— Objectively, there are at least two leaps of faith required by a set-up like that. It is pointed out that that's a pretty high standard to aspire to. The first is the idea that Julia Roberts "It is a high standard," says Roberts. "But one of the most sought-after women of our it's also a very specific concept of things that time—^wants a guy, you know, that way. but he are funny." passionate on the popular obsession with scoring star salaries and film budgets like ball games, and it's hard to deny that she has a point. "You know, when people walk around talking about how much they get paid and stuff like that, or if a movie costs $170 milhon to make, then you're making it about that, you know? But our movie has no colossal budget. And I'm not, you know, mnning around with and stuff. a little banner with my salary on it So that's not what it's about in this scenario. When actors do that, or when movies cost the MEMBER OF THE WEDDING: Roberts plays at being a bridesmaid, witti Cameron Diaz. doesn't want her back. Hardly a character the And Roberts is a redhead of course, which average American male is going to have an may mean she has a genetic predisposition for easy time identifying with. "Well thank you. That's a compliment," is Roberts' no-nonsense response to that. The other leap of faith comes from the fact that Roberts will be playing someone who is both the heroine of the piece and a character who is, well, not entirely aboveboard. Or, as Roberts says: "Oh, well she's horrible. I mean, I used to make jokes when we were working, you know, RJ. would cut, and I would turn and say, 'EVIL.. .has a FACE.' That's what the one-sheet will be, a big picture of me that'll say, 'EVIL...has a FACE.'" Just how horrible is Roberts' character, Julianna Potter? Well, it's safe to say that most people who face a situation similar to Julianna's have dealt with it wistfully, perhaps by ruminating a while on "things that might have been." Julianna takes a more active approach. "A lot of times" her character is "boldfaced lying," she says. "She's sooooooo manipulative, and she's trying to be so.sneaky and devious. That's why it's really a delicate balance. Because hopeftilly, people shouldn't hate her, they shouldn't say, 'Oh, she's horrible and terrible, and I hope someone catches her and they send her off to be banished.' But [at the same time) she does cross the line." What mitigates all that romantic treachery is the comedy, which Roberts describes as "madcap stuff. There's a lot of physical comedy in this movie, I mean I'm not the only one who's doing silly stufflike that. We sort ofpush the limits of comedy to just farce, to hilarious, Lucy Ricardo stuff." this sort of thing. After all, Lucille Ball, aka Lucy Ricardo, was a redhead too. Roberts' smile goes limpid with pleasure at the analogy. "I aspire to be Lucy Ricardo's...pinky," she says. "She was so genius. So genius." having all that fun Imagine and getting paid for it, too. For "My Best Friend's Wedding," Roberts is reputed to have been paid quite a lot: $ 1 2.5 million was the reported amount, though Roberts says that "as I sit here, 1 can put my hand to God and say 1 don't know if that's the exact number. I can tell you that you're in the right Comiskey Park of it all, but I can't truthfully tell you what the number is. Nor would 1 neces.sarily if 1 could remember." To an indu.suy watcher, twelve and a half million seems a likely figure if for no other reason than thai such a sum would put Roberts just .5 million past the salary commanded by previous record holder Demi Moore for "Striptease." In Hollyw(xxl, where numbers sanctify, such details arc what good agenting is all about. But Roberts, who has often taken a fraction of her market value to do work she believed in, waxes exorbitant amounts to make, then 1 can understand the interest, because you're courting it. You're saying, 'Look at the money that's going on here.' But 1 don't sort of subscribe to that philosophy. Obviously. 1 don't even know exactly how much 1 made on this picture." She laughs. "I'll find out. I'll make a call." Releasing "My Best Friend's Wedding" in June, the traditional month for summer nuptials, is perfectly in keeping with the film's wicked sense of fun. As a romantic comedy with "heart," "MBFW' also seems poised to become the answer to the increasingly shrill cries of "Let Julia be JuUa!" which have sounded from some quarters in the last few years. As Roberts has gone about the business ofexpanding her range in offbeat and arthouse fare like "Pret-a-Porter." "Mary Reilly," "Michael Collins" and Woody Allen's recent postmodem musical "Everyone Says 1 Love You," industry watchers who should know better have measured the grosses of these "niche" titles against "Pretty Woman," one of the most popular comediesof all time. Armed with such specious comparative data some have publicly bewailed the fact that, according to certain narrow criteria, Julia Roberts has never been one to mind her place. The ai^ument goes like this: Roberts first achieved mega-success in "Pretty Woman," a 'Tm not, you know, running around with a little banner with my salary on it and stuff. So that^s not what it's about in this scenario,'^ light romantic comedy with fairytale overtones. Since that time, she has tried her hand, often with quite a bit of distinction, at an almost unimaginably wide range of roles—few of which could be comfortably fit under the genre heading of the film that made her a household name. Film pundits, who usually salivate like Pavlov's dog at the sight of a major star brave enough to rebel again.st a prefabricated persona, have instead repeatedly bemoaned Roberts' obvious ambition to be something more than great hair attached to a luminous smile. This supposed preference for "dark" material purportedly has to do with Roberts' alleged difficulty in accepting her own celebrity. With the fact that she was once married and, like 50 percent of the once-married U.S. population.
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