THE STATEMENT

shorts |
a YEN for YEN
One of the surprise hits of 2003 was Sofia Coppola’s
elegantly understated Lost in Translation, about two people
who keep each other company in a cold, sanitary Japanese
hotel. One half of the lonely duo is an introspective young bride
(Scarlett Johansson), and the other is a high-profile American
• ARNOLD SCWARZENEGGER hawks a
Japanese energy drink called Genki,
which is packed with vitamins, caffeine
and — believe it or not — nicotine. That
explains the eyes.
• That’s BRUCE WILLIS lending his mug
to the oil and energy giant Eneos. Looks
like he had some Genki.
CHASING LIBERTY CHASES OFF FIRST DAUGHTER
With the Bush twins partying like it was 1999 you just knew
Hollywood would take notice and churn out a Presidential
daughter flick, or in this case two movies, both originally
scheduled to open on the same day — January 9.
Warner Brothers’ Chasing Liberty stars Mandy Moore as the big
cheese’s daughter who goes off to Europe, loses her secret service
detail and falls for a British bloke, while Fox’s
First Daughter casts Katie Holmes as the Prezzie’s kid who goes to
college, loses her secret service detail and falls for a grad
student. It wasn’t until November that Fox became the first to blink,
pushing First Daughter’s release back until an as-yet-to-be-determined
date later this year.
A similar thing was set to happen with the two Alexander the Great
pics being helmed by Oliver Stone and Baz Luhrmann. Luhrmann,
who wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to play the part of the conquering
Alexander, actually got off the mark first but then stalled, allowing
Stone’s production starring Colin Farrell to catch up.
It turns out Leo never actually signed on the dotted line and
Luhrmann had to push back the production of his aptly named
Untitled Alexander the Great Project while finalizing DiCaprio’s contract.
It’ll take years to complete and there are even reports that the
entire project will be abandoned. Meanwhile, Stone’s Alexander
(with a budget of $150-million) chugs along and has a scheduled
November 2004 release date. —IR
famous 12 | january 2004
actor (Bill Murray) who’s there to make some quick cash doing
cheesy commercials for a Scotch company. Fans are hoping the
film gets another bump of attention next month as the Oscars are
handed out.
There’s nothing unusual about big stars shedding their inhibitions
— and often their pride — to do ads in Japan that they
would never do in North America. Often, one of the conditions of
these lucrative deals is that the commercial never be shown on our
continent. The question is — why do they always look so goofy?
Mandy Moore’s
Chasing Liberty
won the battle of
the first daughter
flicks
• EWAN MCGREGOR let his image be used
to promote Aeon, a string of Japanese
schools where locals learn conversational
English — ’cause who wouldn’t want to
have a good, long chat with the Scottish
cutie-pie? —MW
PHOTOS BY KEYSTONE PRESS