They stood together with her in front, molding herself into him, nuzzling. He squeezed. She grabbed. They kissed.
The crowd cheered, whistled and woooo’d. Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie weren’t in their bedroom, after all. They were on the red carpet, slowly groping their way toward the entrance of Mann’s National Theater in Westwood for the June 5 premiere of “Gone in Sixty Seconds.”
This is what we expect from celebrities these days. You may picture the red-carpet walk at a Hollywood premiere being the pinnacle of glamor when it’s really just feeding time, with the celebrity slop being thrown out to the hungry entertainment reporters, photographers and strategically camped-out fans.
This is how it works: Interviewers and camera operators for shows such as “Entertainment Tonight” and “Access Hollywood” line up along a rope that stretches down the street alongside the carpet that has been lain atop the asphalt. The stars show up, pose and offer quick soundbites to each outlet before stepping a few paces forward to the next camera and microphone. The shows then can tout their exclusive scoops.
Nicolas Cage is the above-the-title star of “Gone in Sixty Seconds,” but he didn’t generate nearly so much hooting and jockeying for position as the recently wed Thornton and Jolie, whose part in the movie is much smaller than her presence in the ad campaign would indicate.
After stepping out of the requisite limousine, the casually clad pair (he in a loud print shirt and baseball cap, she in a gray T-shirt and black leather pants) entered the red-carpet area to a chorus of paparazzi yelling, “Angeleeeeeena!” Behind the media throng, 100 or so celebrity seekers stood on their tippy-toes or peered from the balcony of a restaurant.
“Kiss her!” someone yelled.
They obliged amid cries of “Wooo!” and offered quotes about the joys of married life. Step, step, step–more smooching and quipping and Jolie exposing the “Billy Bob” tattoo below her left shoulder. This went on for like 20 minutes.
“I don’t know who’s skinnier, her or him,” sniped a woman standing by the theater wall.
Meanwhile, other celebrities slogged through the gantlet: “Gone” co-star Robert Duvall, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Michael Clarke Duncan (who appeared in Bruckheimer’s “Armageddon”) and, for no apparent reason, Jon Lovitz, who hobbled down the carpet on one crutch.
The crowd inside the auditorium included Jolie’s brother, Jamie Haven, and her dad, Jon Voight, who had bypassed the carpet to enter through the front door; “Gone” co-stars Delroy Lindo, Giovanni Ribisi and Timothy Olyphant; Ben Affleck and director Michael Bay, who are making next summer’s Bruckheimer blockbuster “Pearl Harbor”; Juliette Lewis, who starred in “Gone” director Dominic Sena’s “Kalifornia”; and married directors Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola, who is Cage’s cousin.
One guy who won his tickets through a radio promotion spotted Matthew Perry walking up the aisle and called out, “Hey, Matthew, can I have your autograph?” Perry stopped, took a program from the guy, signed it and handed it back–all without a word or eye contact.
The movie started 35 minutes late with no introductions–Jolie and Thornton slipped in as the lights were going down–though audience members cheered the Jerry Bruckheimer Films logo and the names of cast and crew members who were present. The end credits weren’t followed by any thank-you’s or goodbye’s. (Pretty bad movie, by the way.)
The more privileged guests had invitations to the official party following the screening at the Peterson Automotive Museum in midtown Los Angeles, where buffet entrees, desserts and drinks were served.
Cage stood chatting in one corner like a planet with many orbiting satellites. Jolie and Thornton arrived late through the parking garage entrance, making their way through the narrowly parting crowd only to disappear inside for about 15 minutes and then catch up with their limousine.
Thornton sat on the back seat with the door open and his feet on the pavement, smoking a cigarette and waiting for Jolie to say her goodbyes to whoever had her attention at that moment. They both looked worn out.
Later in the week the E! Online Web site reported that Jolie was tiring of all the attention. But it sure looks glamorous . . .
As for reel movie news: At the party Thornton said his two much-delayed directorial follow-ups to “Sling Blade” are just about ready for their fall releases. “Daddy and Them,” a comedy for Miramax co-starring Thornton ex-fiance Laura Dern, was supposed to be out last winter but currently is scheduled to follow the higher profile “All the Pretty Horses,” Thornton’s adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel starring Matt Damon.
Paramount, which is releasing “Horses” with Miramax, reportedly has balked at the movie’s length, pacing and tone. Thornton promised it will be “a beautiful film” if the studio doesn’t mess it up.
“I said, `You do know what you have, don’t you? A $45 million art film — that’s what you paid for,'” Thornton said.
Meanwhile on the Walk of Fame: A well-built guy in his 20s entered one of the many poster-book-memorabilia stores on Hollywood Boulevard with a simple request: “Do you have any Angelina Jolie?”
The older man behind the counter said he was flat out except for some group-shot stills from the press kit for “Hackers,” a 1995 movie in which she appeared. (All you Jolie fans know, that that’s where she met her first husband, Jonny Lee Miller.) Those 8×10 black-and-whites were selling for $3.50 each, but the guy left to check other stores for “portraits.”
Press kits, by the way, may be synonymous with desk clutter for some of us newspaper types, but they’re hot commodities in memorabilia stores and on eBay. Book City on Hollywood Boulevard was selling a “Rules of Engagement” press kit for $50 “because it has 24 stills in it,” said employee Michael Walsh.
Book City and the nearby Hollywood Book and Poster also would have loved to get their hands on press kits for “M:I-2,” “Dinosaur” and “Gladiator,” whose star, Russell Crowe, is the No. 1 photo request these days. Last week eBay was listing the “Gladiator” press kit for $118.
Dealing aces: Playing on several screens in Los Angeles was “Croupier,” the low-budget British film from director Mike Hodges (“Get Carter”) that closed out The Shooting Gallery’s series of six indie releases. This terse tale of a casino dealer, which has received some of the year’s most positive reviews, has become a rare word-of-mouth hit in the indie world.
When it opened April 21 at Chicago’s Fine Arts, it collected just $1,726 over the first weekend, $1,283 over the second, and then it was gone. It reopened June 9 at the Century Cinema Centre and scored the highest weekend gross of any movie at the seven-screen complex: $5,100.
“Just more and more people basically have gotten into it,” Shooting Gallery Pictures president Eamonn Bowles said. “It’s a classic word-of-mouth story. . . . I’m just going to keep booking it into theaters.”
The movie’s success marks the final vindication for the small distributor’s novel series of six spring films. Instead of booking them in New York and gradually widening the releases if they caught on, The Shooting Gallery arranged for Loews Cineplex to debut the films simultaneously for two-week runs in 19 theaters in 17 cities, with corporate sponsors underwriting most of the marketing costs.
All six were well reviewed, and the first film, Eric Mendelssohn’s “Judy Berlin,” is still playing in some cities and is just about to open in Denver and Milwaukee. Meanwhile, Bowles estimated that “Croupier” will pass the $1 million box-office mark this weekend.
The idea that a small distributor could score with such a slate of previously overlooked independent films underscores what a tough time small movies have in reaching an audience. Bowles said he and his colleagues currently are reviewing more quality films that have played at festivals for the next six-film series, which is slated to begin Sept. 1.
This list smells of elderberries: “A Fish Called Wanda” is No. 21, and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and “Life of Brian” didn’t crack the AFI’s top 100 comedies?
And “Stripes” isn’t even among them: Guess which local boy is responsible for more top 100 comedies than Mel Brooks? None other than Harold Ramis, who co-wrote “Ghostbusters” (No. 28), “Groundhog Day” (34), “National Lampoon’s Animal House” (36) and “Caddyshack” (71). He also directed “Groundhog Day” and “Caddyshack” and appeared in “Ghostbusters” and, in a bit part, “Groundhog Day.”
“I’m pleased, but who’s ever pleased enough?” Ramis said with a laugh during a break from work on his upcoming comedy, “Bedazzled.” “I’m mad that they weren’t ranked higher.”
Ramis, by the way, still insists that “Club Paradise” is highly underappreciated.
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E-mail: mcaro@tribune.com
