The Behrend beacon. (Erie, Pa.) 1998-current, January 17, 2003, Image 9
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