Tuesday, 6 February 2001

It's quite amazing how the world churns. Just hours ago, I was writing about Nicole Kidman and Alien 5 and as Monday progressed, new info came in on both. I guess the new site has officially been launched. (Any great suggestions for a new URL are welcome. I'd tell you some of the best new ideas, but with all the squatting out there, I'm not going to chance it. But I'm looking for something that fits the tone of the work I do, but allows for the fact that others will soon be writing for me again. You know how to e-me…)

LOVE ON THE ROCKS: It seems that half of you saw my comments on Nicole Kidman's exit from The Panic Room after having seen the wire stories on the Tom & Nic split. When I wrote about the former, I had no idea about the latter. However, now that we've had a second Kidman event in a week, I'm waiting for the rest of the story to come to light. Guessing games are being played all over town. I even heard a rumor tonight… an inevitable one… that this was the work of Penelope Cruz, who is working with Cruise right now on Vanilla Sky. For various reasons, I have completely discounted that theory. And the cold, unkind nature of theories like "the 10-year marital agreement is up for renegotiation" make me sick to be in this business.

Nonetheless, something is up. Perhaps this separation has been in the works for a while and The Group (Cruise, Kidman, Kingsley) decided to take the hit now, while Nicole is recovering from her knee problems and from her drop-out, allowing her to stay out of the public eye for a while as this blows over. Perhaps the exit from The Panic Room and the marriage are part of one major emotional swing. (I can identify with that, especially now as I just exited roughcut and the KABC radio show in the same week. There is a unique sense of having clear decks and a wider range of choices.)

In the end, the real question is whether any of this matters. Of course it does. And of course, it doesn't. The fact is that when you get to the rarified air that Cruise and Kidman live in, part of your personal life is part of your life as a human commodity. The happy home life is sold just as aggressively as any movie. What is real and what isn't is a constant source of in-town gossip… about everyone. There is no actor or actress who isn't gay according to someone who has a cousin who knows, and every good guy has a trail of people who will tell you he's a prick or she's a bitch. And in the end, all we have is our brief moments with this one or that one… and even then, we don't really know. Close friends of the Cruises know. Eventually, some of the details will leak out. And some will be true. And some will be lies. And the world will keep on turning.

ALIEN 5: On Monday afternoon, I was chatting with a friend at Fox who made some inquiries about whether there was any truth at all to the rumors about Alien 5. The answer was an unequivocal "no." Ain't happening… at least not anytime soon. Now, it is possible that my friend at Fox has been misinformed. But this person has never lied to me before… avoided the truth a few times, but never out-and-out lied. Regardless, the possibility produced interesting e-mail suggestions, some of which will appear below in ROTD. But the most often named director was easily David Twohy, who brought us Pitch Black last year. I felt that the film had plot holes you could drive Alien 4 through. But many of you seem to have liked it a lot, even if in correspondence, some of you admitted the deep flaws of Pitch Black. Time for someone to start a D.T. fan club.

JUST WONDERING: Is there going to be a worse movie than Saving Silverman anytime soon? I'll try to answer that one on Friday.

I DIDN'T BRING IT UP!: From Mitchell Fink's New York Daily News column: "100% Natural Hewitt. Jennifer Love Hewitt doesn't believe in being false. And that goes for her breasts, too.

The 21-year-old actress has been the subject of many rumors regarding her chest size, and she's learned to laugh it all off.

"I bought this T-shirt that says 'Silicone Free,' and whenever I wear it, people are like ... [she mimes a jaw-dropping gape]," Hewitt is quoted as saying in the March issue of Mademoiselle. "I have great bras — that's the secret. I don't know why it's such a big issue. All over the world, boobs are big talk."

Hewitt even directed the article's author, Suzan Colon, to "go back to work and tell everyone you felt them, just to see the looks on people's faces. Then you could say, 'She let me feel them, they're real, end of discussion!'"

Uh... line forms on the right... or is that, "for the right?"

SCARY SPAWN: In the Tuesday trades, news of casing on Columbia's parody flick, Teen Movie and MGM's spec purchase, Romantic Comedy. What's next, "Spoof: The Movie?" Just remember, a spoof of a spoof is a drama.

BOX OFFICE ARGUMENTS: I got a few e-mails yesterday questioning my questioning of the Sunday estimates. The basic argument is that the final numbers somehow confirm the legitimacy of the Sunday estimates. But this, my friends, is not the case. The simple reality is that studios fudge numbers on Sunday and on Monday. Motivations to play games only exist in limited circumstances. Some studios have very clear reputations when it comes to numerical games playing. And anyone who works with the numbers at the studios will tell you that it happens all the time. But yes, there are limitations. The most infamous example, the Scream 2 overestimation of $6 million is unique for a couple of reasons. One, the fudge was well over 10 percent, so it was very obvious to the other studios, who all work off the same Monday morning info. And two, it was reportedly Michael Eisner, not another studio, that forced Harvey Weinstein to fess up the oversized number… which was a so-called "final," not an estimate. In any case, I will continue to maintain that the acceptable Fudge Factor is just under 10 percent, as studios battle for one of the top three slots or to stay in the Top Ten. In the end, none of this is about the news of the box office anymore, but rather, a key piece of marketing. Given that unquestionable reality, why would anyone ever assume that complete truth is a priority?

READER OF THE DAY: From The Surf: "I'm no Nicole Kidman fan (good actress, but a bit too icy and, shall we say, opportunistic for my tastes), but I have it on very good authority that her knee problem is actually quite serious. A friend who works in the office of her knee doctor reported to me a while ago (at least one or two months) that the injury she sustained shooting Moulin Rouge was not healing properly and that she'd done serious damage. So, all hype and spin and hyperbole aside, I think "the knee story" is actually spot on."

JJ writes about the now-returned-to-rumor Alien 5: "Assuming this picture actually gets made, I'd like to see someone like Julie Taymor at the helm. Titus proved she is able to translate her brilliant stagecraft to the big screen. Other prime choices: Tom Tykwer and Spike Jonze. I'd also like to see what someone like Lynn Ramsay could do with a project of that scale. Or how about Mike Hodges? He has experience in the genre, but also knows how to do compelling character work. This is all moot, I guess. Fox will probably hire some music video newbie. Plus, past choices that seemed great on paper (Fincher, Jeunet) resulted in the series' weakest installments. Actually, I don't even believe the tabloid story, but since I've got nothing else to do right now, I'm adding my two cents to the discussion."

Not Mike Moses: "I think Kathryn Bigelow would be a natural for the 5th Alien movie. I know that she has tremendous affection for the Ripley character...she surely knows how to put together an action scene or two...given the recent lawsuit she might not have a project going...she could consult with ex-hubby king

of the Jim on how to breathe new life into the franchise...and so on and so on. Her relationship with Fox may have soured after Strange Days and them not extending the first light deal, but time heals all wounds, no? or is 'time wounds all heels?' "

Not The Golfer: "A5 needs David Cronenberg. Or maybe the studio should go a different way and hire

the likes of the Wachowski Bros. (although they're locked up with Matrix 2 and 3) or the Farrelly Bros.?

Now that would be funny. Or what about the indie director Abel Ferrara or Tom Tykwer?"

And finally, this from The Down Syndrome: "Who should helm Alien 5? How about the legendary Stanley Kubrick? But he's dead you say? Ah yes, but so is this franchise."

E ME: Will you be on line to see Hannibal this weekend?