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Time:
4/28/00
Sometimes, Paradise Can Be a Nightmare

Sometimes, Paradise Can Be a Nightmare Sipadan is an exclusive Malaysian diving resort, which may be why it was targeted by desperate Filipino terrorists A group of Western tourists kidnapped in Malaysia may have bumped into the hard reality driving the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach" — that a pristine Third World paradise turns out to be the stamping ground of elements whose agenda definitely doesn't include showing visitors a good time. Some 10 tourists from various countries are among the 21 hostages who were forced onto two boats on the remote island of Sipadan overnight Sunday by gunmen suspected of being members of a Philippines-based Islamic separatist movement. A spokesman for the Abu Ayyaf organization, a dwindling radical Islamic group with links to superterrorist Osama bin Laden, on Tuesday first claimed responsibility for the attack, and later (sort of) withdrew the statement, saying: "I'm not saying we are the ones; I'm also not saying we're not the ones — let's give the government a puzzle." Although Philippines officials were skeptical of the claims, the group — which has been eclipsed by the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front, currently in negotiations with the government — has resorted in recent months to a spate of kidnappings in a desperate bid to maintain its relevance. If the kidnappers are indeed members of the skittish terrorist group and not simply some of the pirates for which the region is notorious, American tourists James and Mary Murphy, of Rochester, N.Y., may be even luckier than they first thought to have escaped their captors. Those currently held captive at an undisclosed location in Philippines waters include citizens of Finland, France, Germany, Lebanon, Malaysia and South Africa. But if they had managed to hold onto the two Americans who escaped during the raid on the Sipadan resort, that might have tempted the kidnappers to aim high in their demands. Although the kidnappers have issued no demands as yet, in previous kidnappings Abu Sayyaf has made demands ranging from insisting that the government include a popular local Muslim film star on its negotiating team (a demand that was met) to a call for the release of imprisoned World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and others convicted of terrorism in the U.S. The group also announced just last week that it had beheaded two Filipino hostages from a previous kidnapping as a "birthday present" to President Joseph Estrada. As the Philippine navy searches the countless small islands and inlets of its vast archipelago for signs of the group, the hostages may be ruing their choice of vacation destination. Paradise, sometimes, comes at a shocking price.
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NY Daily News:
4/28/00
Titanic Presence at the Garden

You know it's a celebrity event when Leonardo DiCaprio is in the house. And that was definitely Leo at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, watching intently as the Knicks squeaked by the Raptors. His Lakers cap gave him away. Others A-listers spotted courtside or nearby included Gov. Pataki, Jesse Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, Rick Moranis, Jorge Posada and Tino Martinez from the Yankees and Elizabeth Hurley, who came to the game with Ted Forstmann. Hurley wore a T-shirt proclaiming "Porn Star in Training," and said it was her first basketball game ever.
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Electronic Telegraph:
4/28/00
'His suicide made no sense at all'

The death of 30-year-old Ben Cole left his family trying desperately to discover what went wrong. Elizabeth Grice reports it was Monday morning. Ben Cole ironed his shirt and set out the suit he would wear to work. He helped his wife, Lori, load their two small children into her car and waved them off to nursery school with the usual: "See you this evening." Then he went to the garage, taped up the windows of his own car, laid towels on the seats, swallowed a miniature Bushmills whiskey and waited for the exhaust fumes to overwhelm him. When she returned home from work, Lori found Ben's body in the car with the engine still running. There was a note on the seat - "I love you all very much but I can't go on doing it" - and a scattering of family photographs, mostly taken in his home town, Rye in Sussex. "He did everything amazingly professionally, for want of a better word," says his younger brother, Josh. "He'd know carbon monoxide makes an awful lot of moisture and would have ruined the car. The towels were to take up the moisture." Their father, Quin, observes quietly: "Ben was very practical. He was also a perfectionist. He would know just what to do and would not have botched it." Ben's family found no indication that anything was amiss: no depression, no financial problems or indiscretions, no secret lover, no ghastly medical condition. In the 18 months since Ben died, they have turned over every possibility, examined his computer files for clues, analysed his last phone calls, talked to colleagues. He adored his children - Eliza, just three, and Sebastian, nine months. "We shall never know what the 'it' in his suicide note was," says Quin. "He had the best brain of any of us: that's what's so ridiculous." Inevitably, both Quin and his wife, Biddy, have examined their role as parents, and contrasted the lives of their two sons, born seven years apart: identical upbringings, different personalities, painfully different fates. One forging a successful career as an actor; the other caught up in a personal crisis at the age of 30 and unable to see a way through. "We are of a generation that still feels the stigma of suicide," says Biddy. "We feel, irrationally maybe, that it must be something about us. What did we do that caused things to foment and go bad in this way? What didn't we do? In my better moments, I tell myself that what happened to Ben was like a heart attack in his head. How else could he have done it?" Two months ago, Biddy was her younger son's guest at the premiere of the new Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Beach. Josh, 23, had a small but conspicuous part as a member of the beach community. He and DiCaprio, each allowed one guest, invited their mothers. "The saddest thing," says Biddy, "is that Ben didn't know about The Beach. He would have been so proud." For the last 10 years, Ben had lived in Houston, Texas. He dropped out of Reading university, took a vacational job in America and decided to stay. "All his life, he acted on impulse," says Biddy. "Even as quite a little boy, he would do something and only tell you about it afterwards." "His whole life," adds Quin, "was a series of unpremeditated actions which he didn't discuss with anybody else. Killing himself was the most extreme example." As well as working in a restaurant, Ben embarked on another degree course, this time in business studies in Houston. Through the restaurant, he met Lori, a fellow student, and she proposed to him on Leap Year's day, 1992. "We didn't know their relationship well," says Biddy. "But I thought Lori was very good with Ben. Ben and I were head-on confrontational. Lori managed him well. She is a true southern girl - a steel magnolia - I don't think she ever raises her voice. We were impressed by the way she was with him." The couple had just acquired their first mortgage and the new house had stretched their resources to the limit. They spent the weekend before Ben's death painting their bedroom while Lori's parents looked after the children. Lori had mentioned another project but Ben reminded her they would have to wait until they had some money. "Well, honey," she replied, "if we're going to be here for 30 years, we can plan." Much as Ben loved his family, perhaps he felt boxed in - wife, children, job, mortgage. "He had not liked being 30," says Biddy. Not so long ago, she and Quin had asked Ben if he would be interested in taking over the old-established family business, Rye Pottery, when they retire. Ben had not given them an answer either way and they wonder if he was torn between two sets of family expectations. There was undoubtedly pressure at work - since his death, his job as office manager with the Prudential has been split between two people. Whatever the reason he did not, and could not, let anyone know how he was feeling. His boss, a friend and confidant, had died six months earlier, deepening Ben's sense of isolation. "Things definitely changed for him after Bob's death," says Josh. The suicide rate among men aged 15-44 has increased dramatically in the past 20 years. Dr Rory O'Connor, a lecturer in psychology at Strathclyde University, identifies the common thread as an inability to adapt to change - at work or in personal relationships - and to share feelings. "Their coping strategies are not adequate. They cannot see options to solve their problems and regard it as failure if they cannot cope alone. Communication is therapeutic, and men are less good communicators." In his book Understanding Suicidal Behaviour, Dr O'Connor argues that suicidal people are not necessarily clinically depressed or mentally ill: they simply see their problems through a distorting mirror. "It's these distortions that create the risk." He divides suicides into the impulsive and the rational. "Suicidal behaviour should be considered normal, not abnormal. It is the end product of a whole series of factors. Often, there is a sense of hopelessness for the future." Ben was certainly the less communicative of the two brothers. As a boy, he would spend hours in his attic bedroom making models. Quin says they always knew what Josh was up to; but Ben was a closed book. Both boys were educated at public schools: Ben at Christ's Hospital, Horsham, and Josh at King's, Canterbury. Josh feels he did not really get to know his brother properly until they were adults, but even though theirs was a long-distance relationship, they were close. Ben once saved his brother when his shirt caught fire by rolling him up in a carpet to put out the flames. "He was quick-thinking and resourceful. If you needed someone in a crisis, you would put him top of your list," says Josh. "He got me out of tight corners from an early age." Josh was playing the part of a young American GI in a National Youth Theatre production in London when he heard of his brother's death. There were two nights still to run. "It was very painful because I had been doing this play when Ben was here in September. He and Lori came to see me. It was the last time I saw him." On September 14, 1998, Biddy and Quin were woken by the telephone in the early hours. It was Lori. "There is no easy way to tell you this," she said, "but Ben has killed himself." Quin was aghast that his son could have left two small children without a father and his immediate reaction was to apologise to his daughter-in-law for the tragedy. "I wondered if we had brought him up toughly enough," he says. Biddy sensed her elder son's struggle to reconcile his new responsibilities in a foreign country with his deep affection for England. "It wasn't homesickness exactly, but he missed England, especially in the autumn and the spring." When he returned to America after a holiday in Rye, he would ration his phone calls home because they reminded him of the long wait until the next time. His attitude, says Biddy, was "If I can't have it, I don't want to think about it." Biddy and Josh flew to America for Ben's memorial service while Quin stayed at home to look after Josh's sister, Tabby, 28, who was too ill with a collapsed lung to travel. They arrived in baking heat in the small suburb of Dickinson and were overwhelmed by Texan hospitality. "The family were enormously kind but it was undoubtedly the most surreal time of our whole lives," Biddy recalls. Biddy had spoken to Ben five days before his death - happy, inconsequential gossip about the grandchildren, the house, the garden. "It was all positive, upbeat and forward-looking." They spoke for 15 minutes; silly, she knows, but she kept the phone bill. "I have dissected that conversation again and again. Was there something I didn't pick up? There has to have been something I didn't hear. You think: if he was in trouble, why didn't he tell us? But I am sure he would have found it very hard to talk to anybody if things had gone wrong." In America, she and Josh were able to piece together more of Ben's recent life but his suicide made no more sense at the end of their trip than at the beginning. A lawyer friend told them: "If I had to say which of all my friends, on a scale of one to ten, was most likely to commit suicide, I would put Ben at minus five." Tabby has just returned from Houston, convinced her brother's tragedy was the result of "the average pressures of everyday life". She says she has stopped asking the question why? "There was nothing and no one to pin anything on. You couldn't direct your anger at anything in particular. So it was a very pure sense of anger, a feeling of being robbed." She says relations between the four of them have intensified as the child-parent barriers have been washed away by common grief. The children have, in a sense, become their parents' protectors. To watch their unnecessary guilt, she says, is "just heartbreaking". It is some comfort to his parents that Ben left his family well provided: life insurance and two years' salary from the Prudential. "He was an honourable boy," says his mother. "If he had just disappeared from Lori's life, as a lot of men do, she would have had nothing. At least, this way, he felt she would cope financially." But on beautiful blue, crisp days - the kind Ben loved and missed when he was in America - Biddy's incomprehension is as vast as the sky. "I look out and ask him: 'How could you not have hung on?' It's never going to make sense, is it?"
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Complete USA Today article
USA Today:
4/28/00
'U.S. News' owner not going anywhere

...''We're going to continue to focus in on that category,'' says Zuckerman, who introduced the idea of ''News You Can Use,'' now a part of the common vocabulary. ''We've always been No. 1 in business pages. The energy is in the private sector and business world.'' Editor Stephen Smith, a former editor at Time and Newsweek, also says that unlike those rivals, ''we don't do celebrity journalism. If you want Leonardo DiCaprio or Ricky Martin, don't buy U.S. News. . . . We cover technology far more week-in and week-out, whether Bill Gates is involved or not. They need more of a personality to make the story.'' One rival disagrees: ''The occasional pop culture cover is only a small part of our offering,'' says Newsweek Editor-in-chief Rick Smith. ''I'm proud of the breadth and depth of our news coverage and the fact that our readers and opinion leaders take us seriously.'' Time declined to comment.
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Salon.com
4/28/00
The Other Beach

Before the feature presentation begins at any movie theater in Thailand, there comes a solemn moment when the previews and advertisements go dark, and a silent message appears on the screen inviting all present to "Please pay respect to His Majesty the King." Audience members rise from their seats as the soothing harmonies of the Thai royal anthem fill the room, accompanied by a brief pictorial tribute to the nation's beloved 72-year-old monarch. This time-honored ritual, a sweetly reverential act repeated hundreds of times a day at theaters throughout the kingdom, is part of what makes going to the movies one of Bangkok's great little unsung pleasures -- particularly at the newer cinemas, which offer efficient computerized booking systems (no need to queue up for good seats), up-to-date sound and projection equipment and the singular option of choosing dried squid treats instead of popcorn at the lobby snack bar. With tickets selling for only about $3 at the city's impressive inventory of modern multiplexes, Bangkok would be a true paradise for cinephiles were it not for an unfortunate dearth of good pictures rolling through all those high-fidelity projectors. At almost any given time, a handful of mediocre Hollywood blockbusters monopolizes the local listings, consistently favoring the kind of shallow comedies and action-packed thrillers that lose nothing in translation. But so appealing are the movie houses themselves, my wife and I routinely scan the new releases for a convincing excuse to spend an evening at the cinema, frequently settling for titles we hope will be at least mildly entertaining if not especially memorable. It was in this spirit that we attended a screening last March of "The Beach," starring Earth Day 2000 poster boy Leonardo DiCaprio. The film adaptation of Alex Garland's dark novel was just out in Thailand, but reviewers in the States had been badmouthing it for weeks, so we arrived at the theater with decidedly low expectations and were not the least bit disappointed. Squirming through the ponderous tale of an island Utopia gone seriously awry, I wondered how the Thais in the audience must feel seeing their culture reduced to such incidental, two-dimensional characters: The weird old witch of a chambermaid, the sneering snake blood salesman, the heartless police detective, the sadistic posse of backwoods dope farmers with fingers ever twitching on the triggers of their automatic weapons. Then it dawned on me that my own culture wasn't faring so well either, represented in the film by an impetuous and self-indulgent American backpacker who goes hog wild in the tropics after running away from home in pursuit of an escapist adolescent fantasy. Despite director Danny Boyle's best efforts to make us like DiCaprio, the most heroic figure in "The Beach" strangely turns out to be the chief marijuana grower, played with convincing edginess and pragmatism by Abhijati "Meuk" Jusakul. When the final confrontation between farmers and foreigners brings the story to a long overdue climax, Jusakul delivers the film's most gripping moment -- and only example of subtle character development -- as he works out a harsh but eminently sensible resolution to the conflict that doesn't involve blowing the whole lot of pathetic farang kids to kingdom come. More intriguing than the movie itself is the ongoing debate about the real beach at Maya Bay on the island of Phi Phi Leh, where much of the filming took place. Protesters picketing outside the Bangkok premiere called for a general boycott of "The Beach" on the grounds that location work for the film -- which involved bulldozing sand dunes and planting a temporary grove of coconut palms -- had caused irreparable damage to a sensitive littoral ecosystem within Thailand's Koh Phi Phi Had Nopparat Thara Marine National Park. Twentieth Century Fox, which obtained a permit to use the site, contends that its crew left the beach in better condition than when it arrived, removing the imported palm trees, restoring the dunes and hauling away tons of previously accumulated flotsam and jetsam. Later the plot thickened when significant sand erosion became apparent at Maya Bay after last year's rainy season. Environmental activists blamed inadequate restoration of the native vegetation that would have stabilized the dunes. Royal Forestry Department officials countered that unusually strong monsoon storms were responsible, insisting that the dunes would re-form naturally over time.