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| June, 2006 |
| Sunday, June 18, 2006 The Boston Herald Nantucket fest tilts Sideways with stars By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa NANTUCKET � The Yellow Tail merlot � gulp! � was flowing and the stars were shining brightly at the Nantucket Film Festival last night, where NBC Universal paid tribute to Oscar-winning Sideways screenwriters Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. Joining in on all the flick fun were Sideways road buddies Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, who, come to find out, are the opposites of their screen personas. Giamatti admits to drinking anything, including the movie�s much-reviled merlot. And Church, who buzzed in from the Apple from the set of Spider Man 3, is a regular oenophile who reconfigured his local eatery�s wine list. They had a lot of wines of ill repute, Church told the Track, sounding much more Miles than Jack. Inside the tent at the swish White Elephant, the event kicked off with NBC News anchor Brian Williams� usual hilarious riff on the state of Nantucket. He waxed about the whimsical whirly-gigs planned for the ocean (the wind farm), the sand dunes that are so high because the owner doesn�t have the scratch to level them, and the lack of a good high-rise condo development. �I�m totally intimidated by Shecky Williams,� said Church when he took the stage with Giamatti to say a few words after Mary Kay Place, who appeared in Payne and Taylor�s first film, �Citizen Ruth.� The honorees, lacking the time to collaborate, gave their acceptance speech in Mad Libs, with Taylor reading the text and Payne providing the verbs, nouns and adjectives. �We are extremely pancreatic to be given this incontinence,� they began. �People always ask us what it was like to win a sunrise from the Olive Garden of Arts and Sciences.� So it wasn�t their best work, but the juiced-up crowd seemed amused. On hand for the toasting and roasting were: Air America loudmouth Al Franken; funny duo Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller; �Waterfront� star Joe Pantoliano; �Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip� stud Steven Weber and Weymouth�s own Nathan Corddry; �Brotherhood� cutie Jason Clark; and NBC Universal biggie Robert and Suzanne Wright. Earlier in the day, the sun brought out the stars for a stage reading of Coup de Tat at Nantucket High School. Hollywood hottie Heather Graham, �West Wing� prez Jimmy Smits, �Big Love� gals Place and Tina Majorino and funnymen Weber and Corddry played to a packed house. Graham, who played the young mother of a teen whose pen pal is a Latin-American dictator in Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse�s script, has done some stage work in the past, but she said she much prefers TV and film. Even though your sitcom �Emily�s Reasons Why Not� was canceled after one episode? �That was a bummer,� the honey-haired one said as she headed into Nantucket High for rehearsal. �It was really sad that (ABC) really didn�t give us a chance even though they put a lot of money into it.� On the other hand, Heather�s had much success on the big screen with Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Swingers, and Boogie Nights. And in her upcoming flick, Gray Matters,Graham not only got to suck face with co-star Bridget Moynahan, she got to meet Bridgie�s leading man Tom Brady! �He�s cute and veeeery tall,� she said, adding that the New England Patriots QB/QT lit up the Gray set when he came to visit. Heather, BTW, is here at the festival with her good friend Josh Ralph, who produced the score for Lucky Number Slevin. But they are not dating, she said. And for those �West Wing� nuts who were mad for President Matt Santos, we�re here to tell you that his alter ego is a die-hard Yankees fan! �I am taking a lot of, ah, stuff for wearing this hat,� Smits told the Track. �I swear it�s the reason why my bag arrived late.� But that didn�t seem to bother Nantucket pol Doug Bennett, vice chairman of the Board of Selectmen, who nearly assaulted poor Jimmy with his U.S. Senate campaign literature. It almost seemed as if the madras-clad Bennett thought Jimmy was the real president. �Power is perception, ya know,� said the goofy GOP party boy as he handed us a flyer. If you say so, Mr. Selectman. And speaking of politics, �Big Love� polygamist Place doesn�t think the HBO series that showcases a fundamentalist Mormon sect would harm Gov. Mitt Romney�s aspirations to run for president. �I think we make it very clear on the show that (that Roman Grants sect) isn�t LDS (Church of the Latter-day Saints),� she said. Marriage with multiple wives is an interesting dynamic and it�s a unique setting to show that all families find it difficult to get along. Pass the pinot. . . June 18, 2006 The Irish Examiner Graham to perform at Nantucket festival Heather Graham is teaming up with former "The West Wing" star Jimmy Smits and "Big Love" actresses Mary Kay Place and Tina Majorino to perform at the Nantucket Film Festival in Massachusetts this weekend. The Boogie Nights star will read New England writers Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse's screenplay Coup De Tat at the annual festival, which takes place on Nantucket Island. The four-day festival opened on Wednesday night with a screening of Al Franken's God Spoke, despite the failure of the director to attend. June 16, 2006 The Boston Herald Nantucket Film fest a beacon to H�wood honeys By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa NANTUCKET - A bunch of bold-facers have beached themselves on the Little Rock for this year�s Nantucket Film Festival that organizers promise will be a whale of a time. Yesterday, Hollywood honey Heather Graham - topped with a smashing straw hat - hopped on a rented bike and peddled out to the beach in �Sconset with a male companion, taking in the Sankaty Head Lighthouse and acres of preservation land along the way. �I went on such a long bike ride today I had to take a nap,� Graham told the Track. The �Scrubs� shrink said she�s wavering between taking in filmfest flicks and enjoying the great outdoors on the chi-chi summer enclave. �I�ve always been curious about this festival. I�ve heard so much about it,� she said. �There�s so many movies I want to see, but I�m torn because Nantucket is so beautful I�d like to see more of it.� Graham, whose �Emily�s Reasons Why Not� was cancelled by ABC after just one show, hasn�t lost a step career-wise. She�s about to be seen in a trio of flicks: the star-studded Bobby about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy; Gray Matters with Tom Brady�s lady Bridget Moynahan; and the indie Washington Heights. �I love (independent films),� she said. �I love acting in them and I love watching them. They�re so inspiring.� Also on the island is Tina Majorino of �Big Love,� �Veronica Mars,� and Napoleon Dynamite fame. We caught up to Tina posing for cell phone photos with fans outside Stubby�s on Steamboat Wharf while she and her manager awaited their order. �I really like it here,� Tina said. �It�s so quaint.� The TV Mormon-slash-computer nerd is here to play in the lead in tomorrow afternoon�s stage reading of Coup de Tat with fellow �Big Love� lady Mary Kay Place, �West Wing� pol Jimmy Smits, and Graham. �Mary Kay is coming? I didn�t know that,� said Tina, brightening up. �She�s a great lady to work with.� When the flickfest is over, it�s back to work on the third season of �Mars� and the sophomore year of �Big Love,� which film at exactly the same time. When asked whether she was more Mac or Heather in real life, Tina assured us she was somewhere in the middle between the street-smart Neptune High Schooler and the goody-two shoes Heather, a devout member of the Mormon Church. �I�m nerdy like Mac with all the techno stuff,� she said. While she has no idea what the writers have in store for the next season of �Big Love,� Tina said she cannot wait to read the scripts since she�s a BIG fan of the show. �Normally, when I do a show I can�t really sit down to watch it, but for some reason I am addicted to (�Big Love�) and my family is, too,� she laughed. Last night Good Night, and Good Luck co-star Tom McCarthy and festival fave Campbell Scott led a spirited discussion about script-writing and filmmaking at the Harbor House. Scott, who will star in J.J. Abrams� new fall series �Six Degrees� with the aforementioned Brady Lady Bridget Moynahan, said he plays a guy Bridgie hires who is �awful mean to her.� Well! If you�re too mean, Campbell, you�ll have to deal with her big strapping boyfriend! �I heard that - much later,� Scott joked. �But I think that she can handle herself.� June 13, 2006 Place and Smits among headliners at Film Fest Staged Reading The Nantucket Film Festival has announced the cast for a staged reading of the screenplay Coup De Tat, scheduled for June 17 at the Nantucket High School Auditorium. Napoleon Dynamite and recent �Big Love� star Tina Majorino will play Tatiana, a 16-year-old rebel who has a Latin American dictator as a pen-pal. Former "LA Law," �NYPD Blue� and "West Wing" actor Jimmy Smits plays the dictator. Former �Wings� lead Steven Weber, and Mary Kay Place, who�s appeared in Being John Malkovich and The Big Chill among other films, will also read parts. Actors Michael Cera (Fox�s "Arrested Development"), Anna Belknap ("CSI: NY"), Nathan Corddry ("The Daily Show") and Nadia Dajani (AI: Artificial Intelligence) round out the cast. The reading starts at 2 p.m. Film Festival organizers have also announced that there are still tickets available for Sunday's encore screening of the opening-night film Al Franken: God Spoke, followed by a conversation between Franken, the comedian and liberal social commentator, and NBC news anchor Brian Williams. For complete coverage of the Nantucket Film Festival, pick up Thursday's Inquirer and Mirror. For ticket information, click here. |
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