Will

february 2008 | volume 9 | number 2 

Will Ferrell’s 

GAME PLAN? 

The star of Semi-Pro 

tells us why sports movies 

have his number 

DAVID 

MORRISSEY 

GETS BETWEEN THE 

BOLEYN GIRLS 

WHY SAM 

JACKSON 

LEAPT AT JUMPER 

PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40708019 

WHAT’S 

Oscar 

issue: 

fashion, 

nominees, 

trivia 

SNAPS: BRAD PITT, MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL, KATHERINE HEIGL, AMANDA BYNES, ETHAN HAWKE

ONE ORDINARY MAN. 

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contents 

38 

FEATURES 

21 INSIDE OSCAR 

Get the scoop on the 80th 

Academy Awards with our look at 

Oscar fashions, trivia, host 

Jon Stewart and critics’ picks. 

Plus, a handy take-home ballot 

34 FEELING JUMPY 

It may seem like Samuel L. Jackson 

is always working, but he’s actually 

very discerning about choosing his 

roles. He agreed to star in the sci-fi 

Jumper because, as he puts it, “I’d 

pay money to see it with me in it” 

I BY BOB STRAUSS 

36 THE MATCHMAKER 

British actor David Morrissey on 

his role as a royal matchmaker for 

Scarlett Johansson and Natalie 

Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl 

I BY JIM SLOTEK 

38 THE ZEN OF ZEGERS 

Normal’s Kevin Zegers on acting 

I BY NATALIA WYSOCKA 

DEPARTMENTS 

06 EDITORIAL 

08 SNAPS 

Katherine Heigl returns a 

paparazzi’s shoe; Maggie 

Gyllenhaal takes the subway 

10 SHORTS 

Orlando Bloom makes a run for 

it in Nepal; when Spider Pigs fly; an 

invitation to write for Famous 

14 SPOTLIGHT 

Shawn Roberts lands Jumper 

16 THE BIG PICTURE 

Vantage Point keeps you guessing; 

Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show 

comes to your town 

44 STYLE 

Valentine’s Day Gift Guide 

46 LINER NOTES 

k.d. lang produces her 

watershed album 

famous 4 | february 2008 

Famous | volume 9 | number 2 

40 

48 ON DVD 

Go get Gone Baby Gone 

50 HOROSCOPE 

Learn to let go, Aquarius 

44 

COVER STORY 

40 THE SPORTING LIFE 

Will Ferrell is the franchise player of 

sports comedies, making four in four 

years. The funnyman’s latest is the 

basketball flick Semi-Pro, and while 

even he admits it’s time to hang up 

his movie sneakers, Ferrell says he 

couldn’t help but be drawn to 

Semi-Pro’s tale of misfit athletes 

I BY BOB STRAUSS 

COVER: PHOTO BY HANS GUTKNECHT/ 

WIREIMAGE; OSCAR IMAGE ©A.M.P.A.S.® 

21 

PHOTO BY TKTKTKTKTKT

editorial | 

OUR ISSUE 

HAS ISSUES 


WHAT’S 

Will 

Ferrell’s 

GAME PLAN? 




DAVID 

MORRISSEY 


BOLEYN GIRLS 

WHY SAM 

JACKSON 


Oscar 

issue: 

fashion, 

nominees, 

trivia 


SNAPS: BRAD PITT, MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL, KATHERINE HEIGL, AMANDA BYNES, ETHAN HAWKE 

As we go to press with this, our 

Oscar issue, we have no idea whether 

the Oscars will even take place. 

With the writer’s strike stretching 

on, the fate of the 80th annual 

Academy Awards has become as shaky as 

the plot of a Jerry Bruckheimer film. 

The program’s producer, Gil Cates, 

insists the show will go on — but when 

asked how that’ll happen should the 

Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) not have 

a new contract by February 24th, he’s 

cagey. Giving it away, he says, would put their plan in jeopardy. 

Those comments inspired wild, and humorous, speculation about 

the lengths Oscar’s producers would go to in order to keep the show 

alive. Guesses ranged from producing a cartoon version of the show, 

since animation isn’t covered by the WGA contract, to producing the 

show with Team America: World Police-style puppets filling in for actors 

not willing to cross the picket line. Too bad Matt Damon’s not hosting. 

Famous offers a few more suggestions. 

Hand the awards out on a first-come, first-served basis, weakening 

the actors’ resolve not to cross the picket line, and adding the hairpulling, 

shirt-ripping, oh-no-you-di’nt excitement of a Thanksgiving 

sale at J.C. Penney. 

Hire Quebecois master impressionist André-Philippe Gagnon to 

impersonate every single winner and presenter. The man best known 

for providing all 18 celebrity voices in his own version of “We are the 

World” is in no position to turn down such a gig — strike or not. 

Turn the show over to a high school drama class, with students 

writing the script and playing the parts of host Jon Stewart, the 

presenters, winners and nominees. At times like these, we really 

should think of the children. 

Whatever happens, we hope you enjoy the Academy Awards Section 

we’ve put together. It all starts on page 21, and, hey, it may be the 

only hit of Oscar glitz you get this year. 

Our cover boy Will Ferrell has a new movie that, like most of his 

films, has no Oscar aspirations whatsoever. And that’s exactly why we 

love him. In “Good Sport,” page 40, Ferrell swears Semi-Pro, about a 

ragtag basketball team, will be his last sports movie for a while. 

Samuel L. Jackson is certainly not the type of actor who makes his 

decisions based on what the Academy will enjoy. He likes to work. 

And to have fun. And to have fun working. The latest result of that 

positive attitude to making movies is the sci-fi 

Jumper. To find out why he chose this particular 

role turn to “In Hot Pursuit,” page 34. 

And finally, British actor David Morrissey 

plays uncle to Scarlett Johansson and 

Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl. 

In “All in the Family,” page 36, Morrissey 

explains why he thinks of his character as a 

Tudor-era Dick Cheney. —MARNI WEISZ 


february 2008 volume 9 number 2 

PUBLISHER SALAH BACHIR 

EDITOR MARNI WEISZ 

DEPUTY EDITOR INGRID RANDOJA 

ART DIRECTOR MATTHEW PICKET 

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR ALIZA KLEIN 

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR SHEILA GREGORY 

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT ZAC VEGA 

CONTRIBUTORS SCOTT GARDNER 

LIZA HERZ 

DAN LIEBMAN 

KEN LINTON 

JIM SLOTEK 

BOB STRAUSS 

NATALIA WYSOCKA 

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7ACADEMYAWARD ® 

BEST DIRECTOR 

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“THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR.” 

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snaps | 

CAUGHTONFILMM 

ANGELINA JOLIE, BRAD PITT, KATHERINE HEIGL, AMANDA BYNES, MARK RUFFALO, ETHAN HAWKE, MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL 

1 

2 

3 


NHAAL 

5 

4 


1 Katherine Heigl was 

at the DMV renewing her 

license when a paparazzi 

lost his flip-flop while 

pursuing her. Heigl kindly 

bent down and retrieved 

the shoe, then returned 

it with a smile. 

PHOTO BY SPLASH-KEYSTONE 

2 If you’d asked us which 

actor was caught reading 

The New Yorker on a subway 

in the West Village, we 

would have guessed 

Maggie Gyllenhaal. 

PHOTO BY DENNIS MARYANNAKIS/ 

SPLASH-KEYSTONE 

3 Amanda Bynes visits 

the 2008 World Experience 

DPA Gift Lounge in 

Beverly Hills. Planned as 

part of the Golden Globes, 

the freebie fest went ahead 

despite the show’s 

cancellation. And no, they 

weren’t giving away 

puppies, Bynes brought 

little Charlie with her. 

PHOTO BY CHARLEY GALLEY/GETTY 

4 “You look at the 

camera, and I’ll look away. 

It’ll make a great shot.” 

Angelina Jolie and 

Brad Pitt attend the 

welterweight showdown 

between Ricky Hatton and 

Floyd Mayweather in 

Las Vegas. 

PHOTO BY SPLASH-KEYSTONE 

5 Awww, she looks like 

a big, pink marshmallow. 

Friends Mark Ruffalo (left) 

and Ethan Hawke take a 

stroll through New York 

with Ruffalo’s baby girl, 

Odette. 

PHOTO BY JACKSON LEE/ 

SPLASH-KEYSTONE

shorts I 

BETTER THAN BEING 

CHASED BY PAPARAZZI SPIDER-PIG 

That’s Orlando Bloom being 

chased by first-graders at the UNICEFsupported 

Shree Maheshwari Secondary 

School in the Nepalese village of 

Pumbi Bhumbi. Though, honestly, we’re 

not sure whether they’re after the cutie-pie 

celebrity or his supercool bubble gun. 

The Pirates of the Caribbean star was in 

Nepal as an international ambassador for 

UNICEF. He follows in the footsteps of fellow 

celebs Lucy Liu, Shakira and Clay Aiken, all 

of whom have made recent trips to war-torn 

or poverty-stricken areas for UNICEF to bring 

attention to the plights of their people. 

Nepal is struggling with many problems, 

including malnutrition, high infant-mortality 

rates, terrible working conditions for women 

and the aftermath of a decade-long civil war. 

Bloom was given the red “tikka” mark 

on his forehead and the garland of flowers 

by local women in the village of Kalika, 

another stop on his four-day tour of 

UNICEF program sites in the country’s 

western districts. —MW 

T o 

Artifact 

This month’s objet 

de film: Spider Pig 

celebrate the DVD launch of 

The Simpsons Movie, a giant, inflatable 

Spider Pig flies over Battersea Power Station 

in London, England. In the film, Homer 

adopts the swine and it’s the pig’s poop 

that ultimately throws Springfield into 

environmental chaos. But the flight of 

the Spider Pig had special significance 

for Londoners as it paid homage to 

another floating pig in the city’s history. In 1977, 

while shooting the cover for the album Animals 

(inset picture), Pink Floyd floated an inflatable pig 

over Battersea. To everyone’s horror, that pig broke 

loose and ascended to 20,000 feet where it was 

spotted by airline pilots. It then passed Heathrow 

airport before eventually landing in Kent. —MW 


PHOTO BY TOM DULAT/KEYSTONE; ORLANDO BLOOM PHOTO BY BRIAN SOKOL/GETTY 

Unlimited talk & text 

with your partner, 

and 5 friends each. 

For you, 5 faves each, and me. 

My FavesTM for couples * 

*Offer available until March 31, 2008. Details of the My Faves for couples 

rate plan are available at www.telusmobility.com. © 2008 TELUS. 

A 

Fold back so A meets B 

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®

shorts I 

A THEATRE THAT’LL 

BOWL BE PUBLISHED IN 

It’s a first. Cineplex Entertainment’s recently opened 

SilverCity Oakville, on the border between Burlington and Oakville in 

Ontario, is the company’s first cinema to incorporate a bowling alley. 

Cozy and modern, the alley is just one part of a multifaceted 

entertainment area called The Backlot located inside the 

45,000 square-foot complex. Aside from the six premium lanes, 

The Backlot boasts a licensed lounge offering drinks and 

appetizers, two party rooms (which can be booked for special 

occasions or corporate events) and a games room with pool 

tables, plasma screens and an array of interactive videogames. 

And if the thought of leaving the kids at home for a whole 

afternoon or evening has parents nervous, another first for the 

theatre chain — Cineplex Kids Club child-minding services — 

will come as welcome news. 

Those child-minding services are particularly useful for guests 

who want to make use of the complex’s VIP Experience, which 

features a private licensed lounge and three VIP auditoriums that 

are exclusive to moviegoers 19 years and older. Inside, guests will 

enjoy premium seats, which can be reserved ahead of time, and 

can order drinks and appetizers right from their seats. 

As for the movie-watching experience, nine of the cinema’s 12 

auditoriums feature digital projectors that deliver razor-sharp images 

— the most digital projectors in any one place in Canada. 

Cineplex is treating the SilverCity Oakville as a prototype, 

and has discussed adding some of its unique elements to new 

and existing theatres across the country. —Marni Weisz 

Will 


Ferrell’s 



YOU OVER 

FAMOUS! 

We’re starting a brand new feature 

and want you to be a part of it. 

WHAT’S 

GAME PLAN? 




DAVID 

MORRISSEY 


BOLEYN GIRLS 

WHY SAM 

JACKSON 


Oscar 

issue: 

fashion, 

nominees, 

trivia 

Each month we’re going to ask our 

readers a question, and our favourite 

answers will be published in an 

upcoming issue of Famous. Just go to 

www.cineplex.com/famouslastwords 

to enter. So think hard, be creative and 

maybe even funny. Oh, and do it all in 

40 words or less. 

THIS MONTH’S QUESTION: 

An old flame, someone new or no one at all? 

If you were writing the script for Sex and the City: 

The Movie who would Carrie end up with? 

(If it’s someone new, feel free to cast the part.) 

Look for the answers to this question in the April issue. 

Responses may be edited for length and clarity. 

SNAPS: BRAD PITT, MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL, KATHERINE HEIGL, AMANDA BYNES, ETHAN HAWKE 

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spotlight I 

SHAWN 

ROBERTS 

takes control 

Shawn Roberts savoured his chance 

to tear a strip off Darth Vader, a.k.a. 

Hayden Christensen, in this month’s 

sci-fi action pic Jumper. 

“I’m in a bar, hitting on a girl when 

Hayden Christensen comes in and we 

have a little bit of a conflict, a vocal fight, 

as it were,” says Roberts on the line from 

his sister’s home in Hamilton, Ontario, 

where the handsome 23-year-old actor is 

crashing at the moment. “I’m all over the 

place — L.A. Toronto, Vancouver — so 

this is the easiest place for me to call 

my home base,” he explains. 


Roberts, originally from Stratford, 

Ontario, has been acting professionally 

since he landed his first audition as a 

12-year-old, playing Emily’s love interest 

in the TV series Emily of New Moon. 

His small-screen résumé includes 

appearances on Degrassi: The Next 

Generation and La Femme Nikita, 

while his movie credits include roles in 

X-Men, Skinwalkers and the horror pic 

Diary of the Dead, which also opens, 

albeit in limited release, this month. 

Jumper, about a man (Christensen) 

who discovers he can teleport, is helmed 

by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, 

Mr. & Mrs. Smith), a filmmaker known for 

his chaotic sets and demanding nature 

(he likes to shoot and shoot and shoot, 

which drives movie studios crazy). How 

did Roberts find working with him? 

“I can definitely see why some people 

might say he’s ‘different,’ but he’s a 

visionary genius is what he is. He’s 

coming off of making Mr. & Mrs. Smith, 

which I thought was awesome.... I mean, 

he’s a very intense guy, but welcoming 

and all that, so it was great.” 

A big-budget action flick like Jumper 

could jump-start Roberts’ career, but the 

actor isn’t waiting around for his 

cellphone to ring. Although he’s only 23, 

Roberts has decided he needs to start 

producing movies himself in order to 

take control of his career. 

“You can only go out for other people’s 

projects for so long until you say, ‘You 

know what, I really want to do something 

that’s mine.’ 

“And this past year has been kinda 

slow, and with the writers’ strike it’s 

really made the industry a bit unsteady, 

unstable. So whatya do when things are 

unstable? You think, ‘Okay, what can I 

do to better my situation?’ This is the 

next logical step.” 

With that in mind, Roberts is off to 

this month’s Sundance Film Festival 

to support Diary of the Dead, which 

is screening at the fest, and to make 

a few movie connections of his own. 

“It’s time to shake hands and kiss 

babies,” he says with a laugh. 

—INGRID RANDOJA 

PHOTO BY GIULIANO BEKOR/LIGHTBOX STUDIO 

Your money is with you. 

interac.ca 

® Trade-marks of Interac Inc. Used under licence.

the | big | picture | 

now in theatres 

I BY INGRID RANDOJA 

STRANGE WILDERNESS 

WHO’S IN IT? Steve Zahn, Justin Long 

WHO DIRECTED? Fred Wolf (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? When his crappy 

wilderness TV show is about to be 

cancelled, host Peter Gaulke (Zahn) 

and his crew set out to find, and film, 

the elusive Bigfoot. 

➜ HITS THEATRES FEBRUARY 1 

FEBRUARY 1 

HANNAH MONTANA/MILEY CYRUS: 

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT 

TOUR 

WHO’S IN IT? Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers 

WHO DIRECTED? Bruce Hendricks (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? For those who didn’t sell 

an organ to pay for a ticket to see teen 

singing sensation Cyrus in concert, here’s 

your chance to check out her gig, in 3-D no 

less. However, it’s only playing in theatres 

for a single week so don’t dawdle. 

THE EYE 

WHO’S IN IT? Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola 

WHO DIRECTED? David Moreau, 

Xavier Palud 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? This remake of the 

Hong Kong horror flick Jian gui casts Alba 

as a blind woman who regains her sight 

when she receives an eye transplant. 

However, her new eyes seem to be playing 

tricks on her when she glimpses 

supernatural beings and strange events. 

OVER HER DEAD BODY 

WHO’S IN IT? Eva Longoria Parker, Lake Bell 

WHO DIRECTED? Jeff Lowell (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) 

is dating Henry (Paul Rudd), who believes 

he’s being haunted by his dead fiancée, 

Kate (Parker). So Chloe hires phony 

psychic Ashley (Bell) to pretend to chase 

away the ghost. Things get really 

complicated when Ashley falls for Henry 

and actually starts to communicate with 

Kate, a very jealous spirit who’s 

determined to ruin any budding romance 

involving Henry. 

FEBRUARY 8 

WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS 

WHO’S IN IT? Martin Lawrence, 

Cedric the Entertainer 

WHO DIRECTED? Malcolm D. Lee 

(Roll Bounce) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? R.J. Stevens (Lawrence) 

is an L.A. talk-show host who conveniently 

forgot all about his country roots when he 

made it big in showbiz. He reluctantly 

agrees to return home to Georgia to attend 

his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, and 

you just know his down-home family is 

going to show uppity R.J. some special 

southern hospitality. 


sA 

VINCE VAUGHN’S WILD WEST 

COMEDY SHOW 

WHO’S IN IT? Vince Vaughn, Ahmed Ahmed 

WHO DIRECTED? Ari Sandel (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Vaughn and four stand-up 

comedians — Ahmed, Bret Ernst, John 

Caparulo and Sebastian Maniscalco — hit 

the road and travel 6,000 miles across 

America to perform 30 shows in 30 nights. 

IN BRUGES 

WHO’S IN IT? Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson 

WHO DIRECTED? Martin McDonagh (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Two Irish hitmen 

(Farrell, Gleeson) are instructed to lay low 

in the picturesque Belgium city of Bruges. 

But their under-the-radar existence is 

spoiled when nutbar Harry (Ralph Fiennes) 

shows up wanting to kill them both. 

FOOL’S GOLD 

WHO’S IN IT? Matthew McConaughey, 

Kate Hudson 

WHO DIRECTED? Andy Tennant (Hitch) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? What could rekindle an 

estranged couple’s passion? Why sunken 

treasure, of course. McConaughey plays a 

beach bum/treasure hunter who convinces 

his ex-wife (Hudson) to help him search for 

the fabled Queen’s Dowry — 40 chests of 

18th-century Spanish gold and jewels. 

NORMAL 

WHO’S IN IT? Carrie-Anne Moss, Kevin Zegers 

WHO DIRECTED? Carl Bessai (Emile) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? After a teenage boy is 

killed in a car crash, a driver involved in the 

accident (Callum Keith Rennie), the boy’s 

mother (Moss) and his best friend (Zegers) 

deal with the aftermath. See Kevin Zegers 

interview, page 38. 

EMOTIONAL ARITHMETIC 

WHO’S IN IT? Susan Sarandon, Max von Sydow 

WHO DIRECTED? Paolo Barzman 

(Time is Money) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? It’s 1945 and 

Jakob Bronski, a prisoner inside a Nazi 

detention centre, finds himself caring for 

two orphaned children — Melanie and 

Christopher. Flash forward to the mid-1980s 

when the now mature Melanie (Sarandon) 

discovers Jakob (von Sydow) is alive 

and invites him to live with her and 

her family in Canada. 

FEBRUARY 13 

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS 

WHO’S IN IT? Jude Law, Norah Jones 

WHO DIRECTED? Kar Wai Wong (2046) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Singer Jones makes 

her big-screen debut in this moody and 

romantic study of a woman (Jones) who 

travels across America and encounters 

an array of fascinating characters. 

FEBRUARY 14 

STEP UP 2 TO THE STREETS 

WHO’S IN IT? Robert Hoffman, Briana Evigan 

WHO DIRECTED? Jon M. Chu (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? The step-dancing 

phenomenon continues on screen with this 

sequel to the 2006 dance flick Step Up. 

This time around a feisty street dancer 

named Andie (Evigan) enrolls in the 

Maryland School of the Arts and catches the 

eye of Chase (Hoffman), the school’s hottest 

hunk and best hoofer. 

JUMPER 

WHO’S IN IT? Hayden Christensen, 

Samuel L. Jackson 

WHO DIRECTED? Doug Liman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Davey (Christensen) 

foolishly believes he’s the only person in the 

world who possesses the ability to transport 

himself through time and space. He 

eventually realizes there are others like him, 

in fact, there’s a war going on between the 

“jumpers” and the people who want to stop 

them, including a government operative 

(Jackson). See Samuel L. Jackson interview, 

page 34. 

DEFINITELY, MAYBE 

WHO’S IN IT? Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin 

WHO DIRECTED? Adam Brooks (Almost You) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? The soon-to-be-divorced 

Will Hayes (Reynolds) recounts the history 

of his love life to his 11-year-old daughter 

(Breslin), who is curious to know the 

identity of her biological mother, a secret 

Will won’t divulge. 

FEBRUARY 17 

WWE-PAY-PER-VIEW 

NO WAY OUT 

The WWE heads to Las Vegas for its annual 

February bust-up. Check www.cineplex.com 

for a list of theatres where you can watch it 

live, and to buy tickets. 


THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES 

WHO’S IN IT? Freddie Highmore, 

Sarah Bolger 

WHO DIRECTED? Mark Waters 

(Just Like Heaven) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? The Grace family — 

mom and her three kids, Jared, Simon 

and Mallory — move into the Spiderwick 

estate where Jared stumbles across a 

book titled Arthur Spiderwick's Field 

Guide. The tome describes the various 

fairies, ogres and magical beings that 

exist in the invisible world around the 

estate, and when Jared opens the book 

he is able to see the creatures, which 

makes some of them very, very angry. 

➜ HITS THEATRES FEBRUARY 14 

FEBRUARY 22 

BE KIND REWIND 

WHO’S IN IT? Jack Black, Mos Def 

WHO DIRECTED? Michel Gondry 

(The Science of Sleep) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? You know what a pain it is 

when you demagnetize one of your credit 

cards. Imagine the pain Mike (Def) feels 

when his pal Jerry (Black) demagnetizes 

every VHS cassette in his small video store. 

To keep his most loyal customer happy — 

a woman (Mia Farrow) suffering from 

dementia — the pair decides to re-enact her 

favourite films, including Ghostbusters, 

RoboCop and Driving Miss Daisy. 

POSSESSION 

WHO’S IN IT? Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lee Pace 

WHO DIRECTED? Joel Bergvall, Simon Sandquist 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? This remake of the 

Korean thriller Jungdok (Addicted) stars 

Gellar as Jess, a woman married to ▼ 

THE METROPOLITAN 

OPERA 

Enjoy productions direct from New York’s 

renowned Metropolitan Opera. Check 

www.cineplex.com for a list of theatres 

where you can watch live and encore 

performances, and to buy tickets. 

MACBETH (VERDI) 

Encore performance: Saturday, 

February 9, 1:30 p.m. EST 

MANON LESCAUT (PUCCINI) 

Live performance: Saturday, 

February 16, 1 p.m. EST 

▼

the | big | picture | 

▼ 

▼ 

the sweet-natured Ryan (Michael 

Landes), who’s the complete opposite of his 

troubled brother Roman (Pace). A car 

accident leaves both brothers comatose, and 

it’s Roman who wakes up believing he’s Ryan 

and possessing his brother’s memories. 

THE BAND’S VISIT 

WHO’S IN IT? Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz 

WHO DIRECTED? Eran Kolirin (Tzur Hadassim) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? This sweet, feel-good 

comedy finds an Egyptian police band 

travelling to Israel to play at an Arab 

cultural centre. However, a travel mix-up 

strands them in a remote small town where 

they awkwardly mingle with the locals. 

L’ÂGE DES TÉNÈBRES 

WHO’S IN IT? Marc Lebrèche, Diane Kruger 

WHO DIRECTED? Denys Arcand 

(The Barbarian Invasions) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Arcand paints a bleak 

picture of life in the modern world with this 

tale of a bored Québécois civil servant 

(Lebrèche) who slips into elaborate 

fantasies to escape his dull life. 

VANTAGE POINT 

WHO’S IN IT? Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox 

WHO DIRECTED? Pete Travis (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Seeing is not necessarily 

believing when it comes to this thriller about 

eight people who witness an assassination 

attempt on the U.S. President (William Hurt) 

during an anti-terrorist conference in Spain. 

Eye-witness accounts of two secret service 

agents (Quaid, Fox), an American tourist 

(Forest Whitaker) and a TV news producer 

(Sigourney Weaver), among others, are used 

to piece together what happened. 

WITLESS PROTECTION 

WHO’S IN IT? Larry the Cable Guy, Eric Roberts 

WHO DIRECTED? Charles Robert Carner (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Larry the Cable Guy plays 

a small-town sheriff protecting a whistleblowing 

witness on her way to a big-city trial. 

CHARLIE BARTLETT 

WHO’S IN IT? Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr. 

WHO DIRECTED? Jon Poll (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Rich kid Charlie Bartlett 

(Yelchin) is having trouble fitting into his 

new high school. But his charm and keen 

powers of observation serve him well, and 

before you know it Charlie has become the 

school’s unofficial guidance counsellor and 

therapist, even doling out advice to the 

school’s passive principal (Downey Jr.). 

THE SIGNAL 

WHO’S IN IT? A.J. Bowen, Anessa Ramsey 

WHO DIRECTED? David Bruckner, Dan Bush, 

Jacob Gentry 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? On New Year’s Eve, a 

mysterious signal is suddenly transmitted 

into every TV, radio and cellphone, causing 

people to become violent toward one 

another. This horror pic is unique in that 

the story is told from the perspectives of 

three characters, and their tales are 

directed by three different filmmakers. 

FEBRUARY 29 

SEMI-PRO 

WHO’S IN IT? Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson 

WHO DIRECTED? Kent Alterman (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Basketball in the ’70s was 

defined by short-shorts, tube socks, guys 

with big afros and an upstart league called 

the ABA, which challenged the established 

NBA and looked to add fun — slam dunks! 

— into the game. This comedy’s about the 

last-place ABA Flint Tropics, led by ownerplayer-coach 

Jackie Moon (Ferrell), who 

needs to turn their game around if they’re 

to be one of the teams that merge with the 

NBA. See Will Ferrell interview, page 40. 

THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS 

WHO’S IN IT? Jeanne Balibar, 

Guillaume Depardieu 

WHO DIRECTED? Jacques Rivette (Va savoir) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? The 79-year-old Rivette 

adapts Balzac’s 19th-century novella about 

the doomed love affair between an arrogant 

soldier and a coquettish Duchess. 

THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL 

WHO’S IN IT? Natalie Portman, 

Scarlett Johansson 

WHO DIRECTED? Justin Chadwick 

(Sleeping with the Fishes) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Philippa Gregory’s 

historically flawed but oh-so juicy pageturner 

becomes a Hollywood drama starring 

Portman as Anne Boleyn and Johansson 

as Mary Boleyn, two sisters vying for the 

attention of randy King Henry VIII 

(Eric Bana). Guided by their crafty uncle 

(David Morrissey), the sisters jump in and 

out of Henry’s bed until one finally marries 

the King, and then the real rivalry begins. 

See David Morrissey interview, page 36. 

PENELOPE 

WHO’S IN IT? Christina Ricci, James McAvoy 

WHO DIRECTED? Mark Palansky (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Penelope Wilhern (Ricci) 

carries the mark of her family’s curse — 

she was born with a pig’s nose. Kept in the 

family mansion her whole life, Penelope 

does the unthinkable and runs away. 

BONNEVILLE 

WHO’S IN IT? Jessica Lange, Joan Allen 

WHO DIRECTED? Christopher N. Rowley (debut) 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT? Three old friends — 

Lange, Allen and Kathy Bates — hop in a 

convertible and head out on a road trip to 

scatter one of their husband’s ashes. 

FOR SHOWTIMES AND 

LOCATIONS CHECK 

WWW.CINEPLEX.COM 


THE NHL ON SCREEN 

Pucks are flying and goals are being 

scored. Don’t miss your favourite Canadian 

NHL team in action on the big screen — 

and in high definition. For game dates, a 

list of participating theatres, and to buy 

tickets go to www.cineplex.com. 

Dinner & a Movie 

2 

medium pizzas 

2 TOPPINGS (combined) 

$ 11 99 

+ a 2 for 1 

movie admission 

For Pick-up, Dine-in or Delivery call: 

or your local 

Not valid in conjunction with any other offer, coupon, Twins or Party Pizzas. Taxes & delivery extra. Offers/prices subject to expire without notice. While supplies last. Registered trademarks of Pizza Pizza Royalty Limited Partnership, used under license. ©Pizza Pizza 2008. 0008391

Perfection is in the details. Specifically, it’s in just the right amount of foam. Three centimeters. No more. No less. This head 

creates a protective “cap” that keeps your Stella Artois from going stale. It’s also just one of nine steps involved in a meticulous 

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and restaurants, each of these venues serves Stella Artois exactly as it’s meant to be: perfectly. Learn more at StellaArtois.com. 

OSCARS2008 

EXCITED ABOUT 

OSCAR 

Inside: 

• Jon Stewart’s best jokes 

• Ultimate quote challenge 

• Fashion awards 

• The Academy Awards on film 

• Critics’ picks 

• Oscar-pool ballot 


OSCAR IMAGE ©A.M.P.A.S.®

OSCARS2008 

LOVE 

HIM 

Some people were shocked when The Daily Show’s 

Jon Stewart was announced as this year’s Oscar host. Others not at all. 

Which comes as no surprise since his stint hosting the 2006 Oscars 

received the same bipolar reception. 

Time magazine’s James Poniewozik put it best when he wrote on his 

blog, “Stewart, it turned out, was not a very good Oscar host. But he was 

a great anti-host.” In other words, if you like watching the awards, but 

only ironically, Stewart’s not-letting-them-get-away-with-anything style was 

an enjoyable salve. We loved it, but judge for yourself. 

We take you back to the year of Brokeback Mountain, Cinderella Man and Crash, 

for a list of Stewart’s 10 best jokes. Oh, and for good measure, we threw in a couple of 

the self-deprecating comedian’s evaluations of his own performance. —Marni Weisz 

“If there’s anyone out there 

involved in illegal movie 

piracy, don’t do it. Take a good 

look at these people. These are 

the people you’re stealing from. 

Look at them! Face what you’ve 

done! There are women here who 

could barely afford enough gown 

to cover their breasts.” 

9 

“I have to say congratulations 

to The Chronicles of Narnia 

[winner for Best Makeup]. I’m a 

little surprised Cinderella Man 

didn’t win that category. I just 

think, you know, imagine the 

difficulty in making Russell Crowe 

look like he got into a fight.” 

8 

“Capote was a groundbreaking 

film that broke taboos, that 

showed America not all gay 

OR 

HATE 

HIM 

JON STEWART’S TOP-10 OSCAR JOKES 

10 

people are virile cowboys. 

Some are actually effete 

New York intellectuals.” 

7 

“A lot of people say this town 

is too liberal. Out of touch 

with mainstream America. 

An atheistic pleasure dome. 

A modern-day beachfront Sodom 

and Gomorrah. A moral black 

hole. Where innocence is 

obliterated in an endless orgy of 

sexual gratification and greed. I 

don’t really have a joke here. I 

just thought you should know a lot 

of people are saying that.” 

6On the unending procession 

of movie montages: “I can’t 

wait until later, when we see 

Oscar’s salute to montages! Holy 

crap, we are out of clips! We are 


literally out of film clips! If you 

have film clips, send them, 

please. We have another three 

hours, I don’t care if they’re on 

Beta, just send them.” 

5After a self-congratulatory 

montage about the tough 

issues tackled by Hollywood 

movies: “And none of those issues 

were ever a problem again.” 

4 

“The theme of the award 

show tonight is a return to 

glamour. And thank goodness, 

because for too long Hollywood 

has done without.” 

3 

“There are a lot of really big 

stars here tonight. It’s really 

exciting. We’ve got the man, 

Mr. George Clooney, triple 

nominee. Two of the nominations 

for Good Night, and Good Luck., 

which is not just Edward R. 

Murrow’s sign-off, it’s also how 

Mr. Clooney ends all his dates.” 

2Upon returning to The Daily 

Show, Stewart’s reaction to 

the conflicting reviews he 

received: “I sucked, and was 

great! I was a painfully smug and 

unfunny heir to Johnny Carson.” 

1In a statement released by 

the Academy of Motion 

Picture Arts and Sciences, 

after he was announced as this 

year’s host: “I’m thrilled to be 

asked to host the Academy 

Awards for the second time 

because, as they say, the third 

time’s a charm.” 

JON STEWART PHOTO BY AFP-GETTY. OSCAR IMAGE ©A.M.P.A.S.®

OSCARS2008 

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF 

OSCAR 

This Oscar quiz is all about quotes. We’re saluting the 

memorable lines, quirky dialogue and witty quips from 

Oscar-winning pictures, and the Oscar-winning actors 

and actresses who transformed inky squiggles on a page 

into movie magic I BY INGRID RANDOJA 

1Whose reading of the line “I...don’t... 

like...the...panties...hanging...on...the... 

rod!” helped him earn a Best Actor Oscar? 

2L.A. Confidential’s Kim Basinger earned 

a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her 

portrayal of an escort who looks like a 

famous movie star. Can you fill in the 

missing star’s name in this Basinger quote: 

“You’re the first man in five years who didn’t 

tell me I look like ___________ _________ 

inside of a minute.” 

3Vivien Leigh won a Best Actress statue 

for playing feisty Scarlett O’Hara in the 

Best Picture winner Gone with the Wind. 

Which of the following is one of her most 

famous lines from the film? 

A) “As God is my witness, you’ll never 

kiss me Rhett Butler.” 

B) “As God is my witness, I’ll never 

be hungry again.” 

C) “As God is my witness, Tara won’t 

burn while I breathe.” 

Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara 

in Gone with the Wind 

4Which Best Supporting Actor winner 

said after his victory, “It couldn’t have 

happened to an older guy?” 

A) Jack Palance for City Slickers 

B) Melvyn Douglas for Being There 

C) George Burns for The Sunshine Boys 

5Which Best Picture winner ends with 

the line “I love you”? 

A) Terms of Endearment 

B) Rocky 

C) The English Patient 

6Which character from Best Picture 

winner The Lord of the Rings: 

The Return of the King speaks the line 

“The power of the Three Rings has ended. 

The time has come for the dominion of Men.” 

A) Galadriel B) Gandalf C) Aragorn 

7The line “Sam, I thought I told 

you never to play...” is from which 

Best Picture-winning film? 

8Tom Hanks won a Best Actor Oscar for 

which movie that includes the line “I’m 

not a smart man...but I know what love is.” 

A) Philadelphia B) Forrest Gump 

C) Cast Away 

9Which Best Actress winner utters 

this line of dialogue: “I’m going to be 

a great film star! That is, if booze and 

sex don’t get me first”? 

A) Liza Minnelli in Cabaret 

B) Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago 

C) Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner’s Daughter 


Gladiator’s Russell Crowe 

These simple, poignant four words — 

10 “The list is life” — are from which 

Best Picture-winning film? 

Just moments before she won her 

11 Best Actress Oscar, whose mother 

turned to her and said, “You haven’t got a 

snowball’s chance in hell”? 

A) Cher 

B) Julia Roberts 

C) Emma Thompson 

You’ve probably heard the phrase “He 

12 ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.” It was 

first spoken in which Oscar-winning film? 

A) Boys Town 

B) Stagecoach 

C) The Best Years of Our Lives 

“You can never, never ask me to stop 

13 drinking. Do you understand?” is said 

by which Best Actor winner in which movie? 

A) Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas 

B) Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend 

C) Robert De Niro in Raging Bull 

“I’m gonna make him an offer he 

14 can’t refuse” is one of Oscar-winner 

Marlon Brando’s best known lines from 

The Godfather. But who is Don Corleone 

making an offer to, and why? 

A) Captain McCluskey, a corrupt cop who 

Corleone wants to bribe 

B) Jack Woltz, head of a Hollywood studio to 

get him to cast Johnny Fontane in a movie 

C) Don Barzini, a rival Don who operates a 

drug ring that Corleone wants to take over 

OSCAR IMAGE IMAGE ©A.M.P.A.S.® 

Marlon Brando in The Godfather 

“Such things you wrote. Special 

15 things. Secret things.” Best 

Supporting Actor winner Jim Broadbent 

lovingly repeats that line in Iris. Name 

the actress whom he’s addressing with 

those words. 

Gladiator’s Best Actor winner Russell 

16 Crowe eggs on Rome’s Colosseum 

crowd with the line “Are you not 

entertained? Is this not why you are here?” 

What is his character’s name? 

A) Septimus 

B) Marcus Aurelius 

C) Maximus 

Three women have won Best Actress 

17 Oscars playing waitresses. Which one 

uttered the line “We all have these terrible 

stories to get over”? 

A) Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce 

B) Ellen Burnstyn in Alice Doesn’t Live Here 

Anymore 

C) Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets 

Silence of the Lambs ranks as a rare 

18 horror/thriller to win the Best Picture 

Oscar. Whose name is missing from the 

following quote from the film? 

“If I help you, _______________, it will be 

turns with us too. Quid pro quo.” 

Barbra Streisand, playing vaudeville 

19 star Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, 

purred the opening line “Hello gorgeous” 

on her way to a Best Actress win. However, 

Brice’s daughter didn’t want Streisand to 

play her mother. Which actress did she 

want for the role? 

A) Carol Burnett 

B) Martha Raye 

C) Carol Channing 

Which Best Picture winner uses the 

20word f--k a record 237 times? 

A) Crash 

B) The Godfather 

C) The Departed 

ANSWERS: 


1. Richard Dreyfuss for The Goodbye Girl 

2. Veronica Lake 

3. b 

4. c 

5. b 

6. a 

7. Casablanca 

8. b 

9. a 

10. Schindler’s List 

11. c. Emma Thompson’s mother, actor 

Phyllida Law, made the remark before 

Thompson won for her performance in 

Howard’s End 

12. a 

13. a 

14. b 

15. Judi Dench, who won the Best Actress 

Oscar for her portrayal of Alzheimer’s 

stricken author Iris Murdoch. 

16. c 

17. c 

18. Clarice. The line is spoken by Hannibal 

Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to FBI agent 

Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster). 

19. a 

20. c 

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OSCARS2008 

LASTYEAR’SLOOKS 

S We hand out the awards for 2007’s Oscar fashionss 

The Cleans Up Well Award goes to…Sacha Baron Cohen 

(seen here with his always-cleaned up wife Isla Fisher) 


The Takes Our Breath Away in 

an Old-School Hollywood Kind of Way 

Award goes to…Maggie Gyllenhaal 

The Looks Most Like an n 

Awards-Show Statuette Award ward 

goes to…Gwyneth Paltrow ow 

The Remind Me Never to be Styled by 

André Leon Talley Award goes to…Jennifer Hudson 

The Most Original Lapel Pin Award goes to…Djimon Hounsou 

(the red teardrop was worn to raise awareness of 

diamond mining in war zones) 

The Sweet S as Banana Cream Pie 

Award Awa goes to…Naomi Watts 

The Bjork Memorial Award for Proper Use 

of Feathers goes to…Penélope Cruz 


The Person Who Looks Most Like Helena Christensen When they 

Dye their Hair Brown Award goes to…Cameron Diaz 

PHOTOS AND OSCAR IMAGE ©A.MP.A.S.®

OSCARS2008 

OSCARS ON FILM 

When someone refers to an Oscar movie, they’re usually talking about a film that won an 

Academy Award. But there are also movies where the Oscars provide a major plot point. Here 

are five films that wouldn’t be the same without Oscar I BY MARNI WEISZ 

A Star Is Born 

(1954) 

How Oscar Figures In: 

Judy Garland plays 

Esther Blodgett, an 

up-and-coming singer who 

gets involved with fading, 

alcoholic actor Norman 

Maine (James Mason). 

With Maine’s help, she 

changes her name to 

Vicki Lester and finds 

success in motion pictures. 

As Lester’s star rises, 

Maine’s plummets and 

his jealousy comes to a 

peak during the Academy 

Awards just after she’s 

won Best Actress. Drunk, 

he dramatically interrupts 

the ceremony to beg for a 

job, accidentally slapping 

Lester in the face. 

Trivia: While in the movie 

it’s James Mason’s 

character dealing with 

substance abuse, it was 

Garland who died of a 

drug overdose 15 years 

later. Mason (with whom 

she’d had an affair) 

delivered her eulogy. 

Oscar Worthy? It didn’t 

win any, but was 

nominated for six — 

Best Actor (Mason), 

Best Actress (Garland), 

Art/Set Decoration, 

Costume Design, Original 

Song and Score 

For Your 

Consideration 

(2006) 


On the set of a terrible 

indie drama about a 

Jewish family celebrating 

Purim, a ridiculous 

rumour starts about 

Oscar buzz surrounding 

fading star Marilyn Hack’s 

(Catherine O’Hara) 

performance. 

Trivia: The story was 

inspired by a movie 

that writer and director 

Christopher Guest worked 

on early in his career. 

Just a few days into 

shooting, someone told 

the cinematographer to 

prepare for an Oscar 

nomination. 

Oscar Worthy? No 

Academy Awards, no 

nominations. And those 

who honestly suggested 

that O’Hara might be 

nominated should feel a 

bit self-conscious. 

Naked Gun 33 1/3: 

The Final Insult 

(1994) 


Seven years before 9/11 

necessitated a dramatic 

increase in security at 

the Oscars, this third 

Naked Gun movie 

has Lt. Frank Drebin 

(Leslie Nielsen) trying to 

stop a group of terrorists 

from detonating a bomb 

at the Academy Awards. 

Trivia: The film co-stars 

two actors who later 

became infamous for other 

things — O.J. Simpson 

and Anna Nicole Smith. 

Both won Razzie Awards 

for their performances, 

Simpson for Worst 

Supporting Actor and 

Smith for Worst New Star. 

Oscar Worthy? Um, no. 


California Suite 

(1978) 


Based on the Neil Simon 

play, the movie 

intertwines the stories of 

four sets of people staying 

at the same Los Angeles 

hotel. One of those sets is 

British actor Diana Barrie 

(Maggie Smith) and her 

husband Sidney Cochran 

(Michael Caine), who 

have come to L.A. 

because she’s been 

nominated for an Oscar. 

Trivia: Smith and Caine’s 

scenes outside the 

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 

were filmed before the 

50th Academy Awards. 

Richard Burton, who was 

nominated that year, can 

be seen in one shot. 

Oscar Worthy? 

Maggie Smith won for 

Best Supporting Actress. 

The film was also 

nominated for Art/Set 

Decoration and Adapted 

Screenplay. 

In & Out 

(1997) 


When actor Cameron Drake 

(Matt Dillon) wins an 

Oscar for playing a gay 

soldier he thanks his 

high school teacher 

Howard Brackett (Kevin 

Kline) for being his 

inspiration in playing a 

gay character. Problem is, 

Brackett’s not out of the 

closet, he’s not even sure 

he is gay. After all, he’s 

engaged to a woman. 

Trivia: Inspired by 

Tom Hanks’ acceptance 

speech for Philadelphia 

in which he thanked a gay 

teacher. Although the 

teacher was openly gay, 

many in his life had 

no idea about his sexual 

orientation. 

Oscar Worthy? 

Joan Cusack received a 

Best Supporting Actress 

nomination for her 

performance as 

Brackett’s fiancée. 

OSCAR IMAGE ©A.M.P.A.S.® 

Rap and R&B 

From braggadocious street poetry to soul-stirring balladry to party-starting floor-fillers and all points in between, this year's hip-hop and 

R&B nominees have all the angles covered. 

give 

the HMV gift card 

the 

Sound Choice for the 2008 

Grammy Awards 

From one of HipHop's most influential artists comes Graduation, 

Kanye West's third instalment in the groundbreaking series that 

started with College Dropout and Late Registration. Once again, 

Kanye challenges boundaries and raises the bar with his inventive 

style, as seen on the single “Stronger”. Graduation features special 

guests Mos Def, T-Pain, Daft Punk and Coldplay's Chris Martin. 

Includes the new single “Good Life”. 

8 Nominations! Album of the Year, Best Rap Album, Best Rap Solo 

Performance - “Stronger”, Best Rap Song - “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’”, 

Best Rap Song - “Good Life”, Best Rap Collaboration - “Good Life”, 

Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group - “Better Than I’ve Ever 

Been” with Nas (released as a charity single), Rakim and KRS-One 

and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group - “Southside” with 

Common (from Common’s album Finding Forever) 

Rihanna 

Good Girl Gone Bad 

GRAMMY Awards and the gramophone logo are registered trademarks of The Recording Academy, 

and are used under license. © 2007 The Recording Academy. 

The Bajan born pop princess has delivered her best album yet 

with Good Girl Gone Bad, stacked full of pop hits infused with 

R&B, reggae and her signature dancehall sound. Includes the 

hits "Umbrella," and the new smash “Hate That I Love You” 

featuring Ne-Yo! 

6 Nominations! Song Of the Year and Record Of the Year - "Umbrella" with Jay-Z, Best Rap/Sung 

Collaboration, Best Dance Recording - "Please Don't Stop The Music", Best R&B Vocal Performance 

By A Duo or A Group and Best R&B Song - "Hate That I Love You" with Ne-Yo 

Alicia Keys 

As I Am 

Promising a fresh and new direction for her third studio outing, Alicia 

Keys delivers with the spectacular pop-soul crossover of As I Am. In 

addition to hit singles “No One” and “Superwoman,” songwriter Linda 

Perry lends a hand to “The Thing About Love,” and guitarist John 

Mayer makes an appearance on “Lesson Learned.” 

2 Nominations! Best Female R&B Vocal Performance – “No One" and Best R&B song - “No One” 

Mary J. Blige 

Growing Pains 

Grammy Award® winning singer/songwriter Mary J. Blige's 8th 

studio album Growing Pains features production by Timbaland and 

“Tricky” Stewart who produced the first single “Just Fine”. The 

“Queen Of Hip Hop Soul” has firmly established herself as an icon as 

well as one of the best selling recording artists of our time. 

2 Nominations! Best Female R&B Vocal Performance - "Just Fine" and Best R&B Performance By A 

Duo Or Group With Vocals - "Disrespectful" (from Chaka Khan’s album Funk This)

AWARDSS 

WRAP 

Handicapping the Oscars is a whole lot easier 

when you know which films, actors and directors 

the critics think are the best of the best. Here’s a 

handy summary of Oscar-worthy candidates, as 

chosen by critics from across North America. 

No Country for Old Men’s 

Javier Bardem 

OSCARS2008 


Toronto Film Critics Association 

✭Best Picture: No Country for Old Men 

✭Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, 

No Country for Old Men 

✭Best Actor: Viggo Mortensen, 

Eastern Promises 

✭Best Actress: (tie) Julie Christie, 

Away from Her and Ellen Page, Juno 

✭Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, 


✭Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, 

I’m Not There 

New York Film Critics Circle 

✭Best Picture: No Country for Old Men 

✭Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, 


✭Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, 

There Will Be Blood 

✭Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her 

✭Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, 


✭Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, 

Gone Baby Gone 

Los Angeles Film Critics Association 

✭Best Picture: There Will Be Blood 

✭Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, 


✭Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, 


✭Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en rose 

✭Best Supporting Actor: Vlad Ivanov, 

©A.M.P.A.S.® 

4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days 

IMAGE 

✭Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, 

Gone Baby Gone OSCAR 

OSCAR IMAGE ©A.M.P.A.S.® 

National Board of Review 

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men 

Best Director: Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd 

Best Actor: George Clooney, Michael Clayton 

Best Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her 

Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, 

The Assassination of Jesse James by the 

Coward Robert Ford 

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, 


Boston Society of Film Critics 


Best Director: Julian Schnabel, 

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly 

Best Actor: Frank Langella, 

Starting Out in the Evening 

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, 

La Vie en rose 

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, 




San Francisco Film Critics Circle 

Best Picture: The Assassination of Jesse James 

by the Coward Robert Ford 

Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, 









Chicago Film Critics Association 




Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, 


Best Actress: Ellen Page, Juno 

Best Supporting Actor: 

Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men 

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, 

I’m Not There 

Washington Film Critics Association 






Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, 





The golden 

GLOBES 

Atonement 

The writers’ strike landed a body 

blow to the Hollywood Foreign Press 

Association’s annual Golden Globes, 

although it didn’t knock the awards 

show off the air entirely. Reduced 

from a three-hour, celebrity-filled 

glitzy dinner and prize giveaway to a 

half-hour televised news conference, 

the GGs were a muted affair. However, 

that doesn’t change the fact they 

kick-start the awards season, and 

people pay very close attention to the 

Golden Globes when it comes time to 

picking Oscar winners. 

HERE ARE THIS YEAR’S WINNERS. 

Best Picture (Drama): 

Atonement 

Best Picture (Comedy or Musical): 

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber 

of Fleet Street 

Best Director: 

Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell 

and the Butterfly 

Best Actor (Drama): 

Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood 

Best Actor (Comedy or Musical): 

Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: 

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 

Best Actress (Drama): 

Julie Christie, Away from Her 

Best Actress (Comedy or Musical): 

Marion Cotillard, La Vie en rose 

Best Supporting Actor: 

Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men 

Best Supporting Actress: 

Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There 

National Society of Film Critics 

Best Picture: There Will Be Blood 

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, 


Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, 






Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, 

I’m Not There

OSCARS2008 

BEST PICTURE 

Atonement 

Juno 

Michael Clayton 


There Will be Blood 

THE 

NOMINEES 

Having an Oscar pool with your friends or co-workers? 

Here’s a handy ballot to clip out, photocopy and 

ARE 

pass around. The Academy Awards are scheduled for Sunday, 

February 24th, at 8 p.m. ET. The show is expected to be broadcast live on ABC. 

BEST ACTOR 

George Clooney, 


Daniel Day-Lewis, 


Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: 

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 

Tommy Lee Jones, 

In the Valley of Elah 

Viggo Mortensen, 

Eastern Promises 

BEST ACTRESS 

Cate Blanchett, 

Elizabeth: The Golden Age 

Julie Christie, Away from Her 

Marion Cotillard, La Vie en rose 

Laura Linney, The Savages 

Ellen Page, Juno 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR 

Casey Affleck, 

The Assassination of Jesse James 


Javier Bardem, 


Philip Seymour Hoffman, 

Charlie Wilson’s War 

Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild 

Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There 

Ruby Dee, American Gangster 

Saorise Ronan, Atonement 

Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone 

Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton 

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING 

Julian Schnabel, 


Jason Reitman, Juno 

Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton 

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 


Paul Thomas Anderson, 


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE 

Persepolis 

Ratatouille 

Surf’s Up 

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP 


Norbit 

Pirates of the Caribbean: 

At World’s End 

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION 

American Gangster 

Atonement 

The Golden Compass 




ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY 

The Assassination of Jesse James 


Atonement 




ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN 

Across the Universe 

Atonement 

Elizabeth: The Golden Age 





BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 

No End in Sight 

Operation Homecoming: Writing 

the Wartime Experience 

Sicko 

Taxi to the Dark Side 

War/Dance 

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT 

Freeheld 

La Corona (The Crown) 

Salim Baba 

Sari’s Mother 

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING 

The Bourne Ultimatum 

The Diving Bell and 

the Butterfly 

Into the Wild 



BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM 

Beaufort, Israel 

The Counterfeiters, Austria 

Katyn, Poland 

12, Russia 

Mongol, Kazakhstan 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE 

Atonement 

The Kite Runner 


Ratatouille 

3:10 to Yuma 

BEST ORIGINAL SONG 

“Falling Slowly,” Once 

“Happy Working Song,” 

Enchanted 

“Raise it Up,” August Rush 

“So Close,” Enchanted 

“That’s How You Know,” 

Enchanted 

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM 

I Met the Walrus 

Madame Tutli-Putli 

Même Les Pigeons Vont au 

Paradis (Even Pigeons 

go to Heaven) 

My Love (Moya Lyubov) 

Peter & the Wolf 

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM 

At Night 

Tanghi Argentini 

Il Supplente 

(The Substitute) 

Le Mozart des Pickpockets 

(The Mozart of Pickpockets) 

The Tonto Woman 

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING 



Ratatouille 


Transformers 

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING 



Ratatouille 

3:10 to Yuma 

Transformers 

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS 

The Golden Compass 

Pirates of the Caribbean: 

At World’s End 

Transformers 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY 

Atonement, 

Christopher Hampton 

Away from Her, 

Sarah Polley 

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, 

Ronald Harwood 

No Country for Old Men, 

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen 

There Will be Blood, 

Paul Thomas Anderson 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY 

Juno, Diablo Cody 

Lars and the Real Girl, 

Nancy Oliver 

Michael Clayton, 

Tony Gilroy 

Ratatouille, Brad Bird 

The Savages, 

Tamara Jenkins 

OSCAR IMAGE ©A.M.P.A.S.®

interview | SAMUEL L. JACKSON 

IN 

HOT 

PURSUIT 

Samuel L. Jackson hunts down his old Star Wars foe Hayden Christensen in Jumper I BY BOB STRAUSS 

Samuel L. Jackson appeared in four movies last year and 

will probably clock at least the same number in 2008. First 

up is Jumper, a sci-fi thriller by the eclectic and always 

interesting director Doug Liman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Bourne 

Identity, Swingers), which pits Jackson against his old Star Wars 

co-star Hayden Christensen. 

Then there’s the comic book adaptation Iron Man, the racial 

drama Lakeview Terrace, the murder mystery Cleaner… 

Somehow, no matter how overexposed he may seem, we 

never grow tired of Jackson. Maybe it’s the marvelous array of 

inventive hairdos (in Jumper, it’s a shocking white cut). Maybe 

it’s because we can rely on him to cuss spectacularly most times 

out. Likely, we recognize that he’s a consummate actor whose 

own enjoyment of any movie he’s in — yes, even Snakes on a Plane 

— is infectious. 

And if that wasn’t so, he’d probably scare all of us to death. 

Jackson was in L.A. when we spoke about his latest movie and 

his busy schedule. 


You carry a painful-looking harpoon-type thing in Jumper. Safe to say 

you’re playing another mean badass? “It’s a film about kids who 

can teleport. I play a government agent that’s sort of chasing 

them and killing them. He kind of hates kids who can do that 

because they leave these interesting rips in the atmosphere 

when they do it. That annoys him.” 

You’re considered a first-class actor, but you’re drawn to a lot of genre 

stuff like this and 1408. How do you choose between these popcorn 

pics and more serious work, such as Resurrecting the Champ and 

your upcoming Lakeview Terrace? “Sometimes I just want to be in 

the kind of movie that’s entertaining and fun and great for 

somebody’s Saturday afternoon escapism. Then there’s the 

great story that comes along that you want to tell with the great 

character in it, and that’s fun and fine to do too as an actor, to 

stretch yourself and give yourself a challenge. And that’s all that 

I’m really trying to do. 

“It’s always something that moves me, or a story I want to 

tell, or something that I saw growing up that made me 

excited and all of a sudden I can do it! Y’know, I don’t have to 

go home and describe it for my friends. I’m actually in 

something where people teleport — and I get to chase ’em, 

yeah! I can’t do it, but I can chase ’em. And when I catch ’em, 

I get to beat ’em up!” 

Jumper has a bigger budget than most of the movies you’ve been 

making. Do you try to do a certain number of those to subsidize your 

artier or more outlandish efforts like Black Snake Moan? “There’s no 

plan for a big studio movie right here and an independent 

movie there, because movies are ready to go when they’re ready 

to go. Like, Jumper is a big studio sci-fi movie, the one I did 

before it, Resurrecting the Champ, was a small indie I made in 

Calgary. You just never know.” 

You work so much, we’ve gotta ask: Do you ever turn anything down? 

“I turn down movies all the time. I can’t do everything! But I do 

the things that are meant for me to do and the things that 

appeal to me in a specific kind of way. And y’know, there are 

actually movies that I want to do that I don’t do. That happens, 

can’t get everything. But I’m really happy with the things that I 

do, and that I’m able to make choices and continue to work, 

because I enjoy it.” 

So what’s your criteria for the movies you do pick? “I know what I 

want to see if I’m an audience member. So when I look at a 

script I always say, ‘Would I pay my money to see this?’ And then 

I say, ‘Would I pay money to see this with me in it?’ And if the 

answer is yes, then I do it.” 

Next logical question: Are you ever not working? “There are times 

when my agents and managers tell me that I need a break and 

they enforce it by not letting me go to work or making sure that 

my next job is, like, three months away. But I like to kind of 

know what I’m doing three pictures down the line. I guess I get 

bored. I golf every day when I’m not working, but I miss being 

part of the creative process.” 

Unlike a lot of stars — and, more particularly, a lot of African- 

American stars — you don’t seem to be very cause conscious. “I’ve 

always spoken my mind. I talk about my life and I talk about who 

I am honestly and openly — I guess everybody kinda knows that 

I was kinda drug-addicted way back when — and I don’t know 

if it’s gonna help people or not. A lot of times people say, you’ve 

overcome this and you’ve overcome that, you should go out and 

talk to kids. I just don’t feel like I need to do that. I can say what 

happened to me, how I got through it and I’m glad I’m on the 

other side of it, but y’know, that’s all.” 

Anything you’ve overcome recently that you’d like to share? “Quit 

smoking! I actually went to this doctor in New York who uses 

sodium pentothal. Judge Judy turned me onto him, she used 

him to quit. I have no idea what he did, I just know I don’t 

smoke. Which is kinda cool.” 

Bob Strauss is an L.A.-based writer. 


When in Rome… 

DON’T TOUCH 

ANYTHING 

Jumper stars Toronto’s own Hayden Christensen (above) as 

David, a young man from an abusive household whose genetic 

abnormality allows him to teleport around the world in the 

blink of an eye. 

For the film’s cast and crew, that meant shooting in a slew 

of exotic locales, from Egypt and the Far East to Mexico City. 

“We got to travel all over the world. Rome, Tokyo, Mexico…it 

was a lot of fun,” says Christensen in a recent New York 

interview. Having grown up in the Toronto suburb of Markham, 

the actor best known for playing the young Darth Vader in the 

Star Wars movies still lives in Toronto part-time. 

But the most amazing location of all may have been Rome’s 

famed Colosseum. Amazing because Rome’s mayor — and 

film buff — Walter Veltroni gave Jumper’s crew access to the 

ancient landmark. HBO’s Rome and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 

were both denied the privilege. 

The crew for Jumper did have some serious ground rules for 

shooting inside the 1st-century structure. They had to keep all 

equipment off the ground. Filming was limited to three days, 

and could only be done using natural light. And they could 

only shoot between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m., and then between 

3:30 and 5:30 p.m. to avoid disturbing the tourists. 

The rest of Jumper was filmed in a much more familiar 

environment for Christensen, Southern Ontario — Toronto 

and Peterborough to be precise. 

“It was a blast,” says Christensen. “Most of the movie was 

filmed in Toronto, where I’m from, so I was around the corner 

from my friends and family.” —Ken Linton

interview | DAVID MORRISSEY 

All in the 

FAMILY Y 

Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson star as two sisters who share King Henry VIII’s bed in 

The Other Boleyn Girl. But it’s British actor David Morrissey, as the girls’ scheming uncle, who 

plays matchmaker I BY JIM SLOTEK 

T 

he Other Boleyn Girl is more than the tale of Henry 

VIII’s doomed wife Anne with an extra Boleyn, her 

sister Mary, thrown in. It’s got adultery, incest, samesex 

affairs and impotence that decides the fate of nations. 

“It’s the political story we all know and love with a lot of 

sex in it, brilliantly told,” says David Morrissey, who plays the 

Duke of Norfolk, the Tudor court powerbroker he describes 

as Henry’s Dick Cheney. 

None of the sex involves Norfolk though, “which really pissed 

me off,” Liverpool native Morrissey quips in a recent L.A. 

interview. “And y’know what? Eric Bana [who plays King Henry] 


had a codpiece that was much bigger than mine. You could 

hang your coat off it!” 

Scripted by Peter Morgan (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland) 

and based on the best-selling book of the same name by 

Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl stars Natalie Portman 

as Henry VIII’s second wife Anne — the one for whom he 

started his own church — and Scarlett Johansson as Mary, the 

“forgotten” sister who was the mistress of two monarchs (Henry 

and the King of France). 

Awash in soap opera, Gregory’s book — complete with a 

chapter of academic sources — has dismayed historians even as 

PHOTO BY MARIO MARIO ANZUONI/CORBIS 

it has sold a million-plus copies. It is what Stephen Colbert 

would call a work of “truthiness” with its gossipy treatment of 

real figures. (Did Henry VIII sire a male heir by his wife’s sister? 

Was one of his children a product of incest?) At the very least, 

it is movie-worthy intrigue of the sort that the claustrophobic 

court of the Tudors would have produced. 

“Henry had his affair with Anne’s sister — who was married 

— before Anne was even on the scene, and there was a rumour 

she bore him a son,” Morrissey says. “And, of course, Henry 

was married [at the time] to Catherine of Aragon and was 

part of the Catholic Church. Then all of a sudden he meets 

Anne Boleyn, he starts thinking with his d--k and the rules are 

out the window.” 

In the movie, Anne is a schemer who uses the occasion of 

her sister’s pregnancy to make her own move on the monarch. 

Norfolk is in a position to see it all happen, being related to 

seemingly everybody. “The Duke of Norfolk was Anne Boleyn 

and Mary Boleyn’s uncle. He was also Catherine Howard’s 

uncle and she lost her head as well,” Morrissey says, adding with 

a chuckle, “He gave great Christmas presents, but you know 

what? There was a downside.” 

Morrissey sees his character as an operator, describing him as 

the power behind the throne. “Sort of Henry VIII’s Cheney in 

the way everyone went to him to get to the King,” he says. 

“Anne Boleyn was not only devastatingly attractive, but she 

was an operator, a political mind,” Morrissey continues. “She 

was a force to be reckoned with as far as Norfolk was concerned, 


and those politics are kind of what the film is about. 

“What she finally realizes is that once she couldn’t give Henry 

a male heir, she didn’t have a leg to stand on and suddenly all 

her friends start disappearing into the wallpaper…. My 

character actually sets her up to be Queen, and once she 

becomes Queen she says, ‘I’m sorry, I do this now, not you.’ 

And when she gets into crisis, I just step back.” 

With Morgan’s imprimatur and, as Morrissey puts it, “a great 

cast to work with,” The Other Boleyn Girl is a bona fide prestige 

picture — which, for the actor, makes quite the contrast from 

two years ago. At that time, the film he’d hoped would vault him 

into the ranks of Hollywood leading man — Basic Instinct 2 

with Sharon Stone — was greeted with a fistful of “Worst” 

nominations from the Oscars’ evil twin, the Razzies. 

He’s philosophical about that experience. 

“You don’t work any less hard [on movies that bomb],” he 

says. “Part of being an actor is you stand up there and say, ‘This 

is me, what do you think?’ You can’t get too upset when people 

say, ‘You know what I think? I think it’s rubbish.’” 

Jim Slotek writes about movies for the Toronto Sun. 

David Morrissey with 

Natalie Portman in 

The Other Boleyn Girl 

Inset: Sister Act. Portman 

and Scarlett Johansson 

get close

interview | KEVIN ZEGERS 

FIVE 

QUESTIONS 

WITH 

KEVIN 

ZEGERSI BY NATALIA WYSOCKA 

Chances are you first saw Woodstock, 

Ontario’s Kevin Zegers travelling 

across the States as the estranged 

son of a transsexual (Felicity Huffman) 

in 2005’s indie hit Transamerica. 

This month the 23-year-old plays Jordie 

in director Carl Bessai’s Normal. The film 

takes place two years after Jordie was 

behind the wheel of a stolen car when it 

crashed, killing his best friend Nicky. 

Jordie, Nicky’s mom (Carrie-Anne Moss) 

and a professor involved in the accident 

(Callum Keith Rennie) are still trying to 

come to terms with what happened. 

Zegers was at last September’s Toronto 

International Film Festival when he 

answered these five questions. 

Did you start to get good scripts 

instantly after Transamerica? 

“It happened pretty quick, I was surprised 

— as soon as people feel like they don’t 

need to challenge you to act, they just 

know you’re good, and capable.” 

Like Transamerica, Normal is about 

difficult family relationships. Is that a 

subject that appeals to you? 

"I think I play, sort of, somebody who has 

something going on in their head for a 

while. I do that well. There’s something 

tragic about me, that’s what Carl said 

when he hired me. 

“And I don’t know what it is, I feel like 

I’ve had a pretty good life, but I feel like 

I’m able to do a lot without saying a lot, 

don’t have to say a bunch of dialogue to 

get the story across. And pain, and all that 

stuff, is so much easier to play just with 

your eyes and your face.” 

So your acting process is more 

emotional than physical? 

“Yes. I don’t go over the lines a hundred 

times to get it perfect. But the tone of 

your voice, the way you move your body, 

all these things, you can drastically 

change somebody. Even if it’s just a little 

thing, if somebody notices something, a 


reaction to somebody touching you, it’s 

sort of minor but I think audiences 

notice that we have these reactions.” 

Where do you get your inspiration? 

“I go sit in the park and just watch 

people, and then I can use little bits from 

my friends, from things they do. It just 

works for me.” 

People have been calling you the 

new Tobey Maguire. How do you 

feel about that? 

“Everyone keeps saying all this stuff! It’s 

great if people are talking about me, it’s 

good for me, they must see something. I 

don’t know exactly what it is, obviously. 

I’m bringing something to their table 

that they like, they enjoy watching. I’m 

just gonna try not to mess it up, I’m 

gonna keep working hard.” 

Natalia Wysocka is the deputy editor 

of Famous Québec. 

PHOTO BY JOCELYN MICHEL

cover | story | WILL FERRELL 

GOOD 

SPORT 

Will Ferrell’s fourth sports movie in four years has him playing a 

’70s basketball player with a big ’fro. Funny, yes. But the amiable actor swears 

this will be his last movie about athletes for a while I BY BOB STRAUSS 

Will Ferrell has a degree in sports information 

from the University of Southern California. 

Recently, he’s made a big part of his career 

out of what could be called sports disinformation. 

Following the soccer comedy Kicking & Screaming, 

the NASCAR comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of 

Ricky Bobby and the figure skating comedy Blades of 

Glory comes Semi-Pro, a basketball comedy and 

Ferrell’s fourth athlete spoof in as many years. 

The 40-year-old actor, who spent many a season on 

Saturday Night Live playing a wannabe cheerleader, 

says it’s a kind of best-of-both-worlds situation. 

“I won’t be allowed to make a sports movie ever 

again,” Ferrell cracks, with the perfect timing that’s 

helped turn him into one of the most successful 

comedy stars working today. “It’s funny how it just 

kind of lined up that way. And yet, I’m a huge sports 

fan. I love sports, so it’s been really kind of wonderful 

to get to infuse my two great loves, comedy and 

sports, together.” 

In Semi-Pro, Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, ownercoach-player-sweaty-sex-symbol 

of the Flint, Michigan, 

Tropics. Never heard of them? That’s because 

they’re a minor (and fictional) team from the 1970s’ 

short-lived American Basketball Association, which 

explains the frizzed-out afro on Ferrell’s head during 

interviews at L.A.’s Four Seasons Hotel. 

Moon is a typical Ferrell doofus, a guy who has 

more confidence in his abilities — and appeal — 

than he probably should, and who is over the moon 

when word comes that the NBA will absorb some of 

the lesser league’s teams. So he has to figure out how 

to make his misfit-manned Tropics attractive to the 

bigger, better-established organization. 

“The ABA was kind of a stepchild/sister basketball 

league to the NBA in the ’70s that had all of these 

outlandish characters and crazy, small-market teams,” 

Ferrell explains. “Another reason why sports movies 

are great is because there’s already a built-in arc. It 

kind of tackles all of those big issues of winning and 

losing and friendship and things like that. So it’s a 

great world to create a story in. And then when you 

add that you’re going to be funny about it, you can 

make fun of real sports movies at the same time and, 

obviously, poke fun at the game.” 

Sometimes, though, that kind of comedy can feel 

bittersweet to a true athletic supporter. After training 

with some of the best competitive skaters for Blades of 

Glory, for example, the actor felt guilty deriding the 

absurdities of such a difficult — though admittedly, 

often ridiculous — sport. 


▼ 

▼ 

Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell) 

concentrates on making a 

free throw in Semi-Pro 

Inset: Dick Pepperfield 

(Andrew Daly) interviews 

Jackie Moon

cover | story | WILL FERRELL 

Ferrell felt much more at home on 

hardwood than he did in rinks. 

“It’s a lot more comfortable than ice 

skating,” Ferrell admits. “I played a lot of 

basketball in high school, and on and 

off since.” 

These days, when he’s not training to 

trash a chosen sport, the Orange County, 

California, native mostly keeps in semishape 

by jogging. (Ferrell and his Swedish 

wife, Viveca, have run in the New York 

and Boston Marathons). Then there are 

two young sons that keep him on his toes. 

“I’m trying to work at home a lot,” says 

Ferrell, meaning L.A. “Semi-Pro was shot 

up near Dodger Stadium, which is 15 minutes 

from my house. So we’re managing 

to keep everything somewhat balanced.” 

Wacky as he often acts, Ferrell appears 

▼ 

▼ 

to be pretty even-keeled for someone in 

the crazy-making world of showbiz. Some 

credit for that goes to the example set by 

his father, Lee, who played saxophone and 

keyboards for The Righteous Brothers 

but raised his children under conventional 

suburban circumstances. 

Ferrell was funny growing up, but didn’t 

think seriously about pursuing comedy 

until after college. 

“I was pretty comfortable making an 

ass of myself from the get-go,” he admits. 

“But I’m kind of atypical, in that I was 

never the class clown kind of guy who 

needed the attention. At the same time, 

if someone dared me to do something 

outlandish, I was like, ‘Well, what’s the 

big deal? Yeah, I can do that.’ And the 

next thing you know, I’d be running 


around in my underwear somewhere.” 

After college, Ferrell joined the L.A. 

improv troupe The Groundlings, and like 

many of its members eventually graduated 

to an SNL spot. Not considered much 

special when he started on the show in 

1995, he’d become its highest paid and 

most versatile Not Ready for Primetime 

Player by the time he left seven years later. 

Ferrell didn’t exactly follow the Eddie 

Murphy trajectory from SNL to instant 

movie success, either, struggling in such 

underwhelming films as A Night at the 

Roxbury, Superstar and Boat Trip before 

hitting it big as the over-age frat boy in 

2003’s Old School. 

Ferrell’s hits since then, from Elf and 

Anchorman on, have required him to act 

similarly stupid. Yet he’s found quite a 

range of behaviours and fresh humour 

within that deceptively narrow definition. 

Although it may look like it on the surface, 

Ferrell claims that he doesn’t pander to 

any kind of core audience. 

“I’m very thankful that I’ve had some 

success and I have some fans,” he says. 

“But in a weird way, I’m never trying to 

please them. I’m just trying to do what I 

think is funny. Because if you start making 

decisions based on demographics, you’re 

just going to have these homogenized 

things that don’t really work for anyone.” 

One area where Ferrell is thinking outside 

of the box is on the outrageous Funny 

or Die website (funnyordie.com), where 

he’s appeared in subversive (and popular) 

video vignettes involving drunk baby landlords 

and violent environmental zealots. 

He’s also not shy about making cameo 

appearances in movies starring other 

comedians (Wedding Crashers, Starsky & 

Hutch, The Wendell Baker Story), thereby 

cementing his status as a member of 

the Frat Pack, that loose conglomeration 

of the era’s hottest comic actors which 

includes Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, 

Owen Wilson and Jack Black. 

But what about breaking out of the 

funny end of the business? Ferrell sort of 

tried it a few years back with Winter Passing 

and Stranger than Fiction, which earned 

him solid critical acclaim but fewer paying 

customers than his laugh riots usually do. 

“Well, I’m actually not going back to 

drama or comedy. I’m going into Mexican 

soap opera. That’s my next move,” Ferrell 

cracks. 

“I mean, comedy will be the thing that 

I probably ultimately and predominantly 

do. In fact, I’m really not getting sent any 

more dramatic scripts since Stranger than 

Fiction. To tell the truth, I haven’t been 

getting sent any. I still mostly just get 

comedies, and I never want to force that 

issue. I’d like to continue to do some of 

that stuff, but we’ll just see what happens.” 

As for sports comedies, even their 

biggest fan seems to understand when 

enough is enough. 

“Is there any sport that I’m not going 

to make a comedy out of,” Ferrell asks 

rhetorically. “I knew that would be a 

question. It’s kind of a shame that I’ve 

made so many. It will be now written 

that there’s a Will Ferrell sports movie 

anthology in the works. But no, there 

aren’t any more on the horizon.” 

Bob Strauss is an L.A.-based 

entertainment writer. 

2 

1 

3 

4 

SUITING UP 1 

Each of Will Ferrell’s 

sports films requires 

the flamboyant 

actor to don 

the appropriate 

athletic apparel. 

Here’s a look at his 

outlandish outfits 

Ferrell went with the double 

blue tiger stripes as coach of a 

Little League soccer team in 

Kicking & Screaming. 

2 Check out the fire-retardant 

jumpsuit — complete with 

Wonder Bread logo — in 

Talladega Nights: The Ballad 

of Ricky Bobby. 

3 Blades of Glory had Ferrell 

burning up the ice in this flaming 

spandex and sequins number. 

4 Ferrell’s short-shorts, tube socks 

and old-school Adidas sneakers 

scream 1976, the year in which 

the basketball flick Semi-Pro is set.

style | 

Valentine’ss rules r 

Play 

A little guidance to help you indulge without the guilt I BY LIZA HERZ 

A 

s a kid, your chances for a happy February 14th rested 

on how many valentines you’d get from your classmates 

—a popularity contest swathed in red lace. But as an 

adult you are free to reinvent the holiday as you wish, keeping 

in mind a few rules. 

RULE NUMBER ONE: WILLFULLY IGNORE THE WEATHER 

The ability to ignore reality is one of our best assets as 

Canadians. Snow, what snow? Denial can be an important 

part of maintaining your mental health. So is pretty, albeit 

entirely impractical, lacy underwear. Get some now. 

RULE NUMBER TWO: PLEASURE ABOVE ALL ELSE 

Valentine’s Day should be about fun, but our puritanical 

culture is suspicious of pleasure for pleasure’s sake. It either 

rejects it outright as dirty, or transforms it into a chase for 

status — a kind of consumerist competition that effectively 

1 

2 

sucks the joy out of a good, soul-restoring, 

expensive purchase. Think pleasure and ignore 

the price tags both large and small. 

RULE NUMBER THREE: 

PERFORM A RANDOM ACT OF FLIRTATION 

If there is no “official” boyfriend or girlfriend to give a big, 

red, heart-shaped card, send one anonymously to your latest 

crush. A little heart-pounding nervousness will add colour to 

your cheeks — and a bit of flush is sexy. 

RULE NUMBER FOUR: SPOIL YOURSELF 

Ditch the idea of romance and just get yourself something 

nice. Lingerie, chocolates, jewellery, an intoxicating bath oil 

made from the essence of a hundred thousand rose petals, or a 

provocative fragrance that you apply sparingly to wear to dreary 

meetings just for your own pleasure. Pleasure can be secret too. 

3 


4 

6 

8 

5 

9 


7 

1 a subtle game of peekaboo 

with the decorative, beribboned 

shoulder straps of this Lace Underwire 

Bra and Briefs from WonderBra Me 

($34 for bra [model #1675], $18 

for briefs [model #1695], Sears). 

2 With spring fashions already 

trickling into stores, satisfy your 

craving for something new with this 

Glossy Red Leather Tote ($150, Aldo). 

3 Agent Provocateur’s Maîtresse eau 

de Parfum ($100, 50 ml, Holt Renfrew) 

is subtly seductive, with a delicate 

water lily top note slowly revealing a 

rich beating heart of rose and jasmine 

underneath. 

4 It takes 144,000 rose petals to 

make one bottle of Ren Moroccan 

Rose Otto Bath Oil ($50, 140 ml, 

Delineation [delineation.ca]), 

which works out to roughly 5,000 

rich fragrant petals per bath. 

5 Green & Black’s Organic Miniature 

Bar Collection ($12, grocery and 

natural food stores) pairs intensely 

flavoured chocolate with such flavours 

as ginger and sour cherry to treat any 

surprise Valentine’s guests. 

6 Studded with blood-red crystals, 

the Eros stylized Heart Pendant from 

Swarovski ($65, www.swarovski.com 

for stores) on a silk cord is sparkly 

and modern. 

7 Fake that first flush of love with 

Benefit’s Rush Hour ($24, Shoppers 

Beauty Boutique), a totally wearable 

shade of soft blooming colour for lips 

and cheeks. 

8 Smooth and soften hair for a 

glassy shine, and protect your pricy 

highlights from losing their luster, 

with a nourishing, intensive treatment 

like Kérastase Chroma Reflect Mask 

($50, select salons). 

9 Forget wearing your heart on your 

sleeve, wear it on your wrist instead 

with this Stainless Steel Guess Watch 

($135, The Bay).

liner | notes | 

k.d. lang’s 

I BY INGRID RANDOJA 

WATERSHED MOMENT 

k.d. lang has been waiting for 

this moment for 25 years — no, 

not the chance to speak with 

Famous magazine, but to talk 

about an album she produced. 

The 46-year-old Alberta native 

with the pitch-perfect voice has 

released 13 albums, won eight 

Junos and four Grammys, but 

has never produced any of her 

albums entirely on her own, 

that is until watershed 

(available February 5th). 

“I had been producing for 25 

years, but just never solo...it’s 

my Amelia Earhart moment, but 

that didn’t turn out so good,” 

lang says with a laugh during 

a recent interview in Toronto. 

“In the back of my mind it 

was there. It’s something I 

always wanted to do, but it was 

something I was afraid to do. 

I was writing a lot, and the 

bar had been set incredibly, 

dauntingly high with hymns of 

the 49th parallel,” she says of 

her critically acclaimed 2004 

CD of songs by Canadian singersongwriters. 

“But in a way that 


was completely emancipating 

because it shifted what was 

important to me and what felt 

natural and what felt good.” 

The 11 songs on watershed 

are unadorned musings that 

lang admits are autobiographical 

nuggets about love, loss and 

finding pleasure in life’s quieter 

moments. And it’s a record 

about facing her fears. 

“reintarnation [lang’s 2006 

compilation CD featuring her 

best country songs] gave me a 

lot of confidence, ’cause I really 

loved myself in the beginning, 

I just loved that unbridled, 

unrestrained...I was just so not 

afraid of anything back then. 

I just thought, ‘You are the 

same person, so, just do it.’ 

“watershed is about looking 

at myself, looking at my fears, 

looking at how I am stagnant 

because of my habitual 

patterns, and how I should go 

around an obstacle like water 

flowing around an object.” 

Some of the songs were 

recorded in one take, and when 

you hear the elegiac “shadow 

and the frame” it’s hard to 

believe it’s the first time lang 

ever sang the song out loud. 

“It was done in my living room 

and there was a lot of noise, you 

could hear me moving papers, 

and I tried singing it again — 

and I won’t say I’ll never sing it 

that good again — but there was 

something about the first time 

you had to walk away from and 

not touch.” 

lang has always strived to 

take the theatrics out of her 

performances and simply let her 

voice carry a song. So is she 

dispirited at the American Idolinspired 

trilling and emoting that 

plagues many of today’s singers? 

“You know, that singing is 

basically a characterization of 

something that is real. But I 

don’t despair because there are 

so many great singers. I think 

Christina Aguilera is a really good 

singer, I think Amy Winehouse 

is a fantastic singer, I do. I’m 

just different.” 

KEEPING IT SIMPLE 

Montreal’s Simple Plan made pop-punk noise back in 2002 with its debut release 

No Pads, No Helmet...Just Balls, and while critics may have shrugged their shoulders, 

fans went wild for the band’s hardcore, teen-angst rock, as evidenced by the fact the 

group has sold more than six million records worldwide. 

With the release of their self-titled third CD, Simple Plan (available February 12th), 

the band stretches its wings, but not enough to fly the rock-anthem coop. Simple Plan is 

still writing songs about young love (“I Can Wait Forever”) and young love on the run 

(“Take My Hand”), but they surprise with neat little touches — an Oasis-like vibe in 

“Love is a Lie” and the use of a luscious string section in the pedal-to-the-metal “What If.” 

Ste

on | dvd | 

newreleasess 

GONE 

GO HOME WITH THE BRAVE ONE, AMERICAN GANGSTER OR THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB I BY MARNI WEISZ 

FEBRUARY 5 

ACROSS THE 

UNIVERSE 

STARS: Evan Rachel Wood, 

Jim Sturgess 

DIRECTOR: Julie Taymor 

(Frida) 

STORY: Taymor fought 

hard to preserve her vision of this modern 

musical in which the lead actors sing 

Beatles tunes. The story follows British 

dockworker Jude (Sturgess) who travels 

to the States to find his dad and falls in 

love with lovely Lucy (Wood) along the way. 

DVD EXTRAS: two-disc Special Edition DVD 

features eight extended musical 

performances, five featurettes, director 

commentary 

THE JANE AUSTEN 

BOOK CLUB 

STARS: Emily Blunt, 

Kathy Baker 

DIRECTOR: Robin Swicord 

(debut) 

STORY: Five women and 

one man form a book club to discuss 

Jane Austen’s works and are surprised how 

much the 200-year-old stories reflect their 

own complicated love lives. DVD EXTRAS: 

seven deleted scenes, commentary track, 

“Character Deconstruction,” “The Life of 

Jane Austen” 

THE BRAVE ONE 

STARS: Jodie Foster, 

Terrence Howard 

DIRECTOR: Neil Jordan 

(Breakfast on Pluto) 

STORY: A radio-show host 

(Foster) turns vigilante 

after being attacked in the park and 

watching as her fiancé is beaten 

to death by thugs. After learning 

to use a gun she seeks out dangerous 

situations and lets her trigger finger 

mete out justice. 

FEBRUARY 12 

BECOMING JANE 

STARS: Anne Hathaway, 

James McAvoy 

DIRECTOR: Julian Jarrold 

(Kinky Boots) 

STORY: Jane Austen fans 

will have fun trying to spot 

the events that influenced her books in this 

biography of the early 19th-century writer. 

Hathaway plays the title role with McAvoy 

stepping in as her dangerous but devoted 

suitor Tom Lefroy, whose countenance 

bears a striking resemblance to a certain 

Mr. Darcy. DVD EXTRAS: “Discovering the 

Real Jane Austen,” pop-up facts and 

footnotes, deleted scenes, director 

commentary 

WE OWN THE NIGHT 

STARS: Joaquin Phoenix, 

Mark Wahlberg 

DIRECTOR: James Gray 

(The Yards) 

STORY: In 1980s New York, 

a nightclub manager 

(Phoenix) has to choose between the 

drug-dealing gangsters who frequent his 

business and his brother and father, both 

cops, who want him to help bring the 

criminals down. DVD EXTRAS: “Police 

Action: Filming Cops, Cars and Chaos,” 

“A Moment in Crime: Creating Late 

’80s Brooklyn” 

NO RESERVATIONS 

STARS: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart 

DIRECTOR: Scott Hicks (Hearts in Atlantis) 

STORY: Kate (Zeta-Jones) is a top chef at a 

trendy Manhattan restaurant. She’s also a 

perfectionist who likes things done a 

certain way. Then two things happen to 

shake up her well-controlled life. Her sister 

dies in a car accident and leaves her 

daughter (Abigail Breslin) in Kate’s care, 

and a rival chef with a completey different 

attitude (Eckhart) comes to work for her. 


FEBRUARY 19 

IN THE VALLEY 

OF ELAH 

STARS: Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron 

DIRECTOR: Paul Haggis (Crash) 

STORY: When a soldier just back from Iraq 

disappears from his New Mexico army 

base, his father, a Vietnam vet (Jones), 

takes it upon himself to investigate. 

RENDITION 

STARS: Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon 

DIRECTOR: Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) 

STORY: After her Egyptian-born husband 

(Omar Metwally) goes missing on a flight 

home from South Africa, a heavily pregnant 

woman (Witherspoon) frantically searches 

for answers, discovering that the CIA 

believes he has terrorist links. 

AMERICAN GANGSTER 

STARS: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe 

DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott (A Good Year) 

STORY: Inspired by an article in New York 

Magazine, this bio-pic traces the rise and 

fall of Frank Lucas, an African-American 

drug dealer who’s best known for 

smuggling heroin into the States in the 

coffins of Vietnam soldiers. Russell plays 

detective Richie Roberts, trying to make 

a case against Lucas. 

FEBRUARY 26 

THE DARJEELING 

LIMITED 

STARS: Owen Wilson, 

Adrien Brody 

DIRECTOR: Wes Anderson 

(The Royal Tenenbaums) 

STORY: After their father 

dies, three brothers (Wilson, Brody, 

Jason Schwartzman) bond on a train trip 

through India. Along the way they nearly 

kill each other and have a life-changing 

experience in a small village. DVD EXTRAS: 

featurettes, “Hotel Chevalier” short film 

Spotlight 

BABY GONE 

FEBRUARY 12 

Well, he showed them. 

Gone Baby Gone director 

Ben Affleck has already been 

tapped as 2007’s most 

promising new director by 

the National Board of Review, 

Chicago Film Critics and 

Boston Film Critics. 

Ben can thank his little 

brother Casey Affleck for 

contributing to those accolades 

via his understated performance 

as private investigator 

Patrick Kenzie, who’s struggling 

to keep his head above water 

after being given the toughest 

case of his career. 

When a four-year-old girl is 

seemingly snatched from her 

bed in a down-and-out suburb 

of Boston, the girl’s aunt 

(Amy Madigan) hires Kenzie 

and his partner Angie Gennaro 

(Michelle Monaghan) to 

coax information out of the 

neighbourhood’s cop-shy 

toughs. The little girl’s mother 

(Amy Ryan) is a drug runner 

and an addict with a long list 

of acquaintances capable 

of harming her daughter. 

Morgan Freeman plays the 

police detective in charge 

of the investigation, while 

Ed Harris is a cop assigned 

to liaise with Kenzie. 

The script is based on a 

Dennis Lehane novel, and the 

movie has much in common 

with that other movie based 

THE ASSASSINATION OF 

JESSE JAMES BY THE 

COWARD ROBERT FORD 

STARS: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck 

DIRECTOR: Andrew Dominik (Chopper) 

STORY: The newest member of Jesse James’ 

(Pitt) band of outlaws is Robert Ford 

(Affleck), a young crook who idolizes the 

legendary hold-up man, perhaps even 

on a Lehane story, director 

Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River. 

They’re both tense, grimy, 

twisty crime pics that take 

place in Boston’s underbelly, 

but Affleck’s pic has an 

intimacy and authenticity that 


even Eastwood’s can’t match — 

probably because Affleck is 

from Boston. 

In fact, the DVD’s bonus 

material kicks off with “Going 

Home: Behind the Scenes with 

Ben Affleck,” a featurette that 

wants to be him. Eventually, and inevitably, 

their story rolls toward the fulfillment of 

the film’s title as Ford seeks to have Jamestype 

fame the only way he knows how. 

30 DAYS OF NIGHT 

STARS: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George 

DIRECTOR: David Slade (Hard Candy) 

STORY: If you were a vampire, where would 

Casey Affleck as private 

investigator Patrick Kenzie 

Below: Morgan Freeman (left) 

with Ben Affleck 

includes a conversation with 

both of the Affleck brothers. 

Plus, there are the requisite 

deleted scenes and Ben Affleck 

teams with screenwriter 

Aaron Stockard to provide 

an audio commentary. 

you go? To deepest, darkest Alaska, of 

course, where for 30 straight days in winter 

there is absolutely no daylight. Hartnett 

plays the sheriff of Barrow, Alaska, charged 

with saving his town from the descending 

bloodsuckers. George plays his ex-wife, who 

has to help him with the fight. DVD EXTRAS: 

“The Vampire,” “Building Barrow,” 

“The Look,” “Night Shoots”

star | gazing | 

FEBRUARY 

2008 

HOROSCOPE | BY DAN LIEBMAN 

Aquarius 

January 21 February 19 

You tend to fine-tune ideas too much, but 

this month you learn — sometimes the 

hard way — when to let go. After the 15th, 

your calming effect helps settle a family 

crisis. Discoveries abound, so check your 

pockets for everything from lottery tickets 

to old bills. 

Pisces 

February 20 March 20 

Pisces usually needs periods of solitude, 

but there won’t be many in February. 

With your fresh ideas and charismatic 

personality, everyone wants you on their 

team. You’re attracted to people who are 

quite different from yourself. One of them 

returns the attraction. 

Aries 

March 21 April 20 

Although your ruling planet is Mars, this 

month you’re more pussycat than warrior 

— willing to play by the rules and defer to 

others. Of course, this is part of a strategy to 

win support. Squeeze in time for a workout, 

no matter how busy you think you are. 

Taurus 

April 21 May 22 

It’s a month of negotiations with crotchety 

people. If you don’t let yourself get 

cornered, you’ll wind up with what you 

want. Watch out for a late-month stingy 

streak and pick up the occasional cheque. 

Gemini 

May 23 June 21 

You’re a wizard at bringing together 

interesting people. Meetings or parties 

that you arrange are sure to become the 

talk of the town. A family responsibility 

restricts some of the freedom you need, 

but by month’s end a major obligation 

will be shared. 

Cancer 

June 22 July 22 

With so many offers coming up, you feel 

like you’re in a multiplex. The key is to 


make up your own mind — not always so 

simple this month. You feel less alone and 

more at ease confiding in others. People who 

weren’t available are suddenly ready to help. 

Leo 

July 23 August 22 

Your talent as a writer shines and can lead 

to recognition. As a reader, it’s another 

matter — check directions before baking 

or assembling anything. You’re on the 

road to romantic recovery. The speed 

limits aren’t posted, and you’ll need to 

be more patient. 

Virgo 

August 23 September 22 

Someone who has been aloof is now 

receptive to your feelings. After the 9th, 

there’s greater harmony in personal and 

professional relationships. Being a pack 

rat has advantages as you produce an 

object that people are willing to pay or 

trade for. 

Libra 

September 23 October 22 

You and a romantic partner are on different 

wavelengths — one is spontaneous, the 

other methodical — but that’s a good 

thing. Look for new sources of information 

about your family tree. And try different 

fitness strategies — anything from salsa 

dancing to yoga. 

Scorpio 

October 23 November 21 

Be selective this month. It’s one thing to 

extend yourself, but another to volunteer 

for every job offered. Surroundings are 

serene after the 11th, when an unwelcome 

guest leaves. Think twice before playing 

hooky. You could miss out on a very good 

opportunity. 

Sagittarius 

November 22 December 22 

There’s greater harmony at work after the 

11th when an instigator steps out of the 

picture. If given the choice, you’d rather 

have knowledge over possessions, but this 

month is an exception. You’re acquiring 

items, both luxurious and practical. 

Capricorn 

December 23 January 20 

You’re intuitive right now — aware of 

changes before they occur and sensitive to 

the moods of a loved one. You also have 

good instincts about predicting things, like 

the Academy Awards. 

F 

1s 

2n 

3r 

4t 

5t 

6t 

7t 

8t 

9t 

10 

GOLDEN GLOBE® W INNER 

BEST ACTRESS GLENN CLOSE 

“ killer legal thriller” 

Detroit Free Press 

Mondays at 10 ET 

Premieres February 18 

PT 

showcase.ca /damages

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