Daniel J. Stasiewski, A & E Editor
behrco!ls @ aol.com
Hollywood’s biggest party
set for Sunday
'Chicago,' 'Schmidt' lead the Golden Globes race
With second semester starting, that can only mean
one thing: award shows. The honors onslaught moves into high
gear this Sunday with the 60' h annual Golden Globes Awards.
Hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,
the show will pay tribute to qualifying movies and television
productions of 2002.
In the movie category, the big-screen adaptation of
Bob Fosse’s musical “Chicago” received eight nominations,
the most for any film. The musical is up for Best Motion Pic
ture, Musical or Comedy.
The two female leads, Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-
Jones, are both nominated for B6st Actress in a Musical or Com
edy. Even Richard Gere, who sings and dances in this film,
scored himself a nomination for Best Actor.
The small unknown movie that made a big splash this
year, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” raked in two nominations
with Nia Vardalos, writer and star, being nominated for Best
Actress, along with the movie getting a nod for Best Motion
Picture, Musical or Comedy.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s two movies, “Catch Me IfYou
Can” and “Gangs of New York” both scored nods. DiCaprio
managed to grab a Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama nomi
nation for his portrayal of Frank Abagnale Jr. in “Catch Me If
'Joe Millionaire' butler guesses what's up, but
keeps it quiet
by Donna Petrozzello
New York Daily News
(KRT)
The butler may be discreet, but he’s
not stupid.“ Joe Millionaire" major-
domo, Paul Hogan, says he suspected
Evan Marriott was not a real tycoon
early on in the filming of the hot Fox
series. But his suspicious weren’t
confirmed until the last day of produc-
“After day 10 of shooting, I thought,
If this guy’s got $5O million, I’m the
Queen of England,”’ Hogan tells the
New York Daily News.
For the reality show, 20 women flew
to a French chateau in hopes of winning
the heart of a man they were told was a
dashing millionaire. On the final day of
taping, Marriott picked his woman, who
then learned he was merely a $19,000-a
-year construction worker. No $5O million
inheritance. No mansion. And no butler.
Hogan says his training kept him
“It was evident to me that he didn’t
make money the old-fashioned way. But
there are plenty of people today who
have tremendous wealth and still shop at
Kmart.
“There’s a lot of people who, after they
inherit money, want to inherit the lifestyle.
So I was curious about him.”
But Hogan is a member of the elite In
ternational Guild of Professional Butlers,
a group that stresses the need to keep em
ployers’ personal lives and habits confiden
tial, says the group’s vice chairman, Werner
Leutert.
by Erika Jarvis
Staff Writer
“You can see from watching him on the
show that one of the challenges of a butler
is to handle any situation with aplomb and
make everyone at the chateau feel special.”
Even a faker.
Despite Hogan’s credentials, the show’s
executive producer Jean-Michel
Michenaud says that to safeguard the final
twist, he chose not to let Hogan, and doz
ens of the crew members, in on it. The 52-
year-old Hogan opened (and closed) the
show’s first episode with a fireside mono
logue, a la Alastair Cooke. But when the
butler spoke, 18.6 million viewers didn’t
hear the plummy upper-class voice of an
Englishman.
That’s because Hogan, who’s divorced,
spent 26 years in the Australian diplomatic
service. He retired 10 years ago as Consul
at the Australian Embassy in Buenos Aires,
then moved to the U.S.
“I came across the idea of buttling, and
1 thought, I’d done 90 percent of that job
when I ran embassies, so I decided to rein
vent myself as a butler,” he says. “I’ve been
doing it for four years now.”
Professional butlers are expected to be
knowledgeable about wines, the niceties
of fine dining, entertaining guests and hav
ing good manners _ which Hogan demon
strates on “Joe Millionaire.”
In addition to instructing Marriott in the
ways of the wealthy, Hogan accompanied
him on dates with the bachelorettes and
spent time with the women in their section
of the castle.
”1 felt like I was organizing a pajama
party most of the time with the ladies,” he
says.
The butler had an easy time coaching
You Can.” The DiCaprio/Martin Scorsese collaboration
“Gangs of New York” scored a Best Picture nomination.
The blockbuster “Lord of the Rings: The Two Tow
ers” brought in two nominations, one for Best Motion Picture
Drama and Best Director.
“About Schmidt” apparently made a good impres
sion on the Hollywood Foreign Press, as it copped five nomi
nations. Jack Nicholson’s role as Walter Schmidt helped gar
ner the veteran actor his 15th Best Actor nomination, while his
co-star Kathy Bates managed to take home a nomination in
the Best Supporting Actress category.
In the television world, HBO leads the pack with 18
nominations. The cable network’s hit shows such as, “Six Feet
Under,” “The Sopranos,” and “Sex and the City” will compete
against the network favorites.
“Sex and the City” will battle the Emmy-winner
“Friends” for the Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy
crown, while Tony Soprano and “the family” will be going up
against HBO’s other popular show “Six Feet Under” and past
Globe favorite “The West Wing” in the Drama Series race.
Other TV nominees include Jennifer Aniston and Matt
Leßlanc for their roles on “Friends,” as well as Debra Mess
ing and Eric McCormak for NBC’s “Will & Grace.” FOX
managed to overcome its reality show woes to score mul
tiple nominations for its hit show “24.”
Marriott
“Evan is a decent sort of bloke. He en
joys beer and fast food and likes to talk
about football."
Michenaud and fellow executive pro
ducer Chris Cowan agreed that casting a
butler would be valuable to help convince
the women that Evan was a man of means.
Indeed, Michenaud says he envisioned
Hogan as a reality-show version of
Reginald Jeeves, the trusty servant in P.G.
Wodehouse’s comic novels portrayed by
actor Stephen Fry in the British TV series
“Jeeves and Wooster.”
“It’s a classic to match a very wealthy
guy with a manservant,” says Michenaud.
The timing was perfect for Hogan, who
had returned home to upstate New York
last July after a short stint working in the
Caribbean. Looking for a new position,
Hogan called his butler’s guild agent, who
put him together with “Joe Millionaire’s"
producers after they contacted the organi
zation to find a butler for the show.
The job sounded like fun, says Hogan,
although he had never before watched any
reality TV.
Hogan is still drawing a Fox paycheck,
shooting commercials for “Joe Million
aire” that will be seen shortly. The third of
seven episodes airs Monday night at 9 EST.
Hogan watched the first one with buddies
at an Elks Lodge and was shocked to see
how much of his footage was used.
“I thought I’d be on the screen for 10
seconds,” he says. “The whole time we
were shooting, I thought, 'How in God’s
name will they make an entertaining pro
gram out of this?”’
Friday, January 17, 2003
'Married' to a moron
by Gary Dowell
The Dallas Morning News
(KRT)
Much like a real marriage, “Just Mar-
ried” is an uphill battle that gets by on
chemistry between its two leads. It’s a
sweet yet sporadically funny romantic
comedy that
will probably
do more dam
age to the Eu
ropean tourist
industry than
to the institu
tion of mar
riage
Ashton
Kutcher plays
Tom Leezak,
a young
slacker work
ing the grave
yard shift as a
radio traffic
reporter. After
a chance
Murphy is all over Kutcher in “Just Married"
teeting with
ar a h
McNemey (Brittany Murphy), the two fall
instantly in love and decide to get mar
ried, much to the dismay of her wealthy
family.
The newlyweds set off for Europe, deep
in love and determined to prove their
naysayers wrong. Instead, they find them
selves hip-deep in a honeymoon from hell,
plagued by impossibly compact rental
cars. Old World snobbery and those ac
cursed European electrical sockets. The
little things - plus a couple of dirty secrets
- start to take their toll on the couple, and
the lurking presence of Sarah’s ex-boy
friend only makes matters worse.
The result is a diverting trifle that’s tol
erably cute and thankfully devoid of much
Absentees bring home most
American Music Awards
by Roger Gorny
Staff Writer
The 30th annual American
Music Awards ceremony was
held on Monday at the Shrine
Auditorium in Los Angeles.
The surprise-filled night, how
ever, was low-lighted by the
absence of top honor’s winner
Eminem, the Dixie Chicks,
and Creed.
The awards were domi
nated by the hip-hop and R&B
scene. The wins were not un
expected, considering the
genre dominanated the
Billboard’s Hot 100 and 200
album charts in 2002.
Eminem swept all
four categories in which he was nominated,
including the award for Favorite Pop/Rock
Album for “The Eminem Show.”
Ashanti took home a pair of trophies,
including Best Pop/Rock New Artist. She
thanked all those who were most impor-
The Behrend Beacon
of the inanity found in teen comedies
these days. But unfortunately, “Just Mar
ried” is a little too lacking in sophistica
tion to really stand out. It relies so often
on stale cliches regarding Europeans and
ugly Americans that it makes “National
Lampoon’s European Vacation" seem
positively enlightened. The same lame
physical gags are repeated throughout the
movie to they point that an intriguing new
film theory is created: When in doubt,
smack someone in the head with a blunt
object.
Which is not to say that “Just Married”
is without saving graces. It has a certain
dorky charm, made palpable by its goofy
leads. Murphy, the voice of vapid Luanne
Platter on “King of the Hill,” and Kutcher,
better known as the spastic himbo Kelso
on “That '7os Show,” are perfect as
space cadets in love. They’re an excel
lent team that manages to squeeze some
genuine laughs out of all those stock
situations.
AMA hosts Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne
tant to her, especially her family and God.
Sheryl Crow was also a success at the
awards show, picking up the Best Pop/
Rock Artist of the Year award. She hit one
funny note upon reaching the microphone
when she said, “1 was afraid to see Pink
come up here,” referring to her fellow
nominee’s drunken acceptance speech at
the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards. Crow
also rallied peace supporters by ending her
proclamation for peace by saying, “Peace
this year.”
Other winners include Outkast, for Fa
vorite Hip-Hop Group, and Enrique
Iglesias for Favorite Latin Music Artist.
The performers also stole the show this
night. The opening of the show featured a
duet between Elton John and Tim McGraw.
They performed Elton’s song, “Tiny
Dancer,” followed by McGraw’s immedi
ate exit from the awards show.
But no one got into the show more than
the wacky and clever hosts, the Osbournes.
Constant bleeping during the show edited
out the family’s ever-present swearing. The
only time when censors did not factor into
an Osbourne being onstage was when Ozzy
and Sharon’s daughter Kelly performed her
song, “Shut Up!”
Another notable performer of the night
was Missy Elliot, who, along with her DJ
and a group of dancers all decked out in
red outfits, performed her hit “Work It”,
which has held the number two spot on the
Billboard charts for a record 10 weeks
straight.
The show’s sentimental highlight was a
tribute to late Bee Gee’s member, Maurice
Gibb, who died the week preceding the
show.
Page